Hon. Dayo Saka Fafunmi of the Lagos state House of Assembly has blasted the administration of former president, Goodluck Jonathan as the worst government in the history of Nigeria due to the alleged widespread corruption that prevailed during the administration.
In an interview with naij.com, the lawmaker representing Ifako/Ijaiye Constituency 1 said the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari was taking its time to deal with corruption and right the wrong of the previous administration.
It is a waiting game, you don’t have to run faster than your leg can carry you. Let us see how the issue of corruption is being handled. However, the level of impunity by the PDP governors could not be compared to that of any governor from another party. When we had a PDP government at the centre, the Federal Government was monitoring governors from other parties, while those of the PDP were covered. So, we now have a government that says you must account for your deeds.
I would say that the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan was the worst democratic administration in the history of Nigeria. It was during his administration that we experienced unprecedented looting in this country. They looted the monies recovered from the late Gen. Sanni Abacha; this has never happened in the history of Nigeria. People are now talking of high exchange rate forgetting that what we are experiencing now is a product of international politics, and the drop in oil prices. If the prices oil continues to drop, we would keep experiencing what we are going through now until we diversify our economy. Any nation that has a monolithic product or economy would experience what we are experiencing now. Let us see what the government could recover from those, who destroyed our economy through looting. Let us harness all our resources and diversify. We can consider industrialisation and services as options.
On the issue of the handcuffing of the spokesperson of the PDP, Olisa Metuh, Fafunmi said it was not a big deal as the prison officials had the discretion to do that for security reason.
“When people are brought before a judge and the judge considers you to be a risk to the society if he allows the accused to go home, he might not be found again, he has a right to keep the accused in custody until the case is determined. There is a process through, which an accused person can be granted bail, if the bail condition is not met, you cannot be allowed to go home. Look at the case of the spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Olisa Metuh, he was alleged to have collected N400 million from the former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki, because his case could not be determined at that point; if the judge allowed Olisa Metuh to go like that, anything could happen. He had to be put him in custody until he meets the bail condition of providing two surety with landed property in Maitama, Abuja that is up to the tune of N400 million. What the judge has done is to say that if you run foul of the law, the law would take its course. It means that if Olisa Metuh runs away, the property would be auctioned and the money would be recovered. I think we should celebrate the judiciary rather than given them a knock.
What would Nigerians say if the judge allows someone to go home and the next day, the person is in the United States of America or the United Kingdom? Would they not say that the judge compromised? The essence of the handcuff is to restrict movement and make you submissive.
In this part of the world, we see it (handcuffing) as humiliation, but in other climes, if you violate traffic law and the police chase you, the moment you are caught, you would be handcuffed. You cannot be put in a police vehicle for drunk driving or any other thing without being handcuffed so that you would not harm yourself or do anything funny. I don’t know why they are being handcuffed, I am not defending the police or anybody, it might be a directive, they might have got intelligence report that suspects want to escape. Militants could come to take them away, but when you are handcuffed, you cannot move, you cannot run or escape. I still believe that the fundamental rights of every citizen must be respected as guaranteed by the constitution.
