Yoruba will succeed Buhari in 2023 – Robert Clarke – TheNigerialawyer

Elder statesman and Senior Advocate of
Nigeria (SAN), Chief Robert Clarke has said that the South West
region is already well positioned to produce President Muhammadu
Buhari’s successor in 2023. In this interview with CHRISTY
ANYANWU, the legal luminary spoke on a wide range of issues.

What should be Buhari’s priority as he goes into
second term in office?

Well, the priority in Nigeria for any politician or
statesman is the question of the security of the state. Nigeria has
never seen it so bad,  that three quarters of
virtually all the 36 states in Nigeria today are under siege of
either kidnappers, or the so-called bandits, or Boko Haram
dissidents. We have never had it so bad. So, the first priority for
Buhari today is to ensure that security wise, Nigeria takes a tough
decision to be enable to face the other problems that Nigeria has.
Security is his first problem. He has to ensure that security wise,
Nigeria is safe. Without security and Nigeria being safe,
you  cannot do any other thing.

What is your take on the proposed 30,000 minimum
wage?

The question  of pay or no pay of
minimum wage is a Nigerian subject and not a federal subject. Of
course, how many workers does the Federal Government have? It’s not
up to one tenth of all the workers from other states in Nigeria.
So, the question of pay of minimum wage is much of the states’
matter than the Federal Government.  But it
has been decreed by law, he has  given an
assent to it and therefore, when an implementation date is
announced,  each state will
have  to ensure that they pay
the  minimum wage and I don’t see any reason
why any state cannot pay. I don’t see any reason. The amount of
money involved is not much. It’s not up to the amount of money
being spent by the governor’s office and the House of assembly.
When you look at how much budget is given to those two arms of
government, it’s not up to the budget
we  are talking about. I don’t see any
reason why any  state government cannot pay.
But circumstances may arise, where other states may say they cannot
pay but they have to show you and I why they cannot pay. If a
governor takes security votes and even operating votes, the House
of assembly members take operating votes and even asking for
allowances to go to England for medicals for any of their members,
why can’t they pay?  I see no reason. They
are not generating funds internally which they should do because
they depend on government grants, so if they are caught in a
situation where they think …let them generate funds, many of them
have avenues to generate funds.

Spate of killings in the country, is it to
sabotage Buhari’s second term in office?

I don’t want to drag in politics to the security
problems of Nigeria today. I don’t want to be seen to be aligning
with any group or groups saying that. But one thing is clear to me
from experiences in life, most of the security problems in Nigeria
today are created by the politicians, in the sense that in the
quest for positions during election time, these politicians
surround themselves with young boys who are thugs. They maintain
them, give them money, give them arms and when election matters are
concluded and nobody is asking you for votes or nothing, they ask
you to go away and these boys can no longer go back to their
village because before every morning they opened their hands, they
were being given N10,000, N50,000 and now, nobody is giving them.
So, they go back to do what they think can bring back money and
that’s why you find that kidnapping, banditry, and every other
vices are on the upsurge. It is these young boys. The question is,
what do you do to it? Do you accept the reality that these bandits
are all over Nigeria now. It’s not one state alone. These
kidnappers are all over Nigeria, not one state alone. You cannot
just say the North, it’s all over. Out of the 36 states in Nigeria,
virtually 30 states  are affected by the kidnapping
menace and kidnapping occurs because these young boys who
the  politicians have been using
and  they are no more using, need to
survive.  So, the alternative is just to
kidnap, go into the bush and look for ransom. That is the
situation. So, nobody is creating a situation for Buhari to fail.
It is the reality of the totality of what the politicians have done
to this country and the only way is for any government to clamp
down on them vigorously but it doesn’t solve the problem. Find work
for them, it may not be possible. When you address the issue,
everybody sits down and we don’t kid ourselves, we don’t say it’s a
Northern problem or it’s a South East problem or a Lagos problem;
we look at it from the nationalist aspect.

Is there hope for the country?

Well, there is always hope for any country. It
depends on the attitude of those who are governing today. You see,
Nigeria is so seriously divided as of today. Especially during the
last elections, we have discovered that Nigeria is so divided to
the extent that you don’t want to buy Nigeria for a kobo. But that
does not mean that hope is lost in Nigeria. But
the  problem in Nigeria is because of politics,
because of ethnicity, we no longer want to criticize our own blood
when we find things are not going on  well.
Everything in Nigeria today is against Buhari. Buhari has done
this, Buhari has done that, but how much of a totality of a
Nigerian is Buhari affecting. Buhari is the president of Nigeria
and he’s only in Abuja. The governors are all around, they are the
people affecting the lives of you and I. Ambode is affecting the
lives of Lagosians, Wike is affecting the lives of Rivers. These
are the people who should show the light and they are not showing
the light. The governors are the thrust of the problems we have in
Nigeria.  During the election time, they
know how they are keeping their thugs, they know how they are
arming them with guns, and after the elections, they no longer give
them money because they no longer  need
them. Then what do you do with them? You have used them, you have
told them to go away and you think they will just go away, they
will fire back. And that is what they are doing.

Some prominent Northerners still believe political
power should remain in the North even after Buhari’s second term,
what’s your take on that?

The problem in Nigeria is that the politician has
created for themselves a situation where if two of them gather
against the third one, they will want political power to be
rotating among themselves. Unfortunately for the Igbo, they have
never had a partnership with either the Hausa or the Yoruba in any
election. But they have found themselves in the situation because
in Nigeria, there are three major tribes. The Igbo, Yoruba and the
Hausa. Where two of these major tribes gang up, that is where the
power is going. In 1999, when the constitution came in, Obasanjo
wasn’t sponsored by the Yoruba, even though he was a Yoruba man;
the Yoruba rejected him, and sponsored Falae. But the Northerners
and the Igbo voted for him; the Yoruba never voted for him and he
still won because the Northern Hausa and the Eastern Igbo decided
to support him. In 2003, Obasanjo came for the second term; again,
he was not sponsored by the Yoruba; the Yoruba put up another
candidate but still he won. In 2007, Yar’Adua was not supported by
the Yoruba but the Igbo supported the Northerners and he won. In
2011, Jonathan came in, he’s not a Northerner but he was supported
by the North and the Igbo, and he won. Having realised that power
is between two of these sects, the Yoruba and the Hausa merged in
2015 and they produced Buhari. In 2023, if the Igbo don’t find
themselves holding onto  the
Yoruba  as a
friend  or the
Hausa  as a friend and allow the
Hausa  and the
Yoruba  to hold themselves together as in
2015, then that ticket will produce the president. That
means  the Yoruba will produce the
president, the Northerners will produce the vice president because
that is the reality of the number. Politics is in
number.  Then in 2028, the Yoruba again
will  say let us support the North. Since
the demise of Zik, the Igbo had never had a leader and that is the
fault of the Igbo race today. If tomorrow, the Igbo bring out a
young vibrant Igbo leader who can now  find
his way either  to go with the Northern
Hausa and form alliance or the Yoruba and form alliance, then the
hope of an Igbo president in Nigeria will come up.

But I as Robert Clarke seeing the terrain of politics
in Nigerians do not see any hope for an Igbo presidency except they
change their attitude in aligning themselves with one of the two
tribes. I’m looking at Nigeria consisting of three ethnic groups;
between two of these three groups, there the power lies. So, if the
Igbo can fix themselves in any of the two alliances, then there’s
hope for them.

Are you saying there’s no hope for Igbo
presidency?

That is what I’m telling you because you have not
produced a leader. Who is the leader the Igbo have today? Is it
Okorocha, is it Ngige, tell me who? You had better tell them to
start looking for a  young, vibrant leader who can
accommodate the Igbo along with the Yoruba to form the government.
The Yoruba have agreed to go with Buhari and you can see the
result; they are doing well. And they are going to go more because
without Tinubu, the North can’t produce a president after
Buhari.  Tinubu would now say, Northerners
have had it for eight years, let the Yoruba have it next. That is
just what is going to happen and the Igbo will just shout and shout
but they don’t have the number.

As a Lagosian, what is your advice to the incoming
governor of Lagos State,Sanwoolu.

Let me be honest, I’m not expecting anything
spectacular or extraordinary from any politician in Lagos coming to
take over government. Lagos as a mega city, we are all happy it is
developing at a rate we all admire. We have to give kudos to
Tinubu. Whatever you think of him, he started a blaze in Lagos when
he became governor. He opened  up roads in Ikoyi
and today we know Ikoyi from afar off. Fashola came in and did a
lot – Ilasamaja, all these areas, Alimosho and so
on.  Last week, I was driving to Badagry; I
opened my mouth because Fashola did a lot of work there. Go to
Surulere, Ogunlana drive, Bode Thomas, Fashola did a lot. So, Lagos
is being opened. Ambode too has done a lot , he’s doing a lot to
open up, even though those of us who are living in Ajah area, we
have our doubts about Ambode. What we thought he would complete
from the Ajah bridge, nothing has happened and they are collecting
toll gates every day, we don’t see the result. So, if Sanwoolu
renters now, he’s going to follow what Tinubu, Fashola, and Ambode
have done. The only problem I have is that when Ambode took over,
most of the projects Fashola had started that we thought were good
projects, were abandoned by him -the Osborne extension, is
abandoned for four years, and many other jobs, like the light rail,
which we thought would have been finished by 2019. So, if Sanwolu
comes in, and take over as governor, I don’t see him doing anything
different from what Tinubu, Fashola, Ambode had been doing. But
what I would advise him is not to have the idea of abandoning
projects that had been started by his predecessors. I will look
forward for a continuation from Sanwoolu. But he should please not
abandon your predecessors’ projects. For instance, Ambode is doing
a fine work to the airport, and he’s doing some fine works in
Alimosho, Agege area too; let Sanwolu continue and complete them.
That is my own view.

Culled from Sun

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