We have to be able to get our terms clear and certain. Yes, it was free and fair because there was no voters’ coercion, no rigging or manipulation of the electoral votes because I have been following the election and there has been no reports of rigging and secondly the man who lost has not complained neither has his party complained about the election being rigged. America is very well known as the best democratic model in the world, so I think the election was free and fair.

You can compare in that there are some similarities to the candidates and we have electoral body that supervises the conduct of election. All these parameters exist in Nigeria as well as in America and at the end of the day, results are announced. Also, the names of the winners are announced with the results and such winners take up offices and are sworn to office. But there are also some differences because we have instances of voters intimidation in Nigeria, serious irregularity in the form of making adequate ballot papers or over stuffed ballot boxes, under aged voters and the election monitors who work in Nigeria do complain. You leave instances of manipulation and rigging and at the end of the day, when election results are declared in Nigeria, we have disputes over elections. These take several months, even years before they are resolved and before the results will come out, it sometimes takes two or tree weeks.

But in America, you do election today, by night fall, despite the fact that you have more than a 100 million voters, you have your results which to my own opinion, is the little difference and similarity.

Why not, infact it is no big deal to me, the appointment of the ministers were political and the man who appointed them definitely reserves the right under the constitution to hire them and fire them when he his no longer satisfied with their performance. We are a country of almost 160 million people and a privilege of any time to be giving an opportunity to serve at that very high level of political participation and if the person who appoints you is no longer satisfied with you, I see no big deal about him sacking them from office also I do not care who the ministers are but I personally care for work and performance to be done. I surely presume that the president did that to make sure government is better delivered to the people.

The question we should ask ourselves is that how has the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government being doing in Nigeria so far. The federal government in Nigeria under Yar ‘Adua. They have not done particularly well and they have not done particularly bad. To me, am yet to feel any dramatic change in performance except in some area. I think the utilities are better now especially talking about NEPA is about 20 percent better than met reach, fuel price have not being increased for almost one and half years he came in which I think it is a plus. But I think his greatest achievement is that the relation of tension in the country because under Obasanjo, there was more aggression and more ground standing on the parts of government especially agencies like Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) because they have being helped and moved towards association of the human rights of people, the days where the EFCC will be the accuser, prosecutor and the Judge has come down considerably but except for occasional case like the beaten up of a lady by the Air force men and the closure of the channels television station. For me under Yar ‘Adua there is no respect for human rights, there is less flexing of muscles by the federal government. Also under Yar ‘Adua security has worsened, in terms of Corporate security because banks are severally attacked and I think the polity is not stable, on the Niger Delta, the government has used the stick and carrot methods but the creation of the new ministry is a good efforts may be the government can do more with not just the ministry, but all and all I think I will prefer it to the years of Obasanjo but we are yet to get a definite stamp of authority of this government but he can still do more.

Certainly it can not be the all in all solution but we have to appreciate the government because it is not easy to administer people when we are talking about a huge country like Nigeria. When we are talking about the Niger Delta and the government is trying to give them a special attention you will understand that under Sani Abacha he was first government that tried to create the OMPADEC specially for the Niger Delta and increase the revenue, so in creating a new ministry under Yar ‘Adua, I think he has done better than Obasanjo because Obasanjo responded by sending military men but by creating a ministry this is to say that this particular section of the country needs special attention.

I think the problem is bad governance, marginalization of the people which has led to this military reaction, the minority Nigerians suffer disadvantages in the country and as far back as 1957 the colonial government tried to set up the minority commission to look into the problem of marginalization of minority people in Nigeria and we have had agitators before now trying to draw the attention of the government and the people that from where you are drawing this oil from they need attention but the government would not listen and we now have this situation of militancy. So it is because of neglect and Nigerians have taken quite a number of wealth from that region without adequately compensating the people from where this resources are coming from. So is a physical reaction not an intellectual reaction to the problem of neglects and deprivation. But the second problem now is that the people who cause the reaction are at fault, the people reacting to it are now at fault, so there is now a criminalization not a politicalization of the problem of the Niger Delta. Action and reaction are equal words and opposite, the problem we have is that when the agitation started, it was pure when we had people like Isaac Adaka Boro but at the time they got to the stage of armed confrontation of government then abuse came in, kidnapping for personal funds bunkering for personal ends and all that. So is not only the federal government that has a problem, the people trying to reject the tyranny that is prevalent in the Niger Delta area too, they are also guilty.

I will say yes, because we live by hope but you are only saying that because we now have a democracy also there was a time we never had a democracy in any form we were being ruled by the military and no body talked about how election was conducted at that time, so if this country can transform and transit from autocracy of the military rule to the civil liberties of the democracy, however imperfect, so that means there is hope. Life is dynamic and you continue to keep working into achieving perfection, I believe there is hope, it may not be quick but there is hope. The Nigerian political class is not noted for being particularly honest or full of integrity but we will get there still.

Life is such that our needs are insatiable, if I buy a car today after about two or three weeks of admiring the car, you say is a small car but there was a time you could not even afford a bicycle that sometimes you could even beg people to give you a ride on a bus but now that you are a car owner you beginning to imagine that your car should be bigger and better but you still can compare with what we have now to the military rule of all things that is dear to life except for life itself is liberty, liberty of the human spirit liberty to hold association, liberty to express one’s self, hold meetings and to be human. But under the military one’s liberty is usually curtailed and you cannot put price on liberty, this is more of a free country now. Am talking more like a professional now, military rule is bad and democracy is being very good to we lawyers because we have made much more money than we ever made under the military rule. Under the military we are talking about governing of the people by force, if you have disputes with anybody, you really don’t need to go to court rather you go to the army barracks or you use force to resolve your conflict but nowadays because we are promoting the rule of law, the courts have regained their primary position as the theatre of adjudication of resolution of disputes and who are the operators of the court? Judges and lawyers, lawyers and lawyers democracy is good for economy even organizing of election, even if anybody should be interested in democracy to continue then it should be lawyers, the legal profession. So it means we are moving further despite our imperfection, our limitations is much better than when we were under the jack boot of the military."

Yes, there is a need for it to be followed and is working with what am seeing before Yar ‘Adua, the leadership of Nigeria government was not talking about due process they were only talking about results which is what maters to them but for the fist time we are having a true civilian as a president and a graduate too. Apart from Shehu Shagari who was a school teacher but all other have never been graduates. To me, due process is working.

I do not want to speculate but if he is summoned he is not above the law, the political realities on ground will tend to suggest that government does cover up for their predecessors especially if the government before was instrumental to their coming to power, is just like asking Obasanjo if he can probe Babaginda, it’s really doubtful. Obasanjo used the instrumentality of his office and the PDP to bring the Yar ‘Adua government into power. Under the African culture our young democracy, they might be expecting too much thinking that the Yar ‘Adua’s government will go out and probe Obasanjo, it happened in Zambia and I think Malawi but in Nigeria I think it will be a little bit different and it also happened in Ghana and it was a revolutionary regime but Yar ‘Adua is not a revolutionary regime he came in through power fighting politics and I doubt whether he will want to bite the finger that fed it and the change of government in the EFCC will suggest a change in the perception on how the EFCC will be run. I will be surprised if Obasanjo will be invited for a probe and I will be more surprised if after probing him, he will be found indicted by this government.