Senator Emmanuel Onwe, a legal professional who represented Ebonyi Central senatorial district in the Senate has raised concern over the increasing incidents of jail break in some of our prisons occasioned by various cases of awaiting trials which has resulted to prison congestion. In an interaction with IGNATIUS OKOROCHA, Senator Onwe said his resolve to sponsor a bill on decongesting the nation’s prisons while in the Senate was to ensure that suspects awaiting trial do not spend more than three months in prison custody before their cases are dispensed with.
According Onwe, who was sworn-in into the Senate after three years of waiting for justice, maintained that the nation’s inability to put in place legislations that will ensure that suspects awaiting trials do not spend more than three years in prison custody is an indictment on our democracy. He bared his mind to other issues of national importance. Excerpts:
You were sworn-in as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria following a Court of Appeal decision after three years of legal battle with your predecessor, Senator Julius Ucha; what was been your experience during that period?
Well, the background to my aspiring to become a Senator representing Ebonyi Central Senatorial district has a peculiar coloration. It was never my ambition to become a politician but when I completed my studies in the United Kingdom, I returned to Nigeria. On my way to my little village I realised that the road was impassable. The bridges had collapsed. The road was so mud-ridden that my car got stuck in the mud. It took villagers several hours to dig it out and I resolved that I was going to do something about it. So, a few years down the line I got the resources and I resolved to fix the road and build or repair the bridges. Unfortunately, those that occupied power at that time tried to prevent me. I had to go cap in hand to government house to plead with the sitting governor to grant me permission to rehabilitate the road and the bridges with my own money. I never asked for a penny and I never received a word of thanks. Then it dawned on me that it was important to hold political office if I ever nursed the dream of helping my people. Our society is so terribly disabled by a certain mindset. At any event, come 2006 I made up my mind to run for a political office. I embarked on the necessary consultations and was given the green light to commence my campaign for the office of the Senate which I did. I won the primary election overwhelmingly. The anti-democrats and power mongers then sought to substitute my name after it had been duly submitted to INEC. I was not consulted, nor assuaged, nor given any explanations. I was simply deemed irrelevant and dispensable. I felt a great sense of injustice and I needed to fight it and I did. You do not treat people as idiots. You do not reduce people to your own low denomination and expect docile compliance. Yes, it has taken a very long time to reclaim what belonged to me but I am happy that in the end we have the right outcome.
In the light of the three years you lost waiting for justice to take place in your case, how do you see the electoral system in the country?
Well, the electoral system in this country has always been open to serious abuse but I am glad to say that given the electoral Act of 2010 there is going to be a very limited opportunity for those who intend to subvert the system. This is a legal opinion. In terms of substitution which is the area that affected me directly the new electoral Act has made it impossible for political parties to seek to substitute a candidate once his or her name has been submitted to INEC unless that candidate willingly withdraws his or her candidacy. Also, only those who emerge through proper primaries would be forwarded to INEC. In the final analysis, however, it does not really matter how stringent the laws are. It’s a question of the application or implementation of the law. Laws are not self-executing. Those are the comments I would make for now given that the electoral Act is still in its infant stages. None of the provisions has been tested by the law courts and it is only when the provisions have been tested in the law courts that we can begin to understand the shortcomings and strengths.
Are there other areas you think the Electoral Act needs some adjustment so as to plug the loopholes that paved the way for the years you lost in getting justice from the law court?
I would make general comments on the issues you have raised. One, the amendment to the constitution came at the right time but I really regret the fact that the provision for independent candidature did not succeed. I understand the reasons that were advanced but if I were there perhaps I would have added my voice to the debate in favour of its inclusion in the amended constitution. Nevertheless, we still have over sixty political parties in this country so that any individual who is dissatisfied with any political party can easily find a different platform upon which to seek the people’s mandate because it is anomalous that sometimes political parties become a barrier between an individual who might be a popular candidate and the electorates. Apart from those general observations, I think some of the provisions have gone a long way to address some of the challenges we have had in the past. But let’s be very clear, it is not about the law, it is about those who implement the law because you could simply say, go and conduct free, fair and genuine elections. If those who implement that simple statement are genuinely committed they know exactly what it means to conduct free and fair elections. So we do not have to have a compendium of laws in order to be able to know that in a democracy you ought to have free and open elections.
Ebonyi Central has a record of communal crisis in the past and your predecessor and your governor appear to have been fingered in this; what did you do to resolve this lingering crisis while in the Senate?
Well, I am very glad to observe that the crisis in Ezza and Ezillo communities was brought to a cessation. The current governor has done everything within his power to ensure that security forces took the matter very seriously. They have brought it under control and the next step is to ensure sustenance of the peace and avert the possibility of a subsequent eruption. I have paid a call to the Governor and personally conveyed to him my appreciation for his determination and commitment to guarantee peace and security not just in that section of the State but in all parts. I am very glad to say that it doesn’t seem that it is something that would require my immediate attention because my state government was on top of that situation. I have been on record as saying that speculations and conjectures are unhelpful in this matter. Flinging unfounded accusation of complicity at people without any evidence is counterproductive.
Nigeria has within the past 50 years made some losses and gains; as a legislator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria what are your assessments of the journey so far?
Ours has been a very turbulent history. The lows have been far too steep and the highs have been less than modest. There is pretty little for us to be proud of as a 50-year-old country. I see 1st October 2010 not so much as a moment for celebration but as a time for commemoration because prior to our independence in 1960 people struggled and died for the course of our freedom. People lost their lives, considerable resources were expended and it seems to me that struggling to rid yourself of the humiliation and exploitation of colonization is worthy of commemoration. The women of Aba that rioted against the imposition of taxation in 1929 should be commemorated. The coal miners of Enugu who were brutalised by the colonisers should be commemorated. There are many more examples. Now from 1960 to date, a huge amount of crises have engulfed this country but we have survived most of them. Individuals have sacrificed their own lives to sustain the unity and continued existence of this country. Those are worthy of commemoration. In terms of celebration, I am not too sure whether we have achieved anything in 50 years of self-rule that compels a festival. The insecurity, poverty, ignorance, disease, darkness and squalor that are still very prevalent in our country are not the stuff of celebration, in my humble opinion. Therefore, I would rather talk in terms of commemoration rather than celebration. I know that people criticise the idea of any form of noise-making come October 1st. That is rather myopic. If we say we cannot make some kind of noise on October 1st, it means that we are saying that all the struggles of all those patriotic Nigerians who did so much to ensure that we got rid of foreign domination should be disregarded. We commemorate the sacrifices, we commemorate the losses and we look forward to a period in which we will have achieved enough in order to celebrate. Maybe in the next 100 years we will be celebrating a truly great country.