A former senator, Shehu Sani, says reform of Nigeria’s
judiciary alone cannot transform the country into an Eldorado.
Sani, a vocal activist-turned politician, made the
assertion while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in
Abuja.
He said: “We can’t have a perfect judiciary when we
have an imperfect country. All segments of Nigeria need reforms and the
citizens must be at the centre of the change.
“Those working in the judicial sector are part of us;
they didn’t come from the Mars, Jupiter or any other part of the planet. The
judges are our brothers, sisters, uncles and aunties.
“Until we reach the point where voters will vote
people irrespective of their political parties, things will continue to go
wrong. That is the only way good men can emerge as winners in our elections.
“The present political arrangement we have is such
that the mafias and godfathers are in control of the main parties; a good man
can’t penetrate these parties because he doesn’t have the money.
“A good man will pick a party ticket for an election
from a minor party and people will say, go to the main party and get ticket for
us to support you, when they know the parties are controlled by the mafias and
political godfathers.
“The people, on their part, end up voting for
candidates of the political parties controlled by the godfathers and not a good
man, just because of pecuniary gains.
“This is how the wrong steps by our people result in
electing wrong people into political offices,’’ he said.
According to the activist, who represented Kaduna
Central Senatorial District in the senate between 2015 and 2019, unless the
mistake is corrected, the judiciary cannot perform wonders.
On the recent gale of defections, particularly by
lawmakers at the National Assembly, Sani attributed the development to the
lingering crises in some of the political parties.
“For instance, if you go to PDP now, you have to
decide the faction that you will belong to. And if you are a lawmaker, your
return ticket will be dependent on the faction you belong to.
“And if you are a lawmaker and the vehicle that
brought you to the National Assembly has broken down, what will you do?’’ he
queried.
According to him, if PDP does not put its house in
order before the 2027 general elections, it may end up getting only one or two
senators and House of Representatives members.
“Labour Party equally has its own crisis and no
particular leader has become a rallying point for the party. And if you look at
it, the most cohesive one is the APC,’’ he said.
NAN reports that Sani, who was, before the 2023
general elections, a member of PDP, recently defected to the ruling APC.
On the need for ideology in politics, Sani said that
98 per cent of Nigerians politicians don’t know the ideologies of their
political parties, with the exception of Peoples Redemption Party, National
Conscience Party and Socialist Party of Nigeria.
“I can’t say, even as I returned to APC, that the
philosophy of APC is different from that of PDP.
“But, I can tell you that in character, President Bola
Tinubu and I share a lot because we were all at the forefront of the struggle
for democracy,’’ he said.
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