Among others, Auwal Ibrahim Musa is the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC); the Head of Transparency International (TI); Chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) Amnesty International (AI). In this brief interview with our Chief Correspondent, ABBANOBI -EKU ONYEKACHI recently, he didn’t only blame the executive and legislative arms of government for unaccounted borrowings for Nigerians, but also accused the judiciary of denying justice to poor Nigerians, due to the fact that they don’t have money to bribe them.
Auwal Ibrahim Musa spoke on other matters as they affect legislative, executive and judicial arms of the government. Excerpts:
Qtn: You have recently raised the alarm over unaccounted borrowing by those in authority, could you explain this in details?
Ans: Well, it is disheartening that those in authority would borrow monies in the name of infrastructural development, or any other, but at the end of the day, the monies wouldn’t be utilized for what they were borrowed for. It is even worrisome and unfortunate that the government indicts itself, in terms of misuse of these money. So the recent happening in the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and many other ministries in this country, where public money is taken in the name of project account and this project account is money taken without accounting for it, or money taken without accounting for it. So we shall not continue to borrow without accounting for them, in line with our Fiscal Responsibility Law. There is a law set out on how to borrow money and what to do with the money when borrowed. But over the years, they have been deviating from this very important legal framework. So we shall not continue to allow a few individuals to be borrowing money on behalf of the nation and the money when borrowed is not used in line with what it is meant for, in the first place.
That is why we think that the rushing or rather the reckless approval for borrowing by the National Assembly is not doing good to this country. The National Assembly is expected to scrutinize and ensure that all loans are geared toward improving governance, infrastructure and human capital development, but we are seeing in many instances, is that these loans are not being utilized, for example, the billions that was collected to help during the time of COVID-19, only recently the Auditor General disclosed that the money wasn’t used for what its borrowing was meant for.
Qtn: What did he say that the money was used for?
Ans: According to the Auditor General, the money hasn’t been accounted for; which means that the money has disappeared and it isn’t good for our nation, because you won’t be borrowing money for a particular intervention and this intervention isn’t carried out. So we don’t think that it is right to be borrowing money on our behalf for a particular project and later in the day, the money isn’t used for such project.
Qtn: We have three arms of government, in which one makes the law, which the other interpretes, while the another implements and executes the law. Which of these are you blaming or are you blaming all of them?
Ans: Well, when we are talking of borrowing money, it is the function of the executive and the legislature. When executive sends a request to the legislature, the legislature is expected to scrutinize and review it before giving approval to it. But a situation whereby the legislature wouldn’t do the needful, in terms of ensuring that the executive uses loans for their purposes. Any loan that isn’t for the public interest shouldn’t be approved. It isn’t a matter of servant – master relationship. Each arm of the government has a responsibility to run the system and the country in a manner that will consolidate democracy and ensure that the economy and the people in the economy are enjoying dividends of democracy.
Qtn: The way you are sounding, it looks like you are heading to court to challenge these anomalies, are you?
Ans: There are different numbers of organisations we have in this country, some of them work on advocacy; some of them work on research; some of them work on litigation; some of them work on capacity – building, among others. Our sister organization, the Socio – Economic Rights And Accountability Project (SERAP) has been talking about suing the government for number of monies that has not been account for and definitely, we shall support them. So for us, we shall continue to do the advocacy; we shall continue to raise the issue. SERAP has been going to court, to sue the government, on issue they believe that the government has not done well.
SERAP is a foremost organisation that deals with judicial impunity and corruption. So they have been doing a great work in this country to ensure that the government does the right thing.
Qtn: Don’t you think that the right thing to do is to have a round table discussions with the government?
Ans: We have been discussing and our door is open for conversations that will lead to improved transparency and accountability and we are always happy to continue to support the government’s efforts. Once we are given the opportunity to continue to support the government, we shall definitely do that.
But remember, we are Civil Society Organization (CSO) and we are not in the government. We can neither impose, nor implement, but can only encourage the government to do the right thing through our credible evidence.
Qtn: Nigeria is a country with different religions, tribes, ethnicities, people, among others, what exactly is your interest as an individual?
Ans: My interest is about Nigeria and Nigerian people. My interest is to ensure that we have a just society. We are interested in ensuring that the insecurity in the country is defeated; we are interested in ensuring that we eliminate hunger; we are interested in ensuring that we eliminate poverty; our interest is to create opportunity for Nigerians, irrespective of where they come from, so as to continue to contribute to the development of this country. Basically, our interest is to promote social justice in Nigeria.
Qtn: Some organisations are fond of fighting for the interest of the masses, and when there is exchange of hands in terms of monetary form, they close their mouths. How are we sure that yours is different?
Ans: I have been in this for over 30 years, to promote social justice in Nigeria and I have never done anything that would undermine my credibility and the work I do. I always ensure that I promote social justice, transparency and accountability. That is all I have been doing. In the last 30 years, or more, that has been what I have been doing to ensure that social justice strives in our country.
Qtn: Having been talking about the executive and the legislature, what is your assessment of the judiciary in the whole thing?
Ans: Well, the judiciary is responsible for ensuring that Nigerians have access to justice; that Nigerians attain the administrative justices in the country; that Nigerians are not denied fair trial and fair hearing in the country. Because many Nigerians don’t have money to bribe the judiciary or administrative justice system, they are not able to get justice and that isn’t good for a nation and that isn’t good for the people of a nation.
Qtn: What will be your message to the masses?
Ans: My message to the Nigerians is for them to continue to love and support the country. Let them participate in the political and economic development of the country and ensure that they promote unity, justice, fairness and promote democratic consolidation in our country.
Auwal Ibrahim Musa
