Current Insecurity Mirrors Deep Corruption – Hon. Melaye

Navigating on controversy and quirky patriotism, Hon. Dino Malaye who represented, Kabba/Banu Federal Constituency of Kogi State in the immediate past House of Representatives but lost his re-election bid spoke to RUTH CHOJI, arguing that President Goodluck Jonathan’s anti-corruption war is flawed and called for the abrogation of immunity clause and more.
Nigerians were surprised when you abandoned politics for activism. What happened? There was no change actually because this is what I was doing before going to the National Assembly. I was one of those incarcerated during the Abacha government. I started with a  Non-Governmental Organization in Kaduna called the National Association of Democratic Youths and I was running the organization up to the point of my coming to the National Assembly. So, I have always been a civil society person and that had always been my turf.
Even while in the House, you will see that most of my motions and bills have always been on human rights and anti-corruption and that was why I raised issues with Julius Berger. I also took up the leadership of the House which led to my suspension. I had to go to court before I came back to the House. So, I won’t say it is a transformation; it is my way of life. I believe in speaking for those who can’t speak for themselves.
I believe in speaking for the voiceless, which does not stop me from being a politician. I will rather address myself as a political activist.
Which party do you belong to now? I am a member of the ACN, after the National Assembly, I went back to what I was doing. That was why I founded the ‘Anti –corruption Network”. I am the founder and the Executive Secretary and we vow to fight corruption to a standstill.
What are the challenges you have encountered since you started anti-corruption network? The registration of the organization  was a problem. When  we got to CAC, there were lots of encumberancies. The first name I took there was Anti-Corruption League. They said they were not going to register it and even this one, we had to go through lots of stress before it was registered. We had to institute a case against the Corporate Affairs Commission eventually before we got registered.
Even after registration, there have been lots of problems, threats. Some will say, we will kill you; we will kidnap your children, we will do this and that. But I am not perturbed because it is something we have decided to do. It is a battle of no retreat, no surrender. Corruption is the bane of our development as a nation and I am resolute about the fight against corruption.
I also know that if you fight corruption, corruption will fight back at you. So, we are ready for the blackmail, propaganda, the arrest and assassination of character and all unnecessary commentary against me, it will not stop me from doing what I am supposed to do.  I am ready to fight corruption with the last drop of my blood. Anywhere we find corruption in any facet of our national life will be exposed.
How will you assess the President Goodluck’s fight against corruption? I will regard it as lip service. This particular government is not fighting corruption. It is romancing corruption; it is building and protecting corruption. It is catapulting corruption because the administration is not only sick, it is yet to show that there is any seriousness towards fighting corruption because no government has exhibited corruption like this government.
Stealing in past governments was to the tune of billions, but today, the stealing has gone to trillions. As I speak to you, no minister in this administration has exhibited penchant for corruption with impunity like this government. For example, we have the Ribadu Report now, the House Report, the Aig Imuekuode Report. These three reports indicted the ministry of Petroleum, the PPRA, the person and personality of the Minister of Petroleum but as I speak to you, once you are indicted by the civil service act, you are supposed to go on suspension and there are precedents to that in this country.
When Fabian Osuji, former Minister of Education during the Obasanjo time was indicted, he was immediately removed as minster by Obasanjo. When Prof. Grange and the then Minister of State for Health were indicted in the case of corruption, they were removed by President Yaradua.
Now, the minister of Petroleum has been indicted, she is the chairman of the board of NNPC, she has supervisory functions over PPRA which has also been indicted and she is still sitting as a minister and right now, there is an investigation of the ministry and she is still sitting as a minister. Of course, she is going to influence the ongoing investigation. The president demonstrated capacity as if he wanted to fight corruption, he sacked all the board members of the NNPC, he sacked the whole management staff of NNPC and left the minister.
He has not demonstrated seriousness of a government that wants to fight corruption. Today, what is happening to the Siemens case, the oil thieves? Two hundred and something billion was budgeted for subsidy last year. Over one point something trillion has been spent. We have never seen corruption in this magnitude like this in this country before. This year, eight hundred and something billion is budgeted for subsidy, just recently, I saw in the papers that NNPC is claiming that they are being owed billions of Naira. Then what is the Minister of Finance doing?
We heard recently that Pinnacle Company was given billions of naira for a contract and we just found out that Pinnacle was not registered with the CAC, meaning they are not empowered by law to do business in Nigeria and the Ministry of Finance authorized that payment and they did not lift one liter of oil to this country and they were paid N2.7billion in two installments.
How can you claim to be fighting corruption and we are asking, who has been prosecuted, indicted or  jailed for corruption since this government came in? So, this is a lip service to the fight against corruption. Transparency International recently released its report that Nigeria is the second most corrupt country in the world.
But do you think our anti-corruption agencies are capable of fighting this menace? It is not possible; the anti-crime agencies are not capable because there is a structural problem. Except there is constitutional amendments that will take away the power of the president to appoint INEC chairman, EFCC, ICPC and the chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, but as long as the president has the prerogative of power to discretionally appoint the chairmen, then there will be restriction.
This is because I cannot make you a chairman of a place and you will not bend towards my will. The appointment can be taken to NJC (National judicial commission) or the Council of State where you have the former presidents as members and former chief justices of the country. If we don’t do that, then the fight against corruption will continue to be lip service. The only other solution is public protest.
In a just society, silence is a crime, Nigerians must wake up from their slumbers, every Nigerian is a change agent, and Nigerians must speak within their local governments, wards, and states and wherever you see negativity and corruption, expose it. Public outcry and civil disobedience is the only way out.
Why is the opposition not as formidable as it is being practiced other democracies? Because of the value system; corruption has eaten deep into this country. Everybody tends to be imbibing and indoctrinated with the tendencies of corruption. You find that some opposition parties are struggling to be part of government and most of them have no ideology.
Most have no manifestos. What ANPP is doing in Bornu is different from what they are doing in Kano State. What ACN   IS doing in Lagos is different from what they are doing in Ogun.