Immunity Clause Now Cankerworm In Nigeria’s Political System – Olu Falae

Olu Falae, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and 1999 presidential candidate of the defunct Alliance for Democracy, has urged Nigerians to come together to remove the immunity clause from the constitution, describing it as a cankerworm. Continue...

He was speaking on Thursday evening shortly after the inauguration of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Akure, the Ondo State capital. 

He stressed that expunging the clause from the constitution would not only advance and deepen democracy, but also promote good governance and transparency in public life, and champion zero tolerance for corruption in government.   

He decried the high level of corruption going on in governments in the country, alongside widespread poverty.  

The elder statesman, who is also the National Chairman of the SDP, pointed out that if as long as the immunity provision remains, no governor or president can ever be arrested or charged to court even if he commits murder. 

“If it is not removed, they can use their power to kill people and nothing would happen to them,” he noted.  “Some of them can even enter the Central Bank of Nigeria and withdraw money without any person questioning them.” 

Chief Falae underlined that when the immunity provision is eliminated from the law, anyone that plans to commit crime or steal public funds would think twice. 

“We have recommended the establishment of anti-corruption corps over this clause. But the problem we have now is that when a man is tried for corruption, it goes on for five or four years and many people forget about it but in our recommendation, we stated that the anti-corruption corps must have its own procedure.”

Under that procedure, he explained, no trial would last more than 12 months and anyone found guilty or culpable will go to jail for not less than 20 years and all he/she has stolen would be taken back.

Relaying the ideology of his party, the Afenifere leader also said those who would be elected on the platform of the SDP would be people of unquestionable character.

“They would be people who are transparent, and that can boast or beat their chest that they have never stolen or looted public funds because these are the type of people we must look for to represent our party. In everything we do, we must be different.

“If we don’t change this corrupt system, we would continue to be poor and unemployed and be hungry in this country. They are stealing our money and we must take it back to employ people”.

He dispel rumours that the SDP is a front for some other parties, saying that the party would not flout any regulations laid down by the Independent National Electoral Commission as it sojourns into the political terrain in 2015.  

Falae, who was also a Finance Minister during the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida, expressed worry over the safety of the abducted Chibok School girls.  He urged the federal government to end quickly the activities of the Boko Haram insurgency in the northern part of the country.