President of South-East South-South Professionals of Nigeria (SESSPN), Hannibal Uwaifo, SAN, has said that bringing the country from its present comatose state should be the main issues for the 2027 election campaigns.

According to him, presidential candidates should tell Nigerians in practical terms how they want to address the insecurity that is ravaging everywhere, the lack of transparency, economic prosperity and good governance of the country.

In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the legal icon described the Lagos- Calabar Coastal Road as a ‘white elephant’ project, stressing that it was absurd for the Federal Government to be constructing that road when other roads and bridges in the country have collapsed.

How can you describe the state of the Nigerian nation today?

For my family, I think it’s a terrible state. Unfortunately, we are worse off than where we are coming from. All the explanations the government has given amounts to nothing because the welfare of the people; their security, and their well-being are first and foremost the works or the duties of the government. All over the place, we now see the type of things we’ve never seen before.

Kidnappings have become more rampant, killings have become worse, up to the level that the United States and others have to step in, and other countries are making all kinds of allegations against our country because we have not been able to live up to expectations coming out of the disastrous Buhari regime.

This is even worse now. And to add insult to injury, we’ve not been able to account for what happened to the petroleum subsidy removal gains, according to them. Removed the petroleum subsidy, and in the same breath, you floated the currency, which immediately wiped off people’s savings, and wiped off their investments that immediately resulted to companies collapsing, rising costs of living, rising costs of business, which have led to closure of businesses, and impoverished people to the level that people can’t pay their house rent, they can’t even feed their families. So, all these put together, the regime is a total failure, with all due respect.

What are your expectations of the 2027 elections?

I am particularly very disappointed in the way this government has handled issues relating to elections and politicking leading to the elections. For instance, we are amazed that we have quite a lot of cases, which have dragged on here and there, with the government trying to run other political parties out of their shells; incapacitate them, and governors shamelessly decamping from the parties who elected them to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) for reasons yet unknown. The APC government is not doing well in any way, and has equally forced those who are interested in contesting elections, like Abubakar Atiku, Peter Obi, and so many others to change political parties.

Because the political parties under which platforms they were to run had been rendered comatose by agents who were being sponsored for the purposes of destabilising those parties.

We have never seen this type of thing in the country before. APC was registered under the Jonathan regime, and they were not pursued into oblivion. Other political parties were registered at the same time, and they were allowed to exist. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that existed didn’t do this type of thing that we are seeing today. And if the government of the day and those in charge allow these things to fester, there’s no doubt at all that the government has a hand in it.

That’s the way I feel. And it’s a shame that in 2026, leading to 2027, we have courts determining whether a party should exist or not, determining who and who should run political parties; in fact, there is confusion all over the place. There are multiple cases in the court that even the parties do not know whether they will stand for elections, and whether their candidates are even qualified or not qualified.

These are some of the things which have become endemic and have tended to lower the scores of this present administration. Unfortunately, there’s no way to turn back now, because the deed has been done.

What is your take on the ways the candidates emerged from the state to the national level during the party primaries?

It was one of the most chaotic in the history of this country. Ordinarily, party primaries were things that were simply monitored and followed and known, according to their political parties.

But you will understand, quite frankly, that this thing was bound to become this way because of the crisis faced by the parties from the beginning to the end; almost to the end of the time allowed by INEC. And so, parties were substituting candidates here and there; parties were choosing candidates, through unknown systems and unknown procedures. But quite a few others also were able to successfully conduct their primaries; maybe those were the ones that the government deemed would not make any impact.

But the major political parties like the PDP, NDC, and the ADC that emerged to replace the PDP, as it were, all had problems. But by and large, I think the process that produced Atiku as the presidential candidate of ADC was by and large fair and transparent to the best of my knowledge. And then, of course, the one that also produced Peter Obi as candidate of the National Democratic Congress was also by and large fair. But to talk about all the other candidates – legislative and all that, unfortunately I will not be able to comment on them because the competition was just too much.

The presidential campaign has started. What should be the message?

The country is comatose. How do we bring the country out of the present state of poverty? That’s the main thing.

You can’t govern dead people. How do we come out of economic oblivion, which they have inflicted on the country? Is it not better if we go back to look at the policies of the ruling government that brought us to where we are today?

I think the candidates should face the main issues, which are insecurity, economic prosperity, and good governance. The parties should tell us in practical terms how they want to address this insecurity that is ravaging everywhere, and then the lack of transparency, which has become the yardstick for governance; the opaque governance system, and then of course, how to address an independent legislature. You can see today that we virtually have no legislature that is checking the excess of the executive.

The APC-led National Assembly is a total failure; the National Assembly is an extension of the government of today. The judiciary has done fairly well in the circumstances in which they find themselves, despite all the accusations against her. But like I said before, it is not practically difficult to understand where the judiciary is in a society that is in total chaos like we are today.

But in the circumstances, we find ourselves, the judiciary for me, has done incredibly well, although there is room for improvement. So that is where we are. We need to rethink our government; we need to reinvent Nigeria; we need to take a closer look at those who want to lead us. Are they the same old brigade, with the same old rhetoric, or are we going to find new hands?

Some people are accusing former Vice President Abubakar Atiku of trying to distract the government of President Tinubu, for championing the reopening of his FBI case in the US over an alleged drug related matter. What is your position on this?

My view is simple. This matter has been there since, but President Tinubu has failed to clear it. All the times this matter should have been cleared, he was dodging them through legal means, hiring lawyers. So, the matter cannot go away.

So, I don’t see anything wrong with Atiku asking, under the freedom of information, for matters to be reopened so that the country needs to know.

So, I commend Atiku for taking those bold steps to ensure that transparency, especially with the sitting president, is observed. Because by and large, the motive of Atiku would not be relevant, particularly against the purview that the act of what he is asking for is legal.

So, once an act is legal, the motive behind it is irrelevant. It will benefit a lot of Nigerians. It will put Tinubu’s matter to rest.

Even he himself as the president will now be assured that whatever is there has now been known, and there is nothing more to do. If it means losing his office, so be it. If it means not being able to continue, so be it. At least the country can have rest of mind and can begin to repair its image from then onwards by looking to ensure that those who are coming in do not have that type of character.

Or if he is cleared, then the matter is permanently cleared, and then it benefits him more. And even Atiku himself will be satisfied that these things have been fairly cleared.

But the way it is now, blocking the release of those documents and facts, which are being demanded and which has been the issue for almost more than 30 years ago is hurting the country and also hurting the government. There’s no explanation that can be better than facts and release of the documents. That’s all.

Some people are asking why your law firm is petitioning the EFCC to reopen Atiku’s corruption case at the time the former vice president is also fighting to reopen an alleged Tinubu’s drug file.

Well, it’s just the same thing. Like I said, just like commending Atiku for taking the bold steps to deal with these issues. It’s the same thing with him. I am not a politician. I’m just a professional.

I’ve been approached by a client to perform a legal act, and ethically I do not have rights to refuse any brief or discriminate once the basis has been given to me.

So Atiku, by our letter, has not been found guilty; by our letter, he has not been pronounced innocent. By our letter, he has not been said to be of a bad character or all the things that were done. We have just simply relied on the documents sent to us by our client to say, look, you Atiku Abubakar, if you have anything to answer, also answer. And that’s not going to be us doing it. It has to be the EFCC. And that’s why the EFCC was written to take a look at it as demanded by our client.

We’re just simply lawyers intervening on this. Just like I supported Atiku for his exploits against Tinubu, that’s also the reason I’m saying, if he has anything to clear, let him also clear it.

The Amnesty International in its latest report says that about 10,217 people have been killed in five northern states between 2023 and 2026. What is your view on this?

I’ve already mentioned it earlier that the ravaging insecurity is one of the biggest disappointments that this government brought on Nigeria.

The insecurity that we are having today was not as bad as it was when it took over. So, it means that all the work done is not yielding results, or whatever work we claim to have done is not effective. Anybody can condemn the Amnesty International reports here and their statistics, but facts are sacred. People are dying every day. We hear it all over the place, and they are crying and all that.

It’s quite unfortunate that the government is unable to solve this problem. And the reason the problem cannot be solved is lack of political will, and not because the government does not have enough force or enough power or enough muscle to deal with it; but a lack of political will due to excessive politicking.

And this excessive politicking is what has brought us to our knees economically, socially, politically, and security wise. Politics is being played. The president cannot be told, no, you can’t buy yachts why people are suffering, people can’t pay their school fees, and children can’t go to school. Mr. President, no, you can’t travel here, when people are dying in Plateau, Benue and other states. No, Mr. President, you cannot spend this money. No, Mr. President, this money must be accounted for.

There is no legislation, no checks. So, it is the same impunity that has enveloped everywhere. There is no political will by the legislature, no political will by the executives to perform their roles.

In the past weeks, motorists and other users of major highways across the South and parts of the North have been having hellish times due to collapsed roads. What are your views?

My reaction is very simple, and that the government’s own stories are laughable and totally unfortunate, and to a large degree very irresponsible.

How can the government sit down and continue to do Coastal Road when the main highway leading from Lagos all the way through to the North, to the East, South-South, and most part of it to the South West is left undone? The last major road was done by the Buhari administration, which is the Lagos-Ibadan Road, which was well done and still on-going.

But the Sagamu-Benin road, which leads to the North and to the East has remained bad. I was shocked when I went to Asaba a few months back. There was nowhere to pass.

We spent hours on end in the place, and yet the Minister of Works, claimed they’ve been doing something there. So, it’s just lip service. And that’s what I’m asking, if you cannot fix the roads, you cannot get your governors, who you claim are earning a lot more money now, to fix the roads in their states? You can’t fix the highways. Why are you embarking on the Coastal Road? First and foremost, this is totally absurd. Because if somebody cannot travel from Lagos to Ore, or to Benin without being afraid of kidnappers and marauders, how will somebody put his car on the road to drive from Lagos to Calabar? Who is going to do that type of thing? And then I learnt that they are planning to build another road from Badagry to Sokoto.

These are just white elephant projects that are politically motivated, and to my mind are just born out of corruption; sheer corruption, not for any purpose for Nigeria. Because a reasonable government should be thinking of how to put half of that money to dealing with existing, dilapidated infrastructure – roads and bridges. You can’t go to Lokoja, you can’t go to Abuja, you can’t go anywhere. The last time I was going to Minna, it was hell. So, when you see a country devising this type of new development plan, without taking into consideration that our infrastructure is dilapidated, you understand that they are not thinking like ordinary Nigerians. The welfare of ordinary Nigerians is not what they came to do, but their own personal welfare. So, unfortunately, this is the state we find ourselves in. We saw the Benin bypass to Asaba road spectacle on Al Jazeera and other international television stations. Is that not shameful? And they are running up and down campaigning. (The Sun)