Reforming judiciary alone can’t transform Nigeria – Shehu Sani

By Francis Onyeukwu

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. (NAN)