The Executive Director of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, Mr. Adetokunbo Mumuni, tells LEKE BAIYEWU
why he feels the sacking of six Ogun State Government workers was wrong
and why the organisation will engage the government in a legal battle
Why would
the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project write a petition
to the United Nations against Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State to
the on the sacking of six workers of the state government?
SERAP is a public trust and whatever
affects the rights of any Nigerian, once it has something to do with
their socio-economic, civil and political rights, SERAP will always
intervene because that is our mandate.
The
governor said he did not recommend the sacking of the workers, that the
state Civil Service Commission did. But your petition to the UN is
against the governor. Is that not a mix-up?
There is no mix-up. The Civil Service
Commission is an integral of part of the executive arm of government,
and the governor is the head of the Executive. If they (the CSC) do
anything, which the governor is not comfortable with, it and does not
approve it, they won’t do it. It is like passing the buck from the
governor to the Civil Service Commission. He can tell it to the marines,
not to an organisation like SERAP.
Was it possible for the commission to have sacked the workers before the governor knew about it?
It is not possible. You don’t take a
step as serious as sacking a whole category of workers – not one or two
of them – and the governor will not know about it. That the governor did
not know about it is not possible. This is Nigeria; let them continue
to play the ostrich.
What exactly do you want to achieve with your petition?
What is gratifying, first, would be the
reversal of that decision (sacking). The decision and the basis for it
do not conform to a democratic environment. Assuming that the
examination (summary passage) that the teachers set was critical of the
government, is the opposition not entitled to express their opinion? If
it is true, as an opinion, it is for the government to rectify the
anomaly and face education seriously.
If it is true that the
workers were critical of the government, is it appropriate for a
government employee to criticise his employee in that manner?
In this circumstance, the employee is
not working against the employer. The employee is merely calling the
attention of the employer to what is wrong in the system. And that is
necessary for democracy to survive; we should not all be yes-men. As a
matter of fact, those who do not see anything negative in what you are,
are not interested in your progress. The yes-men are the people who do
not mean well for the system. We need critical people; we need
discerning minds, not robots.
One of the arguments raised
by the state government was that what the affected workers did was
against civil service rules which govern all government workers?
Any rule anywhere in Nigeria, which, if
you interpret it, will be a direct violation of the Constitution, cannot
stand. We don’t have to go through the rules. The Constitution says
everybody has the right to freedom of opinion; the freedom to canvass
and express idea. The Constitution is superior to any other government
rule.
Why are you not considering abolition of anti-rights laws, instead of fighting the implementation of such laws?
What we are going to do is that we will
wait for a few weeks, if the decision to reverse (the sacking) is not
taken, we will go to court and ask the court to declare those provisions
in the civil service rule, contrary to the Constitution, invalid. That
is what will happen next.
But the state government seems to be adamant and won’t renege on its decision.
The state government exists because
there is the Nigerian Constitution; no state government exists except
under the law, and the superior law in Nigeria is the Constitution. Once
the court makes a pronouncement, it is binding on the government. It is
a question of being adamant; this is not a banana republic; this is not
dictatorship, this is democracy. And the state government must be bound
by whatever the court says.
Are you aware that the
affected workers were given the opportunity of fair hearing by facing a
panel, which was said to have found them guilty and recommended their
sacking?
We are not talking about fair hearing
now; we are talking about a fundamental right – right to express an
opinion; right to disseminate information; right to impact knowledge and
idea. Once we express an opinion and you are punishing us for
expressing an opinion, then, you have violated our rights. We are
talking of fundamental human right now; we are not talking about right
to fair hearing.
What if the government reverses the sacking, will it mark the end of your case?
Once it is reversed, we will not do
anything again. That is to say our prayer has been answered. We must not
necessary go to court.
Have you ever met with the affected workers to know what they really want?
It is not part of our plan or the way we
work to talk to the affected workers to seek their consent before we
take up an issue of public importance. We, as an organisation, are
registered under the law and we watch everything that happens in the
Nigerian space that touches and concerns our mandate and take it up.
That is what we call public trust and that is what SERAP is all about.
What have you observed about leaders of government and protection of the rights of those they govern in recent time?
With the few cases in which we have been
involved, what we have found out is that governors sometimes forget
that they are in a democracy and they have the right to act only
according to law. Once in a while, they forget and think that they are
all on their own and that they are masters of the men on the streets.
And that should not be allowed. Once we see matters like this, we have
to challenge them and let them know that they don’t exist by themselves;
that they exist by the Constitution. All of them have sworn to uphold
and defend the Constitution.
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