Douglas Pepe is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and a graduate of the Benue State University, now Rev Fr Moses Orshio Adasu University, Makurdi (MOAUM). He hails from the Kwande geo-political entity of Benue State and has declared interest to represent people of the North East Senatorial District (ZoneA).
The Voice Politics, James Shim, engaged him in an interview on this aspiration and other sundry matters.
Excerpts.
Emphasis seems to be placed on zoning and fairness in the Nigerian polity now, so why would you want to challenge an incumbent for the position of Benue North East Senatorial seat otherwise known as ZoneA and who has done barely a term in office?
My mission for seeking to be the next Senator for Zone A is borne out of the agitations by my people, the kwande bloc. The zone is made up of three blocs- the kwande, Jerchira and Sankera. Since 1999, kwande has not been opportuned to occupy the position of Senator representing the zone. The political arrangement of the Tiv people which is popularly called, ‘ya-na-angbian’ (sharing), has been in operation to the effect that the kwande people have been loaning out their slot to the other blocs. They have loaned it to the Jerchira and Sankera. Infact, the Sankera have enjoyed it more than any other bloc.
Currently it is the Sankera who are enjoying the seat on loan. Why we are going for it now is that, our people feel they have loaned the seat out for too long- more than sixteen years and it is now their turn to enjoy it in the spirit of fairness.
The best way to determine political representation is through capacity which is assessed by ones antecedents. How do you fit in going by your track records of your career as a legal practitioner?
As a legal practitioner, I started by pursuing cases that have to do with the interest of the poor and down trodden, the masses, the less privileged in society. My first batch of clients were people who had no money but who had good cases-mostly against people who are higher up the social ladder; sometimes against government. And I derived joy and satisfaction from the fact these people got justice at the end. It gave me a lot of joy as a person and from there I was not looking back. I have maintained my reputation for doing cases for free for people who have been unduly or unfairly treated. I have the social conscience and I believe that this kind of practice that I am aspiring for is also a law making process. The national assembly is a place where laws are made for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I believe that my understanding of the law and my contributions to the development of Nigerian law, I can be able to function effectively as a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And I will be able to help my people in the best way that I can.
Can you remember a few of such cases and circumstances you feel are remarkable enough?
Yes. There are several of such cases at the trial Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. One of the cases I did at the Supreme Court which won for me a lot of commendations from even the judges at the Supreme Court and my contemporaries in the legal practice, was a case involving a member of the legislature that won a primary election but the powers that be sat down and replaced him with somebody else. The matter went to court and was thrown out on technical grounds, that it was incompetent; and even at the Court of Appeal. We took it to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court agreed that the case was not struck out properly, and they said we had a valid case that would have been determined by merits. The Supreme Court now directed the Court of Appeal to come back and hear the case. The Court of Appeal complied and gave us judgement and the matter was taken back to the Supreme Court and we still won. What interested me most about the case was the principles of law that we were able to establish in that case. It was a Supreme Court authority that was held for more than 19 years and we were able to convince the Supreme Court to change its opinion on the matter. At the end they agreed with us that the former decision was given in error and they changed the decision. It is not a common thing. And I won a lot of credits and commendations on the matter. I was not yet a Senior Advocate. It was after that some of the Senior Advocates started inviting me to apply. There are other cases that I have done against big people that gave me joy. Some of the big people later became my clients. There is this other case I did against one so called big man that had a local bam and one of his customers after taking a loan defaulted. He saw this young man driving a very new vehicle one day and he instructed his boys to go and snatch the vehicle. They seized the vehicle and parked it in his house and the car happened to belong to the father of the young man. And the father of the young man was not a member of the Bam. So when the father went to plead for the release of the vehicle, the owner of the Bam refused. And we took the matter to court and we got judgement against the man and was charged to pay 3000 per day for the days that he kept that vehicle in his house. He was bragging about telling the boy that he has money and can change lawyers while the boy cannot hire any lawyer. And he kept changing them, about 5 of them in that matter. But we were able to win the case. After the case, the big man now came and said, I am a good lawyer. He wondered how I was able to defeat 5 lawyers. As a lay man he didn’t know what was involved and he now asked me to become his lawyer. He became my client.
It is common belief that Kwande deserves both the Governorship and Senate seats. But for the spirit of fairnes and zoning, the “ya na angbian” factor in Tiv, and as an interested party, what would you say if Kwande is to choose One?
Without hesitation my advice to Kwande people would be that they should choose the Senate over the Governorship seat. Reasons been that historically, since 1999 all the governor’s we have had done two terms each and it will look somehow if the present Governor is denied the opportunity of doing two terms. It will not be in the spirit of fairnes to him and the Jerchira political bloc where he comes from. Secondly, this Governor that is on seat now is working. We are seeing evidence of good work in areas of infrastructure, economic development, ( not in terms of sharing monies), he is reviving industries and building new ones, where the State had an advantage in the past but the companies were sold out. In these areas I feel that he has tried and by the metrix of performance he has tried and he merits second term. There is another reason which is to say it will amount to waste of our resources if we the Kwande people begin to fight an incumbent Governor. We will waste our resources, good will, historical relationships and a lot of political leverage that we have built over the years, to fight an incumbent Governor. And if we lose at this point, we will be in trouble. I personally will not subscribe to leading my people into what will amount to rebellion. In Benue State, history has shown that nobody has fought an incumbent Governor and succeeded. Akume had a tough time, Suswam had it , Ortom against all odds with what the people were saying, all won their second term. So I believe that it will be an exercise in futility even if Kwande people were to be used as canon folder to fight a senseless battle.
You appear to be loved by the people and you seem to be a beacon of hope particularly in the profession of law but politics, you and me will agree that it is dirty and destructive, Have you weighed the moral burden in this area before deciding to join the murky waters of politics?
Yes, I have reflected deeply on how Iam going to be affected by political power and I have come to the conclusion that the morality that you have grown up with is not easy to jettison. Even the bible says, train a child in the way he should grow and when he grows up he will never depart from it. With that I believe the course of my life is already set. If it is money, I have had opportunity to make money by dubious ways but I have turned them down. I have never taken a bribe in my practice of law and the easiest way to make money in the practice is to take bribe, to sell your client’s case and I resisted those temptations on numerous occasions and I believe that political power with all the benefits that comes with it, I have already tasted a little bit of it and I think Iam too matured now to be changed suddenly to the negative Way. So I have thought of that. As for my living the profession, this may only be for a while, politics is only a vocation, it is not an occupation. It is only in Nigeria today that people take politics to be a profession. My first loyalty will always lie where Iam coming from and I will always be a lawyer that I am trained to be. And apart from the moral ethics of a Christian that I was trained to be and the ethics of the legal profession, I believe that a combination of these would help me to remain the person that I am even when I become a politician.
In the course of your declaration, you were quoted suggesting dialogue other than the stick approach to the issue of terrorism and banditry in the zone. Why do you support an approach which has been tried and failed?
Yes, an attempt was made during the administration of Samuel Ortom to carry out an amnesty programme. That arrangement broke down because key actors in the programme were not sincere enough on both sides. If that programme was done with the determination for it to succeed, it would have succeeded. That is why I am still advocating for the carrot and peaceful approach. You will also notice that in the previous attempts, there was no open negotiations and if any took place, they were hidden but all we know is that government declared an amnesty programme and some of the bandits came out to participate in the programme. That means there were issues of insincerity and trust. The first thing you do in this process is to win the trust of the targeted persons, this was not done transparently in that manner. I was not an insider but from the stories I read, if that was done in a proper manner it would have achieved positive results.
These so called bandits and terrorists have not made any clear statement as to why they are doing these things and what they want, so how would you engage them in negotiations?
Yes, there are elements of criminality in banditry. there are also elements of societal discontent involved. If the people are satisfied with what the government is doing you may not have fertile ground for such activities. When it is striving, it means either it is a genuine dissatisfaction with what the government is doing or it is a phenomenon that is fueled by political actors. Certain political actors who are dissatisfied or who have lost out may decide to go and team up with certain elements among youths to create banditry. So these are varied. So, sometimes it is because the youths are used and abandoned and they feel they are entitled to something. After elections naturally they may expect some form of compensation but instead, sometimes, they are declared as criminals and the forces will begin to go after them and they will begin to fight for their own survival. Human history shows that the physical strength is a form of power and the gun is a source of power. So psychologically when you give somebody a gun you have given him an advantage over other human beings and you can not come out the next day to tell such a person just drop that gun. There has to be a reason, an incentive, an alternative that will be better than what he is holding. Without that alternative it will not be easy to tell these people to declare their agenda.They consider that as a means for survival.
And let me tell you, it is not really true that this approach has been tried and failed. It has worked in Niger Delta. There is a blue print already on the ground that this kind of thing can be done and it can work.
Can you briefly tell us the secret of your meteoric rise in the legal profession at such a youthful age?
Well, it has not been easy as people think. I was trained to be hard working, humble, honest and above all, God fearing. When you have all these you can go anywhere. Unfortunately it is these attributes that our young men of today do not want. To make a living by honest means needs a lot of hard work, you put in double the amount of labour than the person that is taking a short cut. You have to put in double shift to make it in the honest way. I have put in a double shift all my life. There were times when I started as a young lawyer I used to sleep in my office. And it will interest you to know that in my 19 years of practice before I became SAN I never took a vacation. I was always working so hard, work was at the heart of it and arising from the hard work you have less time for other activities and it cleanse you up. You begin to rationalize if I am to go out for a drink with my friends, how beneficial will that be to me but if I am to continue in my Chambers till day break there is benefit to me. So the hard work has taught me honesty, humility and it is a cleanser to me. So my meteoric rise to the rank of Senior Advocate has not been on a platter of gold. Every lawyer that has come across me would tell you that I work harder than any lawyer they ever met. I can do the work of twenty people in a day and feel comfortable and at the end of the day I will feel refreshed more than those who were sitting idle. So I thank God for the strength and first of all you need to have the zeal. It is is the zeal that will determine how far you can go in any endeavor in life.
