 We've been joined by Monday Ubani, he's the former second vice president of the Nigerian Bar Association. Thank you for coming on board tonight. Yeah, thank you for having me. Good evening. Good evening. Let me first congratulate you on this unusual legal victory. Now I use the word here unusual because many believe that an individual, now in this case two of you have, you know, do you consider this as a major victory for transparent governance and the much talked about, you know, reduction in the cost of governance. That is actually what we set out to achieve and do with the filing of that case. In fact, that case was filed in 2018 by myself and my colleague John, and we pursued it up to this point, you know, sponsored by, by myself personally, didn't have any funding from any, any angle. And what actually prompted the suit was a revelation by Senator Sheo, Sunny, who revealed how much these people were collecting or have been collecting because there has been secrecy about the amount of money they collect as salaries and allowances. They were not ready to review until Senator Sunny did that. And when he did that and there was no refute out from the members of the House, I, I took it that the senator, distinguished senator was telling the truth. So what I did was to get all the papers through which these revelations were made and then find an action in court and what did that ask the court to do? I wanted the court to look into the issue of both God salaries and allowances of the members of the National Assembly and decide whether they can fix those salaries and jump up allowances to themselves without the impute of the revenue mobilization, allocation and physical commission that is a conditionally empowered to fix salaries and allowances for public office holders and they were all joined. I joined that particular agency. I joined the National Assembly Service Commission. I joined the speaker of the House of Federal House of Rebs. I joined the president of the Senate and of course the attorney general who happens to be the chief law officer and they were all asked to come and give an explanation as to what is going on, especially with the jumbo pay allegation and they, they all came trying to bring a primary objection against my locals. That I have no locals to bring the action, that I have no cause of action, that my action is speculative and abuse of court process, all the manner of language they use. And so the court was very meticulous in examining all the points they raised and that is Justice of Biazor and he's a professor of law before he was called to the bench and the judgment is something that is profound. He dismissed all those objections that they raised and then entered into the substantive matter. The only thing he disagreed with me was my reliance on the newspaper publication which he said is not admissible but that's why he didn't make any order for reform because all those allegations that were made he would have been better if Sunny is the one that deposed to the avid avid and all that I mean been the deponent but since he wasn't my evidence was regarded as he has said since he was a newspaper publication but the court went for that and that is actually the fundamental thing that I wanted the court to determine. To decide whether it is the national assembly service commission that can fix your salaries and allowances or your revenue mobilization commission and the court agreed that that is only for the that is constitutionally empowered and from now onwards they should be the one to fix your salaries and allowances to reflect the economic reality of the country. Alright Barista or Bani and just you know to put this in context Shekhu Sani had said that you know these lawmakers get over 13 million Naira monthly. Now usually these lawmakers often refer us journalists to the revenue mobilization and allocation commission. You know whenever we ask so do you really think anything has changed with this judgment? Yes what has actually changed is that from now onwards I will go to the to the whole and we will go the entire hog to ensure that we get to the root of this particular case. We want the attorney general to get a copy of this judgment we want the accountant general to get a copy of this judgment I will ensure that we want the minister of finance to get a copy of this judgment also want the agency that is in charge the revenue mobilization commission to get a copy of this judgment. We will insist that they will give us their schedule of what the national assembly members supposed to be earning in a year I mean including their salaries and allowances we'll go to that extent and any breach we're going back to the court to commence content proceedings now that the court has made a pronouncement that they are the only one that all two and they denied in their in the newspaper report I'm talking about the revenue mobilization denied that they were not the one responsible for those bogus salaries and allowances now they denied it and the House of Members also came to their lawyers to deny that they are not receiving those amounts that were alleged we now insist for the proper thing to be done how much are they receiving how much they're supposed to receive and how much is being paid so in case of any breach we now raise alarm to the members of the general public so that we can begin to take action that is the starting point we must begin to insist on things being done properly in this country we have started with national assembly we go over to the ministers we go over to other public office holders to ensure that we bring sanity using the instrumentality of law for us as public interest lawyers okay so you're basically saying that you know if the lawmakers do not comply you know these are the modalities you know for the our MAFC to obey the judgment yes we're going to follow them to the conclusion we're going to be religious follow up to ensure that there is compliance because we ask them to now give us what they prepare every year that these reports should be any so if there's any deviation then we now know how to handle it now remember that the judge said that the national assembly members came to call through their lawyers to say that these amounts of money were alleged are not being earned by them but that it is found out if it is found out that there are any these amounts this bogus amount then the EFCC and other security agencies should step in in order to investigate and prosecute them that is what the judgment also said because the allegation of 13 million per month they denied it and the court said they would not rely on newspaper publication in order to ask for refund or even to hold it against them since they deny but if it is found out that there is truth in that allegation that this is what they received and i think that even sanny was lied because they received more than what sanny even said when senate president uh this man was there the senate president doing president jonathan's period the the the senate president was almost feeding the entire village every day that you know i mean the kind of money these guys collect every month was more than 30 or 40 million in a in a in a month as as salaries and allowances so he was only being circumspect by saying 13 million that 13 million is uh you know less than what they collect every month the truth is that nobody has agreed to review what what they are receiving every month as salaries and allowances until sanny came to give that small figure but despite all that they denied not not receiving those amount so the court is now saying if it is found out that they are receiving these amounts then efc should step in in order to investigate them all right by itself by any last question from me if there's no reduction you know which i believe is your aim what next are you going back to the court or maybe the streets this time around for mass action i think i have to go back to the call let i want to use the instrumentality of law and the judiciary to a for us to be on the part of sanitary in this nation i mean that was the the part that ghani laid for some of us who believe in his philosophy we cannot be carried machete and pose and not that and be on the street all the time risking our lives we can only do it through the instrumentality of law by going to court to insist that this particular country must be well ruled and and the good news is that the supreme court of nanduria in a recent case of nnpc versus uh oil pollution as an ngo that i'm going to call has now thrown open the the gate for public interest litigators so far you taxpayer and you are a citizen of this country and you insist that things be done properly especially on the issue of observance of our rule of law and law you can come to court and the court will not anyway exclude you on grants of local standards so the court has thrown it open the supreme court in a very fundamental judgment that is now known as a local's classic us that every public interest litigator must begin to use now to sure that we cannot be denied of of having access to judiciary as a result of issue of local so you we can go to court now and ask that proper things be done including issue of bogus salaries and allowances by public office holders all right thank you very much by sir when it will bane for your time on the news my pleasure thank you for having me hello hope you enjoyed the news 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