The chairman, House Of Representatives Committee On Judiciary, Dr. Ali Ahmad in this interview with select newsmen in Ilorin, bares his mind on sundry national issues, including calls for a Sovereign National Conference, how the nation's prisons could be decongested and more. Regional Editor (North-Central), ABDULLAHI OLESIN was there for LEADERSHIP SUNDAY. Excerpts:

What is your committee doing on the human rights abuses during the last oil subsidy removal protest?
We stand by probing the human rights abuses during the last January subsidy withdrawal protest. That's why we commended the Lagos Commissioner of Police, who after dismissing an officer last week, is now expected to prosecute him.

We are working with them. We are in the process of collating facts about all actions being taken. We expect police authority to do the right thing, more so with the emergence of the new IGP. We are giving him the benefit of doubt and hope he will go the hog on the matter.

What is the update on the subsidy probe?
Nigerians have already written their own report. They're just waiting for the official report from the committee because everything was done in the open. There has been pressure from various quarters. We are sure the report will not satisfy the yearnings of everybody. For people who wanted us to go far, we might not go far enough.

They will be disappointed. People who do not want us to even move an inch, they will be disappointed. But whatever we do will be within constitutional bounds. There are people that want us to strangulate, but the constitution does not give that power, because even if we found out someone doing wrong, we are limited by constitutional provision and our terms of reference. So, within those limits, we assure Nigerians that they will not be disappointed.

There are allegations of compromise?
That's not true. But Nigerians should wait until the submission of the report of the committee. That will be the time to judge whether there's a compromise or not. This committee report may not be the one that will be implemented by the executive and it might be.

But we'll ensure it will be implemented by the executive because those are the signals we receive from the ministry and even from Mr. President. Even if it's not, the raw report of the committee will be submitted to the Nigerian public. Statements and reports of everyone involved will be attached to the report and given to the public.

Should there be Sovereign National Conference (SNC) or not?
The present situation of Boko Haram is like merging criminality with dialogue. Dialoguing with Boko Haram is something that if you do will not mean that anybody that has been arrested should not be punished. Dialogue is like finding political solution to the Boko Haram issue because we as a nation we have failed in that respect.

So, that's trying to make up. SNC is a digression really because talking about SNC now will not solve a problem. If you say SNC and South, North should stay apart, the North that you are saying should stay apart will even give more impetus to Boko Haram to even kill everybody because they will now overpower the Northern government because the federal might is not there again.

Dividing the country or saying everybody should go to his state is defeatist and elitist. The ordinary man in Sabon Garin in Kano doesn't care. He was born in Sabon Garin. For example, I was born and bred in Kaduna. I would have loved to remain in Kaduna, to even contest political position there. I have lots of friends there, but I felt I had to come back home.

People calling for SNC just want to retire to their constituency where they can overrun everybody. Second, the nation is not working. Nigeria is not working. Nothing in Nigeria is working. Nobody loves Nigeria and the fact that ICPC, EFCC are fighting corruption, all the fights had been at the local and state levels.

They hound LG chairmen, they put handcuffs on governors and put them into Abuja, while the biggest thieves are there. The ICPC and EFCC are not working. The biggest corruption in Nigeria is perpetuated in the federal civil service. The day we wake up to this fact, the better for us. Everybody knows. More than half of the houses in palatial Abuja are owned by civil servants.

We know it. Everybody knows it. Check the bank accounts of these people. It runs into billions. So, a LG boss is now investigated for N24 million and you put them in national dailies. We are just wasting our time. One deputy director or a director in the NNPC controls billions when Kwara state governor does not control more than N3 billion a month. This is a governor that represents 2.5 million people.

The useless directors go in tattered suit and they control billions of naira. This country is not working definitely and the answer of a lazy man is to say let's hold a SNC. It doesn't work that way. SNC is not panacea for peace. Ask them, who should be members. The difficult one is what we should do to honour the founding fathers.

That is, let everyone do its best, from the President. That's why 'am happy with the present membership of the National Assembly on the issue. These civil servants tuck in billions upon billions in the budget, expecting you to pass it. So, the easiest questions to proponents of the SNC is to ask them who should be members.

What is your view on agitation of Kwara JUSUN and reinstatement of the state Chief Judge?
The Supreme Court has ruled and my position is that, that is the ruling that stands. CJ should be allowed to resume her job. But on the other hand, the workers also have their own complaints. Within the confine of the law, they have the right to go on strike. That's within the law, once they are not violent. If they have complaints, they may be going through wrong way of expressing their complaints because whatever the Supreme Court says stands.

But I believe what should happen is that if there's an order of Supreme Court, and implementing it is problematic because that seems to be what is happening. If implementing is problematic because of the history of the CJ, then the stakeholders should come in and see how to move the sector forward because people are dying in prison everyday as a result of the fact that judiciary is not working.

Constitutional rights of persons not released are being flouted without reason and a host of other things we might not even know until the end of the matter. The best thing is for the judiciary to start work but again, this is the problem. If the allegations are true, the allegations are unbefitting of a judicial officer.

What the Supreme Court is saying is that the procedure you followed was not good. It must have dawned on her because if you remember, it's even the NBA that kicked against all the attitudes that she did. The state government did not have any problem with the CJ.

It was the stakeholders in the sector that raised the alarm that says, look, this is not how the place should be run. So, implementing the judgment is problematic and the National Judicial Council, NJC, now has constitutional duty, as expected, to call all the stakeholders in the sector and see how best to move the sector forward in the state. NJC will be the proper authority to call the CJ, NBA, JUSUN and the state government on how best to implement the Supreme Court judgment.

If their complaints against her is so horrible that they cannot work with her, it is either you dissolve them or the CJ is elevated to Court of Appeal or Supreme Court so that the interest is not made to be about the person but the sector. If it affects the person of the CJ, so be it. Somebody should take action and NJC should be seen to take the constitutional role.