Let’s get apart a little, to be together – Chief Mike Ahamba(SAN)

Chief Mike Ikenna Ahamba is a lawyer, politician and community leader. He has practised law for 51 years and has been a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) since 1992. He achieved national recognition in the legal battles of 2003 and 2007 when he represented General Muhammadu Buhari in his campaigns to be the president of Nigeria. He was a member of the Imo State House of Assembly in the Second Republic, from 1979 to 1983, during which he was the chief whip. He is a member of many community associations.

Tell us about your early life.

I am the humble son of the late traditional ruler of Mbaise. Both of (my parents)came from the teaching background. My father was one of the pioneer authors of Igbo language.

My father and mother are late, so I am now the head of my immediate family. We are eight in all – seven are female and I am the only male. By the grace of God, all of us are graduates. One is a doctor. That’s who we are.

As the son of teachers, did you school under them or you went to another primary school?

I schooled under them. Although I was very small, I was conscious of the fact that my father was the headmaster and my mother the headmistress.

I started to discipline myself. As a young person I felt it was a sacrilege to have a headmaster’s son flogged in the school. So I didn’t commit offenses.

They were not giving me any concession; I didn’t commit any offenses. And I carried it into the secondary school. I was never punished, except twice. The first one was mass punishment. The second one was that two of us had a fight in my class and the principal took us out.  One of the teachers asked why I disobeyed the principal and I said I was the class monitor and the boy came to my seat and tore my list of noisemakers and I slapped him. He fought me.

The principal took two of us and punished us without asking why we fought. I asked the teacher if I had fought in the school and he said no. I said I didn’t mind being sent home because I didn’t steal; I told him that if they sent me home because of that, my father would find another school for me.

I think the teacher spoke with the principal. The other person cut his grass but I didn’t. I believe in principles.

I felt the principal of a school should find out why his monitor fought.

Where did you read Law?

University of Nigeria, Imo campus.

Why did you choose Law?

It just happened. I opted to read Law. My option was to read Law or Medicine; I was qualified for both.

My father was a member of the Eastern Nigeria House of Assembly. He won as an independent candidate.

There was one doctor Joe from Umuahia who was also an independent candidate. On one of my holidays I was taken to him; and as we were leaving the house, he turned to me and asked what I wanted to be future. I smiled but didn’t give him an answer.

He said, “My boy, listen to me. You will be a lawyer or doctor. That’s the only way you can talk to the government in the face and stay free.” It stuck.  Eventually, I opted for Law.

Were you a student activist in secondary school?

Of course, yes. I can tell you one of the things that happened. I was a house prefect in my final year. A friend of mine was school prefect, and my roommate was compound prefect. These school prefects wanted to talk down on the house prefects; so they would normally decide what to do and announce it in the dining hall at lunch. I told my colleagues that we were not going to accept that because school prefects and compound prefects were all ministers under the senior prefect, who was the prime minister. We were regional governors, so we needed to resist them if they didn’t consult us. I told my friends not to try it again but they did it, so I told my boys to go back to the hostel. The other prefects also told their boys to go back to the hostel.

The school and hostel schoolmaster came; and in his normal language said, “Ahamba, they said you are causing rebellion in the campus.” I said no sir. He asked what the matter was and I asked, “Of school prefects and compound prefects, who are in charge of the boys?” He said the house prefects. I said “very good. Is it right for them to schedule compound work or any other thing without consulting us?” He said no and I said “that’s all, my case is over.”

One thing I always did, right from time, was that I made sure I was doing it within the law.

I noticed that you went into politics pretty soon after reading Law; did you practice privately?

Sure. In fact, I started practising the same month I came back from youth service.

On your own?

I stayed with a lawyer in Aba for six months and came to Owerri and stayed with another lawyer, who later became a judge of the High Court, and decided to be on my own.

You never tried a government job in the Ministry of Justice?

I am not cut out for civil service job.  I am too independent-minded for it. So, I knew from the beginning that I had to be on my own.

On why I was very serious about law, I was in Standard II when I had a dream and saw myself wearing a black robe, holding something in my hand and moving into a hall. I didn’t understand it. I hadn’t seen a lawyer by then, but when I got to Ogoja Police Service and arrived at the High Court, I knew that God was telling me exactly what I needed to do; and I accepted it.

I do nothing but law. I am not a contractor, I am not a trader, I am not an importer.

Why did you go into politics so early and contested for a seat in the state House of Assembly in 1979?

I told you that my father was a politician. He was in the House when the 1966 coup occurred. My father was driving a Pontiac. Before he went to the House he was driving a Ford. In the House, he bought a Pontiac. When the war came, he parked it. After the war, the first set of Nigerian troops came and carried all the tyres. The second set came and asked for the tyres and my father said their colleagues had carried them.

They opened fire on the car and shattered the Pontiac. It was an American car. My father had his money in Barclays Bank seized. They said they were going to give him only 20pounds, but he never took it. My father moved on.

After the war, he moved from being a successful author, teacher and legislator to becoming a poor man riding a bicycle. From Pontiac to a bicycle.

It was painful to me, so I looked at the whole thing and said I didn’t need to play politics. If politics brought my father down to his level, I was not going to take that risk. But something happened. In 1977, the Autonomous Community Law came and all the prominent politicians of that time were being called into being traditional rulers. Our people went to my father, but he refused to go. They spoke to me. It was 1977. I went to my father and he said he didn’t want to bother himself anymore. But fortunately for us, after that war, he got an appointment as the first chairman of the Missionary School Board; and thereafter, as a lay magistrate. So he said he wasn’t going to bother himself anymore.

I said, “No, this is not politics. If your colleagues have gone to serve their people, I don’t see why you should refuse to serve your people. I am around. I am a practicing lawyer and I will stand by you.”

I said it would be unfortunate if I sat here as a lawyer and some laymen dethroned my father. That’s why I entered the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). I knew they were far older than me, and if I entered the NPP with them, they would have suffocated me there, so, I entered the NPN.

And somehow, you managed to win?

I managed to win. And they actually came to disturb the community. Unfortunately for them, I ran into them that day. The committee called me to say something about what we did for them. I said they should give me a paper, on which I drew our community and asked if they could remove the name and create space. They failed. So, it was destiny that took me on this.

Your career in politics was rather brief. After the 1983 coup, what did you do?

It was not difficult for me. When I was in the House, I refused to stop legal practice because I knew I wasn’t going to get any kobo outside my normal pay. And it was not enough to carry me and my responsibilities as a committed man in my family.

I said that the day they would stop me from practicing law, I would resign from the House. But something happened. The Ministry of Justice lawyer challenged my right to practise law. But we argued it. I was able to establish that although a member of the House was a public officer, we were of a special group, but only for the purpose of a code. What do you call it?

Code of conduct?

For the purpose of code of conduct. So, I drew the attention of Justice Oputa to the list of public officers and where they were and said, “This is where the honourable member is.”

I declared my assets; and the law provided that I must appear for a number of days within the year – 83 or so. I asked the judge what we were supposed to be doing for the rest of the days.

We practiced our job in the morning. The doctors who were with us came to the House in the morning, and in the evening, they would go to their clinics. The architects would go to their offices to draw houses, so why should the lawyer not practice, so long as he made the minimum days he was supposed to cover? So ( Justice) Oputa ruled against him and I continued practicing my law. So I never left legal practice.

After the 1983 when you left the Imo House of Assembly you continued as a lawyer and became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) by 1992. Does becoming a SAN mean that you have become a very successful and rich lawyer?

Not rich, but you can say successful because a lawyer’s success is not dependent on how much he has.

But SANs charge a lot of money; does that not translate to being rich?

That was the story. I remember that when I became a senior advocate, a friend of mine told me that they heard that once you were made a SAN you were given a shipload of oil to sell. I said, “I wish you were right.”

But we know that to consult a SAN requires a certain amount of money; do you agree?

Yes. At the time we became senior advocates, we were only seven in the whole country. And there are fundamental rules and qualifications you have to meet.

At that time, for you to qualify was an uphill task. A lot of things have been watered down; and there are so many of us now. But it depends on what somebody wants to achieve. For me, I made money. I worked for it heavily. Even at my age now, I still work very hard for it.

But money can never decide what I will do. I am proud today to say that I have done two presidential petitions without charging. Let those who were with Buhari go and say what they want to say. Let them tell me what bill I gave to Buhari for the two presidential petitions. Buhari himself told the press that any money he paid me was to augment my expenses. I did that to show that the Nigerian electoral process was rotten and that something had to be done about it. That’s why I sacrificed all that time doing those cases.

Did Buhari invite you to take up these cases? How did you meet?

You know I am a democrat by nature. I don’t believe in dictatorship. Although Buhari was doing very well in 1984, he was not my man.

As a soldier?

Yes. When he eventually joined our party – the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) – I was at crossroads. But something happened. When Aliero was raising fund for his governorship election, I hadn’t met Buhari face-to-face. So, the next morning we were discussing and issues arose on the crisis of the ANPP in Kano. Have you heard about a man called Little?

Ibrahim Little?

Yes. They were asking General Buhari about his attitude and he said one of the contestants went to him and said, ‘Support me and I will be loyal to you.’ He told that person to ‘be loyal to the party, not to me.’

I said that man could not but be a democrat. I told him that I wanted to meet Buhari face-to-face and he arranged a meeting for us at Nicon Hilton.

When I went to visit Buhari, I asked: ‘You never believed in multi-party politics but you want to contest elections in a multi-party situation; why? He agreed. He smiled and told me that one-party state had collapsed in Africa and everywhere. They had seen that it was not the best system; the best was multi-party and that’s why he joined. That was the day I decided to work for him.

And you actually represented him in these landmark cases – 2003, 2007 without charging him?

Yes. I think the wife knows about it. In the first one, he paid my hotel bill at Hilton. In the second one, they didn’t even pay my hotel bill.

What do you think is the problem with these flawed elections. People say our judiciary has become part of the problem; as a senior advocate; do you agree?

They are part of the problem. They are not the only problem; the politician is one of the problems of Nigeria. Now, how do you blame the politician who is a variable when those around him to checkmate him fail to do their work, including the press, the police, the judiciary, the INEC; and of course, the people?

They take money to vote?

Good.  I have said that voter education should not come a few months to voting. It should be a continuous process as an indoctrination of the people to know that what they have – the PVC – is a very powerful document. And they have just a chance every four years to deliver their verdict on what they went through in the past four years. If they miss it, they have to bear what happened for another four years.

The people must know the extent of the problem they have, which they have to solve themselves. I am one of Fela’s fans. You know he was talking sense, but because he was doing certain things, people thought he was a madman. He was not. He said, “Suffer, suffer, suffer, suffer, na your fault.” So, the people have to know that their suffering na their fault.

I want to say this again: Amending the electoral act is a waste of time. Do you know that we do every election with a new electoral act? Has that solved the problem?

Given your long experience in litigations as a lawyer, as well as politics, do you think we can ever get elections right in Nigeria?

I will go back to the statement of a character in the Old Testament of our Holy Bible. There was one man who played a prominent role among the Jews. His name is Joshua. When the Jews got to the Promised Land and started worshipping the idols of those people they met there, Joshua told them: All of you can worship anybody you want to worship, but I and my household shall worship the Lord God.

Now, the more people that would take that type of resolution, the better for us. You would be surprised that people you maintain throughout the years, on election day they would go behind you, take money and vote against you. It is not good. They have to be told – in the churches, mosques, schools, everywhere.

We have to keep going because with time it will be okay.

After representing Buhari in those petitions, you attempted to be the chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) but it didn’t work out. What happened?

When I tried to become the national chairman of ANPP, it was at the behest of Buhari.

He asked you to contest?

Yes. In fact, I don’t know those who filled my forms. Somebody paid the necessary fees; I don’t want to go into details. The election was being rigged and I drew his attention to it, but my leader just sat there looking at them rigging me out.

That was one thing about my leader and friend, Buhari. He didn’t interfere in anybody else’s business. If you were in charge of anything, he would give you support, rightly or wrongly. And it boomeranged on him going for president.

So he saw you lose in both the ANPP and CPC without doing anything about it?

Yes. That of the CPC was the straw that broke the camel’s back.  At that time in the CPC, we had agreed that there would be no zoning for major offices. We would look for the best materials. I didn’t know that those who were around me were not on the same platform with me

Just before the convention, one of his major supporters declared that they had zoned the chairmanship to South-South and General Buhari had approved it.

I asked who took such decision because I was in the national executive and the caucus and a thing like that was never discussed. He told me that they had zoned it and the leader approved it. I turned to my leader and asked if that was true. He said yes and I nearly collapsed.

Was that the end of your relationship with Buhari?

No. It didn’t even end there. He said something else. A man from Benue State said, “You can’t do this to Chief Ahamba. Everybody knows his role in the formation of this party and the campaign. Now that he is no longer going to be the national chairman by this zoning, can we all agree that he should be the running mate to Buhari? My leader and friend openly said, “Well, the vice president will come from the South-East, but it may not be Mike. In fact, it is not Mike.”

Who did it turn out to be?

It turned out to be Tunde Bakare.

When he finally became president, did you relate with him in any way?

I congratulated him and wrote a letter that I wanted to visit him at the State House. I wrote twice to see him but they withheld the letters. Even colleagues who stayed together with him didn’t pick my calls. That is politics.

Did that happen for the eight years he was in power?

He never sent a message to me nor an official Christmas greeting or anything through anybody. Honestly, I didn’t develop any hatred for him, up till his death.

You will be surprised to hear that when I heard that he died, tears came to my eyes. He was so close to my heart. He was absolutely committed and I believed that was the solution to corruption in this country; but God knows best.

Politically, what are you doing now?

I am still in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). And I won’t leave until they tell me that the party has been scrapped from the records. Despite the crisis within the party, I will not leave.

The All-Progressives Congress (APC) is an overloaded boat; and every overloaded boat has a chance of sinking. The African Democratic Congress (ADC) is a cover for disgruntled elements in some parties. And the ruling party has already destroyed Labour Party. The only legacy party remaining that can offer stiff resistance is the PDP. If they don’t cancel us as a party, we will be in a fighting mood in 2027. Even if we lose the battle, those who fought us would know that they met men.

Even with the governors leaving the party in droves?

Which one of them was with us in 1999? Which one of them was with us in 2015? These are opportunistic persons. I have always told our party not to forget real party members when they want to distribute positions.

As a lawyer and Igbo man, what is your take on Nnamdi Kanu’s case?

Well, it is unfortunate. The whole thing has been unfortunate, right from the beginning. I don’t want to say anything about my colleagues, but at a stage, those who were with him really wanted to use him to publish themselves, not that they had any intention of defending him.

But I think he made a mistake in sacking his lawyers. He believed that creating that crisis would help him, but it is not true – the law is the law. He should have stayed with his lawyers till the end. He had every right under the constitution to do that, but I don’t think that was the best thing for him to do.

Would you consider helping him?

Why would I consider it when the thing has gone to this stage? I would have considered it if they came to me at the beginning.

I have seen where you wrote that if we don’t take the 2014 Confab, which you attended, we should consider the Aburi Accord. Is it correct to say that you are disappointed with the way Nigeria is?

Yes.

That sounds as if you don’t really believe in Nigeria as it is presently; is that correct?

I believe in a country called Nigeria but not as presently constituted. You see, when we formed Nigeria, there were three countries that came into a federation, just as you have in the United States of America, which is made up of different nations that decided to come together.

In the North, Sir Ahmadu Bello was the prime minister, Nnamdi Azikiwe was the prime minister in the East, while Awolowo was the prime minister in the West.

In 1957, the West got self government, the East got self government, but the North said they were not ready, so they decided to wait for the North that got self government in 1959. In 1960, we had independence and our constitution made them premiers.

Thereafter, we started creating states. That is the difference between the American federation and the Nigerian federation. In the American federation, the states precede the country and give to the centre what they want, but in Nigeria, the country is creating the states and allocating powers to them. As far as I am concerned, this is causing friction at the centre.

In other words, you prefer the 1960 Constitution?

Precisely. Let us get apart a little to be together. The moment you keep depending on Abuja, the friction continues. That’s my position. That’s why I am talking about Aburi.

Aburi achieved that; the problem was that they did not accommodate the minorities. And the permanent secretaries were minorities; the head of state at that time was a minority. They cancelled it because it didn’t cover them. For God’s sake, let us face history and correct the mistakes we have made.

Tell us a little bit about the private Mike Ahamba – your family life, hobbies?

Mike Ahamba is married to a beautiful and faithful wife called Kate; and we have just one child who has five children. So I always say that I now have seven children; and that’s okay for me. As an individual, I believe in justice for all at all times and all costs. There is nothing you sacrifice to achieve justice that is too much. That is my guiding principle.

I believe that everybody should not forget their roots. I am very committed to my community. Right now, I am the regent of my community. We have selected a traditional ruler who will be coroneted in December. Thereafter, I will hand over to him.

Why are you not the traditional ruler?

That would mean me going back to the village. I don’t believe that a traditional ruler should leave his community.

Also, I have been part of writing all the constitutions, right from my father’s time and have always insisted that the traditional ruler must live within his community. How do I earn my living? I don’t know how to farm. I can’t hold the hoe. And I don’t have the capital.

So, almost at 80 you are still active as a lawyer, earning your living?

Yes, of course. I come to work from Monday to Friday, and sometimes on Saturdays. It is only on Sundays that I do not come here.

What do you do to relax?

If today was Thursday, I wouldn’t be here by now because I must go and watch the national team. Any national team wearing Nigerian colour is my team, beginning from under-17. If they play at 3am and it is visible anywhere, I will go and watch it. I like watching football. I used to like boxing when it was serious.

Did you engage in boxing yourself?

I tried to get into a boxing tournament through a club but my mother stopped me – an only son. Somebody told her that they would kill her son and she said, “If you go there again I will kill myself for you.” So I stopped.

Police Service and arrived at the High Court, I knew that God was telling me exactly what I needed to do; and I accepted it.

I do nothing but law. I am not a contractor, I am not a trader, I am not an importer.

Why did you go into politics so early and contested for a seat in the state House of Assembly in 1979?

I told you that my father was a politician. He was in the House when the 1966 coup occurred. My father was driving a Pontiac. Before he went to the House he was driving a Ford. In the House, he bought a Pontiac. When the war came, he parked it. After the war, the first set of Nigerian troops came and carried all the tyres. The second set came and asked for the tyres and my father said their colleagues had carried them.

They opened fire on the car and shattered the Pontiac. It was an American car. My father had his money in Barclays Bank seized. They said they were going to give him only 20pounds, but he never took it. My father moved on.

After the war, he moved from being a successful author, teacher and legislator to becoming a poor man riding a bicycle. From Pontiac to a bicycle.

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