Popular lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana has revealed why he believes he was not chosen as a member of President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet after he was widely touted to make the list.
Speaking in an interview with The Interviewer magazine, Falana said he emerge as the Ekiti State nominee because a number of people thought he was too radical to be the Minister of Justice.
He said: “I was actually contacted. I was actually invited to come on board. It took me appreciable time to make up my mind. Along the way, I was made to understand there were people who were opposed to my appointment for ideological reasons. For me, it would have been a call to service, not to make money.
”Those who believed that I should mobilize people to put in a word for me, or wanted me to speak to somebody I fought on principle several years ago were, of course, disappointed. This guy actually headed one of the universities at a time students were killed. I had to support the students’ cause at that time. You don’t then expect me to go to him and swallow my vomit. This is what I mean by the ideological price.”
Speaking further, he said some All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders opposed his appointment because he was not a member of the party, adding that “Of course, they are right. Certain people wanted me to be opportunistic by offering to backdate a membership card for me. I said, ‘no, over my dead body’. I wasn’t looking for a job. I was gainfully employed.”
