By Willy Eya, Taiwo Amodu and Chinelo Obogo
Yesterday, the ding dong over the Edo State governorship election continued with the postponement of the exercise for another two weeks. The decision was reached at a security meeting held in Benin, the Edo State capital yesterday evening. It has further raised the tension and anxiety preceding the long awaited election. But for many, what is worse is that the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) in announcing the postponement was not clear what extra measure the security agencies would take on September 28, the new date. The call for postponement had since courted negative reactions, across the political parties divide.
The electoral body statutorily saddled with the conduct of the election was as confused as the anxious electorate in Edo and agitated Nigerians in general. On Wednesday, the INEC had said it would consult widely with stakeholders and security agencies before taking an official position on the postponement.
The National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity
Committee of INEC, Prince Solomon Adedeji Soyebi, earlier at a media briefing had told newsmen that it was going ahead with its plan to hold the election.
Soyebi declared that ‘’after carefully weighing all the consequences and parameters of postponing the Edo governorship election as advised yesterday by spokespersons of the Police and Directorate of State Security (DSS), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has decided to go ahead with the conduct of the election as scheduled for Saturday, September 10, 2016.
He further expressed the determination of the commission to go ahead with the election and disclosed that the commission had reached not less than 97 per cent level of preparation for the conduct of the election.
But in an apparent reference to the claim that the Commission was under pressure from the ruling party, Prince Soyebi stressed that the Commission would not be led by the nose that it would not do anything that would mortgage Nigeria’s democracy.
He further emphasized that the Commission robustly considered the implications of demobilizing and arrived at the fact that it was more expensive to do so.
But what followed was a stunning recant, which left Nigerians stupefied as the Commission in deference to the stance of the DSS later announced postponement of the election by two weeks.
For an electoral umpire whose leadership under Professor Mahmood Yakubu has been at the receiving end of scathing umbrage over inconclusive elections, the abortion of the Edo state exercise will certainly make its image to sink deeper in the eyes of Nigerians.
With the development, all manner of permutations and questions have dominated public discourse. Even though the call for postponement was initiated by security agencies, some insinuate that it has further shown that the present administration has not got it right in conducting elections. For some others, the reason was because the the APC which is the ruling party in Edo State had got field reports that if the election holds on Saturday as scheduled, the main opposition party, the PDP may have the majority of votes. Another school of thought believes that it is a political strategy by the power brokers to stretch the battle to further deplete the finances of the opposition party which may not be ready for a long race like the APC. There are even others who think that it is a further proof that the present administration headed by President Muhammadu Buhari is finding it difficult to get anything right.
But in the estimation of analysts, what is even surprising is that the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Police cited unfavourable security report as reasons for their recommendation for a postponement. This is even as ahead of the election, at least 25,000 police officers and 10,000 officers of the Department of State Security (DSS) and those of the NSCDC were posted to ensure the peaceful conduct of the exercise. So, with such arrangement, many wonder the sudden alarm of security threat to the polls.
On Wednesday, the Police had warned the INEC to postpone the exercise but the National Chairman of the electoral umpire, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, asserted that the electoral umpire was ready to conduct the election.
But the security agencies would have none of that as at a Press conference jointly held in Abuja on Wednesday, they had said Boko Haram and other extremist elements were planning to attack soft targets including Edo.
Addressing reporters at the DSS headquarters in Abuja, the security agencies said the shift would enable them deal decisively with the envisaged terrorist threats.
Represented by Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), DCP Don Awunah, Garba Abdullahi who stood in for Tony Opuyo, (DSS) warned: “The Nigeria Police and Department of State Services, wish to inform the general public that credible intelligence availed the agencies of plans by insurgent/extremist elements to attack vulnerable communities and soft targets with high population during the forthcoming Sallah celebrations between September 12 and 13, 2016. Edo is among the states being earmarked for these planned attacks by the extremist elements”.
In Benin on Monday, students who were scheduled to write the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) text same day of the election, protested, asking the authorities to postpone the poll.
In all of this, the fear in many quarters is if the current INEC leadership is finding it difficult to conduct isolated elections like that of Edo, what would happen in the general elections that would include the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
INEC’s year of controversies
On the first day in office of Professor Mahmud Yakubu, the INEC boss, declared that the job of the electoral body should be considered the simplest work to do, wondering why people complained of difficulty.
But after series of controversies and inconclusive elections organised under his watch, it has become even more doubtful if he still holds the same view.
INEC’s leadership began to fumble in the first few weeks, when few days to the Kogi governorship elections, it was speculated that the commission’s leadership had a secret meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
Yakubu bluntly denied that any meeting occurred, but the Senior Special Assistant to the President, Garba Shehu later owned up, saying that it was true, but that the meeting was only for five minutes. Yakubu’s denial raised doubts on the credibility of the commission.
The first two elections conducted by the Yakubu-led INEC was Kogi and Bayelsa governorship polls, and in it, the commission floundered. It declared both elections inconclusive, and ordered a supplementary election. Since then, almost all the elections contested under the leadership of the Yakubu-led INEC have either been trailed with controversies or declared inconclusive.
In Rivers State, INEC suspended all electoral processes regarding the re-run parliamentary elections and declared it inconclusive. It also said it is in receipt of the results of nine state constituencies and one federal constituency in which rerun elections were held over the weekend in the state.
The Director of Voter Education Publicity of INEC, Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, explained that the release of further results were suspended due to reports of violence, attacks and the deaths of INEC officials and adhoc personnel in the state. Over seven months later, Senatorial elections in Rivers are yet to be completed
In Nasarwawa, INEC declared the May 2016, Nasarawa/Toto Federal Constituency bye-election inconclusive. The Returning Officer of the election, Dr Wilfred Uji of Federal University, Lafia, Nasarawa State, cited Section 53 of the Electoral Act which gives the commission the power to cancel election in polling units where there is over voting.
In Osun State Senate rerun, the by-election held at Ife Central State Constituency but was declared inconclusive also. The Returning Officer, Dr Francis Oladimeji, said that after the collation of results from the 11 wards in the state constituency, the result could not be declared because of the violence which led to the disruption of collation at two polling units. However, fresh elections held in the two affected polling units, Agbedegbede and Moore Ojaja, both in Ward Three in Ife Central State Constituency.
In Imo, INEC declared the July 23, Imo North Senatorial District rerun election inconclusive. Also declared inconclusive were the results of Oru East and Isiala Mbano State Constituencies following reported cases of shootings, which characterised the exercise in some communities in the two affected areas.
In Abuja, INEC declared the April 10 election in Gwagwalada, Kuje, Abuja Municipal and Kwali area councils of the Federal Capital Territory inconclusive. The Returning Officer for the election, Prof. Sunday Ododo, explained that the election in the area council was declared inconclusive because the total number of cancelled votes cast, 15,560, was more than the margin between the two leading political parties.
What FG can do to stop militancy in Niger Delta – Kanu Uche, Methodist Prelate
By Perpetua Egesimba
His Eminence, Samuel Chukwuemeka Kanu Uche is the Prelate of the Methodist Church, Nigeria who came into office on November 2013. He believes that President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti corruption is lopsided. In this interview, he spoke on various issues. Excerpts:
What do you make of the anti- corruption fight of this administration with regards to the budget padding allegation rocking the National assembly?
Well, it is an allegation but budget padding is the worst form of corruption, it is what I may call supersonic corruption. I want to take you a step further, what we call corruption in Nigeria is financial corruption, but corruption is anything you do to manipulate others, to take whatever that does not belong to you. Corruption in the real Greek sense of the word means decay. There is relationship, experiential, exponential and financial corruption. Even when you falsify your age, it’s corruption, when you do something to your advantage and disadvantage of others, it is corruption; when you know that good road is essential and you fail to do it, it is corruption; when you are partial in the distribution of amenities, it is corruption. And in appointment, when you appoint only people that are from your religion or area to the detriment of others, it is corruption. Corruption is not only about money, it is an attitudinal thing. It has become endemic and it has permeated into all facets; into commerce, economy, social groups and even the church.
It is very unfortunate that the speaker, Dogara said budget padding is not corruption. If truly he said so, he has no business being in the National assembly, not to talk about being a speaker. If he has such impression, he should come out. How can he legislate with such impression? What are they there to do?, Is it not to pass laws and bills, to regulate the lives of Nigerians. So, if he is not regulated, how can he regulate others?
The anti corruption fight is lopsided, I have always said it. For you to be safe from Buhari’s sledge hammer, you have to be an APC member. Once you are an APC member, nobody will challenge you, the EFCC and DSS will not go after you. It is unfortunate because it should not be so. So many people in APC today were supper corrupt people, they were endemically corrupt in PDP, the only thing they did to be safe was to cross over to APC. A lot of them who were pursued by EFCC and ICPC in PDP since they crossed over to APC, we don’t hear their cases again. It is unfortunate but we are watching, nothing is done in secret.
The federal government failed to recognize that they are dealing with the Nigeria intelligentsia, the elite who are able to analyze everything. We subject everything to systematic and synthetic evaluation. We may be keeping quiet now but come 2019, we will speak out boldly, we are waiting.
Almost a year and half of this present administration, Nigerians are facing economic hardship. Do you think President Muhammadu Buhari’s government has lived up to the expectations of Nigerians?.
When people asked me this question last year, I said let’s give president Buhari one year and six months but then, it is too late to start after one year and six months. You see the politics they are playing with foreign exchange! They said there is no naira, no dollar, no pounds sterling but I urge people to go along Lagos streets, everywhere in Lagos streets, you see Hausa Fulani boys asking you whether you want to buy dollars, Pounds sterling, Deutsche Mark or Swiss Franc and if you want to buy N2 billion, they are ready to sell to you. Where did they get the money from? I believe that a particular political party is doing this thing in order to be corruptly enriched.
It’s been alleged that some religious leaders and organisations in Nigeria have made themselves the mouthpieces of powerful politicians. How would you react to this?.
I will talk for myself, I am not the mouthpiece of any politician because I am not a member of any political party. In my Church, my members are members of all the parties, so how can I now support one against the other? The church is supposed to be apolitical. What we can do is to commend those politicians who are doing well, those who are actually giving the people the dividends of democracy which includes peace, security and distribution of social amenities. We know those who are doing well and those who are not. Those who are commending corrupt politicians are hungry ministers. If you are a political leader and you think that your welfare will come from a politician, then you deserve death and pity because no politician can provide your needs. Politicians have tenures apart from those in the National assembly. So, how can I dance around somebody who has tenure whereas God has given me a mandate?. Our welfare and wellbeing come from God through well meaning people.
Do you support the persistent call for restructuring of Nigeria?.
I have been saying that I like what was there in the 60s, the parliamentary system so that politics will be less attractive. If you win, you go there probably on weekly bases, get a little allowance and you come home. Politics should not be a full time business but part time. We have tried the presidential system and it is not favouring us. So, the parliamentary system the British government runs may be better. The last time I was in Britain for a very crucial meeting, when they were doing introduction, there were members of House of Commons, House of Lords and the rest. I was shocked because they looked very simple, there were no single policemen, security men and no siren, whereas, these are the people that govern Britain. But go to a little local government meeting here in Nigeria, you will see many vehicles with sirens. You see a young boy who happens to be a caretaker committee chairman with about 50 policemen following him.
Let us decentralize and allow each area produce their economy, goods and services and pay a certain percentage to the center. There should be resource control, let people control what they have and produce. Why are we dying because of oil?. God has deliberately given it to the Niger Delta Region, why must we kill them in order to take the oil?. Let others develop their own areas. I am from Imo State, in addition to the little oil we have, our forefathers survived in subsistence farming, they did not even practise mechanized agriculture and our land grows cassava plantains and other things, why not go on that and survive?. Why is the military strategizing on how to wipe out the people of Niger Delta because of what God has put under their soil?. It is unfair and also, it is another form of corruption
Are you saying that the Niger Delta Avengers are fighting a just cause?
They have some plus but they have more minus. But if you go to Niger Delta, you will cry, no good house, no road, some people have to travel to kilometers by canoes, no portable water, no electricity and yet the wealth of the nation comes from there. How many Niger Delta people are owning oil well?, Why must people from other land own a large number of oil well in their land?. Somehow, those boys are justified but that is not the way to go about it. Let them allow peace to reign. Let the government increase the derivation fund or whatever fund from 13 percent at present to 40 percent. The government should give them what is due to them.
What would you propose and advise the government do to douse the crisis in Niger Delta?
The government should go through the right people, use the people to reach the people. The boys would want to listen to somebody like Jonathan. For instance, if I go to Imo State, I can influence not less than 40 percent of my people.
Something is behind the agitations and once we address it, the whole thing will stop. Let the federal government stop going after Tompolo and extend amnesty to the leaders of MEND, IPOP and MASSOB. They should call all these groups and militancy leaders for a round table discussion, give them confidence and ask them what they want, only then will the problem be over.
For instance, the issue of lopsidedness, after Onovo became the Inspector General of police, have you seen any other Igbo man?. Why is it that an Igbo man cannot be Chief Justice of the Federation? Why is it that after Ihejirika, no other man can be the Chief of Defense Staff?. Why can’t we genuinely forgive Igbos after the war?. I am a believer of Nigeria, I believe the country should be one. What makes us thick is our population and diversity. There is strength in diversity, if we have a leader that is detribalized and unbiased, Nigeria will go far. But each of our leaders has question mark in their personal idiosyncrasies; they play the ostrich, we say one Nigeria by mouth but we have hundred Nigerias in our stomachs. I was disappointed at the comment of a highly placed religious leader from a part of this country who said that Christians are not Boko Haram but commit more wicked crimes; that was a childish talk.