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Leading Reporters Nigeria doesn’t need government of national unity Image
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Nigeria doesn’t need government of national unity

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

By Tonnie Iredia

Between Saturday, February 25, 2023 when the presidential and national assembly elections were held in Nigeria and today, the mass media have been replete with calls for the next president to compose a government of national unity (GNU).

The argument is that such a strategy could calm frayed nerves and create some measure of unity between winners and losers of elections.  However, an overview of elections in Nigeria does not reveal the commitment of our politicians to national unity.

What history seems to attribute to them is the propensity to always get into one office or the other only to perpetrate their hobby of primitive appropriation and accumulation of public funds. In which case, the call for unity government which is usually instigated by the political class is essentially to keep on course opportunities for their personal gains.

 
For example, in 2003, when General Muhammadu Buhari the then presidential candidate of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party ANPP was at the middle of an election petition to claim his mandate, officials of his party were scrambling to share the few positions allocated to their party in the government of national unity instituted by the victorious PDP.

The greedy officials neither put their presidential candidate into confidence nor did they follow the guidelines of the party for aligning with another party. The decision to be part of the so-called unity government was made by the party officials whose basic motivation was the material benefit they looked forward to from the arrangement.

In 2007, many of those who accused President Olusegun Obasanjo of a third term ambition were leading politicians from outside the PDP who had hoped that the third term government would be that of national unity that would include them.  In 2011, opposition parties didn’t show much interest in Goodluck Jonathan’s proposed unity government but ample background work was done concerning the idea.   
 
One of the pillars of democracy is majority rule. Consequently, good democrats have no business in a government formed by a political party to which they do not belong. Except a political system provides for proportional representation in which seats in the legislature are awarded to political parties in proportion to their strength in an election, government of national unity is unnecessary.

It is only in Nigeria where politicians seek to function as permanent state actors that those who lost elections always agitate for a government of national unity. After 24 years of continuous democratic rule, it is time for Nigerian politicians to grow up and allow the majority party to form a government which should be placed on its toes by a viable opposition. Otherwise, we shall continue to have a pseudo-democracy in which everyone bows to a ruling party so as to be appointed into some government position. It is for the same reason that the 9th national assembly under the guise of collaborative federalism functioned all through from the pocket of the executive.   
 
Luckily for our commercial politicians, the so-called victorious parties are always favourably disposed to the institution of a government of national unity because the acclaimed winners feel the way out is to placate owners of stolen mandate. Indeed, in many constituencies in the past, votes were swapped to make losers become winners while in some other locations, election results were simply procured for polling booths where voting did not happen.

Following the failure to put a halt to election rigging, it will certainly be difficult to stop the agitation for government of national unity. It is true that smooth talkers who can fluently defend our bogus elections abound in the nation but such partisan orators often look at election rigging from a narrow perspective.

Those who give pass marks to INEC and the election process often focus on the pictorial display of election materials arriving in different states in the country; orderly queuing and ballot casting in voting centres and the beautifully adorned conference centre where results are cosmetically finalized.
 
If the truth must be told, Nigerian elections have not been good. Our people should not allow themselves to be misled by the diplomatically coated reports of international election monitors and observers. What should always be noted is the unending caution which the same observers always put in an idiom that “the devil of Nigeria’s elections is in the details.”

What this idiom means is that Nigerian elections look simple on the surface but the details are usually convoluted and problematic. Our elections are likely to remain knotty if we continue to overlook the fraudulent details of the collation of results that are hurriedly declared with fanfare. Of course if the right process is followed, we could easily move one step away from incessant and selfish calls for government of national unity after every election. Such a trend would ensure good elections which are more likely to produce visionary leaders that would initiate and implement good public policies capable of improving the living standards of the people
 
The point that is being made is that what can best unite a given society is good governance and not the struggle for power by politicians. This presupposes that those declared winners of elections must be prepared to bring on board only persons who can add value to governance. Whereas a new president is free to appoint some of his supporters into his government, such appointees must first and foremost be visibly capable of doing the job.

Critical offices ought not to be used just for rewarding party supporters. A new president or governor must remember that many people who voted for them are not necessarily members of their party. In other words, being a member of the victorious party should essentially serve as an added advantage for appointing people. Governance is a tough task that requires the best hands, otherwise success may be hard to achieve.
 
In the case of heterogeneous societies such as Nigeria, the old order of emphasis on state of origin should change to a clear understanding of the expedience of good management of diverse cultures. One reason Nigeria wins more awards in sports than governance is because only the very best find their way into our sports teams while everyone no matter their visible deficiencies get into our governance teams. Today, Nigeria does not have a state which lacks strong hands, why not bring into government the best hands of every state as a double advantage that reduces the cry of marginalization and enhances the quality performance of officials? Nothing else can engender unity more than such an inclusive approach to governance which was in the first instance the framework which the federal principle in our constitution was designed to achieve. 
 
Nigeria had in the 1970s worked assiduously towards national unity by formulating strategic policies such as the National Youth Service Corps programme. Until quite recently, the NYSC served as tool for national unity and integration. But like many Nigerian policies, most of the lofty ideas of its founders have been greatly diluted.

The federal character principle on its part has been politicised and poorly managed. In fact, the commission which was set up to ensure the smooth implementation of the principle by other societal institutions has itself been found wanting in upholding the same principle. This is where elected leaders should pay greater attention to because what the nation desires is unity among its disparate groups and not the class unity which the politicians harp upon.  
 
In summary, Nigeria is in dire need of national development which can only be attained through the instrumentality of visionary leaders that are freely elected by voters. For this to happen, ruling parties must stop appointing partisan officials into INEC that is supposed to be an impartial umpire.

The electoral process must be credible and not the charade we watched on national television during yesterday’s governorship and houses of assembly elections in well-known volatile areas like Lagos. Painfully, the credibility of our security agencies who had earlier read riot acts while claiming to be battle ready to stop all disruptions was rubbished.  If this culture of electoral malpractices continues, government of national unity as a damage control strategy cannot help Nigeria to grow.
 
March 19, 2023

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Leading Reporters APC’s dilemma on election eve
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APC’s dilemma on election eve

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

By Tonnie Iredia

Too many things have since shown that in truth, there is not much difference between our ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its biggest rival, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). Both parties have a few decent members but majority are political traders. When in power, the two parties behave exactly the same way. To start with, whereas both parties pretend that the welfare of the people matters to them, they do little or nothing to cover the pretence. Whenever an election is approaching, they create scenarios that automatically frustrate a credible contest thereby retaining office while claiming to have come in through the popular will of the people. But events have shown that the strategy has its limits. On its part, the PDP managed to hold-on for 16 years (1999-2007); but whether the APC will last beyond 8 years is becoming doubtful.

In 2015, everyone saw through the gimmicks of the ruling PDP as it struggled to postpone elections to make room for vote buying and other electoral manipulations when it became evident that it no longer enjoyed the confidence of voters. The change propaganda which thereafter brought the then opposition APC to power virtually waned even before its first term ended. First, the party showed its nervousness over the use of the Card Reader – a technological device which made rigging tedious. Hiding under the judicial ruling that the device was unknown to law, the APC made everyone to discountenance the amendment to the Electoral Act in 2015 which had recognised devices like Card Reader. From then on, the party ensured that a fresh amendment to regularize the situation was not signed into law for the 2019 elections. Although the party was declared winner of that year’s elections, some people had doubts that the victory was real following the server controversy that preceded the declaration of results.

Four years later, it has become quite clear that the APC is in trouble especially in its current atomistic state in which it is now at war with itself on a daily basis. Indeed, the party has become the greatest opposition to its own policies and leadership. Evidence that the APC was visibly scared about its chances of reelection in 2023 was mostly seen in its desperation to frustrate efforts at instituting the electronic transmission of election results – which had become a global reality. The attempt to procure officials of the National Communication Commission (NCC) to virtually commit perjury in their testimony before the legislature on the subject of electoral technology was ridiculed by the public. The electorate similarly rejected the legislature’s kangaroo voting against the innovation making it easy for the new Electoral Act 2022 to be passed along with a number of anti-rigging clauses. Apart from a few party members who remained popular in their constituencies, the ruling party has since been on edge moving from one error to another.

The new Electoral Act did well in the steps it took to sanitize party primaries, even though the ruling party turned out to be the leading culprit in electoral chicanery and the imposition of candidates. Luckily for them, for some inexplicable reasons such as the need to reduce cases in courts, the judiciary was arm twisted to allow for party supremacy in which a party’s nomination needn’t be controverted. Nigerians are however aware of the established canon that as administrative bodies, activities of political parties ought to be subjected to judicial review. This is more so as the Electoral Act had stipulated what must be done or not done to attain credible primaries. In the end, the APC subverted such guidelines only to return to the inglorious past in which a party can elect flag bearers from among party members who did not take part in the primaries and as such could not be described as aspirants. Based on the trend, can we pretend that we are on the way to free and fair elections?

In a democracy, it is the victorious party in an election that forms government; which makes the ruling party to be powerful. In Nigeria, they are not only powerful, they act quite often with impunity. The Goodluck Jonathan-led PDP government had attempted in its days in office to appoint politically tainted persons into the Electoral Commission that is world-wide known as non-partisan. Such nominees were however dropped as a result of public outcry, but the APC did not take cognizance of public outcry. So, with the recent appointment of suspected party loyalists into INEC that is supposed to be an impartial umpire, the public could not have been unaware that the objective was to use such officials to rig the 2023 general elections. This became yet another evidence that the ruling party had lost self confidence that it could win a free and fair contest. Put differently, the APC has inadvertently exposed its fear that it is at the verge of losing public support having failed to perform to public expectation. This has made the ruling party to be a suspect in every policy it enunciates towards the polls – a good example being the new naira programme.

But perhaps the best example of the dilemma of a ruling party on the eve election manifests in the unusual hostility of APC’s leading members towards President Muhammadu Buhari who was himself elected into office through the party’s banner. The severity of the attacks on Buhari’s new naira programme notwithstanding, Nigerians know that the president is the only APC member on ground today who believes in a free, fair and credible contest next Saturday. All others are locked up in schemes to gain political leverage and foreclose a level playing ground for the coming elections. Many Nigerians are persuaded that those engaged in court cases to stop the president’s plan are not doing so to alleviate public suffering as they claim, rather the goal is to buy votes – a popular method by which many elections were ‘won’ in Nigeria. Painfully, the Nigerian elites are grandstanding and eloquently displaying knowledge every evening on national television on the subject of the rule of law. Those media ‘shows’ are redundant because they have not changed the suffering of the people. If only the poor among us can get the N200 Buhari canvassed, the situation would drastically improve.

The on-going debate on the rule of law appears to have successfully diverted attention from the growing political violence in Lagos and some other cities in Nigeria. A few days ago, Usman Alkali Baba, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) did what his predecessors used to do close to elections. He rolled out law enforcement arrangements designed to curtail violence. He even listed all the newly procured modern arms and other facilities to upgrade the police. We must tell him and quickly too that the reading of such riot acts is not new and that we remain scared by daily reports of political attacks about which the police are usually silent. In Lagos, there was the report of a local leader in a community aided by another person described as SSG who allegedly summoned and threatened citizens with eviction if they failed to vote for a particular party. The promise by the police to organize what was described as a forensic analysis of the report is yet to see the light of day.

The week before, members of a political party that held a well-advertised rally at the Tafawa Balewa Square in Lagos were crudely attacked. Where was the police? If half of the people are attacked and scared away from voting which voters would the police guard on voting day with its advertised modern facilities and what evidence is there that the police are not unwittingly supporting one set of politicians against another? If so, what is all the fuss about some jaundiced rule of law principles? Somebody should help us tell our elites that as fundamental as the rule of law is, they are able to partake in the television see debates on it because it is Banks and not the Supreme Court that frustrated citizens attacked. Another well-meaning speaker should tell them that continued suffering of Nigerians cannot stop illegal contraptions such as the Interim National Government and Military rule that we all seem to deprecate

February 19, 2023

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Nigeria’s Election Peace Accords: More Signatories Needed

by Folarin Kehinde
written by Folarin Kehinde

With only 72 hours to the official commencement of the 2023 general election in Nigeria, the National Peace Committee headed by Abdulsalam Abubakar retired Army general and former Head of State must be warming-up for the signing of the next set of peace accords.

At the end of a meeting of the members of his committee held 4 days ago in Minna, Niger State, Abdulsalam made it known that his committee would once again require top political leaders to sign an accord to maintain peace ahead of the 2023 general elections.

He attributed the expectation of his committee to the fact that during electioneering campaigns in Nigeria, politicians and their supporters create incitements which could endanger the country’s peace.

In the words of the committee chair, “the pattern of public communication among political actors, their publicity agents, spokespersons, and media consultants always amplify the potential for personal attacks, insults, and incitement.”
 
It is difficult to disagree with Abdulsalam’s observation because in Nigeria’s elections, there have always been reports by many people who witnessed attacks by politicians and their supporters on their opponents – a trend which had for long shifted focus away from issue-based campaigns to the politics of thuggery in the country.

Sadly, the situation has not changed since 2015 when the peace committee began its principled mandate of seeking to establish a reasonable level of civility and decency in public discourse and debates associated with electioneering.

Peace accords notwithstanding, the National Human Rights Commission, reported in 2015, a total of 61 incidences of election violence in 22 states in which at least 58 people were killed in different parts of the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria. Perhaps because the situation did not improve, the peace committee became more specific 4 years later.
 
The thrust of the committee’s demand as documented in the accord they prepared for the 2019 elections was for the political leaders to commit to run issue-based campaigns and refrain from statements that have capacity to incite any form of violence.  

Where any breach occurred, the same leaders were expected to forcefully and publicly speak out against provocative utterances. This clear documentation was not adhered to in spite of the peace accords that were signed by the respective party leaders.

A good example that Nigerian political parties perceive the peace accords as mere rituals which they would never follow is the case of Kogi state where some unknown persons in 2019 barred the SDP candidate from entry into the hall in Lokoja where the peace accord was to be signed. Is it politicians who can bar an opponent from the venue of the signing of a peace accord that would in all sincerity respect the so-called accord?
 
Whether or not the peace accords have continued to be observed in the breach or whether the situation has improved can best be understood from events of the last few months in which governorship elections were held in Ekiti and Osun states respectively.  In Ekiti state as many as 5 of the 16 parties shunned the peace accord signing ceremony.

According to the media, several violent clashes between rival political parties had made some of the parties and even voters to lose faith in the contest. Campaigns in the last few days to the election had been reportedly rancorous between the leading parties to the extent that deaths and injuries were recorded. In Osun state, a former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and candidate of the Labour Party, Lasun Yussuf, was conspicuously absent at the signing ceremony. His absence  was said to have been influenced by an attack on him by unknown gun men late at night a few days earlier. One of his aides revealed that Lasun was still nursing fears from unending threats to his life as at the point of the signing of the peace accord, especially as he received no assurances of his safety from the law enforcement agencies.
 
From the above reports, it is now obvious that some political parties are increasingly beginning to see the peace accords as mere formalities as the more powerful candidates belonging to the ruling parties display more interest in the use of force to intimidate opponents. To start with, in virtually everywhere, such powerful forces do not allow for a level playing field.

They always deprive others of the use of public spaces like stadium for rallies just as they direct public broadcast stations to not transmit opposition campaign materials. This is particularly provocative as the electoral law specifically directs such organs of mass communication to provide equal opportunities to all parties. In Osun for example, the ruling party disallowed the opposition parties from using both the Osogbo stadium or the Freedom park to hold their mega rallies. What type of peace accord would endure under a circumstance in which different parties to the so-called accord are not equally positioned?
 
There are two issues which illuminate the fact that each of our peace accords in Nigeria is ill-fated. The first is the timing of the accord while the second is its scope. The problem with the first issue is tied to the erroneous impression that an election is in every respect the same as voting. In reality however, pre-voting issues such as party primaries and campaigns are part and parcel of election.

Therefore, to assume that the best time to appeal to politicians and voters for peace is the eve of voting is rather simplistic. Arrangements to short-change opponents that are made before voting day are usually too many and too devilish to be overlooked when they mature. Indeed, party members who had been cheated during party primaries are ever so willing to partake in whatever it takes to undo their party flag bearer who got the fag by fraud.

So, the National Peace Committee ought to be told that no Nigerian politician relies on peace accords to win an election and none believes that participating in the signing of a peace accord means adhering to its tenets.
 
The second issue at stake referred to as scope concerns the number of persons and groups that ought to sign the accord. Here, the belief that politicians are the only persons obstructing electoral peace in Nigeria is again a weak conclusion.

If the truth must be told, ample damage that impedes peace is the handiwork of some societal institutions that are sometimes invited to witness the signing of the accords. Peace certainly loses value if those who can stop unknown gunmen from hijacking ballot boxes are themselves overwhelmed. Indeed, on the day the SDP governorship candidate who was an accredited signatory was stopped by unknown gunmen from entering the venue of the Lokoja peace accord, our official gunmen who should have stopped them were not only on ground, their foremost boss, the then Inspector-General of Police was personally in attendance.

If unknown gunmen can successfully determine participation in the signing of an agreement, who will supervise the attainment of peace? My considered opinion is that it would make more sense if the police boss would also sign the accord committing his team to maximum enforcement of law which ensures peace  
     
Apart from what we see during the settlement of election disputes especially courts that wrongly grant injunctions and assume jurisdiction, there is plenty of evidence that the judiciary contributes greatly to political violence in the country. Here, it is hard to forget the revelation by a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Stanley Shenko Alagoa, that “some judges collect bribe from politicians and traditional rulers to pervert the course of justice.”

Considering that using the judiciary to win elections subsists in Nigeria, it is time to invite the relevant heads of courts to sign our famous peace accords committing themselves and their teams to ensuring peace through proper dispensation of justice. It is similarly in order to invite relevant INEC bosses to commit themselves and their colleagues to end insider abuses in the electoral body which always provoke violence.

If we are not prepared to go the whole hog, our peace accords would remain mere rituals notwithstanding that those who conceived the noble idea are transparently people of honour.
 
By Tonnie Iredia

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Bishop Kukah’s nation-building agenda: Matters arising

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

By Tonnie Iredia

For every event in Nigeria, the priority of most planners is to ensure that the big names in the country are pulled to the event. Politically exposed personalities such as president and governors are the most sought after in this regard. For me, there is some risk in relying on the big guys in town to make one’s event successful.  

This is because they often come late and disorganize the otherwise well-laid out plans for the day. Along the line, those tired of waiting begin to disperse, forcing the organizers to pick emergency chair/other actors in place of those originally empaneled. While much of this did not occur in last Wednesday’s celebrations of the 70th birthday anniversary of the Most Reverend Mathew Hassan Kukah, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, ample attention still shifted from the celebrant to the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, his colleague of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Vice, Kashim Shettima as well as a number of state governors.
 
It was probably impossible to prevent the event from turning into a political jamboree because it was held at a time of the year when persons seeking elective positions dutifully attend virtually all major functions to score some points ahead of a forthcoming general election. However, the presence of such highly placed politicians should not be taken to mean that they were on the same philosophical page as the day’s celebrant.  For example, while the fight for peace, justice and the rule of law are real to Kukah, they are mere slogans to many public office seekers. Whereas the politicians are looking forward to winning elections and exclusively appropriating the nation’s wealth, Kukah is bothered that many Nigerian politicians end up as accidental leaders, ill-prepared for public office. This is why he is proposing to use his foundation to build a N200million centre to provide leadership tools for accidental leaders and politicians in Nigeria. When completed the centre will have a main office complex; a school of government; halls, library, classrooms and offices; accommodation and lodging; an art gallery and studio. It will also focus its activities around interfaith dialogue, knowledge promotion and memory preservation.
 
It is worthy of note that President Muhammadu Buhari sent a goodwill message to the celebrating cleric, notwithstanding the general belief that Kukah is a not a friend of the present administration in view of his deep criticisms of its activities. In truth though, the Bishop does not appear ready to be a friend to any government for as long as the dwindling fortunes of Nigerians which have accumulated over the years are not redressed. Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto state who chaired the anniversary celebration virtually confirmed this in his opening address when he said, “Kukah’s writings over the years have become controversial and have drawn the ire of powers that be, but what is not in doubt is his undying love for Nigeria and Nigerians, and his belief in the possibility of a new Nigeria where justice and equity reigns.” Other messages followed the same thinking, with the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum NGF, Kayode Fayemi concluding that Bishop Mathew Kukah’s love for ruffling the feathers of political leaders is essentially for the purpose of steering the country from the precipice.
 
Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP made about the same point when he described Kukah as ‘a remarkable public intellectual and formidable advocate for good governance whose contributions to Nigeria’s democracy are immeasurable and unquantifiable.’ Like President Buhari, Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima of the APC showed broadmindedness in celebrating their major critic at his point of glory. By describing the Tinubu/Shettima, Muslim-Muslim ticket of the APC as an unacceptable set-back for national integration, Kukah’s attack may have been quite frontal. Although many other leaders and citizens had made the same point, the Bishop’s eloquence and opinion-moulder status may have aggravated his own comments. The point must however be made that the numerous centrifugal forces in Nigeria’s heterogeneous polity would, any day, greatly support an attack on a same faith presidential ticket  
 
Many Nigerian critics of old, comrades and political activists have since joined the ruling class and forgotten the oppressed mases, but will Bishop Kukah at 70 also take a break? It is unlikely because he has continued to make many bold comments expected of a moral teacher and spiritual reformer after the anniversary celebration. We can hardly blame the Bishop as too many negatives have refused to leave Nigeria.  For instance, in spite of the passing of the Electoral Act 2022 and the recent vow by our president that the federal government will not allow anyone to misuse public institutions for the 2023 general elections, there are fresh and embarrassing allegations that well-placed politicians are at the verge of capturing an otherwise Independent National Electoral Commission INEC. Already, some opposition politicians are becoming scarred of the alleged nomination of politically tainted citizens to serve as Resident Electoral Commissioners. Should Kukah or any other patriot be quiet on this?
 
A Convocation Lecture titled, ‘Broken Truths: Nigeria’s Elusive Quest for National Cohesion’ delivered in June 2018 at the University of Jos had revealed too many negatives. Today, such things rather than ceasing are becoming more worrisome. One of them in the words of Bishop Kukah is that “recruitment and promotion in almost all sectors of the public service from the local governments through the state to the Federal Government depend on whom you know and not what you know.” If so, how can the nation make progress when its policies are not piloted by its first eleven team?  It would therefore be unreasonable for the next set of political leaders to expect that age 70 would stop Bishop Kukah from putting them under the same searchlight that their predecessors witnessed. In fact, that he will continue to serve as the conscience of human society is evidenced by his recent appointment by Pope Francis as a Member of the ‘Dicastery’ set up to advise and promote the Pope’s concerns on issues of justice and peace, human rights, torture, human trafficking, care of creation and other issues related to the promotion of human dignity and development.
 
Beyond a few critics, the unending socio-economic and political misfortunes of our people should at this point pull-up all citizens to take their destinies in their own hands and fix Nigeria. Many years back, Bishop Kukah had called on Nigerians to stop thinking that anti-corruption crusades directed at only top public office holders is all that is needed to fix the country. It is irrational according to the Bishop for our citizens to continue to line up all kinds of scapegoats among us whom they believe are responsible for our woes in Nigeria. While believing that the big people who steal huge sums are the ones that should flee with our sins into the desert so that our country can prosper, we often overlook the small people who cheat the bus conductor by not paying just as election rigging is seen as bad only when perpetuated by our opponents.
 
Again, we cannot scratch the surface of a problem and conclude that all is well that ends well. At the Bishop’s birthday event last week, former president Goodluck Jonathan spoke glowingly of how he resolved a four-month old ASUU strike one night. If he did so, why is ASUU still on strike over the same complaints? Why is the problem of ASUU still hinged on an official breach of a 2009 agreement? One of the matters arising now is for Nigerians to jointly beg the party to the agreement that did not play its part and not ASUU to reopen our universities. Secondly, should Bishop Kukah and his colleagues in the National Peace Committee continue to ask politicians to sign peace accords they do not believe in, while INEC officials especially the Ad hoc ones sourced from other bodies and some members of the judiciary continue to collude to render our elections incredible? While welcoming Bishop Mathew Kukah to the 7th floor of life, all citizens should work to resolve Nigeria’s outstanding matters

September 04, 2022  

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Rigging local elections in Nigeria: Where next?

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters
By Tonnie Iredia  

One failed aspect of democracy in Nigeria is the conduct of elections into the country’s 774 local government councils. In most cases, the contests are handled by electoral commissions that are usually made up of cronies of the ruling party who are brought on board to ensure that their party` ‘sweeps’ the polls. Consequently, our local areas have remained undeveloped because persons that can evolve and implement viable socio-economic projects, are usually displaced through election chicanery.

Painfully, there are no visible prospects in the horizon to suggest that the trend might change soon. This completely reverses the goal of establishing a third tier of government which by virtue of its closeness to the grassroots should best meet the immediate needs of the locals. Based on this, whenever an election is fixed to hold in any local government area in the country, the expectation is that it would be rigged in favour of the ruling party.   Many have thus been taken aback by the decision of the outgoing Osun State Government to, in the guise of holding an election, instal its puppets as others do across the nation. Already, the chairman of the state electoral commission, Otunba Olusegun Oladuntan has announced October 15, 2022 for the contest across the state.

Surprisingly, his team seems to be going ahead with arrangements for the exercise not withstanding a case in court against it. As expected, the two leading political parties, the All Progressives Congress APC and the Peoples Democratic Party PDP are for and against the proposed elections respectively. While the latter alleges that the outgoing ruling APC is bent on holding the election at the eve of its departure so as to install those who can cover-up its alleged corrupt activities, the APC says for as long as governor Gboyega Oyetola’s tenure has not ended, his government has a legal right to hold local elections.  

But why did Oyetola not organize any local election until the last few weeks of his tenure? Why can’t he focus on proper handing-over notes to his successor instead of starting a fresh event at the 24th hour? Is the outgoing government unaware of the legal position that when a matter is pending in court, a notice of such matter acts as a stay of any action that may prejudice the matter in court? An objective answer to these questions would support the point that the government is anxious to empower its lackeys as alleged. Again, why is the PDP so bothered about an election that an electoral commission described as independent is proposing to conduct? While the PDP is skeptical about the performance of a tainted electoral body, would she herself not have done what the APC is about to do? If the truth must be told, the PDP only wants the election pushed forward to when her own Ademola Adeleke assumes office so that the PDP can magically ‘sweep’ the polls at that point.  

To understand the underlining theory that all ruling political parties are experts in rigging local elections, a review of the situation in Benue state would illuminate the subject. In 2017, when Governor Samuel Ortom was in the APC, his party swept the local elections held in the state. Although John Tsuwa who was chairman of the Benue state electoral commission could not convince people that the results he announced were not cooked-up, he did declare that the APC won ALL the 23 chairmanship seats as well as ALL the councillorship positions contested. However, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties CNPP insisted that no local election took place anywhere in Benue on Saturday, June 03, 2017 for which landslide victories were announced. Some three years later, that is, May 2020 another local election took place.

This time around, the Peoples Democratic Party, to which Governor Ortom had defected won all the 23 chairmanship and 276 councillorship positions.   In seeking to underscore the unwholesome behavior of the political class at elections, it is important to note that the situation in Benue represents what happens in many other locations nationwide. In Ebonyi and Taraba states, the ruling PDP similarly swept the polls. The All Progressives Congress, APC also scored 100 percent in the elections held in states controlled by her. In Kogi state for example, the party reportedly won all the 21 chairmanship and 239 councillorship positions in the local government elections held in December 2020. 

In Jigawa state, the same APC was declared winner of all the 27 chairmanship positions in the State in the election held in 2021. But the PDP was allowed to take hold of just one ward – Kiyako, in Birninkudu local government area which happens to be the Ward of the PDP former governor of the state, Alhaji Sule Lamido. Even at that, voters in the area reportedly held the electoral officials hostage to stop them from changing the outcome of the results. All the other 286 councillorship positions were cleared by the ruling APC. The use of fake elections is not the only strategy political parties employ to emasculate the local government system. Quite often, elections are not held at all; instead, the ruling party merely appoints caretaker committees to manage the system in breach of the constitutional provision for local government councils to be democratically elected.

In Cross River state, it was an endless waiting game. Although the state electoral commission headed by Mike Ushien collected non-refundable deposits of N200,000 and N100,000 from chairmanship and councillorship candidates respectively for the election fixed for June 2017, no contest took place and monies were not refunded to the candidates. So, can anyone blame those who have no faith in local elections? Indeed, the fear of the PDP about the hurried attempt to organize an election in Osun state on the eve of the departure of Gboyega Oyetola who only realized the need for a local government election after he lost his reelection bid is not irrational. If the election holds on October 15, 2022 as proposed, the next rigging will most likely happen in Osun state.  

Another state which needs to be watched is Edo, where the state electoral commission is set to hold local government elections on January 14, 2023. With the tenure of governor Godwin Obaseki still beyond one full year to go, we cannot accuse him of the same hidden agenda that appears to be playing out in Osun. Besides, Obaseki’s consummate appetite for the use of technology can thwart any rigging plans in his state. But considering that many politicians around the governor are products of the “cut-for- me- cut-for-me” political culture in the state ingenious politicians in the ruling party may still use their ingenuity to adversely interfere with the proposed January 15, 2023 contest.

Here, one can recall that some years back when the officially endorsed candidate could not win the Esan North East chairmanship election, the contest had to be put off twice. When it eventually held and all relevant stakeholders were awaiting the collation of votes at Eguare Primary School Uromi – the designated centre, results against the run of play were announced from the seat of power in Benin, over 100 kilometres away.   The point that must be made is that it is time to end fake local elections in Nigeria.

Accordingly, all well-meaning citizens should prevail on governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun state to concentrate on his election petition and discard the hurriedly arranged local elections fixed for October 15, 2022. At the same time, we call on governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo state to make it difficult for any of his overzealous aides to push the state electoral commission into any ignoble role during the proposed January 14, 2023 local elections in the state. It is also important to remind all politicians that by virtue of the new Electoral Act 2022 the procedure regulating elections conducted by INEC to Area Councils in the Federal Capital Territory now apply with equal force and sanctions as the procedure regulating elections conducted to Local Government Areas by any state electoral commission. August 21, 2022

Prof Tonnie Iredia  

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Opinion

Do Nigerian law enforcement agencies cherish promptings?

by Folarin Kehinde
written by Folarin Kehinde

By Tonnie Iredia

The unveiling of Senator Kashim Shettima as the vice presidential candidate of the All Progressive Congress APC for the 2023 presidential election was no doubt a major political event in the country last week. For several reasons, it made more news than the unveiling of the vice presidential candidates of the other political parties that are contesting the same election. One of the reasons had to do with the controversy over the decision of the APC to present a same faith team. As critical as the subject appears to be, it is not the only subject that the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is compelled to worry about.
Another silent but tricky subject which emerged three days ago was the decision of an Abuja High Court to grant the request of a group seeking to compel the Inspector General of Police to investigate certain allegations against Tinubu.

The group, a non-governmental organization known as the Incorporated Trustees of Center for Reform and Public Advocacy, said the legal action against the police and their boss, the IGP was necessitated by their refusal to take action on its petition against Tinubu over an offence of perjury which dates back to 1999. According to the group, an ad hoc committee of the Lagos State House of Assembly had indicted Tinubu for making false claims on oath about his eligibility for public office in Nigeria. It is this case that the group has now taken up to demand the disqualification of Tinubu. For the allegations to be conclusively investigated to the point of prosecution, the group presented its demand to the IGP in two letters dated June 16 and 27, 2022 respectively. With a feeling that the police were probably trying to ignore the demand, the group proceeded to court to compel the IGP to act.

Ruling on an ex parte application last Thursday, an Abuja High Court presided over by Justice Inyang Ekwo reportedly granted permission to the group to apply for an order of mandamus to compel the IGP to prefer charges against Tinubu for having allegedly lied on oath. Considering that Nigerian politicians are notorious for always placing legal impediments ahead of their rivals well before voting, it is difficult to distance the resurrection of this 23-year old case from politics especially now that the accused is aspiring to be President. But because it is not illegal to find ways and means of using the judiciary to get a rival off the way in an election, the present case is not unusual. However, that is not the interest of this column. What is of interest is that Nigerian law enforcement agencies have a habit of selective prosecution by ignoring certain allegations while using more force than is necessary to handle others.

Cases against the elite especially high profile personalities are more often than not ignored in the hope that events would overtake them. The immediate implication is that Nigeria’s democracy is not premised on the rule of law in which every citizen is equal before the law. If the case in question concerned an ordinary citizen especially a media professional, the accused would have been bundled in the night to be detained hundreds of miles away from his normal abode while efforts would be made to keep the accused in detention beyond the duration approved by law. In other cases, a request would be made to the court to approve a longer period of detention to enable the law enforcement agency enough time to do its investigation. But when the case concerns politically exposed individuals, the allegations are ignored.

It therefore becomes necessary to interrogate the culture of law enforcement in Nigeria in which allegations made against certain persons would not be investigated until the agency concerned is legally prompted to do its job. If the police cannot immediately remember the sections of the nation’s constitution which make it mandatory for them to “prevent, detect and investigate criminal allegations brought to their notice by individuals, corporate bodies and institutions, they can hardly claim to be unaware of Section 4 of the Nigerian Police Act, 2020, which restates the same obligation. Indeed, the police cannot claim ignorance of Sections 31 and 32 of their own Act and Section 3 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2015 in respect of alleged crime laid out in complaint to them as captured by the Incorporated Trustees of the Center for Reform and Public Advocacy in their letter of June 16, 2022 demanding Criminal Prosecution of Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

To pretend as though the petition was not received is patently unwise especially as the case concerns the leadership of the ruling party which no societal institution can afford to unsettle. If the intention was to assist Tinubu and his ruling party, the effort was virtually fruitless as the message which the handling of the case has produced is negative. A prompt investigation on the other hand, would have created a different scenario which would have made it easier for the public to appreciate a police finding that is same as the conclusion drawn in 1999 by the Ad Hoc committee of the Lagos State House of Assembly that the errors in Tinubu’s declaration were not intended. Now that police investigation into the matter would only commence after a court has so directed, only a negative finding will satisfy Nigeria’s cynical public and APC’s fault-finding political rivals.

It will certainly take a while for the ‘small men’ in the corridors of power in Nigeria to appreciate why democracy is the preferred system of government in progressive societies. Many Nigeria politicians only corrupt the system and bully institutions to favour them. They only imbibe western privileges but ignore the discipline which for example emboldened the police to investigate and indict the outgoing British Prime Minister for misdemeanor.

The point to be made is that the undue protection which Nigeria’s political class in general appropriate are neither restricted to the police nor the current ruling party. The other time, it was the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC that was reluctant to investigate gross allegations made against a former Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomhole who at the point of the petition against him had become the national chairman of the ruling party. Although the court refused to compel the EFCC to do the needful, the defence of the anti-grant agency made little sense to anybody. One of her points was that no one can dictate how she should do her job. Of course, it was a weak point because if the agency picked up former governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti state on the very day he left office, how come the radar of the agency could not locate or catch-up with another governor whose alleged offences had earlier been highlighted for more than a year? The basic truth is that the EFCC wanted to prosecute one former governor and protect the other contrary to Section 15(5) of the 1999 Constitution which enjoined the State to abolish ALL corrupt practices. Luckily, from recent events, it appears that it is not in the character of the current EFCC to so discredit herself

Our police must quickly depart from the old order where they help those in authority to oppress ordinary citizens. Let’s recall the case of journalist Agba Jalingo who raised a weighty allegation of the diversion of huge sums by the governor of Cross River State. Rather than bring Jalingo to court to prove his allegation or be found guilty, the police detained him for several months. Later during prosecution, the charge stated that the journalist intended to “cause alarm, hatred and disturb public peace in Calabar, for the purpose of bringing down the reputation of the Executive Governor of Cross River State, His Excellency, Senator Professor Ben Ayade.” Jalingo’s illegal detention resonated to the embarrassment of Nigeria at the 2018 Convention of the International Press Institute (IPI). Our law enforcement agencies should therefore learn to work for the progress of society.
July 24, 2022

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Welcoming Datti Ahmed to Nigeria’s presidential race

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

By Tonnie Iredia

The Labour Party (LP) is fast positioning itself among the major political parties in the country. Its growing popularity further soared two days ago when it unveiled one outstanding Nigerian, Datti Baba-Ahmed as its vice presidential candidate. Datti, the founder and pro-chancellor of Baze university Abuja is a highly principled personality and well respected technocrat. Those who are close to him would readily testify that his unveiling was a pleasant surprise. After tenaciously rejecting Nigeria’s commercialized politics several times, not many expected that he would be one of the candidates in next year’s presidential election. There are at least two notable examples of his principled stand-point. The first was his refusal to participate in the recent presidential primaries of his previous party – the PDP.
 
His reason was that because all southern candidates gave way for their northern colleagues to be the only aspirants in 2019, it was morally wrong for northern aspirants like himself to come out again for the 2023 contest. The second example was his withdrawal from the latest Kaduna governorship primaries of his party on the ground that he could not stand the practice of bribing delegates. If so, why has Datti suddenly accepted the invitation by the Labour party? Does he not realize that it is hard to differentiate dirty party primaries from the plethora of electoral malpractices which happen during general voting? If the truth must be told, innovations by successive electoral bodies in Nigeria notwithstanding, a typical election in the country is essentially an ordeal in which several democratic norms and values are breached. This seems to explain the reluctance of well-meaning people to be part of elections in our clime.
 
Consequently, our elections which had been largely incredible have left the nation in a state of anomie. What the citizens get is usually excuses and buck-passing between the two major political parties, the All Progressives Congress APC and the Peoples Democratic Party PDP. The current ruling party, the APC says, for example, that it will take longer than can be imagined to redress the 16-year old damage done to Nigeria by the previous ruling party. Painfully, most of the APC chieftains who cherish this rationalization were themselves previously in the PDP. Some have left and returned more than once. Thus, every criticism that PDP now has for the current ruling party is exactly what the former opposition party levelled against the then ruling party in 2014. It’s like politicians are articulate when in opposition but clueless once in power.  The implication is that the difference between the APC and the PDP is the same as the difference between six and half a dozen.
 
Whereas chieftains and acclaimed numerous supporters of the two large parties are likely to continue to vote for them, the average citizen who is tired of both the APC and PDP ought to be given an opportunity to have other alternatives from which to make a choice. This is why the emergence at the national scene of the Labour Party and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) which appear to have brought forth some viable candidates is salutary.  The Labour Party in particular ought to be commended for unveiling a sound joint-ticket of two outstanding Nigerians of the same ideological inclination. For some time now, Peter Obi the party’s presidential candidate has been trending because of his well-known prudence and accountability. His vice, Datti Baba-Ahmed was a delight to watch on national television a few hours after his unveiling, hitting the right points.
 
For the benefit of those who did not watch the interview of Labour’s vice presidential candidate, I will endeavour to restate a few pertinent points he made. He started by drawing attention to the transparent compatibility between himself and his presidential candidate affirming that both of them were destined to rescue and fix Nigeria. So, our people can rightly ignore any excuses of incompatibility from either of them in future. Datti at a point likened the Labour Party to a fast moving train that cannot be halted as was recently done to the Abuja-Kaduna train whose passengers are yet to complete their two-hour trip after more than 100 days. He also announced that the day his party gets into power, would signal the end to the old order of inflation of government contracts adding that the hitherto stolen or misappropriated resources would be expended on people-oriented policies and programmes. It is therefore with excitement that i welcome on behalf of my readers, Senator Datti, Baba-Ahmed, LP’s vice presidential candidate to the 2023 contest.
 
It is not impossible that some smart politicians would make lofty promises that they don’t intend to fulfill.  The beauty of Datti’s outing however is that it did not take the usual form of coloured circumlocutory political diction. Rather it was a set of clear, concise and patently persuasive statements made with a commercial mindset. But most importantly, Datti established that his rather quiet disposition cannot be used to portray him as a new comer to the political scene. The Kaduna State-born economist was a legislator far back in 2003 when he won election to represent Zaria Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives. From 2011-2102, he served as a senator for Kaduna North under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He was also a presidential aspirant under PDP in the colourful Port Harcourt convention of 2019 and before his recent defection on moral grounds, he was among the aspirants who jostled for the governorship ticket in Kaduna State.
 
   
Following the rise of the LP, other political parties would definitely buckle up, making it easy for Nigeria to witness keener contests unlike before, when some big guys were always able to overwhelm candidates of infantile parties to ‘win’ elections in many polling centres where voting did not even hold. In other words, with the presence of popular rivals, our elections would be more credible because more candidates who would be eager to defeat the new men of ideas would tighten their belts and follow the path of issue-based political campaigns. Of course, there are a number of people in the old parties who would do better if they are challenged. As a result, we need to succinctly underscore the point that since 1999 when this democratic era began, Nigeria, has had only one large and rather invincible political party with two identical branches, hence they have over the period succeeded in rotating among themselves, the baton of exploitation.
 
While it is rational to advocate for keen and clean contests, it is hoped that such mature politics would dominate the forthcoming period of electioneering. In which case, the current trend of heating up the polity with defamatory messages especially in the social media should stop. Stories about anomalies in certain academic certificates, dates of births and other claims cannot help our voters to understand the process. Whereas party supporters cannot be stopped from propagating the popularity of specific political candidates through road shows and processions, the nation’s unending underdevelopment suggests that Nigerians need to hear not only the plans and promises of political parties, but also lucid explanations of how the promises and plans are to be fulfilled. This is crucial if the nation’s stunted growth is to end.
 
This is not to say that persons who have fake documents or any other legal disability should be spared because such persons are also likely to be fraudulent with power. But such anomalies should be tested in court and those found wanting excluded from the process. For example, in Delta state, on account of certain allegations, PDP’s governorship candidate was disqualified. Those who are dissatisfied with the decision should follow the judicial process to the end without canvassing the subject at violent campaign venues. Similarly, it will be counterproductive to convert several allegations of wrongful substitution of candidates in the APC or elsewhere into campaign issues, because they can drown the substantive issues of getting politicians to enunciate their election promises and how they would be fulfilled so that voters can make informed decisions.

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Is PDP on auto-pilot mode?

by Folarin Kehinde
written by Folarin Kehinde

By Tonnie Iredia

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has served as Nigeria’s main opposition party since she lost the 2015 presidential election. Before then, the party had formed the federal government of the country for 16 years from 1999-2015.

Against the backdrop of the failure of the current ruling party, the All Progressives Congress APC to meet the expectations of some Nigerians, there were hopes that the PDP might return to power. But only last week, one of her activists in my neighbourhood expressed pain that his party was no longer her vivacious self. In his words, ‘PDP has been on auto pilot mode’ in the last six months.

No one should misunderstand my friend; he was not referring to the autopilot system that is used to control the path of an aircraft without a human operator. He was only trying to describe a phenomenon that functions without thinking about what it is doing or without making a conscious effort to act. The rest of our discussions forms the content of this article.

Apart from across-the-nation sentiments about seasonal rotation of political positions, PDP is probably the only party that specifically provides for zoning in her constitution. Surprisingly, when some of the leaders saw the need to break the provision, they took no step to appropriately amend that aspect of the constitution. Rather they went ahead to throw the presidential election open whereas it was specifically zoned for the 2019 contest. Of course, clumsy arguments such as calculating the duration of certain office-holders or that zoning was not cast in iron are not viable defences to constitutional breaches. As a way out, the party purported to have set up a zoning committee as if that was a necessary procedure for rotation. In addition, it was clear that the unwieldy committee could never have done justice to the subject.

At the end of the day, the same area to which it was zoned four years earlier was formally given a chance to participate in the 2023 contest thereby hurting some feelings.

As if working to the answer, a decision on zoning was not made until after many aspirants from different zones had been allowed to pay huge sums to procure nomination forms. Everyone knew that the party had gone beyond a level where she could stop persons who already had nomination forms. Unfortunately, rather than calm frayed nerves, the PDP moved on to the next stage with some injuries that became exacerbated by the election of an aspirant not from the South as canvassed by the majority of PDP governors but from the North.

The hopes of those who thought the candidate that emerged would take steps to unite the party, were dashed as the naming of the running mate which was expected to be done by the candidate was again subjected to two unnecessary committees. The one that was to advise the candidate having found an opportunity to function like 2022 party delegates poorly handled it by making their choice known to the world at large.

The second committee which was reportedly set up to screen less than 5 PDP governors who are well-known to themselves and to the candidate was patently unnecessary. All it achieved was to make the energetic Nyesom Wike and his supporters to feel humiliated thereby increasing the number of aggrieved party members. It would have been a win-win situation if the candidate had personally handled the subject, by making his choice to the understanding of others.

The entire story depicts a new Atiku quite different from the master-strategist I knew as Vice President in the Obasanjo administration. One can only hope that some praise singers and hangers-on have not cornered him. Whatever the situation, he needs to quickly take control from the autopilot and stop all those who have a private agenda.

Candidate Atiku should not allow a repeat of the type of intervention by former Niger state governor Babangida Aliyu which virtually complicated negotiations and unity in the party. As one can see now, such careless talks have widened the gap and turned government house Port Harcourt into Nigeria’s political Mecca that is now open to all politicians who are anxious to woo a hitherto inviolable party man. Any person who canvasses the idea that Wike is dispensable is working for Atiku’s opponents. The same is true of the argument that the man is ungovernable. He was Chief of Staff to a former governor to whom he showed no insubordination, he was Minister of state for Education without fighting the main Minister.

He was later mandated to take control of the same Ministry and never gave the president cause for regret. The aggressiveness portrayed by him as governor merely underscores his capacity to fit into every new role.

The issues that some party members are using to challenge PDP’s cohesion exceed the candidature of the president and his vice. A good example of poor handling of party matters is easily seen in how the party performed at the recent Ekiti governorship election. PDP had no business allowing a contentious primary election that drove away Chief Segun Oni to another party while front-runners like Senator Biodun Olujimi who stayed back were pushed into the fringes of the party with suppressed anger. The case of Oni was particularly unwise because he had become a sought-for political aspirant in the state.

A special report by some analysts had indeed revealed that Oni was more the candidate to beat. This has been confirmed by the fact that he left the PDP to a less-known Social Democratic Party SDP, yet garnered more votes at the election than the PDP candidate.

To make matters worse, the national body of the PDP virtually abandoned their candidate during the election. The usual presentation of flag to the party’s candidate was not done just as the practice of a mega rally a few days before the election to boost the chances of the party and invigorate her members did not also happen.

There was an unconfirmed rumour during the election that a grant from the party headquarters to the state branch was not delivered in full making state party executives to return the money. Even if the only interest of the PDP is next year’s presidential election, it is obvious that the party’s candidate can only do well in Ekiti if the state branch is viable. PDP’s lukewarm posture seems to confirm the charge that she is on autopilot mode.

This becomes more obvious when it is realized that APC’s Bola Ahmed Tinubu that the PDP mocks as weak put up a strong showing along with governors of the party from different states who added ample elegance to the mega rally of the eventual winner of the election.

It is obvious that all is not well with the PDP. For example, some members from the Southern zones may work against the interest of the party if the North schemes to hold-on to both the presidential candidate and national party chairmanship positions. Already some leaders in the South are waiting anxiously for Iyorcha Ayu to step down as he once promised now that the North has produced the presidential candidate.

This has to be resolved without delay if the PDP wants a united national party. It makes very little sense to continue to argue that such primordial issues are no longer relevant in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious entity like Nigeria where now and again, centrifugal forces keep stretching the nation to breaking point.

Atiku Abubakar must rise up now to save his party if he intends to successfully wrestle power from the incumbent APC. On the basis of first things first, he has to remove his party from autopilot mode and take control of fence-mending to create a formidable team by stopping pockets of crises. For instance, although the government of Edo state was formed by the PDP in 2020, the party has since remained an atomistic entity that is permanently at war with itself. But if however, the PDP is complacent. about taking over government at the federal level in 2023 she should endeavour to at least help deepen Nigeria’s democracy by remaining a daunting opposition that can put the ruling party on its feet.
June 26, 2022.

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Implications of attacking prospective Alaba voters

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

Tonnie Iredia

Last Thursday, some hoodlums reportedly attacked traders who had shut down their shops at the Alaba International Market, Ojo, Lagos to register to collect their permanent voters’ cards (PVC). According to reports, officials of the market had instructed that all shops be shut to allow their members ample time to get their PVCs at the INEC office in the Igbede area of Ojo.

Following this directive, there was massive turnout of traders, mostly of Igbo extraction at the registration point. But while the exercise was ongoing, thugs armed with machetes, sticks and clubs allegedly stormed the venue to disrupt the process and also made moves to cart away INEC machines. Luckily, the traders were able to stop the thugs from having their way.
 
The incident immediately sent disturbing signals nationwide particularly because the traders were said to have earlier given notice to the electoral body on their plans. While many condemned the attacks, some blamed the traders for mobilizing mammoth crowds capable of overwhelming the available INEC logistics on ground. There are a few reasons why the condemnation is feeble. First, until the period of registration expires, INEC ought to be fully ready for any person or group that comes up for registration, no matter how small or large. Second, after making several appeals to Nigerians to be patriotic enough to perform their civic duty of determining the country’s new political office holders at all levels, it would be unfair to blame certain large groups for presenting themselves for registration. The argument that the traders would have been better treated if they didn’t constitute a large crowd, may have a point but it cannot criminalize large crowds seeking to register as voters especially if all those in the group were qualified to be registered
 
Those who deserve blame are thugs who attack persons seeking to be registered. As usual, the recent discussion has been about the large crowd and how members of the group recognized as mostly Igbo traders ought not to have waited till now before wanting to register. But who were the thugs that attacked the prospective voters? Have they been apprehended? If so, how has the case been handled? In addition, what was the motivation for the attacks and for whose sake did the thugs engage in such illegal behaviour?  Except steps have since been taken to penalize such thugs and their sponsors, no one should pretend to be surprise if they repeat the same behaviour during the forthcoming general elections. After all, although pictures of previous attacks on certain voting centres which had many Igbo voters during the 2019 general elections were in the public domain, the perpetrators were not apprehended. Indeed, there was public belief at the time that the thugs had official backing because armed security officials present at the affected centres merely looked the other way.
 
The idea of preventing some Nigerians from collecting their PVCs so as to make it impossible for them to vote or other efforts at rendering the votes of others invalid through thuggery must be discouraged. If not, some shrewd politicians would be emboldened to impose on the voting process, an electoral malpractice known as gerrymandering. This is a term used to describe the carving out of fake electoral wards as well as ‘dilution’ which means to subtract from the voting capacity of a targeted population. Lagos politicians are known to have always done this over the years by disrupting locations where their opponents are popular. It is therefore not irrational to imagine that last Thursday’s thugs were strategically organized to disenfranchise persons they assumed may not vote for their preferred parties/candidates. The practice of seeking to put some parties at an advantage well before voting day should be discouraged if we are really interested in strengthening Nigeria’s democracy
 
A major reason why this caution must be well sounded now is to avoid violence which may arise from reprisal attacks by those shortchanged by official or ‘unknown’ thugs in the 2023 election. In the case of the attack on the Alaba market traders which is the main concern of this piece, their plan to present themselves before INEC last Thursday had been made public since the beginning of the week. There was thus enough time for the police to mobilize to ensure peace at the event in view of the numerical strength of the traders. The inability of the police to do anything until a clash occurred was poor forecasting. If it had been youths or students who similarly got together to protest certain societal ills, the police would have stopped the meeting ‘with immediate alacrity’ as if democracy abhors protests. Perhaps there is need to inform our law enforcement agencies that election security is not just a voting day affair but an all-time surveillance strategy all through the process.
         
Not surprisingly, the police issued a statement that hardly diffused public apprehension. They said nothing about whether or not the thugs were apprehended and held to account. Instead, they observed that the crowd was too large adding that registration in phases would have been better. The typical police statement read as follows: “One of the people who came for registration made trouble and was challenged by those around. Going by simple probability, the attacker or the attacked is very likely to be Igbo. They were simply large in number. However, giving this incident ethnic coloration would not help matters. The entire episode lasted a few minutes. Sadly, recordings from those few minutes are still traveling far and wide. Normalcy has since returned and the Divisional Police Officer there is fully in charge of the security situation.”
 
But at the Tafawa Balewa Square in the Lagos Island area of the state, INEC recorded hundreds of youths who besieged the centre to register for their PVCs on the same Thursday. During the exercise, it was observed that security agents including the army, police and private security personnel had to arrange the youths in batches to control the crowd.  What this suggests is that the Alaba traders were differently handled perhaps because it was suspected that they may massively vote against the ruling party. In a democracy everyone should be allowed to decide whether to vote for the old or new order. Fortunately, reliable sources at INEC have revealed that more registration machines would be available this new week to seamlessly register the traders and other qualified Nigerians.  
 
However, it is important to call on the leaders of the traders to appropriately organize their members to for once, take one or two days off from trading to understand the electoral process which they are now seeking to participate in. First, they need to know that no one is allowed to register more than once. So, those of them who registered before should not get into a fresh registration process because it is a punishable crime. Any person who for instance has lost his or her PVC should merely seek a replacement for that. But more importantly, it is unwise for the traders to register around their shops which they may not be able to access on voting day because of the usual restrictions to movement.  
 
In the last couple of years, the Nigerian nation has gone through a low era – one of insurgency, weak economy and high prices that have combined to make life in the country unbearable. In the recent past also, events have shown that there is hardly any difference between the major political parties who have virtually shortchanged the people. This is therefore not a time for voting for candidates on political party basis. All Nigerians are thus enjoined to convince themselves that their preferred candidates are quite capable of altering the nation’s precarious circumstances. For this to happen, all citizens who are qualified to vote should endeavour to use their ballots wisely. Accordingly, no one should stand in the way of those seeking to get their PVCs for purposeful and informed decisions.
June 12, 2022

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Can unclean environment produce clean president?

by Leading Reporters
written by Leading Reporters

By Tonnie Iredia

Several political aspirants seeking to become Nigeria’s president in 2023, along with many other citizens hold the view that all the country needs now is good leadership.

The strength of the argument is that a good leader with great visionary capacity is best positioned to show the nation, by personal example, the appropriate direction to sustainable development.

The limitation to the theory however, is that leadership is not an independent variable; it does not function on its own. It is instead subject to other variables such as followership, situations and circumstances. The contention is that good leadership is more likely to flourish with good followership.

Personal virtues alone may not be enough. As one analyst aptly put it the other day, the Pope cannot successfully lead a congregation of thieves. That is why it is said that a society deserves the leadership it gets.

Nigerian politicians should therefore tune down their claims of having a monopoly of the required capacity to lead Nigeria aright because an unclean environment can distort the acclaimed capacity of a clean leader.

They should talk less of their so-called qualifications and experiences and emphasize how they intend to use such credentials to overcome the myriad of factors which make their country unclean.

It was for this reason that this column last week, called for strong societal institutions and not just strong leaders. On account of the nature of the Nigerian society, many political leaders often generate several eloquent narratives supposedly for nation building when in reality they have very little motivation to go beyond the subsisting penchant for greed and nepotism that can only serve the self and its acquaintances.

When properly condensed, that inclination is common to many presidential aspirants. Otherwise, how come our expected Messiahs are always general and peripheral but hardly specific about the issues of the moment that are calling for action?

For over a decade, the issue of insecurity has hit the country hard making it perhaps the foremost item presidential aspirants should focus upon. Last week, insecurity in the form of mob action recurred on a large scale in at least 3 locations – Sokoto, Lagos and Abuja.

Those who had to deal with the trend were as expected Governors Tambuwal and Sanwo-Olu of Sokoto and Lagos respectively as well as Mohammed Bello, Minister of the Federal capital territory.

The best story teller would have very little to say about the reactions of our presidential aspirants. While an insignificant few made some tangential references to the subject, many went mute. Instructively, it was an opportunity for aspirants to leave in the hearts of compatriots, their commitment to an end to insecurity.

If the number one Muslim in the country, his eminence, the Sultan of Sokoto was able to condemn mob action on religious issues, political aspirants should have at least issued soothing statements to calm frayed nerves.  

It would appear that having failed to say anything about the Sokoto episode, it became difficult to react to the bizarre killings by Okada riders in Lagos and Dei-Dei in Abuja which occurred sequentially at about the same time.

As a result, many aspirants missed the opportunity to transit to agents of national unity. Yet, they are suggesting daily that because the nation has never been this divided, one of their immediate objectives is to unify the country.

One can only hope that Nigeria is not headed to worse days if those whose mission is to unify the country fail to find their voice at the appropriate junction. Indeed, bearing in mind that some of the aspirants have accused the present administration of insufficient capacity to unify the country, how are we sure that the nation’s post 2023 era is likely to be better? 

One thing that is certain is that events leading to 2023 are not in any way cleaner than those of previous general elections. First, there is saturated attention of stakeholders to the presidential election; its aspirants who are in search of becoming the flagbearers of their political parties are all over Nigeria overshadowing every other thing.

If such aspirants are everywhere visiting different opinion leaders especially traditional rulers while looking for the party ticket, what they would do when they become candidates for the election proper would be unimaginable. 

Meanwhile, the presence of over 40 presidential aspirants who have for the same reason appeared now and again in Ekiti and Osun states whose governorship elections are a few weeks away has become confusing.

In addition, the environment in those states have been quite volatile. In Ekiti State for example, one of the leading governorship candidates, Segun Oni of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and his running mate have more than once cried out for help over assassination attempts allegedly by state actors.

At the same time, campaigns for party primaries have taken over governance throughout the country. Unfortunately, the preoccupation has been how to play one aspirant against the other. Reports of the old culture of conducting delegates elections while hoarding the official result-sheets have resurfaced.

The party officials are themselves unable to prepare their members for a clean contest as they have both eyes on what other parties are doing. This has resulted in hurried packaging of the requirements in the electoral act. In the circumstance, all political parties are on the same page, making passionate appeals to the electoral body to review the already published timetable to provide more room for concluding party arrangements which diligent handling could have dispensed with before now.

INEC deserves commendation for rejecting the request which could open the door for more demands to the detriment of credible elections. At the last count, the list of delegates of the parties have remained uncertain especially as last minute amendments made to the electoral act so close to the contests are still awaiting presidential assent.

The above scenario represents the unclean environment to which political parties are hoping to deliver clean office-holders. For such dirty environment not to overwhelm future leaders, we dare say so much has to be done.

First, Nigerian politicians need to learn to contribute to the progress of the nation irrespective of whatever party they belong to. Although it is not only presidential aspirants that should make such contributions, they happen to be the focus of this piece. Consequently, it would have been exciting if any of them had rescheduled his campaign train and returned to Kaduna to make substantive statements on insecurity and support Governor Nasir El Rufai who has of recent had several security challenges.

Apart from another attack a few days ago on the Abuja-Kaduna road, the governor has raised an alarm that insurgents had begun incursion into his state. Considering that where, when and how a statement is made can be strategic, any aspirant who seized such opportunity would have involuntarily but markedly projected himself as one who would not give insecurity a chance anywhere in the country if elected our next president.

The point to be made is that although Nigeria has many competent presidential aspirants, they need to know that it’s not everything they are harping on right now that Nigerians are anxious to hear.

I know for certain that many people would easily buy the idea that our next president must be ready to move the nation away from consumption to production. Nigerians must eat what they grow and grow what they eat. Such a campaign message is attractive as an obvious solution to a major challenge of the nation. 

It is hoped that the media would assist the nation to place emphasis on such messages. It is also necessary to correct wrong narratives, a good example being the credit taken away from former Minister Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba. Whereas Nwajiuba unlike his colleagues resigned before the Presidential ultimatum to do so, Nigerians were erroneously made to believe that he was one of those directed to resign. Placing this story in the correct perspective would put on record that there are still some Nigerians who are honourable enough to quit when it is due. 

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