Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) Executive Director,, in this interview with Senior Correspondent, ONYEWUCHI OJINNAKA, decries the use of military and shoddy preparations by INEC, among other issues.
Do you agree with the security reasons adduced by the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, for shifting the polls date?
No; I do not. One reason is that by the provisions of our constitution, the military has no task or role in tackling internal issues, unless on invitation, in accordance with constitutional provisions. Jega did not tell us that he or INEC invited the military into the electoral process, nor did the president, in accordance with the law, tell us that he did so. Therefore, the communications between the military authorities and Jega as he announced during the rescheduling of the elections cannot stand for the reasons the elections were postponed. I am much more inclined to believe that INEC was not ready to conduct a free, fair and credible election judging from the fact that millions of registered voters have not collected their Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) which the continued distribution of PVCs by INEC has proven.
During his appearance before the Nigerian Senate on Wednesday, last week, Jega further confirmed our fears that he was not ready to run the elections as earlier fixed when he told the Upper Chambers that between 800,000 and one million voters’ cards were “yet to be produced”. Again, the card-readers had not been tested before the rescheduling, nor had adhoc staff that would be used for the elections been recruited and trained. Ditto the civil society organisations (CSOs) that will observe the elections. If INEC did, they have not told us. And finally, on this point, the electoral register has not been published for voters to make claims and objections. Issuing of PVCs only does not assure voters that they would participate in the elections. In the same vein, INEC has not educated Nigerians on how to preserve these cards, so that they would be useful during elections. No sensitisation programmes at all like rallies, workshops for different categories of the population to enlighten the voters on how to conduct themselves during the elections.
The simple truth is that INEC is not ready and you can see it in its officials’ comments, each time they are interviewed, that the six-week extension period will enable them to put their house in order; dot the ‘I’s and cross the ‘T’s. Are you saying that 800,000 voters mean nothing in an election, not minding those who have not been issued with their PVCs? If INEC was ready, why are they still in the process of this or that? Let us not deceive ourselves, and Nigerians have, at this time, refused to be misled. I was one Nigerian who did not get his PVC, yet I had been visiting the places INEC asked us to go and obtain our PVCs. And I continued to shout and to threaten that I would vote without my PVC if INEC choose to unlawfully disenfranchise me. Do you know that I got my PVC recently, while they were telling us that voters were not coming to collect? Where was my PVC during all those periods that I was going to get it?
What is your worry over the distribution of PVCs which many voters are yet to get?
I am very worried about it: first, as a Nigerian who has sustained 23 unlawful detentions and torture since my university days as a student activist for fighting against fraud, corruption, abuse of due process and the rule of law, and against military authoritarianism; second, as a professional human rights defender since 1995 when I joined CLO as a staff. I am worried because we laid our lives for democracy to be restored in Nigeria. I was in detention for 33 days; leg chained, handcuffed for daring (Gen. Sani) Abacha. Now, most of those who dined with the military are in the saddle, dictating the tune of the music for us and we are watching, dancing.
I am worried because democracy is all about popular participation and when citizens who yearn to participate in a democratic process are wilfully disenfranchised from doing so by the system, then, something is obviously wrong with that process, as it cannot be said to be credible and so, generally acceptable. The product of such a process cannot be said to be legitimate. And here we are talking about 20 million voters. It is huge and sincerely worrisome. And this was why my organisation, the CLO, on December 23, 2014, addressed a press conference in Lagos, where we stated categorically that we were ready to go to court on behalf of Nigerians who are denied access to their PVCs by INEC without fault of theirs. We re-emphasised this on February 3, 2015, when we addressed the media on the worrisome developments in our country, including electoral violence that has consumed the lives of 59 Nigerians and destroyed property worth billions of naira.
Do you support the designation of special courts to try electoral offences?
Yes, I do. It may interest you to know that I was one of the delegates at the 2014 National Conference where the-way-forward recommendations for this country were made. Over 600 recommendations, and the special courts to address electoral violence was one of them. And it was like we were prophets and prophetesses, judging from what we are facing today. Just few days ago, in Okrika, Rivers State, we lost a life and several injured which added to the reports of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that 58 Nigerians have been killed in electoral violence in 22 states in 50 days. Violence everywhere! And you can see politicians killing or sponsoring the killing of those they campaign to rule. Is it not worrisome?
We need special courts to try this kind of crime, get the perpetrators prosecuted and, if found guilty, treated in line with the provisions of the law to serve as deterrent to future perpetrators. Unless we do this, we will be scratching the surface of the problem and will never get to resolving it.
Do you agree that Nigeria should adopt part-time legislative system, to tame corruption and save costs?
It was also one of the major recommendations of the 2014 National Conference, which, of course, did not go down well with the lawmakers, as if National Assembly is their birthright, as if Ezike or any other Nigerian do not have the right to be there. But we were concerned about the workability and progress of Nigeria, not few persons who were concerned about their primordial interests. It was part of that resolution of the national conference and I still solidly stand by it because doing so will address the issues of corruption and reduce unnecessary expenses as you mentioned. It would go a long way to using the money saved from there to build industries and encourage agriculture that can provide jobs for our people, address the collapse of our education, use it to exploit other mineral resources in the country to help diversify the economy as we have recommended and make our people happy rather than few ingrates who prey on our national resources and who add no value to our people’s lives. I support that 100 per cent.
Do you support deployment of soldiers during elections?
I think I have mentioned it earlier that the military has no place in our internal security operations except where they become inevitable. It is unconstitutional to do so. It is not acceptable, but you see, the use of soldiers in internal matters has become part of our system. When CLO cried out against this, Nigerians, especially politicians who use them for their primitive interest, to intimidate opposition, harass and violate the rights of hapless citizens, kept quiet. Is there any part of this country where you do not see soldiers on the road and elsewhere assaulting, maiming, extorting and killing our people as if they are fighting war? Is it not the politicians, especially governors, who use them against the civilian population and the opposition? All the ‘operation this’ and ‘operation that’ in the states are peopled by soldiers, operations which they set up to protect themselves because they have failed to use the resources God has freely given to us to serve the people. These politicians use soldiers to guard against the attacks by the aggrieved citizens, especially the youth, that they have abandoned while they (politicians) indulge in looting our common patrimony for selfish reasons. Go to Europe, Asia, America and other nations of the world and see how the children and relations of these rulers live in stinking, stolen and disturbing opulence – people whose parents were paupers yesterday – simply because they are in position of authorities.
Most Nigerians do not take these politicians serious any longer because the lies they told yesterday, they still shamelessly tell today. They are deceits. Why do you think these politicians move from one political party to another? No ideology, no programmes, no integrity, no respect, and because they cannot sustain the next day if they are not in power, like you and I, they continue to hang on, no matter the insult and shame. Their taste, their desires and what have you have changed and they cannot live and sustain without such mundane life a day longer. Last week, at Okunola junction, Egbeda area of Lagos, I was almost beaten and detained by soldiers working with Operation MESSA. What was my crime? I was going through national dailies when their truck knocked down an okada man (motorcyclist) down. I shouted, “You want to kill him?” Immediately, two soldiers came down from the truck and asked me to repeat myself and I did. They asked me what my interest was and I told them because he is a human being and a human life was about to be lost, and moreover, I am a human rights defender. I was lashed and asked to join them to their office until the elderly ones intervened.
Is this election? Do you know how many okada men and Nigerians that are attacked daily by these soldiers? Should that be their duty when the North East where their services are needed most is burning? So, you see, Nigeria is an aberration – a society where the ugly, undesirable and lawless things happen. It does not matter whether it is at the national or state or local government or organisational or institutional or family level – uncanny things happen in our society and it is condemnable. You only cry when you are a victim, not when you are a beneficiary.