Former House Chairman on Technology who represented Badagry Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Dele Kosoko tells Assistant politics Editor, DANIEL KANU that despite President Goodluck Jonathan’s incumbency advantage, he would lose the presidential poll
Do you anticipate further postponement as it is being rumoured?
I don’t think there will be further postponement. And if Jega has said that he is well prepared for the election, the only thing that can bring further postponement is the removal of Jega. If they remove Jega today, we are starting all over. The person that will take over will require time to enable him to settle down. Jega has been there for five years. He knows the terrain. He has worked very hard to prepare for the election. And he has conducted some elections in some states. He conducted the 2011 election which was adjudged as freest and the best. He has said it severally that he wants to improve on the 2011 election. To postpone any election now Nigeria will not welcome that. The only way that can create any avenue for postponement is to remove Jega.
What is the danger you foresee in the removal of Jega?
Removing Jega will create constitutional crisis. What the electoral law says is that there should be handing over in every transition on the 29th of May. So, if that be the case, the election will not come up, even this year. That is the constitutional crisis because we would have contravened the electoral act.
Do you see any danger ahead after the election?
Well, since I was born and I have witnessed elections in this country, this election is scary, because the body language, threat, abusive language, it is as if we are at war. I have never witnessed this kind of thing. What is happening now has never happened before. When we are talking about level playing ground, I have not seen it in Nigerian politics. In Nigeria, incumbency will remain using all government machinery and apparatus at his disposal. They (incumbency) are supposed to step aside. That is the area that can bring peace for our election. If that it is addressed, that incumbency running for election must be like others, that is level playing field! You won’t say because you are incumbent, you will still be there. You will have access to funds? You have access to other things? Look at what is happening now. Some states have not been able to pay salaries for two months or more because they have used the money for election campaign. So, if you have such access, what about the opponent that does not have such access? As incumbency, you can intimidate some people, you can use your position to get what you want because they know that you are the incumbency. Unless the constitution is amended to say anybody who wants to contest election must resign a month to the time.
Some critics of APC said it the party is more of paper tiger. What do you say to this?
I disagree with them. What they fail to do is to conduct private investigation in some of the states controlled by the APC and see the difference. Two, as opposition, we make valid points. When we were talking of postponement, people said APC has started. At the end of the day, it came to pass. It started with Sambo when he travelled to the UK and he said INEC was not prepared. He is the National Security Adviser. He should not have been a spokesman for INEC. The election was postponed. The APC also talked about card reader. People went to court to stop the use of the card reader and did not succeed. They just want to create some crisis for the election so that it will not take place. It is a game plan. Some people are saying that what is going to be the advantage of card readers if it is blocked. If they block it in four, five states, it is crisis. Since they don’t want the election to take place, they are devising so many means to make sure the election does not take place. The judiciary has saved another situation. A party that was recently registered, went to court to tell the court that they should give them time to present their presidential candidate. A party that cannot present a candidate for the House of Assembly or the House of Representatives, that party should not be recognised. Ask most of these parties today, who is their candidate at the various levels? They don’t have. How can the government register a new party? How can they say they want to fill a new presidential candidate now? They are just doing that for bargaining purpose. But I think we have passed that stage in this country.
Critics of your party say your presidential candidate (Buhari) is too old. What is your reaction?
Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, most presidents of America and I think some countries of Asian Tiger were ruled by presidents that were older than Buhari and they used their experience, age and contact to lift the countries up. So, age is not an issue. For me, it is a flimsy excuse. Age is not a barrier. We are talking about experience, prudence, integrity etc. Even some of the younger ones that we have now, what are their records in terms of credibility, honesty, etc.? They are saying that they want younger people. How come a person like Gusau is the minister of defence? It’s simply because of experience and you cannot buy experience from the market. For me, age is not a barrier in governance. It is rather an advantage especially given the Nigerian situation where we need somebody that knows the terrain and with the capacity zeal, zest and patriotic passion to do it again.
But where are the areas you think that Jonathan has performed poorly because it will be wrong to say he did nothing?
What has he done on the power sector? Of course he failed on that area. This is a very sensitive sector but he is still playing politics with it. What of the area of employment? For me, he failed. We have a lot of our youths joining the unemployment market and these are some of the reasons for the social vices that we are witnessing today. People want power, they want employment, they want better education, good health care etc. You may say Jonathan has done something on the railway, airport etc, it is for some class of people. But issues concerning unemployment, power, health etc is for everybody. What about the area of provision of water? Many villagers as well as urban areas still don’t have water. Jonathan has not done enough. I learnt he is doing well in the area of agriculture but I have not really taken time to investigate that area since he failed on the areas of power and creation of jobs to absolve our youths churned out from the university yearly. We must address the issue of unemployment. We have fundamental issues that have not been addressed.
What is your advice to Nigerians concerning the election?
My advice is that our destiny is in our hands. We want a change on the leadership and I have always said our problem is leadership. Until we get it right with our leaders, we will continue to walk in circles. A leader must lead by examples and what you do as a leader, your followers will emulate. The first to fourth republic lawmakers are being abandoned and not taking care of, just as the soldiers and other fields. These are people that made sacrifices. How can you be addressing Speaker Tambuwal as Mr? These are issues leadership should address. Look at the Ex-service men and how they are treated?