Political watchers and Nigerians in general are still trying to digest what went down, lessons to be learnt from the process and how to ensure a better process in 2023. Mr. Goddy Uwazurike, a lawyer and Political enthusiast, in this interview shares his views on the just concluded elections and suggests what the political parties should do come 2023.
TNE: Briefly and in general terms what’s your take on the just concluded elections?
I think we took many steps backwards in the sense that the elections were neither free nor fair and I do not think that the results of the elections actually reflected the efforts of many people in casting their votes which was why after casting for the Presidential election they lost interest. Voter apathy crept in. People wondered why they should vote when it was obvious the votes didn’t count. That was why we had such a horribly low turnout in the second election. In other words, the governorship and the State Houses of Assembly elections reflected the mood of the people because they were terribly disappointed with the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
TNE: Before the elections, the political parties had signed a peace accord to eschew violence and behave themselves as it were. In your views did they deliver on that promise?
No, they did not. There was no level playing field; level playing field means that you can win or I can win, that people cast their votes and the votes will be counted freely and the votes will be reflected in the results.
Let us start from before the elections; we saw instances where some candidates tried to campaign in some places, but were denied the use of the stadium by the governors. We also saw in some cases beginning from Lagos, where posters of opposition parties were not allowed, they were pulled down; remember these people had limited resources unlike the government party people. So, there was serious frustration. The police had the right to look into how things were being done, but to stop someone from holding rallies is unconstitutional, that freedom is given to everybody. Police can step in to make sure that two parties do not campaign at the same place at the same time but not to stop anyone from campaigning.
Long before the elections, former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, made it quite clear that the military will destroy the freedom of the elections in Port-Harcourt and that happened. When the problem started there, what was the first reaction of the Army headquarters, “oh they were fake people, they were not soldiers.” Later, the army came out to attack INEC claiming the right to be part of the electoral process. In fact to quote the army, they said: “We as stakeholders have the right to intervene in the election.” Was that intervention? I think it was actually a disaster. So the parties didn’t live up to the promises they made, the will of the people was not reflected.
TNE: The President also assured the nation and the world severally that his government would deliver a free, fair and credible election. To what extent did that happen?
Well, you know that the President was a candidate in the election, so it’s like me hiring a teacher who will teach us and grade us. As long as INEC was not seen to be independent so long will people complain, even now people still believe that those who cast their votes decide nothing and those who count decide everything. I will say that the election conducted under President Muhammadu Buhari was a disaster in the sense that it was neither free nor fair. As long as people queue up in the sun for hours to vote only to realise after queuing in the sun that they just wasted their time, they would continue to stay away from elections and it would take a lot to motivate or stimulate the interest of the people in an election in this country.
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TNE: Given that INEC had four years to prepare for the elections how do you assess its performance after the process?
Well, INEC didn’t give the impression that it was independent. They gave the impression that they were subject to another authority. That’s the impression I got.
Four years ago, they knew there was going to be an election. The first year they didn’t prepare, second year they didn’t prepare, third year they didn’t prepare until about six months to the election and they have nobody to blame except themselves. The things they needed, if they didn’t want them made in this country, there are planes flying into the country every 24 hours. If they wanted to ship the materials, within two weeks they would arrive. So, for INEC not to have been ready was just a symptom of their lack of preparation. They were just not ready for the election.
TNE: The Peace Accord Committee led by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar (rtd) was the one that brought the parties to sign the accord that they would behave. Apart from the visit to Atiku which details we do not know, they’ve not come out to make any categorical statement on how the election went. What is your view about that committee and the role they were supposed to play or the roles they arrogated to themselves to play?
The youngest member of that committee I believe is Bishop Matthew Kukah. The rest are all over 70, the Sultan of Sokoto may be in his 60’s, You know that when an old man is around and there is likely to be a fight, he will not stand up and tell one person you are wrong or you are right. He will try to make peace because he knows that once he justifies the action of one side, he has lost all credibility. I still give them the benefit of the doubt that they are still trying to make peace.
They are a voluntary organisation. Their court has no power of law. It’s just, ‘come let me make peace for you.’ What the committee says is not binding on anybody. I do not believe that the candidates actually believed in it. For them, it was just a photo opportunity.
Remember that as soon as they finished signing that accord, the President started dishing out orders to the military. The military has no role in politics in this country. They are not even supposed to come out.
Yet the President as the Commander-in-Chief sent his soldiers into the streets, first with a warning that the soldiers were there to shoot all those who snatch ballot boxes when we have a law governing snatching of boxes; the President was actually looking for extra-judicial killings. That’s the first time he offended that accord.
Of course, speaking as a lawyer, I know that the worst thing the President has done to this country is the executive interfering in the legislature and the judiciary.
TNE: At this point, let’s look at the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria by the President, did he act within his powers?
The President has no power to do what he did. Up till now, nobody has told us on what power or authority he did that. What we keep hearing from Chairman of the Code of Conduct is ‘my inherent powers’ and inherent power is a bogus term which has never gone beyond the jurisdiction of the court. The Code of Conduct Tribunal is a statutory body and the rules and laws governing the body are known and none is called inherent power. The only inherent power a court has is to maintain its dignity, which is why when a person comes there and insults the judge, the inherent power the court has is to maintain its dignity by sending the person to jail or finding him guilty of contempt in the face of court.
The hallmark of a democracy is that there are three independent arm; the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary and none must suppress the other. Any country where you have one arm leaning on the other, then there is no democracy. That’s why whatever Russia has tried to do; nobody believes there is democracy there. Nobody even thinks of North Korea. If you can get up and call President Trump all sorts of names and he cannot order the lowest ranked man to arrest you, then you know there’s democracy.
I can say this without any fear of contradiction; the President and Governors have no power to order anybody’s arrest. The only power the President has is that the Chief of Army Staff and other Defence Chiefs are answerable to him, but they don’t have the power to arrest civilians. Their power is to arrest military people and defend Nigeria from external aggression and internal insurrection. Police has the power of arrest provided by the Police Act. When the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, says the President has approved the prosecution of somebody, you know they have lost it.
TNE: Moving forward, what needs to be done to avoid a repeat of what happened with the 2019 elections?
The earlier we appoint a new INEC executive made up of people whose credibility has been demonstrated, the better. When we were in primary school and we started doing Algebra in mathematics we learnt of Quod Erat Demonstrandum, QED, meaning you have proven whatever you were to prove. Let’s look for such people whose integrity has been proven.
I know Professor Mahmood Yakubu is intelligent, but I don’t believe he’s independent. First and foremost, the credibility of the present INEC is hanging in the air; the step-daughter of Mr. President’s sister is there, it does not matter who appointed or did not appoint her. If I come into an office and my sister-in-law is there and then there is something that requires discretion, I know very well that the person will favour me unless there’s an inherent fight in my family. So that credibility was not there right from the beginning.
Most people suspected that Prof. Yakubu would be a rubber stamp and he proved them right. In some elections, we had the outstanding results being higher than the margin between two top people and INEC would declare results; you find others they would not declare. We heard all sorts of funny statements like inconclusive and supplementary elections, but yet the people knew who won. INEC should sit up.
Nobody in future will remember Mrs. Amina Waziri or Festus Okoye or Mike Igini. The only name they will remember is Professor Yakubu Mahmood. What they will say is that in the year 2019 Prof. Mahmood Yakubu presided over INEC and did not deliver. His name has gone down and he can never get it back again. I know he’s a University professor and he can go back to teaching the way Prof. Jega has done but the damage has been done.
TNE: During the last election in Lagos state the ‘Igbo question’ came up where some people felt they, Igbos were becoming a threat. What do say of the Igbo question in Lagos?
Igbos by nature move around a lot and they are also by nature distinct. This is a Yoruba land; therefore, anybody who is not Yoruba must stand out. An Igbo man wherever he lives does not believe in suffering himself so he builds a nice house to live in to enjoy himself while he’s alive. When his relations have seen what he has done, they want to move in and from there others will come and the place develops.
As it is today any part of Lagos State where the indigenes are anxious to develop the place they look for Igbo buyers. They are the ones selling their lands to the Igbos. Nobody takes it from them by force. However, what those who raised the Igbo question during the elections have done, in my opinion, is to remind us that we shouldn’t be too comfortable where we are, trouble can start tomorrow and like Chief Iwuanyanwu said, Igbos should put their 90% investments in the East and 20% outside. He also pointed out that there is no Igbo who has a visible investment in the East, in Igbo land, none; therefore East or West home is best. The Igbos should remember the saying that ‘he who is surrounded by the enemy should watch out for his life.’
TNE: There was a lot of voter apathy during the last elections. In a county of almost 200 million people less than a hundred million participated in the election, so, how do we deal with it?
I think the first thing is to reassure people that in 2023, their votes would count. If that is not done, then it is all lost. I also expect the main contenders for the two parties to come from the South. Those in the South are anxious to vote but they are worried that their votes may not count. For those in the North, they have a system of someone telling them who to vote for. That is wrong. Every vote should be independent.