Points For Concern And Action, By Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
I am concerned as a democrat who
believes that with faithful and diligent practice of democracy, we can get over
most of our political problems and move steadfastly and surefootedly on the
course of stability, unity of purpose, socio-economic growth and progress for
all.
Democracy becomes a sham if elections are carried out by people who should be
impartial and neutral umpires, but who show no integrity, acting with blatant
partiality, duplicity and imbecility. For all democrats and those
carrying out the process of elections, there must be the redline that must not
be crossed in tactics and practices of democracy.
I personally have serious doubt about the present INEC’s integrity,
impartiality and competence to conduct a fair, free and credible
election. And if the INEC is willing, will the ruling party and
government allow it? From what we saw and knew about Osun State
gubernatorial election, what was conclusive was declared inconclusive despite
all advice to the contrary. The unnecessary rerun, if viewed as a
test-run for a larger general election, would lead people to expect incidences
of deliberately contrived, broken or non-working voting machines or card readers,
confusion of voters as to their voting stations, inadequate supply of voting
materials to designated places, long line to discourage voters and turning
blind eyes to favour the blue-eye political party of INEC because the
Commission’s hands will be tied to enable hatchet men and women to perform
their unwholesome assignment. The transmission and collation of results
are subject to interference, manipulation and meddling. If the INEC’s
favourite political party wins with all the above infractions, the result will
be conclusively declared and if not, there will be a ‘rerun’, the result of
which is known before it is carried out. I know that I am not alone in being
sceptical about the integrity of INEC and its ability to act creditably and
above board. But we are open to be convinced otherwise.
The joke about INEC would seem real. The INEC was asked if the Commission
was ready for the election and if it expects the election to be free, fair and
credible. The INEC man is reported as saying in response, “we are ready
with everything including the results!” God save Nigeria! It is up
to Nigerians to ensure that the redline is not crossed in safeguarding our
fledgling democracy. And if crossed, appropriate action must be taken not
to allow our democracy to be derailed.
A friend of mine who is more credulous and who claims to be close to the Chair
of INEC keeps telling me that INEC will retrieve its image and reputation by
conducting the coming elections with utmost integrity and impartiality. I
am not sure as I believe more in action than in words and in past record than
in promise. The track record of the present INEC is fairly sordid and all
men and women of goodwill and believers in democracy must be prepared for the
worst from INEC and their encouragers and how to get Nigeria out of the
electoral morass that the Commission is driving us into. To be forewarned
is to be forearmed. A battle long forewarned does not embroil the cripple
nor catch him unawares. A word is sufficient for the wise. The
labour of Nigerian democracy heroes must not be in vain. Some men of God
would hold President Buhari to his word on free, fair, credible and peaceful
elections. I am a realist and I reiterate that I go by track
record. Therefore, I am not persuaded by a track record of hollow words,
impunity, insensitivity and ‘I-couldn’t-care-less’ attitude, or by the
sanctimonious claims of any candidate and his campaign staff. I will only
believe what I see. This is a time for vigilance to fight to safeguard our votes
and defend our democracy. The price of liberty and sustenance of our
democracy is eternal vigilance and appropriate reaction to ward off
iniquities. We must all be ready to pay that price and not relying on
hollow words of callousness. The derailment of Nigerian democracy will be
a monumental disaster comparable to the disaster of the Nigerian first military
coup.
While Nigerians must not allow such a disaster to happen nor take such an
affront lying low, the international community who played an admirable role in
warning INEC, of course, to no avail on the Osun State gubernatorial election
and who have been warning all political parties must on this occasion give more
serious warning, send more people to the field to observe and work out punitive
measures against INEC and security officials especially the Police and
politicians who stand to gain from INEC’s misconduct, which is obviously
encouraged by the Executive Arm of Government and who must be held responsible
for the violence that will follow. Such measures can vary from denial and
withdrawal of visas from the people concerned and from their families to other
more stringent measures including their accounts being frozen and taking them
to International Criminal Court, ICC, if violence emanates from their action or
inaction. Nigeria must not be allowed to slip off the democratic path nor go
into anarchy and ruin. No individual nor group has monopoly of violence
or gangsterism. And we must not forget that in human interaction, reactions are
normally greater than action, though opposite.
It is no use, at this juncture, to keep lamenting about the failure,
incompetence, divisiveness, nepotism, encouragement and condonation of
corruption by Buhari administration as there is neither redeeming feature nor
personality to salvage the situation within that hierarchy. You cannot
give what you don’t have. Bode George put it bluntly in his statement of
December 3, 2018 when he said:
“The other day, the Vice-President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo – a
learned man, an enlightened person in all parameters – was seen at various
markets in Lagos State and Abuja distributing N10,000 each to market
women. What an absurdity! It was indeed an obscene display of
executive recklessness and abuse of office. Pray, where did the money
come from? Was it budgeted for in the appropriation law? In more
civilised nations, Osinbajo would have been impeached and prosecuted for
gutting our collective treasury.”
What an act by a Senior Advocate of Nigeria lawyer, number 2 man in the
Executive hierarchy; and what is more, a pastor of one of the Christian
movements led by a revered, respected and upright church leader, Pastor E. A.
Adeboye. Osinbajo must have gone for, “if you can’t beat them, join
them”. A great pity indeed and which makes people ask the questions, “Any
hope?” Yes, for me, there is hope. Osinbajo has shown the human
weakness and proved the saying that the corruption of the best is the worst
form of corruption. His explanation that it was their government programme can
only be construed to be very shallow and lopsided, if not an outrightly idiotic
programme.
Traders in rural and sub-urban areas of Nigeria are many more than those in
urban areas and they are much poorer than traders in Lagos, Abuja and other cities.
They need more attention and greater help. Are they to be confined to the
heap of perpetual poverty? What of those who are not traders? They
are not entitled to hand-out and they can languish in penury? And what
about millions who have lost their jobs in the last three and a half years? The
timing is also suspect. Those who criticise the action are called evil
but they are not evil as they know what they are doing and saying, and they
love Nigeria and Nigerians not less than the likes of Osinbajo. They are
not devil’s incarnate; they are patriots.
What is the connection between taking the number of PVC (Permanent Voters Card)
of the recipient of the N10,000 doled out to ‘traders’ and the forthcoming
election? There is something sinister about it, and Professor Osinbajo,
of all people, should know that. With collusion of the INEC officials and card
readers not made to work, anybody quoting the PVC number may be allowed to vote
as the revised Electoral Bill was not signed. And if that happens all over the
country, it will be massive rigging indeed. The Chairman of INEC must
stand firm and carry out his duties with competence and unbending
neutrality. Card readers must be used without fail and accreditation must
be completed and number ascertained and made public before voting commences as
was done in 2015.
Amina Zakari has become too controversial a figure to be able to give assurance
of free, fair and credible election for INEC. President Buhari and her family
have declared that there is no blood relationship but there is relationship
through marriage and that is more than enough for the good lady to step
aside. A judge does not sit in judgement over a case once he or she
becomes a cause for controversy or one side in the case has strongly objected
to the judge. Madam Amina Zakari should, in honour, stay out and not be
seen as a source of contamination of the election. Otherwise, it will be
difficulty to deny the rumour that she is being assigned to Collation Centre
for one duty only – to write out figures that are not results of the voting in
the field on fake results sheets without water mark or on genuine results
sheets which she will have access to as a Commissioner. Amina Zakari is
not the only Commissioner that can be in the Collation Centre. Let the
INEC Chairman act boldly and impartially and prove his absolute neutrality and
responsiveness to contribute to make the election peacefully free, fair and
credible. His integrity needs to be transparently demonstrated.
We should remember that there had been reports of INEC sponsored rigging in the
past, and also with INEC officials through collation and with officials being
put in party coordinators’ dresses and working for the political party favoured
by INEC and also putting the dresses of other parties on INEC-favoured parties
and police uniforms on INEC-favoured parties to rig all the elections for the
favoured party. Like all of us, INEC knows all these and it should devise
means to make sure they do not happen. But will they? One way will
be to only allow card readers to be means of authenticating voters and where
there is no such authentication, it should mean no voting. The second is to use
only identity cards with watermarks issued by INEC itself to party officials
only for identification of political party coordinators, officials and agents
and not political parties dresses or arm and wrist bands which anybody can wear
for purposes of identification on election duty or function. Both the
Presidency and the National Assembly must so far be commended for adequately
providing funding as confirmed by INEC, and therefore funding cannot be an
excuse for poor performance by INEC.
President Buhari and his hatchet men in the coming election think that the
judiciary must be primed in their favour. Hence, the Chief Justice of
Nigeria, Justice Walter Samuel Nkanu Onnoghen, has been harassed and prosecuted
for non-declaration of his assets without following the Constitution and the
law, just to make him conform or set him aside for a Buhari man to take over or
act, as President Buhari and his people believe no stone should be left
unturned to rig Buhari in. It seems to be a ploy to intimidate the
judiciary as a whole in preparation for all election cases that will go before
them. Where and how will all these stop? Typically, with overwhelming
outrage and condemnation, we are told that the Presidency denied knowledge of
the action. But the Vice-President told us that the President knew of the
action on Saturday night for everything that has been prepared for Monday
morning. Haba VP, it doesn’t happen that way. Nobody should take
such measure against any of the four in hierarchy below the President or any of
his ministers without his knowledge and indeed his approval. But if that
can happen to the Chief Justice of the Federation, the fifth man in the
hierarchy of government, without the knowledge let alone the approval of the
President, then it speaks for the type of government we have which means the
President is not in charge let alone being in control and no Nigerian must take
anything for granted. We are all unsafe and insecure under such an
administration. And enough of it! Buhari’s apologists will not stop
at anything to try to cover up his administration’s inadequate
performance and character. A constitutional liberal democracy cannot
thrive without an independent and insulated judiciary from the executive and
the legislature. Nigerians must wake up and stop these acts of wanton
desperation tantamount to mental incapacity to run the affairs of Nigeria
wholesomely.
Life and living are anchored on trust. But if I trust you and you
deceive, cheat or disappoint me the first time, it is shame on you.
However, if I allow you to do so the same thing for me the second time, I do
not only have myself to blame, I must be regarded as a compound fool.
Buhari has succeeded in deceiving us the first time and we will be fools to
allow ourselves to be deceived the second time. Buba Galadima, who knows
Buhari very well as a confidant and National Secretary of Congress for
Progressive Change, CPC, the Buhari’s party before it joined in forming All
Progressives Congress, APC, has warned us this time around that no matter what
he promises, he cannot change his character and attitude. He describes
him as inflexible, insincere, dubious, intolerant, never accepts responsibility
when things go wrong and impervious to reason and advice for change. If
you cannot change your mind, you cannot change anything is the assertion of
George Bernard Shaw. Even when figures, facts and statistics are made
clear to Buhari, he keeps repeating what is untrue, either because he cannot
understand or for mischief purposes and that places him on the level of a
pathological liar. He believes he can get away with impunity and deceit
as he seems to have done on many occasions in the past. Buba Galadima’s
position is well complemented by Dr. Auwalu Anwar on the APC, CPC, TBO and
Buhari’s character and attitude in his yet to be launched book, “Politics As
Dashed Hopes in Nigeria”. It is also a stunning revelation. Anwar clearly
pointed out, “the brazen display of incompetence, insensitivity and
irresponsiveness by delusional party, CPC, leadership at all levels”.
Buhari was the leader of the party. Bola Tinubu’s statement about Muhammadu
Buhari in 2003 is fairly prophetic, “Muhammadu Buhari is an agent of
destabilisation, ethnic bigot and religious fanatic who, if given the chance,
would ensure the disintegration of the country. His ethnocentrism would
jeopardise Nigeria’s national unity.”
Junaid Mohammed was eloquent on the issue of nepotism. But if as we were
told that Buhari is nepotic because he does not trust others, why should others
trust him to continue to put their fate and life in his hand. Trust
begets trust. They cannot be trusted for ‘sensitive’ appointment but they
can be sent out to campaign for his re-election. Who is fooling who?
What is happening under Buhari’s watch can be likened to what we witnessed
under Gen. Sani Abacha in many ways. When Abacha decided that he must install
himself as Nigerian President by all means and at all costs, he went for broke
and surrounded himself with hatchet men who on his order and in his interest
and at high costs to Nigeria and Nigerians maimed, tortured and killed for Abacha.
Buhari has started on the same path in mad desperation.
From available intelligence, we have heard of how Buhari and his party are
going about his own self-succession project. They have started recruiting
collation officers who are already awarding results based on their projects to
actualise the perpetuation agenda in which the people will not matter and the
votes will not count. It is the sole reason he has blatantly refused to
sign the revised Electoral Reform Bill into law.
His henchmen are working round the clock in cahoots with security and election
officials to perfect their plan by computing results right from the ward to
local government, state and national levels to allot him what will look like a
landslide victory irrespective of the true situation for a candidate who might
have carried out by proxy presidential debate and campaigns.
The current plan is to drape the pre-determined results with a toga of
credibility. It is also planned that violence of unimaginable proportion
will be unleashed in high voting population areas across the country to
precipitate re-run elections and where he will be returned duly elected after
concentration of security officials as it happened in Osun State. We are
monitoring them and we call on all democrats across the world to keep an eye on
the unfolding anti-democratic agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari. This
is the time for preventive measures to be taken otherwise Nigeria may be
presented with a fait accompli with impunity and total disregard of all pleas.
His scheme bears eloquent testimony to this road similar to Abacha whom he has
praised to high heavens and as an arch-supporter and beneficiary from Abacha,
he has seen nothing wrong done by him. It is clear from all indications
that Buhari is putting into practice the lessons he learned from Abacha. Buhari
has intimidated and harassed the private sector, attacked the National Assembly
and now unconstitutionally and recklessly attacked and intimidated the
Judiciary to cow them to submission.
I was a victim of Abacha’s atrocities against Nigeria and Nigerians – high and
low. At the height of Abacha’s desperation for perpetual power, he did
not brook any criticism because Nigeria was seen as his personal
property. You must go along with him or be destroyed. All
institutions for ensuring security, welfare and well-being of Nigeria and
Nigerians particularly the Police, the Military and the Department of State
Services (DSS) were abused and misused to deal with critics of Abacha and
non-conformists with Abacha.
Today, another Abacha Era is here. The security institutions are being
misused to fight all critics and opponents of Buhari and to derail our
fledgling democracy. EFCC, Police and Code of Conduct Tribunal are also
being equally misused to deal with those Buhari sees as enemies for criticising
him or as those who may not do his bidding in manipulating election
results. Criticism, choice and being different are inherent trade mark of
democracy. If democracy is derailed or aborted, anarchy and authoritarianism
will automatically follow.
Today, as in the day of Abacha, Nigerians must rise up and do what they did in
the time of Abacha. Churches and Mosques prayed. International
community stood by us Nigerians. I was a beneficiary and my life was saved.
Well-meaning Nigerians took appropriate actions and made sacrifices, some
supreme, some less than supreme but God had the final say and He took the
ultimate action.
God of Nigeria is a living God and a prayer-answering God. Nigerians must
cry out to God to deliver Nigeria. Here again, I have been threatened
with arrest and extermination but I will not succumb to intimidation or
threats. Maybe I should remind those who are using probe as a threat that
I have been probed four times by EFCC, ICPC, House of Representatives and the
Senate and Buhari has access to reports of these probes. But I have also
challenged Buhari and the criminals around him to set up a probe on the same
allegations and I will face such probe in public. But I know that these criminals
cannot withstand a Police inquiry let alone clinical probe on the past public
offices they held. My fervent prayer is that President Buhari may live to
see the will and purpose of God for Nigeria. My final appeal to him is to
desist from evil with manipulation and desperation because evil has
repercussion especially as man who should watch and be mindful of his
self-acclaimed and packaged integrity. At the end of the day, those who
goad you on will leave you in the lurch. You will be left alone, naked
and unheralded. In defeat, which must be Buhari’s fear leading to
desperation, he and his co-travellers can still maintain modicum of decency,
and exhibit fear of God in their actions. We have been told that governance has
been abdicated to a cabal. Now, campaigning has been abdicated to
‘jagaban’. And it is being authoritatively stated that he would not join
any presidential debate. Nigerians will not allow the elections to be
abdicated to INEC and Police to give us false and manipulated results. I
personally commend the President for yielding to popular outcry to let the
former Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Kpotun Idris, go when he is due as
he had the track record and history of being assigned to rig elections for the
incumbent. It was alleged that he was sent to Kano for that purpose in
2015. He was already deploying his Commissioners of Police on similar
mission before his exit. We must all encourage the new Inspector-General
of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to tread the path of professionalism,
even-handedness, respect and new image for the Police.
While Nigeria must appreciate Buhari for the little he has done and allow him
to depart for home in peace if he allows free, fair, peaceful and credible
elections, we must also tell ourselves that Nigeria deserves better at
this point in time than what Buhari is capable of offering. History will
note that he has been there. Nigeria now needs a man with better physical
and mental soundness, with an active mind and intellect.
Let me say again that Nigeria belongs to all Nigerians and exists for the
benefit of all Nigerians and non-Nigerians who desire to live or do business in
and with Nigeria. The attitude of “it is my turn and I can do what I
like” with impunity will not last because Nigeria is created by God and it will
outlive all evil machinations and designs against the overall interest of
Nigeria.
Before I conclude, let me assert that the security situation has deteriorated
with kidnapping everywhere and Boko Haram more in action and nobody should
deceive Nigerians about this. With the teaming up of Boko Haram and
Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP), Boko Haram is stronger today
militarily than they have ever been. Boko Haram has also been empowered
by the Nigerian government through payment of ransom of millions of dollars
which each administration disingenuously always denies. With ISIS being
liquidated in Iraq and Syria, Africa is now their port of concentration.
Soon, they may take over Libya which, with substantial resources, is almost a
totally failed state. When that happens, all African countries North of
Congo River will be unsafe with serious security problems. The struggle
must be for all West African, Central African, North African and most East
African States. Nigeria has to play a vanguard role in this struggle as
we have much to lose. This administration has reached the end of its wit
even in handling all security issues, but particularly Boko Haram issue, partly
due to misuse of security apparatus and poor equipment, deployment,
coordination and cooperation.
Finally, those Nigerians that are being intimidated or threatened by this
Administration must trust in God and stand firm. Tough times do not last
forever, but tough people invariably survive tough times. This is a tough
time for almost all Nigerians in different respects, but the people’s will
shall triumph. All people who have registered to vote with their PVCs must
never allow anybody or anything to deny or deprive them of the right of
performing their fundamental civic duty of voting and sustaining
democracy. Establishment of democracy and its sustenance is second to
attainment of independence in our political life, leaving out the victory of
the civil war. We shall overcome.
