Human rights activist and All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Oyo State Comrade Mashood Erubami spoke with MUSA ODOSHIMOKHE on the recent general elections, the mistakes the incoming administration should avoid and urgent steps it should take to reposition the polity.
What are the lessons to be learned from the recent general elections?
For future elections to be free, fair and legitimate, the leadership of INEC must continue to prove doubting Thomas’s wrong that it is not engaged in unwholesome affiliation with politicians.
Not only this, INEC must show mastery of its past faults and show capacity that it can correct them, in the right manner without failing to use the past reported challenges to improve on its performances. It will be unacceptable to Nigerians to be told again why INEC could not perfects its action to conduct acceptable election that meets international standards, It must not repeat the same old mistakes which have been highlighted in the past.
If we consider the way and manner the voters registration was carried out in 2010 with many of the newly acquired machines not functioning well , staff of INEC not properly trained to handle the machines and other logistics problems making it impossible for majority of prospective voters to register within areas of their domiciliation, all these made many potential Voters to register not necessarily where they live but where the registration machines were available.
To me and others from my own school of thought, INEC must discourage an electoral process that would allow voter’s apathy in all future elections.It should not deny registered voters who registered outside their living areas the opportunity to come out to regularise their registration, in fact it must attend to all outstanding transfers and ensure that all names on the register had permanent Voters Cards while all efforts must be made. to transfer their names back to their living abode where they can vote conveniently.
INEC must publish before the election dates, the list of its officials with their Names, Contact Phones and Status, in National newspapers and on its websites to enable local and International Observers and Party Agents to verify the genuineness of the officials at every polling centre and for transparency.
INEC should ensure that there is PVC for every name that appears on its voters’ register.
INEC must publish the list of voting areas and polling units in the states where election is being conducted with contact description and community names to ease navigation and making them accessible to electoral officials, observers, media, party agents and other stakeholders.
Every efforts must be put in place to ensure that millions of yet to be collected PVCs from the points of printing are collected and distributed to their owners without further complications in preparation for future election and not necessarily very near election dates bearing that voters registration is a continuous exercise.
Many are worried that bad eggs may infiltrate the government of Gen. Muhammed Buhari and clog the wheel of development…
These worries are not unfounded nor misplaced, the members and leadership of APC are not all infallible given the nature of its merger, what this foist on all of us including the media is not to go to sleep immediately a new President is sworn in on May 29 2015, we must be ever vigilant and pro active. It behoves on all Nigerians to start setting agenda of good governance for General Muhammadu Buhari, placing before him the genuine needs of the people with a strong warning that the bulk stop on his table and that the electorate will not tolerate frivolous excuses for failure, we need to constantly remind the Government that some of the party members might turned landmine for his progressive government, it is therefore left for him and others who are credible to guard jealously their goodwill and ensure that nobody is allowed to blot it with mud.
General Buhari or any government striving to fight corruption and indiscipline should remember that corruption do fight back and only strong internal cohesion and stronger discipline can thwart its impunity.
The Buhari administration should put in strong barricades that will not allow the infiltration of bad eggs into the system and use the same barricades to choke those that would have infiltrated before the count began. No government is bereft of the bad eggs but they are easily identified through their greed and should be dealt with publicly to send strong signal that their impunities would not be tolerated.
What is your advice to President-elect Muhammadu Buhari?
The best choice before the new APC government from May 29 is not to jettison all that the outgoing government did for sixteen years including the good ones, it must condemn what is condemnable and Commend what should be commended.
General Buhari should immediately set up a “multi stake-holdership government” to be constituted with genuine stakeholders who are technocrats and professionals that will invigorate the already weak Naira, boost the morale of Nigerians who are victims of the 15 years of unimpressive and un rehearsed governance of the People Democratic Party (PDP). The election of Buhari should throw up a new phase of politics in Nigeria which must be accompanied by new style of governance that considers the concrete reality of mass unemployment of youths and productive adults, lack of electricity, scarcity of fuel and bad governance to justify the basis for faulting the continuity of President Ebele Jonathan and underscore the reasons which have left Nigerians with no healthier alternative than to change him and replace him.
Buhari having been giving the chance, should set up an innovative “multi-stakeholdership government” as interface program to make genuine change in the country , for Nigerians to know and enjoy happiness again being the rare genius that can end Nigerians years of misery and hunger in the midst of plenty including stopping the seemingly unrelenting insecurity so as to help in halting the worsening state of our economy, generating enough revenue for creating massive employment for all.