Hon. Nnenna Elendu Ukeje, the member of the House of Representatives representing Bende Federal Constituency, is also the Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. She speaks with BOLAJI OGUNDELE on various national issues, especially those that border on executive/legislative relations, electioneering and women participation in politics.
Only recently, President Muhammadu Buhari declined assent to the amendment of the Electoral Bill. Does the National Assembly have the capacity to override him and what do you see as the consequences of that refusal?
It was in the course of our oversight functions. For instance, in the court case between (Governor Nyesom) Wike vs Dakuku Peterside, it was very clear. They said that even though the card reader was a policy of government, it was not a law, and because it was not a law, a policy could not override a law. To that end, it was found that it was inadmissible in court. What we chose to do was to clear the air on the ambiguity surrounding that.
As for what is the consequence, for us, the amendment of the Electoral Act would throw up all the concerns that we have in the electoral laws. Let us not forget that the job of the National Assembly is to collate and aggregate the opinions of a critical mass of the Nigerian people. What are the yearnings of the Nigerian people? That we have freer, fairer and more transparent elections.
Now, if we can sit in conversations with Nigerians in our various constituencies, look at how they transmit real time in other countries and we are always admiring those elections. Now, the only way to have done it is to give clarity. But for it to be more technological so that it can transmit in real time to cut back on ballot snatching or manipulation and mutilation of results, that was what NASS was trying to do.
To come back to the question on whether NASS would be able to override the veto, politics is a question of number. Is there a political will to try to override the veto? Absolutely. Can it be done? We just have to wait and see.
Do you think vote buying is an issue Nigeria can tackle very soon?
It would have been addressed in the Electoral Act. But what do I think should be done? Now, we have seen that there is now vote buying before, during and after the act. So, I am very concerned. Do I think that it is something that can be tackled right now? I always say to people that this is a referendum of the Nigerian people. The politicians are the beneficiaries of the act, but the people are the drivers of the process. And so the inducements would come. But as I said, the referendum is the Nigerian people’s, and if the Nigerian people give up their franchise at any stage and become an accomplice in vote buying, then you cannot hold the politicians responsible.
I believe that it is absolutely important that the Nigerian people decide who to vote for. It is not about the politicians, it is the people that must drive the process. Therein lies the true definition of politics: government of the people, by the people, for the people, benefitted from by the politicians.
With the low participation of women in politics, what hope do you see for women in 2019?
It is very tragic. I actually don’t see any hope. And like I said earlier, that environment is fraught with so much violence now. If we don’t do anything about the violence, from Delta, Benue, to most of the constituencies where they had primary elections, you all saw the amount of guns. It was a free for all, with people shooting like it was the norm. In an era of violence, women don’t thrive.
Unfortunately, when you see the number of women that came out in the process, you find that this is the lowest in the history of Nigerian political space. Now, the question becomes that after 18 years and four rounds of election, the assumption was that our political space will be strengthened, deepened and the institutions and systems that guide politics and the conduct of elections will be stronger. Unfortunately, what we find is that those structures and institutions are getting weaker.
Again, that takes us back to the Electoral Act. And for me, it is very important because the job of the National Assembly is that through its oversight, we will look at laws, appropriations and policies and the things that happen are the things that would normally drive and determine the amendments brought into any law. Now for us, after the 2015 elections, there were so many lacunas. There were certain things that had miligated against the smooth running of those elections, and as politicians, we decided that our only instrument was the amendment of the electoral act. By that amendment, certain things were brought up.
We found that a lot of people actually proposed solutions to violence in elections. Lots of people proposed all kinds of amendments. We found that because we have a largely illiterate population, the people know what they want but they are probably not literate and so when you lump candidates together, they are not able to differentiate them.
So you find out that the people were not voting for politicians. Because they were lumped together, they didn’t have a choice. The women in my constituency, for instance, would ask, ‘Who should we vote for in the presidency?’ And she would say, for instance, that she wants to vote for Nnenna, and you say to her, ‘If you vote for all these other people, it means Nnenna has won.’ So we found that, that was what was happening.
Now we found that we were running proxy elections. That is to say if we wanted to elect the president and we were voting for the House of Representatives member, it meant that it was a carry through. With the consequence that the most important office in the country was not made to stand alone in such a way that gave Nigerians the opportunity to actually choose the president of their choice. Now, if there is a saying that you get the leadership you deserve, it means that at least, the people should be given the opportunity to choose that leadership without being hoodwinked into doing that.
You said you are not interested in building roads, yet it is in the open that lawmakers are given constituency projects. What are you deploying the money into?
We are not given any money, and I think this is a fantastic time to make the clarifications. We are given the opportunity to attract into the budget certain projects, and we have come to realise that our constituencies are very rural. Now a lot of our people see government in terms of roads, schools, hospitals, and that was the reason why in the wisdom of the NASS, they decided that we are going to have quick wins to engage the people at the grassroots level.
Now when the budget comes in, it does not understand that in Bende, for instance, where I come from, that Amokwelu needs a health centre. They don’t realise that Okokoitem has not had water in 50 years and so government is more interested in the larger issues. But because we need to connect with our people, part of our job is representation, part of our job is to attract projects to our constituencies; what we do is quick wins. Things that affect the lives of our people in the immediate –refurbishing schools, sinking boreholes, building healthcare centres–these affect the lives of the people.
For instance, in Abia where I come from, there is a package that you are allowed to attract. I am allowed to attract projects worth N150 million to my entire constituency every year, and it is not given to me in cash. I am asked to nominate projects into the budget and that entire budgetary process is taken up by the MDAs where they are domiciled. For instance, if I want boreholes, I will put them in the Ministry of Water Resources; if I want schools, it is Ministry of Education, and so on, up to the tune of N150 million. Not a penny is given to members of NASS.
Now when you hear that the Federal Government gives roads at N150 million per kilometre, it is impossible for me with my N150 million ceiling and my 13 wards to put one kilometer road in one village. First of all, no road is one kilometer. Second of all, it sucks up everything when I could have put a medical center here, refurbish 20 schools, sink a borehole and so it reaches more people.
It’s tokenism, but in a way, that brings down government to the grassroots, and that was the wisdom behind constituency projects. Unfortunately, the NASS is the most vilified arm of government. There is nothing more people want to hear than bogus salaries and all that, but the truth of the matter is exactly as it is. I keep asking my friends who are contractors, who are part of this narrative of being given money and say, ‘You did constituency projects in this constituency, did the honourable member pay you? You went and raised the voucher in the ministry and you got paid, so why do you constantly say we are given the money for constituency projects?’
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