Special Adviser to the President on Inter-Party Affairs, Senator Ben Obi, the convener of the Osun State Stakeholders Sensitisation Workshop on 2014 Governorship Election, spoke to select journalists in Osogbo on what he observed in the forthcoming election and other issues. Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu, was there and reports
What do you make of the huge turnout for the workshop after the poorly attended Ekiti workshop?
Well, I don’t want to say that Ekiti was a poorly attended workshop. Because we didn’t see the major contestants does not make the workshop poor. Election matter is more of participants at the grassroots and party affair. So, once you are able to get the leaders of the party in attendance, you have achieved the purpose. And like I said to you in Ekiti , my duty as convener is to make sure that I speak personally to the candidates, including the incumbents. I did so in Ekiti without exemption. I did so in Osun without exemption.
Like I said, the Ekiti one was that we had some slight misunderstanding, gap in communication between us and IPAC. Then this time around, after associating with us when we did the all-party summit, it clearly gave them an indication that we mean no harm. They now saw that it was in their own interest that we work hand in hand. The essence of the workshop is for the people. The absence of one is absolutely insignificant compared to the electorate that the workshop is supposed to guide. When you look at it from the perspective of oh, the governor did not come, the leading candidates did not come; but the fact is that the parties under which platform they are contesting are present to convey the message. The governorship candidate may suddenly have a call from a friend who is passing by, saying come and pick up some support. For him, it is probably more important than coming to workshop to talk about violent-free election. We thanked God that it went well.
In Ekiti you had a template, you did not allow the leaders of the party to speak, but here in Osun, party leaders were allowed to speak. What accounted for that? The leading party candidates were not here, and there were complains that they should have been around to hear what the participants in workshop said?
My colleague, Senator Fajinmi, the person who complained, I said distinguished senator, since you have the opportunity to speak, you would have told them that the problem you are having are these candidates, you don’t keep it to yourself. Why you saw that party leaders were allowed to speak was that IPAC came with some party chairmen and we want to make sure that we enlist their support. There are about 20 candidates, we want to ensure that the elections go smoothly, peacefully and free and fair.
Do you think what you have done today will ensure a free and fair election. The PDP deputy governorship candidate was going to expose something, he made mention of some persons called state boys, but he was not allowed to finish, those state boys from what we heard are armed. Do you think these state boys lurking around the corner will not undermine the election?
The sensitisation workshop is not for me to check armed state boys. I don’t have that capacity. The people who have the capacity have been alerted. I read about it last week that they have made a formal complaint to the IG. And I am sure that the State Security Service is also aware. And they will know the best thing to do in such a matter. I think that is their duty. I have done my own duty. There is supposed to be harmony to promote a peaceful atmosphere for a free and fair election.
These series of workshops, on the face value appear to aide peaceful election where they were held. In Ekiti the election was peaceful but the APC complained of scientific rigging before the election?
After many years of being in this game, it is difficult to flog a child and tell the child not to cry. The rhythm of the cry will always be different from one child to another. One may be crying in Yoruba, Hausa or Igbo. There is nothing you do that a political party will not have reason to say this is why we lost this election. What I am trying to say here is that we are going through a process of re-engineering and at the end of the day we would come to the reality that we have to understand that the style that was adopted by Kayode Fayemi is probably a civilised and modern day approach, that when you lose an election and you are convinced, you congratulate the winner. Kayode is not a baby. Kayode is one of the best brains in this country. So, he must have given it a deep thought before he made his broadcast to the good people of the state. What follows thereafter is politics.
Some observers say that the presence of the military during the Ekiti State governorship election was the reason for the violence-free election in the state. Using that as a model, will it be right to say that using the military would be the solution to Nigeria’s election matters?
Well, there are places that are volatile and when you identify such places you need to beef up security to make sure you don’t allow people to disrupt the activities on ground. That will then guide and protect the votes of the people. Yes, some people have been complaining of heavy military presence on ground but the complaints are not that the military presence was used to promote party A or party B. When you notice areas that are volatile, then your duty will be to beef up the security. There are some other states where you don’t need to deploy the military because they are not volatile as others.
If we adopt that as a pattern, during the general election, if we have six to seven volatile states, what do we do?
There is what they call operational order within the security services. If they have made it an operational order, I am sure that they would have gone back to the drawing board to see how they will be able to do virtually the same thing in 2015. You will look at the flash points across the country and that would help or guide you on how to deploy your men. What I am trying to say here is that you have to keep improving as time goes on. We have not arrived there yet. People were skeptical about INEC, particularly after the 2011 elections but Anambra was better last year, Ekiti was better last month. You could see the improvement after seven months. The lapses you noticed in Anambra were completely covered in Ekiti. When you try to make sure that you cover such lapses, it reduces the possibility of manipulation or intervention negatively.
I was speaking with someone and he said, Nigeria has not had it so bad like this before. Seven months to the 2015 general election, there are no known aspirants for the office of the president apart from Sam Nda-Isaiah that has declared. Someone was also saying that politicians are taking voters for granted. What does that portend?
I don’t agree with you. INEC has a time table and you have to follow the time table…Campaigning is different and signifying your intention is another thing.
But you have to follow the time table. If somebody wants to run and he is consulting quietly, how would you know? I know of people who have interest. Running for presidential election is not a child’s affair. For you to go into the presidential race you have to consult to be sure of what and what is on the ground. You have to have a structure. APC thought it was easy but as you can see they are now facing their own internal wrangling. If they don’t sort that out now before going to talk about, who will fly the flag of the party, your guess is as good as mine. Even in the PDP, we are doing some reconciliations. As you can see, the National Chairman, who people refer to as the game changer is moving around and he has brought some innovations, which are making the party come alive by trying to make sure that he reaches out. Fortunately for him, he has been a governor and most of these problems emanate from governors that want you to do this or that. But at the end of the day they are leaders of their various states. So, they have found their equal match and colleague Ahmed Muazu. So, it makes things much easier.
From what you saw today in Oshogbo may you predict the outcome of the Osun Governorship Election. People are saying that the principal actors are heating up the system. Besides, we know the history of Osun as another hotbed of political violence in the South-West zone, the core area of the historic Wild Wild West?
Well, history may have placed them in a position to do what they did then but nobody wants to leave a negative history for perpetuity. I think the same history will want to place them in a different page and chapter today. I don’t think they want to go out and put flames all over the state. I don’t think they want to do that. All the people that spoke at the workshop spoke in favour of peaceful and violence-free election. But again, until the campaigns wind down, this temperature will remain high. The candidates themselves, all of them are big boys in the political terrain; they are very senior players in the terrain. That is how it is but believe you me, I think the temperature will drop as the campaigns wind down. I am not a Soothsayer but I believe it would be so. Even the necessary agencies are doing their best to ensure that nothing goes wrong.
At the Ekiti workshop, the Commissioner of Police was there but here in Osun the commissioner did not come….
Again, you cannot stop them from going to perform the functions they need to perform. We have gone to some states where the commissioner will send representatives in mufti to at least hear what the candidates have to say. But for the direct attack on the Commissioner of Police in Ekiti by Ayo Fayose, which made the Chairman of the event to invite the Commissioner of Police to react, we do not really invite them to come and address the audience at the sensitisation workshops. They face their duties and do their jobs.
One of the recommendations of the National Conference was the creation of 18 additional states. But there are mixed reactions. Some are arguing that most of the existing states are not viable. What is your take on this issue?
My take is that all the recommendations will still go to the National Assembly. So, I am not in a hurry to talk about the recommendations. It is one thing to make recommendations, it is another to get them accomplished. So, since the recommendations will still go to the National Assembly, there is still an opportunity to know if the recommended states are viable or not. My response therefore is that you don’t cross the bridge until you get there.
Some people have expressed fears on the way the National Conference ended without reaching agreement on some sensitive issues and thereby referring them back to the President. Also DSP Alamieyesiegha had complained that his people are threatened by serious environmental degradations. Some say these kinds of disagreements, threats and complaints heighten the fear of possible split in the near future. What do you think?
Nobody wants Nigeria to split because they know that the strength of this country is her size and unity. So, I don’t think there is anything wrong with the decision to end the National Conference the way it ended. The president has set up a small technical committee to cross the ‘T’s’ and dot the ‘I’s, so to say.
I can assure you that nobody wants this country to split.
Even from the confab, you see how they handled issues. DSP may convey the message of his people. They will listen to him and they will look at it. DSP is also a leader of his zone by any stretch of imagination. He is also a leader of his people. At the appropriate time, there are other leaders that will sit together and be able to say, are we doing the right thing and if we are not, let us do the right thing, or approach other zones and say this is what we want. It’s give and take. Whatever we do, we need to reach some level of understanding. Take the case of state creation. Before they went to the issue of state creation for all, all of them agreed on that of the South-East and said its a clear case of injustice, so, they all agreed on creation of additional state for the zone first.
So long as we know, nothing concrete has been done since our girls were abducted at Chibok even with the aid of the international community. What is the situation?
We are talking about a very delicate assignment. Even the international community sees it as such. The intention of every one of us is to rescue the abducted girls alive. So even when you have information of the exact location of where the girls are kept, you don’t intend to storm it because, what they will do is to use them as shield. And what becomes the end of the whole exercise? So, it is a very delicate assignment that requires a lot of experience and a lot of tact to subdue and overcome the terrorists. It is painful that we are talking about all these days after the abduction, but we want these girls back safe and that is what the president has been concerned about, having regular meetings with the service chiefs and security agencies again and again. It is not an easy task because of that peculiar nature of the assignment. There is no magic to it than to be very careful, very tactful in approaching it. So far, the reports have been indicating the possibility that they would be rescued sooner than later. I believe that this matter is very sensitive and once we talk about it, we have to also remember that their parents are there. Anytime we raise this matter, we also raise their feelings one way or the other. So we have to be very careful and continue to pray.
