Dr. Kayode Ajulo, a lawyer, is the National Secretary of the Labour Party (LP). In this interview with ADEBISI ONANUGA, he speaks on his party’s crisis, postponement of the general elections and the ongoing distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), among other issues.
Has the leadership crisis in Labour Party (LP) been resolved?
There is no leadership crisis in the Labour Party. Those claiming to have caretaker committees are merely wasting their time. They do not have the party paraphernalia; they do not even have the support of the stakeholders, including the civil society. They are not even recognised by the INEC. It is funny how desperate our friends could turn out to be, they tried to field candidates and when their nominations were rejected they turned around to make efforts to condemn all candidates, but they again failed. Their foray into the party hierarchy is just meant to shore up their dwindling fortunes in the labour movement. And I am sure they have enough forest fire to put out on their farmlands now than to continue to fan the ember of discord in our fireplace. They deserve no attention for now. Labour Party is presently preoccupied with how to bring power back to the people and we are on course.
Are you impressed with INEC’s level of preparedness, especially with PVCs’ distribution?
Prof. Jega had four years to prepare for the general elections, but chose to be chasing shadows and pursuing frivolities instead of getting down to the important details. He had demonstrated himself in the past as a shoddy umpire, when in 2011 he had to postpone election when voters were already on queue ready to cast their vote. Those of us that contested then suffered from this ineptitude of the INEC. I nearly lost my life thereafter as I was abducted for three nights. Now INEC has unleashed an avalanche of uncompleted tasks to crown the garbage heap of laggardness and shoddiness. I can authoritatively say that out of the six steps or thereabout, promised towards a free and fair and violence free election, Jega-led INEC has only been able to fulfil one, which is the production of voters’ register. But, this is also filled with errors and a lot of omission of voters’ names. If Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola of Lagos State, or the Sultan of Sokoto, could not find their names on that ill-famed register, how much more the teeming ordinary people? In most zones of the country, a large number of voters have not been able to collect their permanent voter’s cards (PVC). For instance, in the Southwest and Northwest the figures are less than 60 per cent, and in the Northeast where it is highest, it is about 75 per cent. Secondly, seven days to election, the INEC ad hoc staff is yet to be employed and properly trained and kitted for the process, the police are not ready and the army has said it is not going to be involved. For now INEC was not ready. The preparations so far were shoddy. But with the six-week shift, I don’t think Jega should have any excuse. He has already said he is on top of the situation. Let us give him the chance to do what is expected of him as INEC Chairman.
What is your take on elections postponement?
Let me quickly address the issue of nomenclature and concept. Correctly put, what has happened is a mere shift or rescheduling in the date of elections and not as postponement as such. And as at the time INEC finally did that it was already long overdue. It was more or less almost belated. Even the blind could sense that a shift was inevitable given the lack of readiness on the part of INEC. Prof Jega was not prepared for the election; stubbornly pressing ahead to conduct the polls would have amounted to an exercise in chaos. Yes, there was the issue of security, which was germane, particularly in the Northeast, palpably under siege from Boko Haram. But it would interest you that in most parts of the country more than 40 per cent of the people were yet to collect their permanent voters’ card and thus would have been disenfranchised. In such circumstance, any party that loses would definitely have had legal grounds to reject the results. Also, it stands against all reasons to think that INEC that was yet to train and kit ad-hoc staff, print ballot papers and put in place the necessary logistics would want to press ahead with the election. Those claiming that it was a ploy by the PDP are either not well informed about the true state of things or are just plainly trying to be mischievous. The fact is when all the cards were laid on the table; the parties all agreed that it was only fair to the electorate as well as the political gladiators to have a shift in date. Even if you ask some people in opposition parties now expressing their dissatisfaction, they will tell you that at the meeting with the INEC, which I attended, they had the opportunity to express themselves, but could not advance any logical argument against a shift in date of election. For me, it was a right decision, a face saver for INEC and contrary to speculations the organization that benefited the most from the shift is the INEC itself. You can also see that it has helped to douse the tension beclouding the political space.
Do you think battle against insurgency can be won in six weeks?
I am not a military man, neither am I an intelligence officer, so I wouldn’t know what information they had at their disposal and what level of readiness or strategic and tactical considerations that made them to make such projections. But we should be cautious of those critics, who can’t differentiate a pump action from a Dane gun. We should give our security institutions the benefit of the doubt. Nigerians need to have faith in our institutions; it is an organ of the state meant to protect the interest of all. So, if they have come out with certain claims on an issue that borders on the security and integrity of Nigeria, then we must give them that benefit of the doubt. It is also noteworthy that some people seem to have made it their cliché that nothing good can come out of this country or any of its institution except from them or when they are in power. But they have forgotten that the country is greater than any cabal or group. That is why such element would rather project the invincibility of Boko Haram than praise Nigerian officers and soldiers when they demonstrate gallantry and unequalled heroism in the fight against Boko Haram. I think the government and the military deserve our moral support and faith in the fight against Boko Haram. If you lose election today, you can always come back to win some other time, but if you lost the country, you have lost it for good. You have lost everything, and this should be more paramount to us. We should stop running down our armed forces. He said he has already deployed all the PVCs. I think we should wait and hope he gets it right this time around instead of being pessimistic.
There are reports that Jega may not be allowed to conduct the elections because the Presidency feels he is too independent-minded. Do you think the president can fire him?
For me such speculations are more or less ill-wind that blows no one any good. You call someone the Chairman of an independent electoral body and you will now sack him for being too independent minded? These for me are speculations by recurrent monumental political nitwits. They are speculations by political jobbers, who are stared in the face by their dwindling political fortune and now resort to heating up the polity. As to whether or not the President has the right to sack Jega, I would say yes, with emphasis. By the provision of our sacred Constitution and other extant laws, Prof. Jega is an appointee of the President. The President, of course, has the right to fire him. This is the law and there are some issues we should not over politicise.
Do you support the use of Temporary Voters’ Cards in place of PVCs?
The most important thing, I think, is that people should not be disenfranchised on account of failure on the part of INEC. There have been instances of people, who cannot find their names on the register, but have evidence of registration in the form of temporary voters’ card. INEC should be ready for other options in resolving this, even if it means use of temporary voters’ card. But then that would depend on how significant such cases are vis-a-vis the pros and cons of such decision. I am apprehensive on the usage of the voters card thing, we seem to be deceiving ourselves, yes the world is moving digital, but I believe the card must be tested and Nigerians on the real and most important election should not be used as guinea-pig to test run the effectiveness of such technology.
Do you think the president is sincere in his promise to hand over power if he lost?
I have no doubt in the president’s commitment to the peace and integrity of Nigeria. I equally have no doubt that he is a man of integrity. He is a democrat, who respects the rule of law and I don’t expect him to deviate, even under the most difficult condition for him as a person. Let’s recall the Edo State election, his party PDP lost and he congratulated his party’s opponents. In my state, Ondo, the popular party, that is Labour Party, won and he congratulated us in which the likes of General Olusegun Obasanjo castigated him and called for his head and removal despite that the man is unfettered. The party lost in Osun State and the President embraced his opponent, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola. These instances should not be overlooked. The man is humble, he came from a lowly background, which he has not ceased from telling us, he should forever be grateful for God’s grace on him and I am sure that what he now owes his creator is to be sincere to his country.
Some Niger Delta militants have threatened war if the president loses. Don’t you think they should have been arrested by now?
Did you say arrest? That is not the first time such threats are being made. And they were not the first to make such threat. I think what needs to be done is total investigation of these threats of war and to caution all Nigerians to be more decorous in their pronouncements. We also need to note that such statement by Jonathan’s kinsmen was in response to xenophobic idioms of monkeys and baboons from the opposition. I think everybody needs to be cautious. Our security agents need to be proactive in their dealings with these war mongers and all of us.
What is your take on the President’s perception that stealing is not corruption?
We must learn not to be mischievous or given to trivialising issues. It is wrong to take things out of context. But, I really feel what the President meant was that the problem of corruption in Nigeria goes beyond mere stealing of public funds, that it has different, deep, and more damaging dimensions. If the president acknowledged that a problem was more deep-seated than we all reckon, I see no reason why we need to take him out of context. That was the height of mischief; simply an exercise in malicious imputation. The President needs to be advised that our institutions must be strengthened and the law must take its course even if heaven will fall and if heaven must fall as I have always said, we should have enough strong men to hold the heaven from falling on our heads.
Why is it that your party has no presidential candidate?
The truth is, we threw it open, but with certain set of criteria which candidates must satisfy. However, no candidate with such criteria came forward. So for us, it is better not to field a candidate than to field one we will regret.
There are reports that LP may endorse Buhari or Jonathan? Why is your party not fielding a presidential candidate? As for endorsing Buhari or Jonathan, we have a tradition, the committee setup has submitted its report and their recommendation must be made known to all our members before the endorsement, everybody must be carried along we are not a party inside a brief case like some parties. We are today the third largest and the fastest growing party in Nigeria and yes, Africa, all our candidates too must be carried along and we will not just endorse but actively campaign for the dynamic, youthful and cerebral Presidential candidate that will increase the lot of the workers, the youths, women and the whole Nigeria.
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) election in Abuja ended in chaos last week. Is your party not bothered by this development?
The Labour Party, as a workers-driven party, is greatly worried over the failure and alleged attempt by the former leadership of the NLC led by Mallam Abdulwaheed Omar, to abuse the electoral process by promoting electoral malpractice. But let me state here that, we are available to assist the NLC hold a peaceful and credible election. The NLC is the hope of the common man; therefore, we cannot allow it to fail. We in the LP are saddened that the NLC could not hold a peaceful and successful transition of leadership. This should be of concern to all true lovers of democracy. The failure of the NLC to transit on the eve of Nigeria’s most important election in the past 15 years should alarm every patriot in this country. It is in this regard that we are offering to intervene and help the congress conduct a transparent and credible rescheduled election because the leadership has demonstrated that it needs all the help it could get. If left alone, the NLC might be unable to realise the objective of transparent and credible process.
