The Nation Newspaper

Tag: PRONACO

  • ‘Rigging Osun election‘ll backfire’

    ‘Rigging Osun election‘ll backfire’

    The Director of Strategy of the Pro-National Conference Organisation (PRONACO), Chief Linus Okoroji, has warned the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against rigging Saturday’s governorship election in Osun State.

    Okoroji said PDP’s plan to turn the country into a one-party state was a replica of what Nigeria faced in the dark days of the late General Sani Abacha.

    He said opposition is a norm in all civilised parts of the world, adding that any attempt to return the country to the ugly days would backfire.

    Okoroji said: “The position of the PDP in the evolving democracy in Nigeria is unfortunate. It is trying to hijack the present democracy with force. I know what it took to rescue Nigeria from military dictatorship. That PDP has been in government for almost 15 years with nothing to show at the federal level is pitiable. The people are really worried about the PDP’s desperation to capture Osun State. They have made good their threat to capture Ekiti. “Reasonable Nigerians have not agreed on how the Election in Ekiti was adjudged free and fair. The people have not accepted the results. It is a result that defied all predictions. This is not fair to the nation; it is a shame.”

    Urging the electorate to be vigilant, the PRONACO chieftain said: “President Goodluck Jonathan’s visit to Osun to campaign for the PDP candidate was to ensure conclude the final plan to rig the election.”

    A social critic, Pa Adebiyi Odekanyin, also warned the PDP against rigging the poll, saying it would lead to anarchy.

    Speaking with reporters in Oyo, Oyo State, Odekanyin condemned the heavy deployment of security operatives in Osun and the wearing of masks by men of the Department of State Security (DSS).

    He urged politicians to allow the people’s will to prevail.

     

  • 2015: Can small parties escape INEC’s hammer?

    2015: Can small parties escape INEC’s hammer?

    Apart from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), there are over 25 parties on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) register. But, do they have prospects in 2015? Musa Odoshimokhe examines the fate of the parties on the fringe as the country prepares for the general elections.

    The 2015 elections will be a straight fight between the two dominant parties – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). The minor parties may become spectators during the presidential election.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has over 25 political parties on its register.

    The small parties include the Liberal Democratic Party of Nigeria (LDPN), the Masses Movement of Nigeria (MMN), the Movement for Democracy and Justice (MDJ), and the National Conscience Party (NCP). Others are the National Democratic Party(NDP), the National Solidarity Democratic Party (NSDP), the National Movement of Progressive Party (NMPP), the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), the Peoples Progressives Party (PPP), the United Democratic Party (UDP), and the Mega Progress Peoples Party (MPPP).

    The relevance of these parties will depend on their alliance with the two dominant parties. For the PDP and the APC, it is not going to be business as usual. The defections in the political camps point to the fact that a tough contest is imminent.

    The PDP and APC are consolidating their strongholds, ahead of 2015. But, the minor parties are diminishing in strength. Thus, would – be voters are raising eyebrows over the extension of subvention to them by the electoral commission.

    The Labour Party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Accord Party (AP) fielded candidates in the 2011 polls and won some seats in the state and federal parliaments. For instance, the LP won the governorship election in Ondo State and seats in the House of Assembly. APGA has maintained its hold on Anambra State. The Accord Party is struggling for survival in Oyo State. It has some seats in the House of Assemly.

    As the polity prepares for the next elections, are the minor parties in the reckoning? Can they make any difference in 2015? Will they form alliance with major parties?

    The MPPP, which held its national convention in February, has said that it would spring surprise. Its new chairman, Mr. Dare Falade, said the party will fly, despite the resignation of its national chairman, Hon. Rasheed Shitta-Bey, who has defected to the APC. He did not rule out the possibility of going into alliance with any of the major political parties.

    However, the National Chairman of the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), Alhaji Balarabe Musa, expressed misgivings about the two major political parties. He said the minor political parties have rejected them and would have nothing to do with them. This position contradicted the views of Falade, a member of the forum.

    Musa said that, if the country is to achieve a breakthrough, the solution does not lie with the APC and the PDP. He urged the minor parties to rise up to the occasion to save the country. He said the manifestoes of the two leading parties have failed to address poverty, insecurity and infrastructural deficiency.

    Musa said: “All the other political parties have rejected any merger with either the APC or the PDP. Therefore, the most logical thing they should do for their own survival and relevance is to form democratic alliance with the strongest among the minor parties.

    “They should forge ahead and prepare against the PDP and the APC. They have to be led by one of the political parties that have structures on ground. The party should control, at least, one state government. If this is done, they will be in a position to give the PDP or the APC a fight during the 2015 election.

    “The political situation in the country today clearly needs such an alliance that will save the country because, if this is not done, the country will not move forward. It is clearly in the body language of the dominant parties that they want to either perpetuate themselves in power to enslave the people or want to take over power for their own selfish interest.”

    The Chairman of the Civic Consciousness Initiative, Prof. Idowu Sobowale, said the lukewarm attitude of Nigerians to election must be addressed. He said political apathy is not the solution.

    Sobowale said: “It is not a subject of assigning role to minor political parties. It is a question of whether they are coming out with new idea. It is a question of whether they are coming out with sincere ideas to move the country forward. If they do, the chances are that they could be invited by one of the major groups or they could come together and in turn form a third major party”.

    The university don said that minor parties could be encouraged, if the electorate live up to their civic responsibilities.

    He added: “The usual attitude that politics is evil and should be left to those people who can play the dirty game has been the bane of the failure of government.”

    A chieftain of the PDP in the Southwest, Chief Ishola Filani, said the relevance of the minor political parties depend on their philosophy.

    He said that parties will attract votes, based on their manifestos.

    “These parties will determine the role they can play in the next electoral dispensation. Under the law, they have the right to contest, except the law says otherwise”, Filani added.

    The party chieftain said the gates of alliances are not closed, adding that, if the smaller parties chose to join the PDP, they are free. “There is no law that bans them from integrating with any of the major political parties of their choice,” he stressed.

    The Coordinator of the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms (CODER), Mr. Ayo Opadokun, said that it is still too early to reflect on what the smaller parties will do in 2015. He said that the political landscape is still evolving and re-adjusting to reality.

    Opadokun said: “The year 2015 will open its space to accommodate the minor parties and we will all see the role they will play”.

    A Chieftain of the Pro National Conference Organisation (PRONACO), Linus Okoroji, said available statistics indicate that majority of the eligible voters do not vote, stressing that this vacuum gives opportunity to politicians to enjoy underserved victories at the polls.

    “Any credible Nigerian, who finds it difficult to contest elections on the platforms of big parties, can organise and contest on the platforms of the relatively smaller parties and, with proper mobilisation, they can win.”

     

     

  • ‘If Jonathan has hidden agenda, national conference will not succeed’

    ‘If Jonathan has hidden agenda, national conference will not succeed’

    Pro-National Conference Organisation (PRONACO) chieftain Comrade Linus Okoroji, in this interview with Musa Odoshimokhe, explains how the proposed national dialogue can resolve the national question and restore hope to Nigerians.

    What manner of dialogue should Nigerians envisage? My position is not quite different from our stance on the Sovereign National Conference (SNA). I think for now, we should accept it with two hands in whatever guise is has come. We should not give them the opportunity to give excuses. We have been clamouring for it for long. The area I am not quite comfortable with is the move to remove the word “sovereign”. Nobody should tamper with the report. There should be a plebiscite.The people will vote in favour or against it. So, it will be the people’s constitution. This should not be the elite issue, and those who have stood up to kick against it are afraid that it would be politicised.

    Are there antecedents to show that it was hijacked in the past?

    This is in view of what Chief Olusegun Obasanjo did, what General Sani Abacha did at his own time. Having said that, I have seen some of the people in the advisory committee led by Dr. Femi Okorounmu. He has name to protect and I have no reason to doubt him. More so, he is a Yoruba elite and an Afenifere chieftain. When he was in the Senate, he had advocated for a SNC. So, I cannot doubt his integrity. For now, I think we should accept this with our two hands and see how we are going to manage it. What I think would be the challenge is how to get the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO)’s support, which the conference desires. We should return the country to a true federal system. Each region should control its resources. We should look at the PRONACO document and see its position. Today, there is no state in Nigeria that has a working edict. In the pas,t the Northern Region had its own constitution, the Western Region had its own constitution, the Midwest Region had its constitution and the Eastern Region had its constitution. But all these federal paraphernalia have been thrown away. People like Indians and Chinese understand what it means to decentralise governance according to their nationalities. We should not be a different people. We should look at all of these and see how we can move forward.

    Some sections of the country are afraid that it will lead to the breakup of Nigeria? What is your view?

    What is wrong, if the country breaks up? Will the North not survive, if the country breaks? If that is their fear, they should come down to terms with other sections of the country. They should not continue to play the role of a senior brother or owner of Nigeria. If they nurse such fear, they should come down low and give Nigeria the opportunity to survive. The problem we have is the North, which does not want others to survive. They are using the resources of other nationalities, which they want to manage. They should work together with others so that Nigeria will survive in the interest of all and not their own interest alone. That is even the fears of other minorities in the North; the majority wants to trample on them. The oligarchy wants to suppress the minority in their own areas. There is this story we heard from Chief Anthony Enahoro, may his soul rest in peace, that Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, when he was the Prime Minister of Nigeria, in the North, he was not recognised above Sardauna. Sarduana was his boss. That is the way they behave.

    What do think should guide us during the conference?

    It is the matter of sincerity and commitment to examine the issues that are germane to our wellbeing as a country. We should aim at making Nigeria a developing, progressive and people-oriented country. We should look at the welfare of the people, the significance of the common good; that everybody who is a Nigerian should be entitled to benefit from the common good. If you are walking on the street of America and suddenly, you collapse and drop, government hospital will pick you up and take care of you. Nobody cares who you are. They take care of you, until you survive, unless such a person is unlucky and die. In Nigeria, we are living like orphans. People who have no parents, unless you have contact with people in government, that is only when your survival is guaranteed.

    But the time is too short to have a successful conference before 2015…

    Before the military left, the NADECO had been clamouring for the SNC, even during the Abiola struggle. Our slogan was let us have a Government of National Unity. With the Government of National Unity, we should go ahead to have the national conference. And it was thought that, within four years, we would have achieved the goal. All the efforts were truncated by personal ambitions of those who came on board. They instituted kangaroo conferences because they wanted to remain in power. But, if that is the strategy put in place now, it will fail because Obasanjo failed when he tried it. The truth is that, is he going to succeed? If he diverts attention because of his ambition, what is going to be his own gain? My thinking is that he wants to break away from just being the President of Nigeria to being a hero.

    What, if the outcome of the conference is finally tempered with by the Nation Assembly?

    It is going to be wrong to subject it to the National Assembly and, whether they call it National Conference or Sovereign National Conference, it boils down to the end result. The outcome of the conference must not be tampered with by anybody. Once it is tampered with, it means the conference did not hold, no matter how long. And whether a National Conference or Sovereign National Conference, it can only be subjected to a referendum and not the National Assembly. What is the significance of the National Assembly to a National Conference when they are at the House discussing issues that favour them alone and their cronies? The only power to vet the outcome of the conference is the people through a plebiscite.

  • Confab: PRONACO boss slumps, dies

    Confab: PRONACO boss slumps, dies

    •Tinubu, Oodua groups mourn 

    CO-FOUNDER of the Pro National Conference Organisation (PRONACO), Baba Oluwide Omojola, yesterday slumped and died in his hotel room in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

    It was learnt that Omojola slumped while preparing to leave for his base in Lagos after making a presentation on behalf of PRONACO in Akure before the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Conference.

    According to PRONACO, Baba Omojola, who lodged at De Johson Hotel, Akure where he suddenly collapsed, was immediately rushed to First Mercy Specialist Hospital, Gbogi Road in the town where he was later certified dead by one Dr. Akinluwa.

    Baba Omojola was at the forefront of the advocacy for the convocation of SNC and was one of the signatories to the communiqué of the National Political Summit held in Uyo between 2nd and 5th September 2013.

    The resolution of the summit specifically demanded for a Peoples National Conference for the country, among others.

    In his presentation before the Presidential Committee, Baba Omojola had insisted that the PRONACO’s draft Peoples Constitution adopted in 2007 under the leadership of the late Chief Anthony Enahoro should be the working document of the proposed National Conference.

    The National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, described the death of Baba Omojola as sad and a depletion of the ranks of the relentless fighters for a just and free society.

    In a statement by his media team, he said: “Baba Omojola offered selfless service to our country. For nearly 50 years, he put in his best in the struggle to make Nigeria a better country that is well governed and one that meets the aspirations of all.”

    Tinubu recalled that he had during Baba Omojola’s 75th birthday called for the establishment of a foundation that would inculcate in youths the retention of good values and selfless service to the country and humanity.

    “We must celebrate him and hold him up as a model of selfless service and commitment. We must collectively rise up to immortalise this great and cerebral man, who invested his life in the service of humanity.

    ”Nothing better illustrates his selflessness and patriotic spirit that the fact that he died while on the assignment of making a presentation to the National Dialogue Advisory Panel in Akure. He died at his duty post a faithful servant.”

    The O’odua Liberation Movement (OLM) and the O’odua Nationalist Congress (ONAC) bemoaned the sudden death of Baba Omojola fondly referred to as the father of Yoruba self determination struggle.

    The groups, in a statement, said Omojola’s last assignment was in Akure where he took part in the Yoruba self determination groups’ demand for autonomy and the right of secession to be included in the Nigerian constitution.

    The groups said Omojola gave all he had to Yorubaland without asking for anything in return and died right on the field of his struggle for his own nationality.