2015: INEC’s additional polling units suspicious — Ayo Adebanjo

Chief Ayo Adebanjo is an elder statesman and Chieftain of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political Organisation, Afenifere.
Adebanjo, who was a delegate at the just concluded National Conference, comments on the confab and why the report should be implemented before the 2015 general elections.

He also speaks on the growing level of insecurity and faults the additional polling units proposed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and other sundry issues. Excerpts: By Dapo Akinrefon

What are your concerns over the growing Boko Haram insurgency in some northern states of the country?
My concern is the concern of any patriotic Nigerian. I really feel embarrassed that insurgency can overwhelm our own land. We can only pray that the worst will not happen.

With your concern, how can the activities of the sect be curtailed?
I am not a security man, those who are in charge should know better. Even when foreign powers said they were going to help us, I do not see evidence of that.
All the powers of this world said they were going to help us, about two or three months ago, but there has been no difference. The insurgents seem to be gaining grounds more and more. So, if you say we are weak as a nation, what about the powers that came to help us?

But some have alleged that the Federal Government is instigating the crisis in an attempt to win the 2015 elections?
How can a reasonable person talk like that? How can a reasonable person make such allegations? How can killing your own people win an election?
That can only be the permutation of the opponent, which is very unreasonable. By killing your subjects and destroying their houses, is that a way to win an election? Let them use another propaganda that is very cheap.

Boko Haram war
This is another war of unity. The people supporting Boko Haram are separatists. So, anybody who wishes this country to be one must support the President to find the solution and not ganging up to say go and bring back our girls. He has the army, he equipped them, you said the equipment is not enough, he is buying more to fight them.

You cannot say there is something he ought to do that he has not done. That is the reality of the situation.
I am not a PDP man, but that is reality on ground. I don’t want to look like there are no sensible people in the country.

We must not play politics with the lives of the people because the country must exist first before you can rule.
That is why left to me, there must be promulgation of this confab recommendation before the elections.

The recommendation consolidated the country. If you are now going to have an election on the old constitution, when are we going to have the recommendations? Let us start on a new scale, conduct the elections and make the new constitution operative from May 30, 2015.
If it will warrant the elections being shifted, why not? That is my own view.

It is been over 150 days and the abducted Chibok girls have not been released, in your view, what is the way out?
Anybody who feels there is a better  way of releasing the girls should have suggested it. I do not see how I can blame the government. I am of the view that the government is doing its best those who think otherwise should say what the government ought to do.

More so, we are fighting invisible people. I do not want us to judge unreasonably all because we want to oppose the government. I don’t know where the government could be blamed.

Criticism of government
For anybody to sound reasonable to me, in the criticism of the government, the person should say what government should have done and has not done, that would have given us a better situation.

How do you see the ultimatum given to President Jonathan by northern elders to secure the release of the Chibok by the end of October 2014 or forget about contesting in 2015?
That is their view but is that the view of the rest of the country! How rational is that? Is it the man (Jonathan) that kept them away?
All of them, including those demonstrating the #bringbackourgirls, have not addressed those Boko Haram insurgents who took the girls away. Or are they saying it was Jonathan who took the girls away? Why do we play politics over something that is not real? Was it Jonathan that took them away? When he said he was negotiating, he said who will he negotiate with?

An Australian negotiator, Dr Steven Davis, alleged that former governor of Borno State and former Chief of Army Staff were sponsors of the Boko Haram sect. What is your take on that?
It is for the government to work on those tips, except he could say that it was the government that organised it. He is only telling us those who are involved. That again needs to be investigated.

You cannot rule out the possibility of somebody trying to divide you from inside, when you are accusing people who are privy to the attack, it is a very grievous allegation and it has to be taken with a lot of caution.

Despite the initial fears that the national conference would not succeed, it eventually ended as planned. What were your initial fears while the exercise lasted?
My concern was that the decisions should be implemented. Don’t forget that at that conference, there were those of us who believed in it, who agitated for it, who pressurized Jonathan to do it against his own will. Don’t forget that he once dismissed the idea. This is why I now regard him as a listening President.

You see, we all agreed that there is something wrong with this country, both government and opposition. We have all agreed that it is a queer federation, all the parameters of federalism are sidelined and we called it a federation.

Meaning of the confab
So, those of us who believed in a peaceful coexistence now said we are not going to fight this thing out but we must sit down and discuss these problems and discuss the solutions. That is the meaning of the confab.

Was there any time that the delegates were influenced during the conference?
In what form? Influenced to do what? Don’t forget that people like me went to that conference because we had a view about how this country should be. We went there that this country must be truly federal except those who went there without any purpose. We went there to keep the country united in a way that everybody will be acceptable.

One of the problems associated with this kind of conference is implementation. How optimistic are you that the report…
(Cuts in) I am very optimistic. I have no reason to doubt the President now. It is the opponents and those who do not believe in it that said the conference will lead to disintegration. Some people are just pessimistic.

What we are now saying is that the ball is in the President’s court and I believe, having had the courage to summon the conference, he will implement the report.
When we submitted the report, he said the ball is now in the court of the elected representatives to see to the implementation.
Those of us who have faith in the President, should pressurize him to implement the confab in the interest of the country.

Having said this, should the report be sent to the National Assembly or subjected to a referendum?

My own view has always been that they are all technical. The question of the constitution is a political matter, not legal and not technical. If we all believe that the recommendations if the conference is good, whatever we need to implement it, we must do it.

We are only talking of a referendum to give it the legitimacy of the people and so, whatever we can do to get that one, is the way out.
All we are saying is that we want a constitution which we can honestly say is the wish of the people. There is nothing special about the referendum other than to endorse what the confab has done.

Do you think the President has the political will to implement the report?
What will create the political will is the consciousness to satisfy the people. The conference did something that is very queer and very rare. We passed 600 resolutions with consensus, we did force any resolution through anybody.

If you disagree, we argue with you and that is the beauty if that conference. So, whether he has the political or not, the product of that conference will compel him to do wish of the people particularly if he is the president of the people.

What informed the decision of Afenifere to kick against the creation of additional polling units by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC?
This matter of polling units is a matter of common sense. I listened to Jega trying to defend the additional polling units. He did not say where there is overcrowding of voters, he has improved it by two.

He just went by ratio of the polling booth, so much to North and so little to the South. There was no principle. What is the rationale for what he has done? That is the question we are asking.

Do you suspect a foul play?
Of course. It is an easy way to rig and that is why I say the polling units must be related to the number of voters you believe will be in that area.

Voting population
Jega has said that the population is not the voting population, insisting that it is the registered voters that will go and vote.

With this, do you have faith that INEC, under Jega, to conduct a free, credible and transparent election in 2015?
For the first time, I have doubts about Jega over the additional polling units. He did a thing that he cannot back up with facts and figures. That is where he disappointed me.

Do you share the view of those who say that Nigeria will disintegrate as a result of the current security challenges?
If the leadership takes the right course why should the country disintegrate?
There is no reason for it. Infact, that was the fear of those who did not want the confab because they said if we go to the confab, it will lead to disintegration.

If we are going to follow sentiments, I am one of those who does not believe in the creation of more states because we will be creating states that will not be powerful.
But that is the wish of the people because this is the government of the people, by the people and for the people. That is why we say we are not going to have the unity of the country on what a section of the country wants. Vanguard