- Urge security agencies to go after those planning to play ‘spoiler roles’
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, BENEDICT NWACHKWU, MAYOWA SAMUEL AND BRIGHT JACOB
Stakeholders in the Nigerian project, including politicians, lawyers, and civil society organisations, have warned the Independent National Electoral Commission to be wary of saboteurs among its workforce, who may want to collude with fifth columnists to scuttle the forthcoming polls.
They, however, expressed optimism in the ability of the Commission, considering its level of preparedness, to deliver a credible, free and fair general election. Some of the stakeholders who spoke with The Point’s correspondents, also described as weighty, the comments made by the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, at a recent campaign rally in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, where he alleged that some interests were working against the successful conduct of the general elections.
They said that such assertions must not be swept under the carpet but that the main issues raised should be addressed, especially as the general elections draw closer, urging security agencies to go after those who might want to play spoiler roles.
A lawyer and chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party, Kolapo Alimi, in an exclusive interview with The Point, said that corrupt officials within INEC might pose a great threat to the success of the forthcoming polls, noting that the earlier INEC weeded them out, the better for the conduct of the general elections.
When asked if some people might actually be trying to sabotage the forthcoming general elections, Alimi said, “We are in Nigeria and to be sincere with ourselves, you can’t rule it out.
But, it’s not for the government in power to be lamenting, that’s my own position. It is their responsibility to solve any problem, that is why you are in government and it is your job to quell any attack. As you are in government, you must enjoy both the good and the bad.”
On the level of preparedness of INEC, he said, “Well, let’s give kudos to INEC but they should be wary. I am only concerned about us politicians. Look at what happened in Osun. People voted, all observers observed it, and they said it was free and fair.
Some people went to the ICT department of INEC to collude with some people and they brought out BVAS reports from the server. Nigerians, we are so funny. Okay, BVAS came, the CTC read 27, they put paid on it but the receipt read 28. When they got to the tribunal, a judge in Nigeria said there was nothing wrong with that.
“Before in Nigeria, I used to be afraid of politicians, who know how to circumvent everything. Just because INEC created a server as a backup, it has now become an issue for somebody whose agents were present in all polling units and everything was done. They left all that and relied on the server.
How do you define that? That’s typical Nigerian for you. So, the more INEC prepares, the more people look for ways to scuttle the whole thing. But, so far, to me, I will give INEC kudos. INEC should also look inward for some saboteurs among them.”
“There is no agency where you can’t find all those people. Somebody who issued the BVAS report to them (Oyetola and APC) knew that document had not been fully updated and they released it.
So, INEC must be careful henceforth,” he said.
SECURITY AGENCIES CAN DEAL WITH ANY THREAT
The Taraba South Senatorial District candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party, Ilyasu Gadu, believes that whatever the nature of the threat to the elections, the security agencies can deal with it. “I’m not in the security forces; I don’t belong to the security establishment, so I won’t be in a position to say, for sure, who and who are against the elections taking place.
I do know that some people have grievances, and these grievances have been there even before the approach of the elections.
Of course, we know that in this country, when elections approach, there are likely to be issues of people getting desperate and trying to affect the outcome of the election one way or the other.
“What’s happening today is not different from what has happened before, only that the heightened insecurity in the country is a bit above what we know as normal but if there are other people who want to disrupt the elections or who want to play the role of the spoiler in the election, then the security agencies should go after them if they have information and ensure that they don’t go ahead.
This is a very important election for us in this country because we need to get things right. “There are a lot of hopes hanging on this election and if there are people trying to disrupt the elections for one reason or the other, the government must get to the bottom of it in order to apply its law enforcement capabilities or to dialogue with them to ensure that the elections take place because everybody’s grievances can be accommodated through the democratic process and I think that’s the path to follow,” he stated.
“There are a lot of hopes hanging on this election and if there are people trying to disrupt the elections for one reason or the other, the government must get to the bottom of it in order to apply its law enforcement capabilities or to dialogue with them to ensure that the elections take place because everybody’s grievances can be accommodated through the democratic process and I think that’s the path to follow”
He suggested that people who were unhappy should organise themselves to be able to air their grievances. He said, “Anybody who has grievances against anybody should go and organise themselves under the political parties that are around, and then ensure that their grievances are articulated through the electorate, candidates, or their favourite parties and then, we’ll move on from there. That’s why we have a democracy.
Any other thing outside of that is anti-democratic and it doesn’t have any place in our country today.
“I’m not in their minds but there are always grievances in this country. Some people are not happy about the distribution of positions, some people are talking about being marginalised, and all kinds of things. There are always grievances in this country because it’s not working for many of us.
Even those that seem to be enjoying it can’t tell you in all honesty that they are enjoying it. Most of them have to seek ways and means to ensure that they escape from the conditions that we’re all suffering from.
If you think that you have enough money to go abroad and put your family out there to escape the problem, you’re not solving the problem.
“Even for those who seem to have made it, I don’t think that relocating yourself or your family abroad or having a house abroad, or going to have your health checked abroad is the solution because at the end of the day, you’re not in your own country, you are best taken care of in your own country.”
However, not everybody believes that the ruling party’s presidential candidate has convincing grounds to raise the allegation of the presence of the ‘fifth columnist’ working against the system in Nigeria.
Speaking in an interview with The Point, the Project Director for a civil society group, Indomitable Youths Organization, Bright Oniovokukor, said he did not believe anybody was trying to scuttle the polls, saying if Tinubu believed there were such underground plans, he should work with his government and party to foil them. Oniovokukor said, “I don’t think that anybody is trying to scuttle the election.
Tinubu spoke as a true Nigerian, even though it’s being twisted in the media one way or the other. Tinubu’s party, APC is in power and there were good things that had happened and they were fast to claim the glory and compared those things to the 16 years of PDP, saying PDP could not do some of those things.
“I do not see his statement as being objective; it could just be an expression of maybe frustration. If Buhari had said that he is for nobody and that Nigerians should vote for anyone they want, that alone can be Tinubu’s frustrations playing out.
If there is anything his party could do, it’s to give Nigerians hope that elections will hold as scheduled.
And if there are issues of fuel scarcity that he is talking about, the onus still lies on them to either solve the problem or tell Nigerians what the real issue is.
“They should also say something about the crisis of the new naira note. By the time you look at all these things Tinubu said and also consider the insecurity bedeviling Nigeria, it’s a thing that points to the APC and government in power of which Tinubu belongs.
To me, that statement is pregnant. But what concerns citizens is that they should make the masses comfortable and balanced, not them creating a crisis.
These are issues that each of the presidential candidates, not only Tinubu, including Atiku, Obi, and others should come out and speak against, because whatever that is plaguing Nigeria is what they have promised to rectify when they come into power.”
On INEC’s level of preparedness, he said, “I think INEC has done their best. INEC is just one party that will conduct the election. The political parties and citizens are also involved. Those giving PVCs are saying that people are not coming to collect them. So, they should go and collect their PVCs.
I think whatever INEC is doing now is in line with the Electoral Act.” Meanwhile, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, in an exclusive interview with The Point, said with all the activities of the electoral umpire, one could believe that INEC would deliver credible polls.
“It is very difficult to absolutely be certain about INEC’s level of preparedness for 2023 but just from what I hear them say, I would say that they are good at delivering credible elections and I hope I am right. I give full marks to the Chairman and Festus Okoye,” Agbakoba said.
A Tinubu loyalist, Moyo Jaji, said that the “deep state” was responding to Tinubu’s travails. According to Jaji, the deep state is made up of retired army generals from the North, and elsewhere, who feel it’s their right to determine what goes on in Nigeria.
He also said the deep state endorsed former president Olusegun Obasanjo, but wanted to scuttle Tinubu’s presidential ambition because of his Muslim-Muslim ticket. His words: “In Nigeria, we have our own deep state. They consist of retired but not tired (army) generals.
They feel it’s their right to determine what goes on in Nigeria, and they are mostly of Northern extraction, with other people, too. “But most of them…when you talk of Babangida, Danjuma and the rest… that was why Obasanjo’s poster then had a caption ‘the man we can trust’.
Ask yourself, who are the ‘we’? They are the ‘we’ and they are now trying to scuttle everything that Tinubu is doing.
“And this was exactly what (MKO) Abiola did 30 years ago. Tinubu has a Muslim-Muslim ticket. He has a Shettima who is a Kanuri as Abiola had Babagana Kingibe, and also a MuslimMuslim ticket,” Jaji said.
Continuing, Jaji said what was happening had no religious or ethnic colouration, but could be blamed on the actions of these retired military people who feel they own Nigeria and desire to dictate what goes on in the country.
Asked whether the “deep state” were members of the APC or PDP, Jaji said, “They don’t have to be members of the APC or PDP. They are on their own…very powerful people, and a cabal with ill-gotten money while in government that they can deploy anytime.” On what exactly the deep state stands to gain, Jaji said “power”.
“They have enormous financial resources at their disposal which they deploy as and when due to influence (the polity). But fortunately or unfortunately, they have met their match in Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who is strategically and financially able, too”
However, he noted that they gain power for selfish reasons but never use the same to better the lives of the people in the region they come from. Furthermore, Jaji said they act the way they do because they want to dictate who rules and who would be subjected to their whims and caprices, all because of their financial resources.
, Jaji noted that Tinubu, too, is strategically and financially able. “They have enormous financial resources at their disposal which they deploy as and when due to influence (the polity). But fortunately or unfortunately, they have met their match in Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, who is strategically and financially able, too,” Jaji declared.
In addition, Jaji said the naira redesign and fuel scarcity were also meant to destabilize the country, and if possible disrupt the elections. He told our correspondent he feared that if the elections didn’t hold, a vacuum could be created which could make room for a military takeover.
PDP CONFIDENT OF VICTORY
For the former National Auditor of the People’s Democratic Party, Ray Nnaji, all allegations of fifth columnists in the polity are unfounded. Nnaji, a lawyer and politician said, “The Nigerian people have already made up their minds on who to vote for to rescue the country and save the people from plunging into perpetual hardship and that person is Atiku Abubakar.
He is coming on a rescue mission whereas Tinubu is telling us he is coming to continue the good work of Buhari and APC.
So the scarcity of fuel and endless long queues at filling stations are good works. A man who wants to lead Nigeria wants to continue. Blaming Buhari now amounts to the cry of a defeated man.
Is there any Nigerian who is not aware that Tinubu gave us this APC government?” Speaking about Obi and the Labour Party, the PDP stalwart said the devil you know is better than the angel you don’t know. “At least Nigerians have married two husbands and they should know which one is better.
Even the one they are saying Obidient, they should be careful because it is better you go for the devil you know than the angel you don’t know and you are trying to bring in because the devil we know is the PDP and during the PDP administration, the economy was better than what we have now. Actually, PDP has made mistakes and has learnt from their mistakes,” he said.
‘EVERYBODY IS AFFECTED’
Ilyasu Gadu argued that every Nigerian was facing the crisis the APC candidate complained of. “He is only talking about how his access to power is being impeded. Nigerians have a different attitude and opinion about what’s happening because they suffer the daily hardship of trying to cope with fuel scarcity.
Also, regarding the currency swap situation, Nigerians had been groaning about it, he only spoke about it when he thought the elections were close by.
For me, it is neither here nor there, and for many Nigerians, it’s part of the power intrigues going on, but which does not concern many Nigerians who are suffering from the currency swap and the fuel scarcity. “I think we will take it with a pinch of salt. Be that as it may, best luck to him, that’s his government, he’s part and parcel of the government.
So, if he has any opinions to offer as succour to Nigerians, then he should do that, otherwise, many people will take his opinion with a pinch of salt.”
