What is your assessment of the last general election, especially in relation to your party, APGA
I will start by saying we are grateful to God, that the 2015 elections had come and gone, and Nigeria did not breakup as predicted some years back. Having said that, my assessment of the elections is that the elections were not completely successful. For an election to be adjudged successful, the elections must succeed in all parts of Nigeria. In other words, the same standards, the same template would be used in the conduct in every part of the country. The 2015 elections produced different environments for the elections. The INEC manual for the conduct of 2015 elections were not followed in all parts of Nigeria.
So, to that extent, one can say the elections were not conducted under the same circumstances. For example, where the elections were conducted with card readers, in Northern Nigeria and South-west Nigeria, the exercise was fairly good. Card readers were not used in the conduct of the elections in the South-east and South-south on March 28, 2015. So, it would be very difficult to measure the success of the election on equal parameters across the country.
If you used card readers to conduct elections in some parts and used manual accreditation to conduct elections in some parts, you would see that the elections would be producing different situations.
The use of the card readers were meant to checkmate manipulation of election figures, particularly in the area of voters accredited to take part in elections. In the South-east,on March 28, card readers were not used in any state. The non-functioning of the card readers in the South-east has a very big question mark. It was predicted that the card readers might not work in one polling unit or two, which INEC said they would provide replacement within an hour on the day of elections. But on that day, from the start, all the card readers deployed to the South-east were said not to be functioning at all. It was a clear case of sabotage and connivance by INEC with the PDP to rig the elections for the PDP.
There is no other way to explain it, looking at the results of the elections. Again, the elections were heavily militarised in the South-east and that was not the case in other parts of Nigeria. I understand it was the same in the South-south, soldiers were fairly getting directives from PDP candidates during the exercise. They were arresting APGA people everywhere on the prompting of PDP candidates. Even myself as the national chairman of APGA, who was also a candidate in that elections, could not even be respected by the soldiers, when they started wreaking the havoc everywhere.
Thirdly, it was only in the South-east and, perhaps, the South-south that INEC willfully received names of Ad hoc staff from PDP candidates and deployed them on the day of the elections. Such things did not happen in northern Nigeria and South-western Nigeria.
So, it was a clear case of total connivance between the security agencies and the PDP to return PDP candidates fraudulently in elections they lost.
So, asking me to assess the election, I will say in the whole of South-eastern region, the elections were heavily manipulated. Even in some of my text messages to the INEC chairman, I told him not to abandon the South-east in these elections.
What happened on March 28 happened on April 11 and in the supplementary elections.
Like I said earlier, INEC, prior to the general election, was very emphatic that wherever the card reader failed to function, the election should be rescheduled. In the end, INEC did not keep its own rules in the exercise. The commission turned a blind eye to its own rules. And this resulted in the farce, called elections in the South-east.
It is very painful that while people are celebrating that the elections were successful in Northern and South-western Nigeria, people carried on as if South-east and South-south are not part of Nigeria where the elections did not comply with the INEC manual. But there was nothing anybody would do.
Did you not see this coming before the elections?
How can we see this happening when INEC promised that they would be firm and would not be drawn to moves to get them do the wrong thing. INEC said they would never be compromised by anybody.
But rather than keep to their words, electoral commissioners were collecting list of Ad hoc staff from politicians, precisely from PDP candidates, deploying them.
For instance, in my ward, the supervisory presiding officer is the blood sister of my opponent in the PDP. So, when you look at such things, they are heart-breaking. And that was why on March 28, elections were conducted at the polling units without card readers in the South-east. Ballots were counted and recorded in the prescribed polling units. But all the ward collation officers were nowhere to be seen. And it was like that in the South-east because the ward collation officers were nominated by PDP candidates.
Collations could not be done, at the ward level. When the people were ordered to bring their materials to local government offices of INEC, the collation officers were also not found at the local government offices of INEC.
The electoral officers started sourcing for people to collate the wards results at the local government offices. While they were in that process, the evening of 29th, the soldiers arrived and took everything away, accompanied by PDP candidates. These were things that happened. So, after the elections, at the polling centres, all the collations done from ward to local government to constituency level to declaration were done without anybody present. No party agent or witness and figures were concocted. When you see the final results, you’ll see that no party agent signed them except, maybe, PDP candidates that signed a day or two after the elections.
So, if we are saying the election of 2015 was successful, I will say it was successful in South-west and Northern Nigeria. The INEC chairman knows what I am talking about.
When you sent him text messages complaining about the alleged irregularities, did he reply you?
Jega hardly replies text messages. But from what I found out, sometimes, he was forwarding the messages to the Resident Electoral Commissioners in the areas the complaints were given. For example; let me take a very terrible case to illustrate what happened. In Abia State where the APGA candidate won the governorship elections, PDP brought in out-of-reality figures from three local governments; 22,000 votes from Obi Ngwa, 42,000 votes from Osisioma Local Government Area and 19,000 votes from Isiala Ngwa North. Because elections did not take place in these three local governments from available reports, both intelligence reports and complaints from other parties. Card readers and electoral materials were abandoned in bushes and were recovered by security agents.
The returning office in the elections initially cancelled the results from the three LGAs and reported that before everybody at the collation centres. About one hour and a half later, the governor of Abia State stormed the collation centre with PDP chieftains and called the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) to her office. After some discussion, they called the returning officer upstairs to join them in the office. After the meeting, they left and the returning officer came back and reversed the cancellation of the results of the election in the three controversial LGAs.
We are talking about an exercise where average turnout was about 29 . You know that Isiala Ngwa LGA is the local government of the PDP candidate. 98,000 voters were on record, PDP got 82,000 out of 98,000 registered voters. And APGA had only 1,000. In Osisioma LGA the PDP had 42,000 votes and APGA was given almost nothing.
Yet Aba North and Aba South Local Governments are the most populous LGAs in Abia State and in voting strength. APGA won the elections in Aba North with about 28,000 votes. In Aba South, APGA won with about 24,000 votes. Then in Obi Ngwa LGA, PDP awarded itself 82,000 votes. This shows you that if you are plotting a graph or constructing a bar chat, that Obi Ngwa result is like mount Everest. It is out of the range of what happened, particularly the returning officer for the governorship Professor Benjamin Ozumba, in recognition of the abundant evidence, that election did not take place, canceled them justifiably and he was forced to reverse himself.
It was at that stage I sent a text message to Jega and asked him to administratively correct an obvious fraud. The idea that when the result is announced, when a return is made, INEC cannot take it back, but not when the return has not been made.
That is why the manual made provision for protest during the process of the elections. If there are protests against the exercise, the results can be cancelled by the returning officer. That is before the final collation and return, but this one, INEC was stagnant. INEC officials said they could not do anything, that we should go to tribunal.
What happened to the working relationship that APGA had with the PDP?
We supported President Jonathan for the election, there is no argument about that. And up till today, the reasons for which we supported him are still germane. But unfortunately, despite the promise that President Jonathan made when he visited us, that he would allow a level-playing field on the day of elections, we saw a different thing.
On the day of the elections, he did not only make the field uneven, he made sure that the PDP candidates were empowered with soldiers, police and INEC to rig the elections. So, to that extent, we are pained that despite our support for the president, he did not allow a free and fair election to take place, especially in our stronghold which is the South-east.
So you can say he betrayed your trust?
Of course, yes, he betrayed APGA. And what he did also led to his failure in the elections. They had hoped that South-east would be a swing zone for him but the PDP candidate that he allowed the machinery to operate and deliver themselves and deliver him abandoned him and ran away to deliver themselves.
They, PDP candidates, were after returning themselves, and talked very little about making President Jonathan win. And that was why he lost the elections. He lost the elections in the South-east. In 2011 the South-east was a swing zone where he got over five million votes. In 2015, he got very little votes because they were writing figures for themselves without helping the president in his own cause.
I can use one local governt to illustrate to you the perfidy of the PDP to Jonathan. The Obi Ngwa Local Government Area, as it is known for its scandalous election results, on the presidental and National Assembly elections, PDP candidate got 66,000 votes for the senate, whereas the PDP presidential candidate got 16,000 votes. These are records standing. So, where were the other voters? If Jonathan scored 16,000, and the PDP senatoral candidate scored 66,000, without the voters voting for APC candidates, where did the other votes go ?
This shows you that they were rigging for themselves. In Anambra State where over 1.6 million people collected the PVC, the president got 660,000 votes. In an election card readers were not used, they had sabotaged the use of card readers to enable them resort to manual accreditation and laying foundation for writing the results in huge figures. They wrote for themselves and forgot the president. In Abia with about 1.1million voters, PDP got 368,000 in the presidential election. In Imo State where the PDP candidate, like in other Igbo states, was incharge of the electoral process with the backup of the soldiers, Jonathan got 559,000 votes. It was lower in Enugu State and Ebonyi State. But compare these figures with what happened in 2011, where in Anambra State Jonathan got 1.45 million votes, in Imo he got 1.3 million votes, in Abia State about 1.3 million votes . So, they deceived him into taking the apparatus of the election and instead of using it to deliver the president, used it to deliver themselves That was why he lost the elections.
They told him that to get maximum votes, he must allow them take charge of the INEC and everybody. What happened in the South-east is a total sham. That is why I have called on the president- elect to probe the election in the South-east and the activities of the electoral officials, all of them without exceptions; all of them compromised the process. All the RECs in the South-east compromised. Once you take Ad hoc staff from candidates, you have ruined the election. In my state, Anambra State, one person was the returning officer in the presidential elections and in the House of Assembly election. He was also the returning officer in my local government. This was done so that he would continue to deliver to them, the people who delivered his name. If you review what happened, it is very shameful to say the least. All of us have looked at the exercise and it is so terrible.
So, have you gone to the tribunal?
Of course, yes, all of us have gone to the tribunal. The way to check the success of the 2015 elections would be to look at the reaction of card readers in the election across the zones. I understand that the tribunals set up in many of the states in nothern Nigeria have no petitions to treat, many of the tribunals did not receive any petition. But in the South-east, Imo State has 38 petitions, in Anambra it is the same thing. Every candidate is at the tribunal. In Abia and Enugu, it is the same thing. So, all the election results are being challenged.
This shows you that too many things were being challenged. If elections had been successful, they would have had no buisness going to the tribunals. But when people are bent on obtaining fruadlent victories people, would be aggrieved. That is why the tribunals have a lot of work to do. They are to give people justice. There is nobody who is not shocked at the outcome of the presidential and National Assembly elections in the South-east.
And from what we read in the papers part of the South-south were involved in the fraud. For instance , in a senatorial electro, I read where a person won with over 300,000 votes. That is very ridiculous.
So, I believe that the president- elect still has a duty to reform our electoral system. I read that Jega said he was not interested in second term. He cannot run away. He must probe the activities of his officials in the elections and tell Nigerians the truth. In Imo State, many electoral officials were arrested, put in detention for diverting electoral materials to private places were they were caught. How can someone who swore to an oath of neutrality to conduct an election, be caught in such disgraceful act. So, Jega cannot claim that he does not know what is happening. Infact, all the pressure I was putting during the election, one national commissioner told me that the problem was with our people. I said no, please, it is not with our people, it is with INEC. Because if you have people who do not want to compromise a process in any part of Nigeria, the election would succeed. It would require firmness of the electoral commission to do the right thing, not to surrender its process to candidates of a political party in an election. And you turn around to blame the electorate.
The president-elect has said his government will probe all security agents who connived in hijacking ballot boxes and engaged in other irregularities during the elections. Do you support such probe?
Well, first of all, when I was congratulating Gen. Buhari immediately after the elections, I told him that the first thing he needed to do is probe the elections in the South-east and South-south. He needs to do it. INEC itself also owes Nigerians the duty to say what its officials did in these zones. It is not easy to use successes achieved in some other places to say everything was ok. Supposing the PDP elements rose to the occassions and were able to make large returns to President Jonathan, would INEC have accepted the results? That is one proposal I gave. They turned a blind eye because reasonable figures were returned from those zones where card readers were not used. If they had risen to the occassion to return fruadlent huge figures in those states in the South-east and South-south, I don’t think the suituation would have been the same now, everybody would have sat up. But because in the end, the result went the way it went, everything is ok.
Apart from this, which other areas would you like him to focus on, especially as some governors recently complained that there is empty treasury to the extent that they can’t pay salaries to their workers?
That is what I am saying; he should go and look at the report of the National Conference. There were adjustments made in this regard in the report of the National Conference and whether anyone likes it or not, Buhari would not succeed if he runs the country with the present structure in place.
The National Conference was able to address a lot of problems, facing the country and came up with fa-reaching recommendations in its reports. The conference approved rotational presidency between the North and the South, but through the geo-political zones. It is a major issue that would stop these divisions in Nigeria. If you look at the voting pattern in the last elections, you will see the divisions in Nigeria, the way it played out in the elections. So, people were not voting because they were convinced about certain things, but they were voting based on sentiments. Our support for Jonathan as a party was based on his promise to implement the report of the National Conference. That is why I said the support we gave him, we are not quite regreting that, just that he misused the support and fell into the trap set for him by his members and they lost the elections. If you look at the South-west, the core people there were in support of Jonathan on his promise to implement the report of the National Conference. The only way for a sustainable united Nigeria is for Buhari to go and pick up that report. Unfortunately, his party did not attend the National Conference. That report will heal Nigeria from various wounds. It will assist Nigeria make progress. There were so many policy recommendations made by the report of the national conference in the way to make Nigeria a better and more functional country. So, if he leaves it and thinks he can make promises of delivering this, fighting corruption and all that, he will be disappointed with what he will get at the end of the day. His fighting corruption is good but the structural corruption in Nigeria is more endemic than the stealing going on in the public service. If he is thinking about the future of Nigeria, he should make the report of the National Confrence, a very important document and guideline that would lead to some ammendments of the constitutions, which he should sponsor. So, Nigeria would be good, it would not be fine if he governed Nigeria for four to eight years and hands over a beleaguered Nigeria to anybody who would succeed him. The time to lay solid foundation for Nigeria is now. I can preddict him with the strenght of character to do things. A person who has been very resilient, for presidency, 2003, v2007, 2011, 2015, can be credited with a rare spirit of resilience. It is a firm character and putting him in memoral lane when he was head of state for a year and some months. It was obvious that corruption was at zero level. So, we believe he will make a mark in this despensation. But the way he would succeed would depend on how he would want to tackle holistically the problems facing Nigeria. It includes elimination of maginalisation of people, who are aggrieved. He must do that, if he does not, he is leaving the problem for another person to solve. He cannot do things that would make the South-easterns to remain the way they are in Nigeria and expect them to clap for him. Ndigbo voted against him not because they don’t like him, they were pursuing a line of action that would bring about the implementation of the report of the National Conference. They felt that Jonathan was in a better position to implement the report so that every section of the country would match on together as brothers and sisters.
Buhari must address all the important issues captured in the reports. Corruption is good to tackle but the structural imbalances are responsible for the discontent among the people. They are also responsible for the various adjudications against the Nigeria state. So, he needs to look at it as well.
As APGA chairman, you are almost at the exit point, there are speculations, making the round that pressure is being mounted on you to remain and re-organise the party. How true is this?
I will not spend a day longer when my tenure runs out on the 10th of June. I have contributed my quota in fighting to keep this party alive. In fact, my leadership, not just me, has done its best. No amount of pressure would make me think in the direction of continuing in office. I am not looking for third term like Obasanjo did. God will provide somebody who will help the party to countinue the good work we have done in our own estimation. The Governor of Anambra State, who is the leader of the party, has a good mind towards rebuilding the party. So, we support him to help to get other people to do their own bit. I cannot spend a day longer as APGA chairman.
But it does appear that the governor is eyeing a move to APC, going by speculations in the media.
Rumour is the grandfather of politics. So, people can continue to peddle rumours around but rumours have nothing to do with reality. Governor Obiano has no plans of leaving the party. When he paid a visit to the president-elect to congratulate him, he was asked that question and he answered it pointedly. He is not going anywhere. He said he’d remain in APGA but wouldl support the president-elect. So, until you see something, you do not dwell in the realm of speculation. Even though our leadership is exiting, we remain members of the party.
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