Electoral reform: I have no faith in National Assembly –Lai Mohammed
By Olusola Balogun
Sunday, November 8, 2009

Lai Mohammed is arguably the most pro-active political party spokesperson in Nigeria today. He believes that governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) do not want their representatives at the National Assembly to support any attempt to review the Electoral Act. As usual with him, he speaks on a wide range of issues in this interview with Sunday Sun. Excerpts:

Do you agree that leadership has always been the problem of Nigeria as a nation?
Yes, I have no doubt about that. Our leaders assisted in causing us retrogression. We have not been blessed with good and patriotic leaders.

What about followership?
You expect very little from those that you have not trained. You expect little of somebody with no skill. People talk of followership. But this is my view; leadership to a large extent, dictates Followership.
What role have you assigned to followership and how do you define effective leadership? I don’t see leadership from the narrow viewpoint of political leaders; I think leadership is anybody who is saddled with the authority of one sort or the other and anyone that is educated to do a think. We all have a responsibility. I say with no fear of contradiction that Nigeria has the most gullible set of followership in the world; they follow without questioning their leaders, they always have utmost faith in their leaders, but today they are very cynical. They have now lost all hope in the leadership but they are powerless because the middle-class has collapse due to policies that tends to erode that class. The policies of government, especially under the military, tend to spread poverty and the first casualty when there is poverty is integrity. For instance, 30 years ago, a lawyer or a medical doctor was highly respected and he has self-esteem; but now that is not the case. Thirty years ago, you won’t see a lawyer with wig and gown waiting for an ‘Okada’ (commercial motorcycle); they have a car, but that is what we are seeing today. You have demystified the profession.

Some people are packaging a mega party to challenge the dominance of the PDP in 2011; but surprisingly, the AC said it won’t be part of it. Some people are alleging that it is pride and selfishness that are making your party to opt out of the mega party set up; how do you react to that charge?
We in the AC have made it clear that we don’t buy into the mega party thing because we told them that they are putting the cart before the horse. Without a transparent election system, if all the political parties team up against the PDP, the PDP will still be returned the winner. So what is the point of a mega party? We then said they should all join us in working towards a transparent electoral system and after that we can then look at this thing. Until we make every vote to count we will be wasting our time as members of the opposition.
I will take us down the memory lane a bit; In 1979, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) won seven states, Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) won five states, Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP) won two, Nigeria’s Peoples Party (NPP) won three, Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) won two, only to loose one later. I think that was a bit balanced given the ethnic, religion and political configuration of Nigeria.

Democracy thrives in a multi party system. The aspiration of a man in Calabar might not be the same as the man in Ilorin or Yola. The problem in Cross River might be a problematic ecology while the problem in Yola might just be flood. The various political parties should be allowed to tailor its program towards what its people wants.
We know that a two political party system might work better, so without a transparent system of election, it will be idle thinking to talk of mega party.

However, I want to say that those who say that have the reason for saying so. I believe that a two party system will guarantee more stability; we practiced it very well in the third republic before the annulment. It must also be pointed out that the experiment was a success because of the transparent system of voting that was in place then. If we have a two party a system today it wont be successful.
In Nigeria today, for you to win an election, you will need to control the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the police, the State Security Service, the Army and you must also have a deep pocket. All these factors are in favour of the PDP. They appoint the chairman and members of the electoral commission, the police chief, the SSS chief and the Army top brass who are expected to be loyal to them. The opposition is therefore at great disadvantage.

Do you think the present National Assembly would be willing to correct the flaws you spoke about in the electoral system?
I am not sure they are. The House of Representatives makes us to believe they are much more eager to have a transparent election system but I know that they too are trying to do it because they are fighting their own political battle. Honestly, I am not optimistic that they will be able to bring about that needed electoral reform. Only recently, the Electoral Offences Bill before the senate almost died. The senate President was, in fact, quoted as saying that though he knows that the bill is sick, but they should not allow it to die in the senate, it should die elsewhere.
Even more alarming is that we heard it on very good authority that the PDP governors have told their representatives at the national assembly that they should not allow electoral reform if they want a second term.

Is that allegation based on fact or just mere politics?
In AC we try to be very responsible and we don’t raise false alarms. I can tell you that the PDP governors are also not in support of electoral reform because many of then fear that, with a reform; they might not have a second term. The truth is that if today we have an electoral reform that will guarantee one man one vote, the entire political landscape in Nigeria will be changed.
When we talk of electoral reform people think we are talking of the electoral reform that has to do with general election, it also includes even democracy within the party system. So many parties’ lacks internal democracy, and I am happy that the President said that the problem with the PDP is about internal democracy. We have always said that, he is just confirming it. Look at the happening in Anambra state and the manner their gubernatorial candidate emerged. That is a good example of this lack of internal democracy.

Do you think the AC and its allies would be able to upstage the PDP in 2011?
If every vote will count and we have one-man-one vote, we will defeat the PDP.

Are you saying in essence that without the National Assembly amending the act to guarantee one man one vote, PDP will still win with the AC and other labouring in vain?
No. There are two parts to the electoral reform thing; the constitutional arm is what we are pursuing. We are asking that the process of appointing the INEC chief should be one that will not give room for manipulation, the role of the police, the SSS and those whore role are strategic and traditional to the election should be clarified. We are also not optimistic on that because the appointment of these agencies rests strictly between the executive and the legislative arm of government. We don’t believe that either of them is willing to do that.

There is also the operational arm of this struggle, which is, even if they did not amend the Electoral Act, we will ensure that we make our votes to count. That is one area I will want Nigerians to address and be prepared to be involved in. The law pretends that it is one-man one-vote, but we know that it is the operations that makes the difference. The issue now is how do we sensitize Nigerians to ensure that their votes count?
We have to let them know the steps they need to take and be vigilant that there is no untoward actions; they will need to police the votes by themselves. They will have to know too that the moment voting starts, there will be no rest if we want to rest fore a long time. These are other areas we will need to work on.
We are not abandoning the constitutional angle, but we know the working of the national assembly and the reluctance of those there to do this thing. We are aware that this time next years all of them will be hustling for re-election and they wont want to do anything to hurt their re-election.

Are you then confident, in view of this, that there will be free and fair election in Anambra next February?
There can’t be free and fair election in Anambra; but the political parties has a responsibility to ensure that they are ready to defend their votes. It is the lack of political will and political education that has made the PDP to make the mockery of our democracy. It is clear from what is happening in Anambra that the PDP cannot conduct free and fair primaries for its members; we did not say that, the facts on the ground strongly suggests that and we can all see that too. Governor Gabriel Suswam, a PDP member who is the incumbent governor of Benue state said that too in his angry reaction. He was quoted as saying that he can’t understand how thirty members of the state assembly who are all PDP and the governor alone from All Progressive Grande Alliance and the PDP cannot conduct its primaries.

What are you as a party planning to do in Anambra? Is Chris Ngige planning to go into alliance with any party?
Chris Ngige is probably the single most popular candidate in the state. I did not say that because I am in AC. I was in Awka two months ago and I know what I saw and what I heard. He has done so much work while in office that if we can succeed in policing the votes, he will emerge the winner. There are just three political parties in Anambra state, the AC, the PDP that exist in that state is enmeshed in a crisis as it has 57 aspirants and I don’t know how they will reconcile them successfully, APGA that is the ruling party is factionalized. Maurice Iwu has thrown so much confusion in that party that he has killed the party.

We have being saying that Iwu is a real threat to democracy in Nigeria; no one seems to be ready to listen to us. Is it not curious that INEC only two months ago decide to recognize the Chekwas Okorie faction of APGA? There are two court judgments upholding the expulsion of Okorie. In the last there or four years INEC has always recognized the Victor Umeh faction of APGA and even gave them the allocation due that party, but in the run up to the election, Iwu made a U-turn, not because there was a new court judgment but simply because that is the script he was given to play out. He has now given the nomination papers to the Okorie faction that is hostile to the governor leaving Peter Obi in the lurch. The only option left for Obi is to go to a shell party if he wants to contest the election.

What is you advice to the government over the Niger Delta crisis?
I will advise the government to be flexible with the militants. I know that no conventional army has ever won a guerilla war. They can go to Uganda and ask and they will found out that they are fighting a loosing battle. Sometimes in 2008,there was this operation led by Uganda, southern Sudan, Congo and supported by AFRICOM, it came to nothing. What the government needs to do is to commence development in that area.

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