Chukwudi Nweje

Yinusa Tanko, presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in the 2019 general elections says credible elections are only possible when the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC) is neutral. He also calls for unbundling of the commission.

The 2019 general elections have just been concluded, most of it anyway, what is your assessment of the entire process?

I must say that I’m unsatisfied with the outcome of some of the processes. The election was keenly contested, but the level of intimidation and the involvement of the military in the exercise leave lots of questions to be asked. I noticed also that the strongholds of the opposition are some of the states where they are saying that the elections are inconclusive. And, unfortunately, you will notice that the opposition is leading in these areas. The case in Rivers State was so bad to the extent that lives were lost and people who are supposed to be custodians of security of lives and property were seen to be looking the other way when the various crimes were being perpetrated.  In my home state of Kano, where I’m speaking from, we have an inconclusive situation. There is high level of violence and top-level officials of opposition parties are being arrested with regard to their level of involvement in trying to manipulate the system. The system has a lot of problems and I think it is time for us to sit down and really analyse how our election process is conducted and also find a way to let the people know that violence does not pay. We should base our election on credible process that will bring out the best of candidates.

What are your fears regarding these inconclusive elections that have been scheduled for March 23?

It is clear that what happened in Osun State will be replicated in these states. The police, army and security agencies would be put into play to instill fear and weaken the opposition in such a way that the government will have undue advantage in winning all these areas. Clear cut examples are Sokoto, Bauchi, Kano, Plateau and Adamawa states. These are states that are germane and if the opposition wins these states it will mean there will be little bit of parity in the system. But if they are gagged and muscled and the states go to the government in power, you will have a situation where people will be afraid that they will not be carried along, like it is playing out at the national level now. The implication will be that people will be doing things their own way and what you will have is uncontrollable governance, where the opposition will continue to kick against government policies that there is no inclusiveness. That will create anger which can even lead to violence.  

Do you think the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as presently constituted is over-burdened?

I believe the INEC chairman and well-meaning Nigerians will agree with me that the electoral commission is overburdened with work. It has to do delineation which I think is becoming a big challenge. I think the delineation process should start immediately after this election, so that people will not interpret it as trying to confer undue advantage to certain areas. Moreover, all political parties must come on board to discuss the grey areas. I think the unbundling of INEC should be done in such a way that the three tiers suggested by the Justice Mohammed Uwais report are captured.

For example, we need to have a Delineation Commission or rather hand over the task of delineation to the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) and the National Population Commission (NPC) who already have an established data and the demography in which the delineation can easily take place without involving too much ad hoc committees since they already have information that will make delineation much easier on hand.

Secondly, there must be an electoral enforcement commission to deal with electoral offenders. The enforcement commission must be specifically involved in areas of operations where they can easily identify and prosecute any offender, be it an INEC official or an electorate caught in any malpractice that could compromise the electoral process. It should the duty of that enforcement commission to ensure that such a person is arrested, prosecuted and eventually punished so that it will serve as a deterrent. We can have an Electoral Management Commission which will be responsible for only the electoral process itself and managing of political parties, this way you would have removed a lot of burden from INEC and leave them with only what they can effectively manage and have good time to prepare for elections and any by-election that may come up.

I must also say that how INEC officials are recruited is very critical to getting a credible election. Unfortunately, what we have now is a skewed system where INEC commissioners and even the INEC chairman are appointed by a sitting president. These are some of the processes that have caused problems. You will agree with me that the issue of content is so high in Nigeria. Even the electoral process itself is filled with partisan people. This makes it difficult ab initio to have credible elections because there are people who have interests in certain political parties. That is where the problem starts from.

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What is the way out?

We must have a clean house. The position of the INEC chairman should be advertised in the national newspapers so that people interested in the job will apply and will be scrutinised to see if they have the capacity to hold the office. This is when the Department of State Services (DSS) will go into action and screen these applicants and three will be presented, from where the president and public will choose one to be INEC chairman. That way there will be confidence in the process.

You ran on the platform of NCP in the 2019 presidential election, what is your assessment of the party’s performance?

Our electoral process has been heavily monitised. The NCP does not have the kind of resources some of these parties have at their disposal. For a party like NCP whose forms are free, we were able to gather votes that are genuine. Though these people knew that their votes may not be enough to propel us to victory, they still came out to vote for us. We greatly appreciate these voters and it shows us that if we continue to inform the voters, we may soon have an election that is devoid of monetary inducement. As far as NCP is concerned, we did well when you consider the funds in our coffers. Nigerians cannot continue to sit back and expect us to present ourselves without giving us the support. The Nigerian electorate must join us to change the narrative of money politics because it is unbecoming.

Some Nigerians think 91 political parties are too much and that parties like NCP that scored less than one per cent of total votes should be deregistered. What do you think? 

The unfortunate aspect is that there is no level playing ground for the political parties. Had it been a level playing ground was presented then you can postulate the idea of deregistration. I will give you an example. You cannot compare the candidacy of Muhammadu Buhari and my own. Buhari has the apparatus of the state at his disposal. He can use private jets or advertise in newspapers, so also is the candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), who has a lot of resources. You can’t expect some of us to go into the same market and perform the same way. Until we bring down the cost of participation, it will be difficult.

Ab initio the system has been skewed in favour of those in power and those who have the resources. That is why we have been advocating that there should be a limit we cannot exceed. In developed countries, they don’t allow the sitting president to use certain funds beyond what is available to all. You cannot expect us to be deregistered because we are not playing on a level ground. Don’t forget the NCP has won election in Ekiti State before, so we have the capacity of winning election, what we don’t have is the heavy resources that is needed.

We are an advocate of multi-party system. We should not gag or deregister any political party, what we should rather do is to encourage political parties and insist on level playing ground and I assure you that way you will see other political parties performing exceedingly well. In Benin Republic that has 9 million population, they have more than 100 political parties. In the United States they have 150; in the United Kingdom they have more than 100. In Nigeria with a population of more than 180 million people we have only 91. It is not even enough. What we have to do is make sure the political parties are functioning well, not to deregister them. We should start talking about proportional representation like it is done in South Africa, where if you win up to a certain percentage of votes you will be involved in governance across board.

What changes do you hope to see in the system before another general election in 2023?

At a point, I was perturbed and weakened, but then I slept and dreamt that if this is the way some men are made and how countries evolve to become a greater nation, then it will be welcomed. When things start happening in this manner it will galvanise the people to start thinking in another direction of building a stronger force that can challenge and take over power for the benefit of the people. I’m making a clarion call to my fellow countrymen that this is the time to re-energise our efforts in uniting this country and make Nigeria a great nation that will be a thing of pride. This is the time to re-energise our efforts, put it in focus and let us have a team that will be able to challenge these undemocratic forces that are trying to put Nigeria into serious problems, we should reject it, but we should reject it in a democratic way to show that we have that capacity to lead Nigeria.