Olakunle Olafioye
Prof Taoheed Adedoja, former Minister of Sports and Special Duties is optimistic that in spite of the heat in the nation’s polity ahead of this year’s elections, the country would still witness peaceful polls.
Adedoja in this interview gave a fresh insight on the proliferation of political parties in the country and why the alliance for this year’s poll has failed to yield positive results. He also reacted to other issues of national importance. Excerpts:
Nigeria is set for another election. What is your take on the poll?
Irrespective of the heat in the polity on various issues, Nigerians are good people. Nigerians are looking forward to very peaceful and successful elections and by my assessment, Nigerians, both old and young, the masses and the elite; all segments of the nation are ready for the elections.
Many Nigerians are apprehensive as the elections get closer. There have been speculations that the APC-led government could be up to some mischiefs going by certain developments with the latest being the removal of the Chief Justice of Nigeria? What is your view on this?
Naturally, when elections are coming all over the world, it is a natural phenomenon for people to express some fears, some doubts because political parties are involved, because issues are involved, it is natural that people express fear as we are currently witnessing, but at the end of the day it will turn out peaceful.
The South West is believed to be crucial to the presidential election. But with the APC in full control of the zone, how would you assess the chances of other political parties, particularly the leading opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party, in the zone?
PDP is pushing forward and it’s doing everything possible to ensure that the party wins the presidential election and the governorship elections in the states where election will hold. So we hope for the best.
The President has promised the nation a free and fair election, but there are insinuations that the signs are ominous. Do you nurse any fear concerning this?
Nigerians have been promised a free and fair election.
So, let us keep our fingers crossed and hope for hitch-free elections and the best for this country. Nigeria needs a lot of prayers and all of us must pray for the country because we don’t have any country to run to.
We must pray for the best for the country even when some people don’t wish the country well, we should pray for our country because of the future of our children. We must remember also that we are looking at our youth as the future of this country. On the other hand, the youths rely on us to provide the enabling environment for democracy and good governance and that’s what we look forward to in the 2019 election.
I don’t think we should entertain any fear. We should hope and pray for the best to happen in Nigeria. I strongly believe the best will happen to our country to emerge one of the greatest countries of the world. Nigeria is blessed with potential, both human and material resources and I believe this will be the beginning of good things for the country.
Over 70 political parties have been cleared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to contest the presidential poll, but only a handful of them, particularlly the ruling APC and the leading opposition, PDP, are seen as serious contenders. Isn’t this an indication that Nigeria isn’t ripe for multi-party political system?
The essence of the emergence of several political parties in the country is for Nigeria to have a long period of assessing itself in order for us to know exactly where we are as a country. If we started with two or three parties you may find out that you don’t belong to the right, you don’t belong to the left and you don’t belong to the centre.
But giving opportunity to people and more political parties to emerge, I think it’s a sign of true democracy. It shows we are practicing true democracy and that is freedom of association and freedom to identify with the ideology you believe in. That is what the political parties are for.
The fact that the political parties are many, I am not saying it should be so, but remember that Nigeria is still going through what I may call experimental democracy, and when you are experimenting, it should not be for one or two years, it should be for a few years.
The United States also went through this process. We must allow people to associate because the country is so vast. The essence of the proliferation of political parties is to allow Nigerians to have maximum say in what they believe in, in terms of evolving the ideology they believe in. By this, the opportunity will cut across.
Some of these political parties made attempt to form an alliance to dislodge the ruling party. But as we can see, nothing concrete came out of this. What would you say the problem is?
Every political party has its own ideology and will like to run its ideology. Since the ideologies of these political parties are so distinct, it is sometimes difficult to conveniently align with other political parties considering differences in vision, ideologies and mission. And in some cases where the missions and visions are the same, the modus operandi of their implementation could be different and that could constitute a major problem. And remember that some people see the formation of political parties not about ideology or mission or vision but just about taking leadership positions.
Most people want to be leaders of political parties because they want to use it as a means of expressing their feelings and also possibly to lead. To me, honestly speaking, it’s a good development in the sense that if you allow only two or three political parties to emerge in the country, that is, a country as big as Nigeria with all its resources, you will end up having three potential leaders but now we have an array of potential leaders in the country cutting across the young and old, male and female; so it is to present credentials of Nigerians that are qualified to lead the country like ours as big as it is.
What this means is that every part of Nigeria has the ability of producing the best President of Nigeria, the best governor, the best senator; that is what the proliferation of parties will lead to.
From all indications, women have once again failed to grab more opportunities in the political space. What would you say is the problem?
Women need to be given their rightful place. It’s not just a constitutional matter. Whether this is enshrined in the Constitution or not, it is their rights. Women have the potential to lead in any position they find themselves. In effect, the political parties must look at this by giving the women politicians some leverage in terms of reduction or non-payment of nomination fee and, of course, allow certain percentage of political positions.
If you look at the manifestos of the various political parties, virtually all the parties are in agreement with women, in terms of positions, that they should constitute not less than 30 per cent. And I think that should be the beginning, not necessarily because of the affirmative action, but because Nigeria, as a country, believes women should take their rightful place in the politics of the nation because of their educational level, because of their exposure and because women have soft spot for development of the children and Nigeria as a country.
One major challenge many Nigerians have envisaged ahead of the election is the problem of vote-buying. How best can this problem be tackled?
The country that’s still experiencing poverty, the country that is still battling high rate of unemployment, in a country where graduates are roaming the streets after years of graduation; Nigeria has one of the highest illiteracy level in Africa, you should expect the issue of monetization in most if the things we do. This is an indication of the level of poverty in the country. It is just not a question of vote buying, it is about financial inducement.
You also have to understand that during elections, some logistics are involved. The major logistical issue on the election day is transportation to where people are registered, the issue of drinking water and feeding at least twice, majorly breakfast and lunch during the exercise.
This is a major opportunity for any political party to just ride on the need of the people at that time and offer them money. And you know once you have been offered money, you know your conscience is for sale. This issue is very social and very psychological.