INEC under Buhari: Nigeria not yet out of the woods – Omaki
Over a year since Nigerians went to the polls to make history by voting President Buhari and the All Progressives Party (APC) into power after three failed attempts, many have started to question the “change” that the ruling party promised them.
Abdullahi Omaki, a former ambassador to Chad and the executive director of the Savannah Centre for Diplomacy, Democracy and Development (SCDDD), Abuja, tells Legit.ng that Nigeria is not yet out of the woods concerning the conduct of elections a year after it ousted the previous government led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Savannah Centre has been a leading campaigner for free, fair and credible elections devoid of violence. What would be your take on the conduct of elections since former INEC chairman, Prof. Jega, left the office?
That is a very interesting question and I hope you are not directly linking the irregularities and the madness around the elections in Rivers and Kogi states to the absence of Jega? (Laughs).
On a very serious note it is an unfortunate situation that an isolated elections such as the one in Rivers and Kogi should drag the nation down the route we had feared for the country in 2015. Because what didn’t happen in 2015 is what has reared its head in Rivers in 2016 in an isolated election.
I see practically no reason why the people of the same state fighting for the same cause -causes of their people –should put the lives of their own people in large numbers in harm’s way just because of the election. That means that as a nation we are not out of the woods yet. If just barely one year after a national election we are descending so low to the craze that took place in Rivers.
Is that not an indictment on the present government considering the fact that the previous government of the PDP led by President Goodluck Jonathan did it and now this present government since its ascension to power has not been able to conduct and conclude an election the same day?
Well the federal government technically you will say as head of government that the whole federation is its constituency…that is the president. But of cause everybody has its role…the electoral body. And I thought that was why you were making the linkage to Jega to start with. We have a new head of INEC and we have an INEC team at state level as we have at the federal level. We have the security agencies generally that were also on the ground and the politicians who have never really changed, they are still also on the ground. So the responsibility is for all. If one part of the country should degenerate into that kind of a free downfall then I think it is a source of concern for everybody. It is not a matter that we should be apportioning blame to……whether it is an indictment on the president or the federal government. But I see the correlation that you are trying to make and I think more fundamentally we must look inwards first why we degenerated to that level in Rivers.
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Nigeria’s economy is driven by oil and oil affects development, democracy and diplomacy. Oil affects everything. What is your take on the current fuel crisis we have in the country?
I went to buy roasted maize the other time and there were two pieces that I saw and the price they called for me I shouted. They said don’t you know that the dollar has gone up. So I said so we have started buying corn with dollar now in Nigeria. That is how the nature of the corn is. So if you are relying so much on one product…. an instability in the price of that one product will have ripple effect on everything else.
It is unfortunate that a nation that is renowned for oil production will be in this mess and it says how much our governance has been problematic over the years. Not just in the last one year. It is something that has been on since 1960 and every time we don’t seem to be faring any better. So the clumsiness we see today that is associated with fuel production, refining and distribution is related to a complete policy failure in the oil sector. Today we talk of subsidy, tomorrow we don’t talk about subsidy and we are talking about one thing or the other. And all of these are interrelated –vested interest sort of. Every Nigerian is paying a price for the huge vested interest of a few. The marketers are colluding with those who are benefiting from the subsidy.
So it is not something you can say the federal government, the government of Buhari brought about. Definitely as a government they should within one year now of their administration begin to make a better sense of where we went wrong and begin to see the possible solutions. Because we cannot afford to continue like this. We cannot continue to chase essential commodities every now and then.
Do you see this present administration proffering solutions to the problems that have been associated with the oil sector considering the fact that the president himself was a former oil minister?
(Cuts in) And he is the current one now. So he should know he rode on their (Nigerians) concerns to power. So he should and if he doesn’t within very limited period from now people will be asking very sensitive and vital questions as to the fact that as the Head of State who had had experience in the oil industry and who has been blessed to come back after three attempts, at the fourth attempt God made it possible, the people of Nigeria made it possible to make it realise his ambition. And therefore the ambitions of Nigerians to be able to be pulled out of the difficulties, the perennial difficulties that we have always had. I think he has to reflect on this seriously and see how he can square-up with Nigerians on this particular issue that has remain a problem that has refused to go.
Recently, the Savannah Centre issued out a press statement calling on the president not to allow the patience of Nigerians to turn into frustrations. The Centre also called for an economic conference which the presidency responded to with a national economic conference. What do you make of it?
I think it was a first step. For me personally and I am not speaking for the Savannah Centre now. I felt yes it was a good step taken but it didn’t go far enough. The problem of Nigeria has gone beyond just the government looking at themselves and taking a decision on behalf of the rest of us. Our own initial take when we issued the press statement you were referring to is that we needed experts and those who are knowledgeable about the economy not necessarily from government to be brought together to sit side by side with those in government. How is it that you are taking this route and not that route? That will be an argument from informed group of people and at the end of the day the group with the superior argument will win the discussion and therefore decisions are made on behalf of the population. But when you have the larger percentage of the participants being those people in government, the questions whether we got the import of the economic conference correctly or not….The point I personally had made long time ago was that when the APC won the elections what I expected them to do was basically two things. First, the political party organize themselves in ways and manners that give them the advantage of viewing our economy vis-a-viz the manifestos, the issues they campaigned for and looking at the realities within the period of transition. That is on the one side. Government under the president with the president elect at that time to also sit down with potential people that are likely to work with him and look at the totality of our national life. It is true he was former Head of State. It is true he was a minister. It is true he knows so much about this country but nothing would have been lost if he had that interaction with a vast majority of Nigerians from whom he can tap into and pick on certain things and say “look am concentrating on one, security. Two, the issue of the economy. Three, the issue of infrastructural deficit and so on”-these are the directions I want to go.
If they had had all of that right from the beginning even the problem which they had at the national assembly to select their leadership wouldn’t have reared itself the way it came. That had some terrible impact on the initial tempo of the government. But that is in the past and I hope that really now…we have a budget whether signed or not we have a budget…let’s hope that the contents of the budget will be addressed in ways and manners that will touch the issues and concerns of the masses, (Nigerians) because the change over from the PDP government to an APC government was largely their (Nigerians) victory. It was largely their victory and not just political parties. It is those people that they felt enough was enough that they needed a change and that change they have to get the benefit of it. Otherwise they would feel betrayed and when people get to that level of feeling anything can happen and we don’t want our country to go that line. We need even no matter how symbolic to be moving in the right direction consistently.
In 2014 there was a confab and Prof. Gambari did advise that government should ensure that it implements some recommendations of the confab. Now, we have a new government, do you still maintain the same position that the recommendations of the conference should be looked at?
Well two things, you talked about Prof. Gambari and you talked about the new government. Prof Gambari is Prof. Gambari and I am myself. And the new government is a new government and I am not part of the new government.
(Cuts in) What are you hopes as regards ….?
(Cuts in) I think that the issues there are quite simple. First, the APC as a political party decided they are not going to be part of the process, the national conference and they really never participated as far as I can still recollect. So if they don’t want to touch the conclusions of the conference then that is consistent with the party’s position. If the question is whether or not there are things that are important for the nation which the government can still look at. Yes. Yes, I will tell you yes because the people who sat at the national conference are Nigerians and they amplify certain viewpoints of our country. So there must be certain things that are good and things that are not so good in the recommendations. And in any case the recommendations was in two or three parts. I think two parts largely. Actionable parts which can be implemented by a sitting government if they find those conclusions meaningful and relative to the direction of government. They can go ahead and implement some of those things without going through a constitutional amendments. The second aspect of the recommendation is that you have to go through the national assembly to have a constitution amendments before you can have those things put in place. If you have two sets of recommendations, one that permits you to apply and handpick certain things that you can apply and create more harmony and unity, to create more inclusiveness and all of that, then I don’t see anything wrong with that. But again is perhaps if they are not doing that …if the present government is not doing that it may not totally be unrelated to the party’s decision taken ahead of the commencement of the confab.
The Agatu crisis just like the fuel crisis has been a recurring issue in the country. What lasting solution do you proffer to the proper management of Fulani herdsmen and their host communities?
It is a complex issue. It looks complex and sometimes some people would tell you that some of the things that are so complex are not so complex after all maybe in terms of providing solutions. But then because of the lives that have continuously been lost and the persistence of them makes this issue problematic for resolution. And I don’t know or understand clearly why we are not looking at the issues across board because we are talking of the issue of security now. Any part of Nigeria today, across the six geo-political zones has one form of insecurity or the other. It all depends on what you attribute to each in terms of magnitude. Go to the north east, the ravaging of Boko Haram that has displaced millions and had led to the loss of several lives –thousands of lives. And then of course you come to the north central and north west, the issue of the cattle herdsmen which Agatu crisis fits. Then the problem of the grazing land I think is at the bottom of it. So why would the government not realistically now begin to look at those options –the provision of grazing land. If you don’t resolve that there is no amount of palliatives you will give that can solve the problem. How do we get to actually carve out areas as grazing places for this form of economic activity? Whether we like it or not cattle rearing is a form of economic activity. So you must make some provisions. The state has responsibility to provide enabling framework or legal framework for their existence and then for them to be also taxed appropriately for the nation to benefit from their movement one side of the country to another. And if you do that it becomes a win-win situation. Everybody wins if it is done properly. I think the other worrying aspect is sometimes I hear that some of these people are not even Nigerians. If they are not Nigerians then that is the biggest challenge to our national security. If they are not Nigerians how do they cross over with our different layers of security? How do they cross over with this type of arms that they have and we call ourselves a state that can provide security to our citizens? That is very worrisome to me.
2019 elections are around the corner and politicians have started scheming on how to get hold of power. What is your take on zoning?
I answered that question sometimes when I was Nigeria’s ambassador to Chad in either 2010 or 2011 and the same question was asked whether zoning was going to break the PDP or not. And I said that is the problem of the PDP. It is unfortunate that 55 years getting to 56 years of our independence all we are talking about is which part of the country should lead us, who must lead us, must it be a Muslim or Christian, whether he is from south or the north. It is a big challenge. Again it shows how governance has failed over the years. If the governance has not failed we will not be coming back to this kind of issues. Governance has been working for everybody. At least seen to be equitable working for everybody where social justice is enhanced and human rights are enhanced and development across board is guaranteed. Then I wouldn’t bother whether Ola is my president or Abdullahi is my president or someone else is my president. What we would bother ourselves on is about the issues that must keep us together. Issues that make us grow together. The issues that differentiates us as a Nigerian and other countries around. If we must show leadership how do we show that kind of leadership? We must excel. We should not excelling around primordial issues like the one that you just raised and I think it is a fundamental weakness of our system that 55 years down the line we have not settled the question of merit. The question of those who deserve to be in power but we are still talking about zoning.
Source: Legit.ng
