2015: JONATHAN’LL LOSE WOEFULLY, SAYS BALARABE MUSA!

Second Republic Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, speaks on topical issues in this interview with THE PUNCH NEWSPAPER.

What do you think about the seeming inability of the Federal Government to rescue over 200 schoolgirls, who were abducted from Government Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, over two months ago?

The inability to resolve the issue of the abduction of the schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno State, and the continued abduction of women and children is a show of gross incompetence on the part of the Federal Government. Apart from that, President Goodluck Jonathan and his government went ahead to unpatriotically invite foreigners to solve a problem that the Federal Government has the capacity to solve. And up till today, the foreigners have not been able to identify where the abducted children are. Nothing concrete is coming both from the Federal Government and those invited to help.

Some have blamed northern leaders for allowing the Boko Haram menace to fester.

It is irrelevant because the so-called northern leaders are not the Federal Government. They cannot control any part of the country. They are just elders, who have been identified for their roles or age. They have no power. They don’t even have moral authority. It is the Federal Government that has the legal power and moral authority to face the situation. The highest authorities in the North are the governors. Even the governors can’t do much. They are the chief security officers of their states but they don’t control the police, the army and other security services. They don’t even control the funds that could have enabled them to perform.

Given the fact the Boko Haram has claimed it’s advancing the cause of Islam, can’t northern religious leaders, such as the emirs, negotiate with the insurgents?

First of all, it is quite clear that Boko Haram cannot be Islamic because they are violating the fundamental tenets of Islam and one of the tenets is the dignity of women folk. It’s a consensus that the Boko Haram insurgents are agents that are out to destabilise the country either by the Federal Government itself or some band of thieves or by foreign imperialists. There is no way a sectional group in Nigeria can mount such insurgency as the Boko Haram. They don’t have the resources; they don’t have the cohesion or coordination. It must be either by the Federal Government or bands of thieves in the country, who are rich; or foreign imperialist, who have targeted Nigeria for disintegration by 2015. These are the forces we should look at as possible sponsors of this insurgency working towards the destabilisation of Nigeria.

The two leading political parties in the country, the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress, have been blaming each other for the insurgency. Don’t you think they should unite to solve the national problem?

The PDP and the APC cannot unite. One is seeking to hold on to power at the federal level and the other wants to take it. It’s very difficult for them to unite on any issue. In fact, as political parties, I don’t think the PDP or the APC is capable of mounting such an insurgency as the Boko Haram. As government in power, certainly they can, but as a political party, I don’t think they can. That rules out the APC from being responsible for this kind of insurgency. The fact that the APC has been criticising the Federal Government for failing to stop the insurgency is quite logical.

In view of the current state of the nation, some have said it won’t be proper for the President to seek re-election in 2015. Do you agree?

Considering the negative state of the nation, which has affected every part of Nigeria, particularly the level of poverty and insecurity, Jonathan should not seek re-election in 2015. His party will not even nominate him. But if it does, they will face the consequences because Jonathan will lose the election woefully. He will not get reasonable votes even in the South-South where he comes from because the South-South is also suffering from the negative state of the nation. South-South people are also suffering from the current level of unemployment, hunger and insecurity. Jonathan’s incompetence has affected every part of Nigeria. Without the misuse of incumbency and money power, there is no way he can get nomination even from the PDP, let alone winning the election.

Your party, the Peoples Redemption Party, was among the parties deregistered by the Independent National Electoral Commission. Now that INEC has said deregistered parties should reapply, would your party reapply?

No, we will not reapply because we don’t want to be part of the rubbish that INEC is doing. As far as we are concerned, the PRP is both a movement and an electoral body. We will continue to exist given the provisions of the Chapter 2 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We will continue to exist whether we are registered or not, whether we can contest election or not.

The Senate recently empowered INEC to deregister political parties that fail to win any seat during general elections.

The issue of deregistration of political parties is in complete contravention of Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution, which says in effect that INEC cannot deregister a political party that it had already recognised. That’s one. Secondly, one of the deregistered political parties is the Fresh Democratic Party. The party went to court and the court declared clearly that the deregistration of the FDP on two grounds was unconstitutional, illegal and therefore null and void. Almost one year after the judgement was delivered, INEC has refused to honour the judgement. This shows that INEC is lawless. It has no respect for the laws and constitution of Nigeria. INEC lied that it had appealed the judgement but that is not true. All that INEC did was to give notice of an appeal. Giving notice of an appeal is not the same thing as filing an appeal. Up till now INEC has not filed an appeal and it has refused to allow the FDP to participate in elections. This has an implication for other political parties that were deregistered on the same grounds that INEC deregistered the FDP. The two grounds on which the INEC deregistered the Fresh Democratic Party were: one, that it did not win any election or, at least, one seat in a state House of Assembly. The court had ruled that that provision that a political party must win at least a seat in a state House of Assembly was in contravention of the constitution and, therefore, was declared null and void. On the other leg, the court ruled that INEC did not give the political party fair hearing before deregistering it. These grounds are applicable to all the other political parties that were deregistered, therefore, no political party, as of today, has been deregistered in accordance with the constitution, yet INEC would not allow them to participate in elections. In any case, INEC cannot conduct a free and fair election in Nigeria. First, it’s because free, fair, and credible election in Nigeria is impossible due to the conditions under which elections are conducted. These conditions include first, the deciding role of money in Nigerian politics. Nobody can win any election in Nigeria without an exorbitant amount of money. Secondly, the misuse of incumbency at all levels of government; federal, state and local. Thirdly, the cost charged by electoral bodies in Nigeria is not fair. I’ll give an example with the forthcoming local government elections in Kaduna State. The demand of the state electoral body is that every candidate for the post of the chairman of a local government council must pay N250,000 and everyone who wants to be a councilor must pay N100,000. Which means money power is the deciding factor in elections in Nigeria; therefore the elections cannot be free, fair and transparent.

What about the Ekiti State governorship election, which was adjudged free and fair by local and foreign observers.

It’s the same falsehood that is perpetrated through the media and various spokespersons. The Ekiti election or any other election in Nigeria cannot be free and fair with the influence of money power and misuse of incumbency and the excessive involvement of the military and other security forces. A free and fair election cannot have the level of participation of the army, police and other security forces as well as the harassment that occurred in Ekiti just before the election. In the Ekiti election, members of the ruling party were free to campaign without harassment by security services but the members of the opposition, which is the APC, were not free to campaign in Ekiti without harassment. It went to the extent that even the campaign manager of the incumbent governor was virtually told to stop campaigning or face the consequence. The Ekiti election cannot in anyway be called free and fair because it was not. But the media and others are giving the impression that it was free and fair. It was not free and fair. It was not even tolerable.

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About Unknown

Deji Sadiq, a.k.a DEJI OF LAGOS is a LASU trained Economist turned freelance journalist, a Blogger, an information strategist, a public affairs analyst and a committed activist with a passion for equal opportunities.