Politics
Nigeria: Need For Right Electoral Environment
In every society, there are deviants and these deviants are as a result of what leadership has done overtime. Nobody is born of God or a criminal. My belief is that God created man, and man created the kind of society he has and society created its deviants.
Historically, the ordinary people of this country are good people. They are law abiding and are willing to follow good leadership. But overtime, that patriotism had been destroyed perpetually by their leaders. If you come closer to the transition that moved us to where we are today, you will find out that since 1999, the problem has not been the people of Nigeria. It is always easy for people who lead bad governance and their entourage to begin to blame the people for their ineptitude.
It is the absence of good leadership that has kept us where we are. I have, as a leader of HRHL organisation, led the monitoring of elections, since 1999, in the Niger Delta. What we noticed, in practical terms, is that the people of the Niger Delta for instance and you can replicate this across the country are aware of what it means to vote. They are aware of what it means to obey the rules and on how to conduct themselves.
For instance in 1999, people came out to exercise their franchise, but the leaders and those who represented them at the polling units messed up the exercise. The people want to go positive, the leaders and their group want to go negative. And in such an environment, it is either you are forced and you agree to the force or you leave. And at the end of the day, they will say ignorant of the people.
Democracy did not begin in Europe. If you look at our local governance or communal institutions overtime even to the present day, you will see elements of democratic principles. People in my community do not reach decisions without hearing from both sides. The whole idea of due process, fair hearing is there. But today, what we get is a situation where young people now dictate how things should be. The reason for this is because of institutions and the character of the regime that we have at the moment.
So, the people are not to be blamed. What Nigeria needs is good leadership, it is what has been lacking; the absence of effective leadership is what has kept us where we are. When we get the right leadership, people will naturally follow. Educated people within my age bracket in Nigeria do not take the leadership seriously. Rather, they as much as possible do things that will not get them into trouble.
In every society, there are deviants and these deviants are as a result of what leadership has done overtime. Nobody is born of God or a criminal. My belief is that God created man, and man created the kind of society he has and society created its deviants. There are people in criminal activities today not because they want to be criminals. This is not a justification for them, but because we have not had the right leadership. Such bad leadership, would want to have a reservoir of individuals that they will use for evil purposes.
The deviants will help you to rig election and kill people during election and then they are abandoned to eat their own dividend. What are they expected to do? You have taught them criminality. They will continue to criminalise society. In essence, majority of Nigerians are not criminals while the few that are criminals can be managed if we have the right leadership. So when you don’t have the right leadership, the court system will not work, the police formation can’t work and the same is the social services.
So we need the right electoral environment and the right leadership as well as the funding of institutions to make things work. Institutions like electoral system is not something you do from year to year.
You invest and build the capacity of that institution so that it becomes self sustainable over time. And any individual that gets into that place will see what is on ground and apply him or herself in that direction. As President Goodluck Jonathan has appointed an INEC chairman, Nigerians will look at that person and if he has a track record and they think he can deliver, he might not be perfect human being, but they see that that person can deliver through his track record you will see how things will change.
In comparative terms, the people of this country are very good people. Look at Latin America, Asia, even Europe in history, no country is as tolerant as Nigeria. Some of the that have happened, if it were in Latin America, the country would have been burnt down. But people are very resilient in Nigeria.
Terrible things are happening in Nigeria yet the people are smiling and the leaders are taking advantage of that to exploit the people. Nigerians are well aware of their rights and their responsibility. They want an opportunity to serve their country in whatever capacity. Nigerians are hard working, see what they do in a very heinous situation to survive.
The leadership should put in place effective electoral laws, the Uwais committee has given us that, if it is turned into law, Nigeria will be a different place in 2011 because then, there will be rules for the game and you don’t circumvent a good law by putting wrong implementers of the law.
Before the next elections, there is need to get rid of all the JTF personnel in the Niger Delta region because they have instrument of violence not law enforcement. Across the Niger Delta region, the police has become so militaristic, and it will be in our best interest to say any police personnel that has served in the Niger Delta for about three years should be re-deployed out of the Niger Delta. This is because some of them were engaged in doing evil.
We need fresh hands that will relate with ordinary people and study communities. The ones here now want to remain and continue their loot. They only way to increase their loot is by violating the rights of ordinary persons, trump up charges against innocent ones to make their people pay through their nose. Some police here are so close to criminals so that they obey criminals more than their superior officers.
Anyakwee Nsirimovu is the Executive Director of Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (HRHL).
Anyakwee Nsirimovu
Civil Society Coalition for Good Governance, Budget and Accountability has condemned the defection of the 27 members of the Rivers State House of Assembly from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Executive Secretary, Civil Society Coalition for Good Governance, Budget and Accountability, Amb. Emmanuel Nkweke, who said this in an interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt also described as illegal all legislations passed by the defected lawmakers.
Amb. Nkweke described the defection as “monkey politics’, queried the rational behind the action of the lawmakers few months after being sworn into office, adding that members of the civil society community were yet to be told reasons for the defection.
“Up till now, we are yet to be told why they defected just few months of being sworn into office. For me, that is monkey politics”, he said.
He urged the lawmakers to go back to their former party and beg Rivers people for forgiveness, adding that if that is done, they may be welcomed back.
Amb. Nkweke also cautioned the lawmakers not to allow themselves to be used to do the bidding of an individual, adding that the present administration in the state needs the support of all to move forward.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the group has commended Governor Siminalayi Fubara for giving civil societies the latitude to operate freely in the state.
He alleged that civil societies were caged in the last eight years, adding that there was no breathing space for civil societies in the last eight years in the state.
Amb. Nkweke described civil society as the engine room of democracy as it engages in sensitisation on the policies and programmes of government, regretting, however, that their inputs were never taken into considerations.
“Civil societies give signals, civil society creates the awareness and sensitize the people towards achieving a reliable democracy.
‘’i want to let you know, very frankly, that civil society space in Rivers State, for the past eight years, was suffocated. There was no breathing space, they didn’t breathe. Civil society was dead completely”, he said.
Amb. Nkweke said the situation also affected upcoming activists as some of them had to operate from hideouts.
By: John Bibor
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has called on President Bola Tinubu not to condone incompetent personalities in his government.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, NANS President, Comrade Pedro Obi, expressed concerns about the competence of the Minister of State for Youth Development and the SSA to the President on Student Engagement.
Comrade Obi, after staging a peaceful protest at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), reiterated that the NANS will not be intimidated and will continue to fight for the interests of Nigerian students.
He said, “The message is very simple, we have incompetent people who have been appointed to offices. It’s unfortunate and it’s not the President’s fault, of course he believes in Nigerian youths and has also given us the opportunity to showcase our capacity in various roles that he has given us.
“We have the SSA to the President on Student Engagement, who has shown incompetence. He cannot continue to hold that office and we are calling on Mr. President that he should be sacked with immediate effect.
“Also we have the Minister of State for Youth Development. We are also calling that immediately he should be sacked, because he has left what he ought to do and has dabbled into the affairs of NANS.
“These people have displayed incompetence and are destroying the youth community. There are so many competent youths that President Tinubu can pick from.
“NANS can never be intimidated. This is an organisation that we grew up to meet and we will continue to protect the dignity of this organisation.”
Receiving the NANS on behalf of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, the Permanent Secretary, General Services Office in the SGF, Dr. Maurice Nnamdi Mbaeri, assured the NANS of relaying back their complaints to the SGF which he said will land on the listening ears of President Tinubu.
According to him, “I have listened to the complaints you raised. I assure you that your complaints will get to the listening ears of Mr. President.
“Let me assure you that I’m happy this was also re-echoed in the NANS President’s speech that President Tinubu has indebt love for the youths of Nigeria and also for the students of Nigeria. This has been demonstrated by polices that (has) been put in place for the youths.
“I want to assure you that the President has your concerns in his heart and he’s always ever ready to attend to your needs.
“With this, I am going to report back to my boss the SGF, who will take up the matter with the President. I urge you to continue to maintain peace and tranquillity. Don’t do anything that will make Mr. President feel bad about you.”
Former National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Iyiorchia Ayu, has withdrawn the court action he instituted against the party over his controversial removal from office barely two years into his four year term.
His action has removed legal impediments likely to militate against the emergence of his replacement from the North Central.
Several meetings have been held and being planned following this new development.
On Tuesday, the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) passed a vote of confidence on the Ag. National Chairnan, Amb. Umar Damagum, whom members said has discharged his functions creditably.
It was gathered that the North Central Caucus of the party had long before now started mobilizing to ensure that the zone produces Ayu’s replacement to complete his tenure which expires in 2025.
In a related development, Amb. Damagum has held series of meetings with various groups to perhaps shore up his chances of retaining his seat as acting chairman.
He led the members of the NWC on Wednesday to interact with the PDP National Ex-officio ahead of the NEC meeting.
Immediately after the meeting with them, he led the NWC members to another meeting with the State Party Chairmen from the 36 States, including FCT, Abuja.
The meetings were held at the NEC Hall, PDP National Secretariat at Wadata Plaza, Wuse Zone 5, in Abuja.
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