Opinion
Call For 2015 Election Postponement: Nigerians React
Mr. Chris Finebone – APC State Publicity Secretary
That call by the National Security Adviser is most unfortunate. We in APC are not surprised that officers of the Jonathan administration are terrified at the massive failure staring them in the face in the forthcoming presidential election hence the call to see how to stem off their impending loss. For us, there are no credible and verifiable reasons why the elections should be postponed.
Monday Wehere – National President Community Newspaper Publishers Association of Nigeria (CONPAN)
For and for most, I saw the comment myself. The unfortunate thing is that he did not tell Nigerians under what capacity he was speaking, whether he was speaking as the chieftain of security in Nigeria or he was talking as a traditional ruler or as a person. That is why I find it somehow difficult to react to that.
However, there is no provision in the constitution which says that certain number of Nigerians must have PVC before elections could be conducted. Now, America is about 350 million people and in any election you hardly have about 50 million people voting. In most case only about 14 million people vote in a presidential election in America. So, for you to say that elections should be postponed just because some people have not gotten their PVC, to me it does not hold water. Again, why I will not support such suggestion is this. I came back from Abuja recently, because of the forthcoming election, everything is stalled. Nothing is moving. There is no key person holding a key position in the federal government that can commit himself now to any matter of national importance because they don’t know their fate, whether they will stay. So there is a lacuna. There is a hill, so, I can say that call he is making should not be accepted.
The only way I could have said let’s take him serious was assuming INEC is saying, “Sorry, we have not done what we were supposed to do, please give us enough time.” Then we can listen to INEC chairman. But INEC say they are ready for the elections. So if INEC is ready, they should go ahead and do the election. Even President Jonathan cannot stop the election now because INEC says they are ready. The only way President Jonathan can even advise INEC to postpone it is if INEC is saying now that they are not ready.
So I don’t think his advise should be accepted without him giving any security reason or any other cogent reason why it should be postponed. That is the problem we are having in this country. A lot of us are saying Jonathan is not performing. Dasuki has not even received that kind of power to make such statement. This is a matter that would have been discussed at the National executive council after which if the need be, INEC would have mandated him to talk to the press. How can he on his own make such statement? That tells you that they are not working with Jonathan. If this man is working with Jonathan he cannot just come and make such statement. So you can imagine the kind of problem Jonathan is having, that he is working with those who are not supporting him. How can he make such a statement without consulting Mr. President? If he had done that Mr. President would have advised him not to make such statement. Now he has said it, he is now trying to put the country into problem.
And I want to disagree with the opinion of the APP that Dasuki’s call for the postponement of the election is a play by PDP to rig the election. Dasuki was not mandated by the PDP. He did not also speak on behalf of the federal government. APC should have known that what Dasuki said was his own personal opinion. As a PDP man, I know that if you postpone the election now it will not even favour us, because we are set, we have done a lot of home work. So the election must hold because INEC said they are ready and we are also ready.
Mr. Ifeanyi Ezinwo -Publisher
Dasuki is a responsible Nigerian, holding a very sensitive office where he has access to a lot of information. So for him to make that kind of comment, I wouldn’t want to dismiss it in a hurry, unless we are assuming that he is not a serious person, that he is a person who speaks flippantly. He might have predicated his conclusion on very sensitive and important matter like we had, on the distribution of voter’s card. I am not in his mind but I want to believe that he might have considered that volume of cards that a yet to be collected and just a posed that with the time and the way things are going and felt that it might be reasonable to postpone it.
My own position is that we should not be in a hurry to condemn him although INEC had said that they don’t have any plans to postpone the elections. But the issue is, can INEC guarantee us that every registered voter can have his card before the election? And if paradventure, as at the time we are going in for election we still have millions who have not got this card, what is going to be the likely implication of disenfranchising that large number of people? So, I want to believe that what Dasuki said should be a food for thought for INEC and all the relevant state holders. Because if tomorrow now, maybe about 15 million did not collect their cards and they do the election and Jonathan wins, Buhari will say, “OO! the people who would have voted for me were disenfranchised”. Some of those who were disenfranchised can go and begin to demonstrate that thing were not allowed to vote. Some of them may even disrupt the election. It’s possible, depending on their number in certain areas. It could become a political tool.
So, I want to say that people should not dissipate energy condemning the man. Rather, if possible they should invite him, invite INEC and maybe some people from the National Assembly who would put heads together in search of solution. If it is possible for everybody to get his voters card fine. But if it is not possible, then they have to think of what to do to make sure everybody gets voters card.
My own position is that whatever that is worth doing is worth doing well. If we want to have a credible election nobody should be disenfranchised. If huge number of people are disenfranchised, I don’t know how it will look like. Can we say that we have conducted a credible election that is all inclusive? So I want to suggest that instead of the stakeholders passing bulk, they should sit down with INEC and see how they can contribute ideas to make sure that all those who are registered get their voters card.
Mr. Innocent Nweke – Public Servant
Well, to me as a person, in view of what is going on in the country right now, Boko Haram insurgency, threats here and there, the President, those in government and all the parties should come together resolve various issues first before talking about election. It is then that we will know that they are ready to take us to the polls.
However, if INEC says they are ready for the elections, then they should go ahead. They are the people to tell us what to do. And we are ready to do just that if INEC says they are ready, that everything is in order. let them set out some day for people to go and collect their PVCs. The people that considered it important went out to get their PVCs and they got them. I was in Abuja but I had to come back to Port Harcourt to make sure I got mine. And government gave some holidays for the collection of the PVCs, yet many people refused to go and collect. So even if you give them till next year, many people will not get it. So if INEC says they are ready, they should work with the number they have and do the election. Besides, not everybody that gets the PVC will go out for the election. Of course, even many of the people that have collected their PVC will not all go out to cast their votes on the election days.
Mr. Israel Walezi – Businessman
It was announced that everybody should go and collect their PVC and government declared holidays for that. INEC has given the dates for the elections since last year and they said everybody should go and collect his/her PVC. For me, the election should go on. If you take a look at the country now especially Rivers State, you will find out that everything is not moving well because of this election. No projects are going on. Everywhere in the country, things are stand still because our leaders are involved in politics. Many civil servants have not been paid for months because of this election. I believe when this election is done with, things will normalise.
Mr. Nwachukwu Jeremiah – Transporters
They should not postpone the election. If they postpone the election, they will give chance for corruption and People will rig the election.
What I mean is that, if they postpone this election, people will use the opportunity to do some funny things. So the election should go on. If some people could not collect their PVCs and they are willing to vote, they should be allowed to use their temporary voters cards and cast their votes. Their names are there on INEC list, so they should make use of it.
The traditional institution is as old as human society. It predates the advent of modern organised society. Before the emergence of modern justice system of dispute resolution and political system of administration, the traditional institution has existed long ago. In fact, it was so revered and regarded as sacred because of the mythological conviction that it was the “stool of the ancestors”. Consequently, judgment given was deified as many people especially the traditionalists believe it was the mind of the gods revealed. Perversion of justice , in the pre-modern justice system was alien and considered uncommon. Chiefs and traditional rulers though may not have generated knowledge formally (through the four walls of a classroom), yet they embody and exemplify knowledge. They hold fast the virtue of integrity and honour, fairness and relative impartiality, partly because they believed that the stool they occupy was ancestral and traditional as act of indiscretion can court the wrath of the gods at whose behest they are on the traditional saddle of authority.
The Compass of Life stated unequivocally that “the throne is preserved by righteousness”. Where righteousness, integrity and honesty are savoured,and valued, perversion and miscarriage of justice is an anomaly. The judgments of traditional rulers and chiefs were hardly appealed against because they were founded on objectivity, fairness, truth and facts beyond primordial sentiment and inordinate interests or pecuniary benefits. Judgments were precedent. Traditional rulers and chiefs, therefore carved a niche for themselves, earning the respect of, and endearing themselves to the heart of their subjects. Is it the same today? Some traditional rulers and chiefs are administering their communities in exile; they are diasporic leaders because they have lost the confidence of the people through self-serving, raising of cult group for self-preservation, land grabbing and other flagrant corrupt practices.
When truth is not found in the traditional institution that, in my considered view, constitutes the grassroots government, then crisis is inevitable.In most African societies before advent of the Christian Faith, and consequent Christening of the traditional stools in many communities in recent times, ascent to the traditional institution was a function of a traditional method of selection. It was believed that the gods make the selection. And whoever emerges from the divination processes eventually is crowned as the king of the people after performing the associated rituals.Whoever lacked the legitimacy to sit on the throne but wanted to take it forcefully, traditionalists believed died mysteriously or untimely. Traditional rulers wielded much influence and power because of the authority inherent in the stool, the age of the person designated for the stool notwithstanding. The word of the king was a law, embodied power. Kings so selected are forthright, accountable, transparent, men of integrity, did not speak from both sides of the mouth, could not be induced with pecuniary benefits to pervert justice, they feared the gods of their ancestors and were consecrated holistically for the purpose dictated by the pre and post coronation rituals.
Some of those crowned king were very young in those days, but they ruled the people well with the fear of the gods. There was no contention over who is qualified to sit or who is not qualified to. It was the prerogative of the gods. And it was so believed and upheld with fear.Kings were natural rulers, so they remained untouchable and could not be removed by a political government. If a king committed an offence he was arrested and prosecuted according to the provision of the law. But they have immunity from sack or being dethroned because they are not political appointees. However, the people at whose behest he became king reserved the power to remove him if found guilty of violating oath of stool. The traditional institution is actually the system of governance nearest to the people. And kings were the chief security officers of their communities. So indispensable are the roles of kings and traditional rulers to the peaceful co-existence of their people, ensuring that government policies and Programmes were seamlessly spread to the people that many people are clamouring for the inclusion of definite and specific roles in the Constitution for the traditional institution.
Traditional rulers are fathers to every member of their domain. So they are not expected to discriminate, show favouritism. By their fatherly position traditional rulers, though can not be apolitical, are also expected to be immune from partisan politics. This is because as one who presides over a great house where people of different political divide or interest belong, an open interest for a political party means ostracisation of other members of the family which could lead to disrespect, conflict of interest, wrangling and anarchy. Traditional rulers are supposed to be selfless, preferring the interest of their people above their personal interests following the consciousness that they are stewards whose emergence remains the prerogative of the people. The position is essentially for service and not for personal aggrandisement and ego massaging. So they should hold the resources of the people in trust. However, in recent past the traditional institution has suffered denigration because of unnecessary emotional attachment to political parties and political leaders. Some traditional rulers and kings have shown complete disregard to the principle of neutrality because of filthy lucre and pecuniary gains, at the expense of the stool and people they lead. Sadly some traditional rulers have been influenced to pervert justice: giving justice to the offender who is rich against the poor.
Traditional leaders should be reminded that the “throne is preserved by righteousness”, not by political chauvinism, favouritism, or materialism.Traditional rulers should earn their deserved respect from political leaders by refusing the pressure to be subservient, beggarly, sycophantic and docile. Traditional leaders have natural and permanent leadership system, unlike the political leadership that is transient and tenured.They should be partners with every administration in power and should not be tied to the apron string of past leaders whose activities are aversive to the incumbent administration and thereby constituting a clog in the development of the State and the community they are to woo infrastructure development to. It is unpardonable error for a traditional ruler to have his conscience mortgaged for benefits he gets inordinately from any government.It is necessary to encourage kings and traditional rulers to not play the roles of stooges and clowns for the privileged few, political leaders. Political leaders are products of the people, even as every government derives its legitimacy from the people.
No doubt, the roles of traditional rulers are so necessary that no political or military government can operate to their exclusion. This is why the 10th National Assembly mulled the inclusion of Traditional institution in the proposed amendment of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.Traditional rulers and chiefs should, therefore, be and seen to be truthful, forthright, bold, courageous, honest and people of integrity, not evasive, cunning, unnecessarily diplomatic and economical with truth.The time to restore the dignity of the traditional institution is now but it must be earned by the virtuous disposition of traditional rulers and chiefs.
Igbiki Benibo
The Tax Reform Bills, presented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the National Assembly for passage since October, 2024, have continued to stir hot debates both at the National Assembly and within the wider Nigerian society. A quartet of presidential proposals comprising; the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill; the bills present the most audacious overhauls in revenue collection laws ever proposed in Nigeria. The Nigeria Tax Bill (NTB) promises to be a comprehensive piece of single legislation that streamlines tax administration in the country.
Currently, national taxes and revenue collections are being administered through more than 11 different direct/indirect laws, and collected through numerous agencies, often times without inter-agency co-ordination, transparent accountability and timely remittances. Recent reports exposed a recurrent setback of the status quo, when in January, 2025, the Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) of withholding N13.763 trillion. According to FAAC, out of the N27.28 trillion payable to the federation accounts from sales of domestic crude between 2012 and 2024, only N13.524 trillion had been remitted, leaving a balance of N13.763 trillion. Such accusations are weighty, and no doubts, justify the need to streamline revenue collections in the country.
Going by its current proposal, the NTB aims to repeal 11 prevailing laws – Capital Gains Tax Act, Casino Act, Companies Income Tax Act, Deep offshore and Inland Basin Act, Industrial Development (Income Tax Relief) Act, Income Tax (Authorised Communications) Act, Personal Income Tax Act, Petroleum Profits Tax Act, Stamp Duties Act, Value Added Tax Act and Venture Capital (Incentives) Act. These repeals would trigger a cascade of consequential amendments on numerous other enactments, encompassing the Petroleum Industry Act, the Nigerian Export Processing Zones Act, the Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone Act, the Petroleum (Drilling and Production) Regulations of 1969, the National Information Technology Development Agency Act, the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Establishment) Act, the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (Establishment) Act, the Customs, Excise Tariffs, Etc. (Consolidation) Act, the National Lottery Act, the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, the Nigeria Start-up Act, the Export (Incentives and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (Establishment, Etc.) Act, and the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act.
A key reality is that NTB’s axing blows would scrap the laws that established Federal Inland Revenues Service (FIRS), and in its place establish the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS). The NTB proposes vesting upon the NRS, unlike in the FIRS, the powers to collect all taxes in Nigeria, including excise and import duties currently reserved for the Nigerian Customs Service, and oil revenue royalties which presently is the exclusive privilege of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC). The NTB would be empowering the NRS with a supremacy clause which provides in part that, “this Act shall take precedence over any other law with regard to the imposition of tax, royalty, levy, excise duty on services or any other tax. Where the provisions of any other law is inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, the provisions of this Act shall prevail and the provisions of that other law shall, to the extent of the inconsistency, be void.”
If passed, the emergent laws would have far-reaching reverberations across revenue generating and collecting interests across Nigeria. The new laws would phase-out or drastically shrink the powers of institutions that by their strong-holds on the proceeds of national resources, had detected the pace of the Central Bank of Nigeria and even those of governments. Proponents of the tax laws say the new reform is to increase revenue collection efficiency and reduce collection costs, considering that revenue agencies deduct commissions as collection charges even as their staff are employees of government, paid salaries for same job. However, the closing of every economic order may create losers and usher-in new set of winners. It is therefore no wonder that the tax reform bills have continued to generate much heated debates in Tinubu’s administration than no others.
Worrisome however, is the trend of the ensuing arguments which, tending towards a rather North Vs South polarising dimension, have concentrated solely on the sharing formular for Value Added Taxes (VATs), while politicians appear to be neglecting numerous other issues that bear more on the generality of Nigerians. It is also disappointing that much attention is not being paid to the blocking of revenue collection loopholes. How that Nigeria’s commonwealth is equitably harnessed and distributed to care for every Nigerian, should have been the crux of revenue arguments. As the NTB proposes a progressive VAT that would jump from 7.5per cent to 10per cent in 2025, then to 12.5per cent from 2026 to 2029, and culminate to 15per cent in 2030, it implies there is no plan to tame the current inflation burdens currently inflicting Nigerians…. (To be continued)
Joseph Nwankwor
The “withdrawn” reaction of the Rivers State Police Command to public condemnation of the police antagonism to a recent peaceful protest in Port Harcourt, tagged #Take-IT-Back Movement organised by Civil Society Organisations, the Niger Delta Congress and other concerned groups, leave much to be desired. The Police Public Relations Officer of the Rivers State Command, Grace Iringe-Koko in what seems a brilliant defence to the action of the unprofessional and inordinately ambitious conduct of the policemen had described those whom the police threw cannisters of teargas at, as, “miscreants and thieves”. To say the least, the Channel Television Reporter, Charles Opurum, Allwell Ene of Naija FM, Soibelelemari Oruwari of Nigeria Info, Ikezam Godswill of AIT and Femi Ogunkhilede of Super FM who were among those tear-gassed while discharging their legitimate duties of covering the peaceful protest, could not have been “miscreants” and “thieves”. Such practice of giving people a bad name to whip up public sentiment and hate and give a cosmetic treatment to an exceedingly ugly incident, seems the antics of some men of the Nigeria Police.
Some years ago I remember a trigger- happy police officer had rhetorically asked me, “Do you know I can shoot you here and brand you a criminal”? The question that readily came to my mind was, if a public officer and a professional journalist of several years of practice could be so threatened and branded a criminal, what is the fate of common citizens in society. That lends credibility to the fact that some victims of police brutality and extra-judicial killings are innocent. They are mere victims of circumstances. It is also common experience that men of the Nigeria Police swoop on scenes of crime, arrest some innocent residents of the area, brand them suspects and hurl them in detention for more than 48 hours. Nigeria Police should be more professional enough in their operations, so that innocent people will not suffer humiliation, incarceration and financial losses for bail. Agreed that it is within the statutory obligation of the Public Relations unit to launder the image of its organisation, but it should be done with discretion, and not with utter disregard and disrespect to the sanctity of human lives. Refutal must be factual and truth based.
The public relations or image making service if not done conscientiously can dent the credibility and integrity of a practitioner. No doubt the viral video clips on the police hurling teargas cannisters on peaceful protesters cannot be described as a figment of imagination or an attempt to “incite public anxiety and create unnecessary tension within the State” as stated by the Police Public Relations Officer in her reaction to public condemnation of the action of her colleagues. Though the able and Media-friendly Rivers State Commissioner of Police has apologised to the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Rivers State Council and the assaulted Journalists, for the unprofessional conduct of the policemen who were involved in the Journalists’ brutality, the conduct was, according to the leadership of Rivers State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists, “barbaric, inhuman and a flagrant disrespect to the rights of the assaulted journalists. Recall that the Rivers State Police Command had described as false, unfounded and baseless, reports that police officers fired teargas on unarmed protesters in an attempt to disperse them.
In the words of the Police Public Relations officer, “Upon receiving intelligence regarding the protest, our officers were promptly deployed to the specified locations. “On arrival, a group of miscreants was observed engaging in criminal acts, including the theft of mobile phones and other valuables from unsuspecting members of the public. “Our operatives responded swiftly, dispersing the individuals. This baseless story appears to be a deliberate fabrication by mischief makers seeking to incite public anxiety and create unnecessary tension within the state.” However, it is time Nigeria Police realised that the right to peaceful protest is legitimate and fundamental. It is enshrined in International rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and domesticated by Nigeria. Section 40 of Nigeria’s Constitution guarantees every citizen the right to assemble freely. The right to peaceful protest is the beauty and a function of democratic governance. It offers the masses the opportunity for self expression and calling erring or a failed government or leadership back to its statutory obligation.
It allows people to publicly voice their concerns, challenge injustices, and participate actively in the democratic process. Protests serve as a vital mechanism for holding leaders accountable and ensuring that government actions reflect the will and needs of the people. The recognition and approval of the right to protest is one action that makes a great difference between a truly democratic government from a repressive, dictatorial and despotic administration. Protest is evident and inevitable in every human institution or organisation from family to school, work places etc, if the heads or the administrators abuse their position and treat with contempt the people on whose prerogative they (leaders) were elected. Some children have also protested against their parents, students protest against wrong administration etc. Protest is therefore, a corrective mechanism, it is expression of a dissenting position against anti-people policies and programmes. The distinctiveness of the Democratic governance over the Military is unreserved and unalloyed respect and regard for the Rule of Law. If the Rule of Law and its implications are undermined, then there is inevitable transition to dictatorship, a military regime in the garb of a civilian administration.
However, the calamitous consequences during the #EndSARS protest and #EndBadGovernance protest show that the respect for the rule of law and its implications remain a far-cry to constitutional requirement. The losses incurred during such protests cannot be consigned to the dusbin of history in a hurry. What is the outcome of the #EndSARS protests and brutality? Nigeria Police and other security agencies should tread with caution on the issue of peaceful protests and treating journalists and innocent members of the public as “miscreants”, and “thieves”.
By: Igbiki Benibo