Politics
We Need To Finetune Our Electoral Act – Thompson
Tunde Thompson
This is the concluding part of the interview with Mr. Babatunde Ozemoya Thompson, veteran journalist and now stalwart of the All Progressives Congress and member of the media team of President Mohammadu Buhari. He spoke with Opaka Dokubo in Asaba, Delta State. The first part of the chat was published on Monday, last week.
What Is your assessment of INEC under the new leadership, especially after the conduct of the Kogi and Bayelsa elections?
Let me tell you,
despite all the negative comments people in different parties have been making, INEC has proved that it has come to stay to do the right thing at the right time for the people of this country in maintaining a wholesome democratic process. Kogi shows that INEC has lived up to the expectation that this is the time to build institutions, powerful institutions not powerful people.
Whatever INEC said in Kogi, it was an institution put in charge to do certain things and it did what it had to do and offered its opinion. Whoever you are, I’m afraid, go to court and challenge it. PDP shouted, APC shouted. People should know that INEC’s job is not an easy job to do. It’s like being a judge in a land where there is no rule of law. That rule of law has to be established otherwise we’re all ruined. So, INEC has lived up to expectation in both elections.
Of course, Bayelsa matter is yet to be concluded and by the time they hold election in Southern Ijaw, we will see what happens.
But let us enforce the rules in the Electoral Act that nobody shall carry guns, nobody shall carry machets, nobody shall carry cutlasses and axes and all that. And that anybody who sponsors the procurement of such materials is not fit to be a candidate in Nigerian political contest.
You see, people commit offences during electoral activities and they’re not punished. You too you know that the failure of the enforcement of the law is one of the reasons for the disrespect for the rule of law in Nigeria.
The APC candidate’s protest in Bayelsa
Well, Mr Sylva is capable of expressing his own views, I was not there, he was the man there and cannot judge for him. All I am saying is that anybody who supports violence and procures equipment of violence should not be allowed in the democratic process.
I may be in the APC but I’m not a person who will support the destruction of lives and property, just because I want the APC to win. APC members are for progress, they’re for progressive approaches to governance. They cannot be in support of retrogressive, unpopular, man eating practices, society demolishing tendencies (and) pretending to be democratic. That’s not my vision for the APC. My vision for the APC is not a party where the truth does not matter. Go tell it on the mountain, tell it in the valleys that where there’s no respect for godly ways to life, the devil shall take over. And if you don’t want the devil to win (he has already been winning for too many years) we shouldn’t give him more quarters in our parties. We cannot stop extreme behaviour, by authorising or allowing inacceptable behaviours
Did you consider that Delta is a PDP State while agreeing to deliver a lecture on the vision of the governor?
When I was invited by the NUJ of the Delta State Council to prepare to speak on something the governor has declared as his own philosophy of governance called SMART, since I’m not a politician, it was not my business to consider PDP or no PDP. It was to be looking at ways SMART could be rendered or knocked off all together if people were to be partisan in their thinking. And the way to stay straight is to stay ethical and professional. I find that most governments do not work because people do not face the rule of law, people did not remain ethically conscious and focused. So, I said that the major problem it will have is if reporters, editors, correspondents, even cartoonists choose to see the SMART programme introduced by the governor as something they could destroy on partisan lines, using partisan arguments.
I think the SMART programme is a creative and thoughtful way of serving the people. How to serve people is what politics is out to do and politicians have found ways of achieving that purpose – that goal of serving the people. So, Dr Ifeanyi Athur Okowa has come up with an idea and you don’t because you’re in APC, APGA or something else, begin to throw sand on that SMART Programme.
Even as a member of the APC, how do you see the state of opposition politics in Nigeria?
It is not right for opposition parties just to keep criticising everything, running down people in authority just because they want to be noticed as being in opposition. There are times you have to be sincere to yourself. Imagine the election that has been concluded in Kogi State now, eeh they’re going to rig, eeh everybody is trying to rig…
They accused the party in authority at the centre of wanting to do one evil or the other. That’s too much. Some of the accusations are untested, they are unsubstantiated. We’ve finished Kogi and we have had Bayelsa and you can see that the rivalry in Bayelsa has always been there. I can say, undemocratically so because some of them decided to put their trust in weapons of mass destruction instead of social intercourse, democratic interrelationship, persuasion, convincing people that you’re a better candidate, debates and so on.
They’re not thinking of positive democratic ways of winning votes; there must be weapons, there must be weapons, there must be axes, there must be guns.
We need to fine tune our Electoral Act. Anybody whose supporter is found carrying a gun, a cutlass, an axe, must be removed from the democratic process because if those people who are carrying those weapons of mass destruction had not been funded, where could they have got the money? All those who put their trust on destroying their opponents must be destroyed out of the system.
You might say it’s not democratic to exclude them but what’s the law there for? Are we to encourage violence, negative fanaticism, wrong accusations, manipulative dispositions by people who want power at all cost? No way let us think of ways of discouraging negative tendencies like that in our politics.
So, I agree with you that we must stop the draconian people from polluting our democratic process. Draconian is not only related to the military.
There are people who are democratically disposed to being violent. They think they’re democrats but their ways are anything but democratic. In fact, there are people who don’t even go to the party headquarters; they are too big to report for meetings. Tell them that I said so. Democracy calls for humility. You should not feel too big to go into your party headquarters and discuss with A to Z. among the populace, you’re to be able to show them what you mean, you can do well and you care about them. Most of our political parties have a problem of internal democracy. The big shots don’t want to tell the small people anything to convince them; they want to order them around. But the world is changing. Those that were ordering them around should check themselves otherwise they’d be given the red card.
During a press conference held in Owerri, the coalition called the campaign a “dangerous and shameful display” designed to distract the public from the governor’s performance in office.
The CSOs directly linked the Greater Imo Initiative (GII) —the group that made the allegations on September 4, 2025—to Governor Uzodimma, describing the group as his “mouthpiece and attack dog.”
“Every word spoken against INEC was spoken on his behalf.
“By falsely alleging that Professor Yakubu has an alliance with Dr. Amadi to compromise the 2027 elections, Uzodimma has not only maligned a man of proven integrity but also assaulted the very foundation of our democracy”, said Dr Agbo Frederick, speaking for the coalition.
The coalition described Professor Yakubu as a “beacon of electoral professionalism” and called the attempt to soil his reputation “defamatory and a national security risk.”
They also defended Dr. Amadi, a “respected development scholar,” stating that the governor’s accusations were “laughable, desperate, and dangerous.”
The CSOs see the motive behind the campaign as an attempt to “silence the dissent, intimidate the opposition, and divert attention from the governor’s abysmal record in office.”
The coalition issued four key demands to Governor Uzodimma: An immediate retraction of the false and defamatory allegations against Professor Mahmood Yakubu and Dr. Chima Amadi.
- A public apology to both men within seven days, to be published in at least three national newspapers and broadcast on major television networks.
- An end to diversionary tactics and proxy propaganda.
- A renewed focus on governance, including addressing insecurity, unemployment, and poverty in Imo State.
The CSOs warned that failure to comply would force them to “review our position with a view to seeking legal redress from Governor Uzodimma for defamation, false accusation, and reckless endangerment of lives.”
“Governor Uzodimma must be reminded that he did not find himself in the seat of power to chase shadows.
“We call on all Nigerians to reject Uzodimma’s diversionary antics as they are nothing short of desperate plots by a government terrified of accountability”, the statement concluded.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC expressed concern that preventing the senator from resuming her legislative duties violates democratic principles and disenfranchises her constituents.
“The suspension, having been imposed by the Senate and not a court of law, has lapsed. Any further attempt to prevent her from resuming is therefore both illegal and morally indefensible,” Mallam Abdullahi said.
The party noted that denying Sen. Akpoti-Uduaghan access to the chamber silences the voice of the people who elected her, adding that the withdrawal of her salary, aides, and office access during the suspension amounted to excessive punishment.
The ADC also criticised the Clerk of the National Assembly for declining to process her resumption on grounds that the matter was before the courts, arguing that the Clerk’s role was administrative, not judicial.
“Administrative caution must not translate into complicity. When the administrative machinery becomes hostage to political interests, the institution itself is diminished,” the party stated.
Highlighting that Sen. Akpoti-Uduaghan is one of only four women in the 109-member Senate, the ADC warned that the handling of the case sends a discouraging signal about gender inclusion in Nigerian politics.
“Any action that resembles gender intimidation of the few women in the Senate would only discourage women’s participation. Nigeria cannot claim to be a democracy while excluding half of its population from key decision-making spaces,” Mallam Abdullahi added.
The ADC insisted that Sen. Akpoti-Uduaghan be allowed to resume her seat immediately, stressing that the matter was about more than one individual.
“What is at stake here is not just one Senate seat, but the integrity of our democracy itself,” the party said.