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.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has begun deploying non-sensitive materials to the zones as it prepares for the 2027 general election.
Acting Chairman of the commission, Prof. Rhoda Gumus, disclosed this in Abuja, yesterday at a bench-marking meeting with a delegation of Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
“Right now, all non-sensitive materials are almost ready. In fact, today as we speak here, the non-sensitive materials have been lifted to some zones now,” Gumus said.
She said the commission had completed nine of its scheduled activities and was preparing for the next phase.
“We are preparing for the election next year and we have activities lined up. So far, we have been able to complete nine activities and we are still preparing for the next level of activities,” she said.
Gumus said the commission’s leadership had just concluded a tour of the country’s six zones to assess their level of preparedness.
“The purpose was to go round the zones to see how prepared we are, assess what the zones have put in place, their challenges and what to do. We concluded last week and we can see from our tour that we are really going towards the election proper,” she said.
On Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), the acting chairman said production had been completed and distribution to the states was well advanced.
“As of today, we can say that PVCs have been produced and the first, second batches, most of the states have received them. Their PVC collection is ongoing. All those who are supposed to be the voters are supposed to receive their PVCs, and if they don’t have them, it is also another challenge,” Gumus said.
She added that capacity building was under way for staff at the headquarters and in the states, and that the procurement and deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS devices were also ongoing.
On diaspora voting, Gumus said the commission could not proceed for now because the law did not provide for it.
“Here, because we go by the law, in our electoral law, it is not included there, so we cannot go on for the diaspora voting for now until we amend the electoral law,” she said.
The acting chairman said the commission had arranged for its directors to hold an interactive session with the Kenyan team and present papers on the work of their departments.
Leading the delegation, the Kenyan High Commissioner to Nigeria, Isaac Parashina, said the IEBC team was in Nigeria to benchmark ahead of Kenya’s general election in August 2027.
He said the team was studying how Nigeria handled its diaspora population and special voting groups, as Kenya sought to widen voting rights for citizens living abroad.
“Currently we have about 12 of them who voted in the last general election, but there is intention to expand to around, I think, 26,” Parashina said, referring to the countries where Kenyans abroad vote.
He said the expansion was a constitutional requirement backed by Kenyan court rulings, and would be enforced progressively.
Parashina said Nigeria’s election, which he noted would come in two rounds, would be closely watched across Africa.
“Everyone is looking at what Nigeria will do because it is the biggest democracy in Africa. The success of Nigeria remains a great success to Kenya and indeed to the continent,” he added.
The High Commissioner thanked INEC for receiving the team despite a tight schedule and wished the commission success.
Governor Douye Diri has set a target of at least one million votes for President Bola Tinubu in Bayelsa State in the 2027 presidential election, while charging the newly inaugurated All Progressives Congress (APC) State Campaign Council to prioritise reconciliation, party unity and collective electoral mobilisation.
Governor Diri gave the charge at the inauguration of the 20-member campaign council at the APC secretariat in Yenagoa, where he warned that internal divisions could undermine the party’s efforts to secure victory for President Tinubu and other candidates at the federal and state levels.
Governor Diri urged party members who were not appointed to the council to support its activities by taking the APC’s message to communities, wards and polling units across the state.
He specifically charged the campaign team to mobilise at least one million votes for President Tinubu, arguing that Bayelsa’s voting strength had increased and should be reflected in the 2027 election results.
“I give you a target that in Bayelsa, we must not bring less than one million votes for Mr President. You are going to campaign, and you have a lot to talk about the President. He has done so much for our people,” the governor said.
He listed the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, the second phase of the Nembe-Brass Road, interventions in the power sector, federal appointments for Bayelsa indigenes and the establishment of the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy among the achievements the campaign should present to voters.
The governor particularly praised President Tinubu for the coastal highway project, arguing that it reflected federal attention to the development needs of coastal communities.
“No president, alive or dead, has remembered the coastal people and coastal states to say let us do this signature project from Lagos to Calabar. The first president to think about it is Bola Tinubu, and those were the demands of the Ijaw people,” he said.
Governor Diri also expressed hope that a second term for President Tinubu would provide an opportunity to advance demands for fiscal federalism, greater resource control and state policing, which he described as longstanding aspirations of the Niger Delta.
He said the President had shown indications of addressing some of the demands of younger Nigerians and argued that re-election would allow the administration to consolidate its reforms.
The governor further cautioned campaigners against personal attacks and abusive exchanges with political opponents, insisting that the APC should focus its campaign on issues, policies and achievements.
The governor’s mobilisation directive comes amid criticism from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which has questioned his commitment to President Tinubu’s re-election campaign, alleging that APC campaign billboards erected across Yenagoa promote other party candidates without featuring the President.
The PDP, through its Publicity Secretary, Mr Ikaebimo Mark, said the billboards showed Governor Diri urging voters to support APC candidates for the National Assembly and State House of Assembly elections without identifying President Tinubu as the party’s presidential candidate.
Mr Mark described the omission as an indication that the governor was not fully aligned with the APC’s national leadership.
“When we said that the governor, Senator Douye Diri, is not supporting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we knew exactly what we were saying. Now Governor Douye Diri has erected APC campaign billboards across Bayelsa State without Tinubu’s picture. He is even afraid to associate himself with the photograph of the presidential candidate of his own party. How can this governor claim to be supporting President Tinubu?” he said.
The PDP, however, maintained that the governor’s public campaign posture raised questions about his commitment to the President’s re-election bid. Its allegation over the billboards now places the issue of the relationship between the state APC leadership and the party’s national campaign among the political questions likely to feature in Bayelsa’s preparations for 2027.
The PDP’s allegation has introduced a fresh political dimension to the APC’s preparations in Bayelsa, even as Governor Diri publicly called on party leaders and members to close ranks and mobilise support for all its candidates.
“Every person picked as a member of this campaign council was carefully scrutinised. I want to tell you that our campaign team is loaded. We parade the best candidates among all the parties in Bayelsa State, and there is no doubt about that,” he said.
He urged members to remain focused and united, warning that political opponents could exploit any divisions within the party.
“Our unity is very important because they would want to feast on our disunity. We will not give them that opportunity. Please, as you carry out this assignment, do not take your eyes off the target,” Hon. Ogoriba said.
SP Edafe explained that during the meeting, the organisers were briefed on the identified security threats and advised against embarking on an open-road procession.
Instead, the police reportedly recommended that the political activities be conducted at a designated venue where adequate security arrangements could be provided.
However, the Command alleged that the organisers disregarded the security advice and proceeded with the road procession.
Meanwhile, the Delta State Government has condemned the political violence that erupted in Asaba, the state capital, on Saturday, confirming that one person was killed while four others sustained serious injuries.
The government described the incident as unfortunate and unacceptable, warning political parties and their supporters against actions capable of threatening public peace, security and democratic participation in the state.
In a statement issued by the Commissioner for Works (Rural Roads) and Public Information, Mr Charles Aniagwu, the government reiterated its zero tolerance for political violence, intimidation and other forms of political misconduct.
Mr Aniagwu said the government had repeatedly cautioned political parties against engaging in activities capable of disrupting the peace, insisting that the incident could have been avoided if the organisers had followed security advice.
According to him, the police had advised the organisers to cancel the proposed street march and instead conduct their political campaign at a designated venue where adequate security arrangements could be provided.
He expressed concern that the advice was allegedly disregarded, resulting in a confrontation that claimed one life and left four other people seriously injured.
The government subsequently called on the police to conduct a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the violence and ensure that anyone found culpable is brought to justice.
Mr Aniagwu further warned that the state government would not tolerate politically motivated attacks against any individual, regardless of political affiliation.
He maintained that Delta State remained safe for residents and visitors, stressing that the government would not allow the actions of individuals or groups to undermine the prevailing peace and security in the state.
The government also urged political parties, their leaders and supporters to conduct their political activities within the confines of the law and demonstrate respect for human life, public order and the rights of other citizens.
The latest development follows an attack on supporters of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) during a political procession in Asaba, which reportedly left several participants injured and campaign vehicles vandalised.
The government’s condemnation comes amid growing concerns over political violence and the safety of opposition supporters as political activities intensify ahead of the 2027 general elections.
-
News2 days ago
RSG Reaffirms Commitment To STEM Education, Technological Advancement
-
Business2 days ago
‘NUJ, NPA’s Partnership Would Boost Port Producrivity, Economic Growth’
-
News2 days agoIGP Warns Police Officers Against Partisanship …Directs Regular Engagement With Journalists
-
Business2 days ago
Fire Threat Interrupts Asaba Air Peace Flight
-
News2 days agoCustoms To Deploy AI, Scanners Against Snuggling
-
Business2 days ago
Fish Production Deficit, A Major Investment Opportunity – Minister
-
Politics2 days ago2027: INEC Begins Deployment Of Non-Sensitive Materials
-
Business2 days ago
NCDMB, NLNG Unveil $9m For Professorial Endowment Research Chairs In Six Varsities