Kwankwaso: INEC ‘s polls timetable favours Jonathan

Governor Rabiu Musa kwankwaso of Kano State has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reverse the recently released 2015 election time-table, saying the present situation where the presidential election is scheduled to hold before the governorship election is not acceptable as it could be used to intimidate political opponents.Kwankwaso who spoke with newsmen […]

Governor Rabiu Musa kwankwaso of Kano State has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to reverse the recently released 2015 election time-table, saying the present situation where the presidential election is scheduled to hold before the governorship election is not acceptable as it could be used to intimidate political opponents.
Kwankwaso who spoke with newsmen in Abuja yesterday, said the ideal thing is for the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections to hold before the presidential election.
The governor who recalled that the same idea was proposed by INEC during the 2011 election said he was against the presidential election not holding before the other elections not just because of the band wagon effect it may have on other elections, but because many people on the side of the president have been issuing threats, which they could use if the presidential election holds first.
“It is not just the bandwagon effect, they want to intimidate people, ‘if you don’t vote for me, you do this and we’ll do that.’ We’ve been in the game long before, so we know they want to use intimidation. I don’t think anybody on that side is really serious about winning a free and fair election. To them it is either about INEC or security, or intimidation,” he said.
The INEC has scheduled February 14 2015 for the presidential and National Assembly elections while the governorship and House of Assembly election is to hold two weeks after on November 28.
Kwankwaso also cautioned against allowing President Jonathan  to contest in 2015, saying if he is allowed it would amount to allowing him a third term which is not acceptable to the people.
“They are pretending they started in 2011, that they are just two and a half years in government but that is not correct, they started two years before 2011.  I am not a lawyer but I keep seeing eight years everywhere, so two plus four plus four cannot give you eight. Even from 2015 to 2019 they are looking for ways to extend the time by another six years, so you see how the extension keeps going”, he added. He said under normal circumstances, many would not worry if the economy was moving well and the security situation was okay, but he said both the economy and the security are nothing to write home about.  Kwankawso said he was approached to go for another term by seeking judicial interpretation to the issue of his first tenure but that he refused because he wants to move on.
“So many people came to me to ask me to extend my tenure. Many people were interested to go to court on my behalf. They feel I have the chance to contest again since I was governor in 2003. But we have to keep moving. Doing that is third term. That is not acceptable anywhere. In politics what is permanent is change. People are looking for change,” he said.
The governor also said the only conditions which he could accept to come back to the PDP is if the situation in Rivers State is addressed and Governor Rotimi Amaechi is allowed to come back to the PDP as leader of the party in the state and President Jonathan drops his ambition to contest in 2015. He said however the decision is not entirely his as he made wide consultations before leaving PDP for the APC, saying if he was to go back he must do thorough consultations.
The governor whose father was attacked recently said he has not been briefed by security agencies on the attack, saying he does not know if the attack was because of him or his father.  He however said that if anything, the attack had shown that the insurgents are not targeting a particular religion.
He maintained that the insistence of the APC for governors on its platform to be leaders of the party in their respective states is the right thing, saying all the political parties in Nigeria have same policies and that it should not be different in the APC.  He said even if it is the order of seniority, he remains the most senior governor in Nigeria, by the virtue of the fact that he was governor between 1999 and 2003 before the present crop of governors came to office.  On the deadline given by the Chief of Army Staff to tackle Boko Haram, the Kano governor said as minister of defence, he was aware that the Nigerian armed forces has the capacity to achieve that but said what is lacking is the motivation and political will for them to carry out the task.