Why former governors in the Senate can’t perform – Senatator Mukhtar Ahmed Aruwa

But there are so many factions and pressure groups who are seemingly tearing the party apart; coupled with its controversial leadership as well as the recent exodus of some governors voted on the platform of the party among other rumbles.                   There are no factions in the party, faction in the real sense of the […]

But there are so many factions and pressure groups who are seemingly tearing the party apart; coupled with its controversial leadership as well as the recent exodus of some governors voted on the platform of the party among other rumbles.                  

There are no factions in the party, faction in the real sense of the word. But there are skirmishes here and there like in any other human organisation. The leadership has erred and the generality of the members are pointing to them their mistakes and some of them are even proffering solutions in their own thinking. There is nothing wrong with that absolutely.

 If you look at the governors decamping from the political party’s standpoint, you will find that all the decamping governors have no respect for the electorate, not the party. The party only gave you a platform and the electorate elected you on the acceptance and followership of this party. And after you have got the mandate from the people, you decided to decamp to another party. As far as I am concerned, you are not doing anything wrong to the party but to the people that elected you.

Now, if you take the case of Bauchi, before and after the counting of the ballots in 2007 elections, people converged on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters for four days to defend their votes. Now, the governor decamped. Who did he insult? Are they not the same people that spent four days tirelessly defending their mandate?  If we are to call a spade a spade, these governors insulted their own electorate and it is up to the electorate to see that they reject out rightly that despicable act by converging in the same government house, the way they did at the INEC headquarters during the counting of ballots and see if that governor would have carried out his personal foolish ambition.

So it up to us to educate the public to know what they can legally do or not do, it is only then this trend will stop. The ANPP can go to court but I don’t see anything happening there. This is because the problem with Nigerian politics and democracy is the judicial system. The judicial system of Nigeria is part of the problem of Nigerian lack of democratisation. Going by what happened the tribunals and the cases that went to court, one way or the other, the disrespect and abuse of the judicial process were removed from the lower courts to the Court of Appeal. The whole world was reading it. We thought ab initio that the high court judges appointed into the tribunals will be corrupt, would be this, would be that. The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) was reading a Riot Act to the judges. But how comes that the CJN did not read the same Riot Act to the Appeal Court judges? What happened? Or is corruption a right in the Appeal Court and wrong at the tribunal level?

Now, you find a governor, who knows very well under the constitution that he could not have moved to another party, but he did. On the strength that ANPP might even go to court and, as far as the court is concerned, he will have his way.  It is the fault of the judicial system with no apology at all. We all know it. That, if there is any weakling in our democratisation is the judicial system.

It seems that you have made the judiciary your punching bag. But what of those that conducted the elections in the first place, that is INEC. There was even an electoral reform panel headed by retired Justice Muhammad Lawal Uwais.    

That is another different ball game altogether. The president came out and told Nigerians that he was disappointed with the electoral process. And that he would do something within his power to correct the flaws he observed in the electoral process. In that

light, the president constituted a committee made- up of completely non-politicians. There was no single politician in the entire Uwais committee. And the problem they were trying to solve was created by politicians; therefore it can only be solved by politicians. The problem of rigging, the problem of mismanaging elections, the problem of corrupting the INEC, the problem of corrupting the police and so on are all caused by the politicians. The president know that, the whole country know that. In constituting the committee, unfortunately, it was made-up of what they called eminent Nigerians. What has that got to do with politics? Yes, they are highly respected Nigerians, very eminent but yet none of them had conducted or participated in any elections. None of them had sponsored even a councillor. Therefore, they are completely ignorant of the problem at hand.

The Presidency, in their own wisdom, realising their mistake then formed what they called Presidential Forum, of which I was a member; that made-up of all the national chairmen of the registered political parties and three to four members of the party, with the president, vice president as chair and co-chair of the forum.  We sat to articulate the position of the government and the political parties for onward transmission to Uwais committee because the politicians were missing in that committee.

We met in the Presidency and several ideas were exchanged. Subsequently, a sub-committee of the Presidential Forum was created and I happened to be its chairman, to articulate and prepare not only the articulation of the Electoral Offences Commission but the draft act which I chaired. We did that within about a month and we reported back to the main committee. And that whole presentation of our committee, was given to Uwais committee no single word was removed or tempered with by the Federal Government. That was the position of the Federal Government and the political parties.

And even when Uwais was presenting his final report to the president, we watched it with keen interest. It was delivered the way we presented it. The only thing that was not contained in our final report was the issue that has to do with the appointment of INEC chairman. We proposed that the appointment of INEC chairman shall be by the president as enshrined in the Constitution, and three members must be nominated by the registered political parties, from which the president must pick one.

But, to my surprise, when Uwais was giving his report it was something else. His committee amended our proposal that the appointment shall be made by the National Judicial Council (NJC) in consultation with the president. But, in Uwais’ own wisdom, maybe he thought only a retired or serving judge is competent to administer our electoral process.  I think it is the only thing out of place in the report.

But the Uwais report was also reviewed by another committee set up by the president and that led us to the on-going hullabaloo generated by the report?

Look, when you have a president, who has a party to worry about, is still answerable to an entity called the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). As I told you earlier, PDP was not happy with the position of this tripartite committee; and it was not that the PDP was happy with most of the decisions.  So, we expected some willing and dealings to take place.

So, when the president empanelled another committee under the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), there was practically nothing they could do because any tempering will connote the president’s dishonesty in bringing about electoral reform. Because every item there was weighted, hammered, tinkered and agreed upon. Perhaps, the AGF, being out of the committee ab initio, wanted to do something to show that he is the AGF. But any departure from the original intention will render the president as misleading the president.

One, he brought about the reform itself. Two, he formed the Uwais committee. Three, he formed the committee headed by him with the political parties. And that committee came about with what was perceived and believed to be the solution, only for the same Presidency to give it to somebody called the AGF to mess it up. All this, in fact, explains President Umaru Musa Yar’adua’s dishonesty over the issue of electoral reform.

And also, what worries me is that the president told us his willingness and preparedness to uphold the rule of law. But some of his actions are not in consonance with the process, not to talk of the rule of law. For instance, during a bye-election in Bayelsa State, the president went with his campaign team for the governor with all the state apparatus. Doesn’t anybody among his advisers ever tell him that for him to go on a campaign tour, it is unethical for him to use state apparatus. He is not governing PDP, he is governing Nigeria and Nigeria is not made-up of PDP alone. How could he carry the state apparatus, the presidential aircraft and all the paraphernalia of office to use for his party’s campaign? It happened in Adamawa, Bayelsa and so on. Can’t somebody shout?  What are you talking about? President Bill Clinton went for a hair cut for $500. It became a national issue in the United States that the hair cut was too much for taxpayers. Do you know how much it cost to put that presidential jet for 30 minutes on air? And the gentleman will sit down be talking to us about rule of law while he is breaking it every day. At what point does President Yar’adua practiced and upheld rule of law or after the judgement, before or during? We saw him going to Bauchi to give his in-law a flag. Is what his in-law did legal? I think it is high time for the president to spare us some intelligence. We are very intelligent and we read between the lines.

Do you expect a fair playing ground for the opposition parties in 2011 elections?

 You see, I don’t care who rules Nigeria. But I am more concerned about who is running the states. That is where the people are suffering, that is where the people are burning and dying. There is nothing anybody in Nigeria can do to separate the politics from Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. Whatever you do, it all boils down to that. This is in the context that Hausa meaning anything north of the Niger; of course Yoruba and Igbo you know what I am talking about. The PDP and ANPP will slug it out in the North, like it or don’t. All Progressive People Alliance (APGA) and Progressive People Alliance (PPA) will slug it out in the South East; PDP has to get out of that place. Action Congress (AC) has already taking over South West, the seat of Alliance for Democracy (AD).

The opposition can even take away the government from the PDP both at the centre and the chunk of the state, only if they can come together and fight as a block. But to tell me that there is one opposition party in the country that can deflect the PDP, you better think again. But if they can come together, their bits and pieces can deflect PDP.

Is Muhammadu Buhari and Atiku Abubakar’s recent realignment talks in line with what you are saying?

You see, we are dealing with the two of the extremes. Each one of them has his fault: Buhari has, Atiku also has. So, it is high time for people to start thinking beyond these people. Otherwise, we will continue to stagnate. They have demonstrated to us their capabilities and abilities. Their worth and usefulness is known. Their limitations are also known.

Any keen observer of Nigerian politics can easily predict them. So, what are you talking about then? They are two uncompromising people and very rigid. Each and every one of them has his own level and calibre of rigidity. Each one of them has his own understanding of politics and how it should be done. I interacted with all them at different times.

ANPP has been rocked by crisis for a very long time in Kaduna state. Why is it making it difficult for party chieftains like you and General Muhammadu Buhari that reside in the state solve the problem once and for all?

He Buhari is part of it. To put it blunt, he is part of the problem. I told you that I don’t like discussing people. In a nutshell, Buhari is part of it, otherwise, what has been happening shouldn’t have happened. We are both resident in Kaduna.

Have you made any attempt to reconcile with him?

I am not fighting with him. Why should I reconcile with him? What I am saying is that Kaduna politics is distinct from Daura politics.

But Buhari is a national figure?

Even as a national figure, you have to anchor your political activities from your locality. You think Yar’adua was a national figure before he became president? How many Nigerians knew him? He served for eight years as governor but nobody knew him. There must be a character in our political belief and mine is that of Kaduna. No gossip, no backbiting. If you tell me something against somebody, I will call him right there in front of you and we sort it out. This is not applicable to most of the politicians. They laugh with you but deep inside them, they look at you as dark as coal. They are mostly ignorant of politics and in managing social mechanism.

Your former colleagues in the Senate have collected N500 million each in just two years. But most of them from the North, have not sponsor a single bill during that period. Are you comfortable with that?

You see, the system is so bad. People coerced these former governors to go into the senate without knowing what it takes to be there. And they got to the Senate with their large appetite from the Government Houses which is different from the appetite in the National Assembly. When we were there, I ran my office for the whole year with about N4 million. Those billions you are talking about were given to them to run their offices. At the end of the four –year, I spent about N12 million in running my office. And it was more than adequate, which is about N4 million per annum.  And your staff were paid directly from the National Assembly. Everything worked fine in the eight years I served. I was not indebted to anybody.