Daily Independent (Lagos)
Sunny Igboanugo
4 March 2009
interview
There is no doubt that Dan Nwanyawu, National Chairman of Labour Party (LP), is a happy man today. Everything about seems to pronounce this. In fact, he goes about now with a cracked voice, one of the visible outcomes of his latest engagements in Ondo State, where his party snatched victory from the jaws of the People Democratic Party. Despite the fact that Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, now sits in the Ondo Government House, instead of his predecessor, Olusegun Agagu, the LP boss, still carries a grouse - that of delayed justice. In this interview with GROUP Politics Editor, SUNNY IGBOANUGO, in his Abuja office, he was emphatic on one thing - it would not happen again. And the only way to avoid this, he insists, is electoral reform that would bring about credible elections.
Execerpts:
How did you make it happen?
It is a very long story. We didn't make it happen. God made it happen. First of all, you know Labour Party is a political party owned by workers, farmers, peasants, market men and women, professional groups. These were the people who came together to form the Labour Party. They didn't have the money to fight the big parties like the PDP that has taken over the place. They didn't have that kind of money. We don't have moneybags in our party. We don't have a Simon of Cyrene. You know, Simon of Cyrene. He was the one who helped Jesus Christ to carry the cross when he was being flogged. Jesus fell several times and Simon of Cyrene helped him to carry his cross. We don't have a Joseph of Arimathia. Do you know Joseph of Arimathia? He was the one after they had killed Jesus on the cross, they left him and went away; he was the one who carried Jesus and buried him in his own tomb. We don't have such people in our party. We don't have a godfather, but we have Father God. So, he was the one that did it all. We didn't do it. We handed over the entire matter to Him, because we felt bad that we won an election and the mandate was stolen. They handed it over to somebody who did not score 15 per cent of the vote in Ondo State. So, we called upon God; that if God is God, let Him show Himself. We petitioned. We passed the first hurdle of INEC not giving us access to documents used in the conduct of the election. We went to court. We got an order for INEC to do so and they still refused to do so until they were embarrassed. Finally, we were able to scan photocopies of documents used in the election to compare it with information that we had. And in the course of doing that we found that strange names had been imported into voters register. How did it happen? Three weeks after the registration of voters by INEC, we found out that INEC people were still registering purported voters with the Direct Data Capture Machine. We caught them in a local government. We did not alert the police, we alerted the SSS. The SSS now got there, saw them and detained them. They brought them to Abuja. Immediately after, I called INEC chairman, Prof. Maurice Iwu told him and said see what is happening in Ondo State. He said chairman, don't bother yourself, we already have the registered voters figure. I thought I was talking to somebody who meant well.
It was after the first ballot on the 14th of April that the Resident Electoral Commissioner was removed to Edo. Remember that he was removed to Edo and they brought one Alhaji Garba or something like that, who now discovered that the voters register was inflated with 300,000. Those were the votes that purportedly gave Agagu victory. What did we do? We now started going through the list one after the other. That was how we saw Mohammed Ali, Mike Tyson, Oprah Winfrey, Prof. Maurice Iwu himself, Justice Kutigi, Cecilia Ibru and all manners of names. They copied from the calendar. They copied from obituary. They copied from different places. Those were the votes the tribunal struck out, which put Labour Party ahead of PDP by 70, 000 votes, which the court of appeal reaffirmed. That was how God did it. We did not do anything.
What does this victory actually portend for our democracy?
What we should learn from it is that we must have to go back to the drawing board. But we would not arrive at that good solution unless we are able to identify where we went wrong. Whoever tells you or told you that we should not single out people for blame, he must have participated or he has the intention of participating in another fraudulent practice. You cannot move forward unless you identify your past, where you went wrong. Then you move ahead from there. Take for example, the Electoral Act provides that the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state has powers to announce the governorship result. In Ondo State, the result was announced in Abuja. As at that time, AIT was covering the collation of results in Ondo live. They asked the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Uwazuruonye; they have announced result in Abuja, what are you still doing here? He said, ah! The results are still coming from the local governments? We have not seen it. So, we don't know from where they got the figures they announced. We have not collected the results. This is on tape from AIT (searches for and displayed the tape. Three hours later, Uwazuruonye announced the same results INEC had announced three hours earlier. He was put under pressure even when he had not seen the result. The same thing happened in Edo. These were the two states where they announced governorship election results in Abuja, instead of in Akure and Benin respectively. And these are the only two states that Labour Party was shown to have won convincingly. And we are talking about Labour Party and Labour Party candidates. So, this will go to show you that the Federal Government of Obasanjo and INEC never liked the Labour Party. They never wanted Labour party to win anywhere; because they are aware of what our ideology stands for. They know that we are not people that could be compromised. So, they were determined to strangulate emasculate and truncate the effort of the Labour party. President Obasanjo was in Akure; he accused our candidate of corruption. Even when EFCC under Ribadu had not even talked to him. And we confronted him; that since you have decided to say things that Presidents don't say, we challenge you to produce evidence. He could not talk. And three days later the EFCC came up to say that they had nothing against Mimiko. So, what I am trying to establish is that that culture of impunity, I mean that culture of 'do it, nothing will happen,' which was the case in 2007, particularly in Ondo and Edo; because Obasanjo told Prof. Iwu: 'go and announce Agagu, nothing will happen; announce Osunbor, nothing will happen.' Today, something has happened. And that is why I told you inta alia that we didn't do anything; it was God who did it for us.
Do you think this outcome will in any way mitigate what is going to happen in 2011?
I must tell you that the struggle has just started. If you were here 15 minutes earlier, all the 50 political parties, except PDP, assembled here in solidarity with Labour Party. They were here to toast the success of the Labour Party. We are working. Let me make it clear that this is the last time Labour Party will wait for two years to get justice. And that will lead me to why we are clamouring for electoral reform. They don't want it, because it will get them out of power. But the success of this democracy and, indeed, the success of Nigeria is dependent on electoral reform.
Who does not want it?
The PDP. You have listened to some senators talking from both sides of their mouths, giving accolades to INEC. Of course, what do you expect? They are afraid of their positions. If you have electoral reform that will guarantee one man one vote; that will make the votes count; that will make the results known at the polling units, eighty per cent of those people in the National Assembly will not be there, because they were never elected ab initio. They were appointed and nominated into the National Assembly. So, you don't expect them to give support to something that will kick them out of office. That was why, when I saw them, I was laughing. But they forgot that if we don't have this reform, what they are telling Nigerians is that Nigerians should go and build their private armies. Even you that will announce the result, you are not safe. So, it is not a question of saying President Yar'Adua, as they are now trying to convince him; if you do this reform, you will not go for 2011. If there was reform, you wouldn't have been President. I want to say that Yar'Adua, being a good Muslim, should know that it is God that gives power. If God does not want him in 2011 as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, reform or no reform, he will not get there. If God has sanctioned that he must be President of Nigeria in 2011 for the second time with reform, he will get there. But he should forget that the legacy available to him now is for him to give Nigerians an electoral process that will be free, fair and credible; that will be acknowledged across the globe. So that even if nothing is achieved by him, the future generation, even those unborn will say there was one man called Umaru Yar'Adua who created an enabling environment for people to express their franchise; and their franchise counted in electing leaders and removing leaders that were unable to deliver on their mandates. I have said it severally, that President Yar'Adua should forget about his seven-point agenda and have a one-point agenda to give us an electoral reform. By the time we are able to elect our leader in 2011, even if he was the one elected, then that leader will be accountable to the people. He will give us electricity. He will build roads. He will give us rail system that will take people from Abuja to Lagos in three to four hours. He will give us good health system. Unless, and until, we achieve that, we are wasting our time, because this seven-point agenda is a destination to nowhere. We have wasted two years and I don't think miracle will happen. Even when Jesus Christ was here, miracle didn't happen just that way. We need electoral reform
Do you think that we are actually short of laws?
We are not short of laws. But our experiences have shown that there are some aspects of the law that we must touch, particularly on who appoints the INEC chairman and the INEC commissioners, both federal and states; on the funding of INEC; on what constitutes the body called INEC; who and who should be there; when is somebody expected to take over an office after being elected?
These are some of the things we need in our laws. I have just spoken to you that Labour Party spent two years looking for justice in Ondo. We spent about 18 months in Edo, looking for justice. As at that time somebody presided over those states. While we were fighting with our hard-earned sweat, the person fought us with government resources. Agagu awarded contracts worth more than what he did for four years in just three months; because he knew he was going, so he started awarding frivolous contracts and started paying 50 per cent upfront more than government regulation of 25 per cent. I was in Ondo. Most of those contracts - like the roads, they tore the roads into two- nothing was done. Like the Ondo road they awarded for more than N2 - N3 billion and paid close to N2 billion; nothing was done there. We don't want the scarce resources of states to be wasted. That is why we are saying that we are not short of laws, but there are some aspects of laws we must have to touch. Nobody should be sworn in until his election is determined or any petition pending before him. We must know who appoints INEC chairman. We must know how to fund INEC so that it can be truly independent. We must have special representation in INEC, so that nobody will take advantage over the other. So, these are some of the laws that we need to bring to fore to assist us in this reform.
Even when we try to blame the ruling party; we also have a situation of flawed elections in the states not controlled by PDP. For instance, anywhere ANPP is the ruling party and conducts council elections, they take everything, anywhere AC rules, they win everything. Don't you see that the problem is still largely with the politicians and that the political parties themselves have to start the reforms first in their own domain?
That will lead me to why I said though we have laws, but we need to fine-tune them. We are advocating that the conduct of the local government elections should be brought to INEC by the time you have a proper INEC. You see, most of these parties, minority parties, that are in the states are learning from PDP. They see the PDP go into the room and write results. So, why should ANPP allow PDP to come and take their place? But when you have a credible electoral process, whereby votes will count and be counted and everybody will see the results there and then, and everybody has the results, and people are allowed to use cameras to video activities, even video the conducts of electoral officers, which will be admissible at the tribunal you won't have all these problems. So, it is hinged solely on the politicians. It is when you have bad laws that the politicians will look at those laws to see how they could circumvent them. It is the laws that have not protected the interest of the voters and the candidate that eventually become a winner. So, you don't push it on the politicians alone. You also have to talk about the electoral system. Why is it that Nigerians acknowledged the election conducted in 1993 as being the freest, most credible and fair? It was because the process was free and fair. It was transparent. Therefore, it became credible. We elected state assembly members. We elected members of the National Assembly. We elected governors. We elected the President. Every Nigerian declared that the elections were fair and credible. Why can't we start from there?
But again, you in the opposition camp, people also see that even the state, which you manage, that you have done well. Look at Anambra State, for instance. Many years after they are yet to hold local government elections. Ordinarily they should have shown example?
Anambra's case is a peculiar situation caused by the PDP and also caused by the candidate himself. After he was bruised for three years, he came in there instead of bending down to work, he started looking for enemies. So, that will not be a good yardstick to judge opposition states. You can also talk of Lagos now. Lagos is another example of an opposition state. The man is not talking much, but as you drive along Lagos, you will see that the man is working. Edo has started something, which in the next few months you will find out that the state governed by Comrade Governor Oshiomhole, will be a pilot state to copy. Ondo will be another classical example. The governor is already working. So, don't use Anambra State as a yardstick to judge the control of other states by the minority party. What you are seeing in Anambra is that Anambra has become a political laboratory. So, we don't put it on the equation when we are talking, because anything can happen in Ananmbra; anything! Just anything! This is because there are too many strong politicians, there are too many educated people, there are too many rich people, all seeking one thing. And none is ready to compromise for the other, or concede or accept the other. It will interest you to note that the highest number petition filed in this country came from Anambra. And the President of the Court of Appeal had to complain one day that it's either because the people have too much money to pay lawyers or that they don't want to concede to another candidate. So, when we are talking about states in Nigeria where positive things are happening, please don't bring Anambra State, because the state is political laboratory and we are still going to see what it will deliver.
Now that you have come into the big club of ...
I don't know about the club, not to talk of whether it is big. I am not aware of any club.
You now have two states.
Not a state but two states.
Are you also claiming Edo?
It is not a claim. That is why I accuse you journalists of not doing work; with due respect. You people followed me to Edo when I raised Oshiomhole's hand and presented the party's manifesto to him. Adams Oshiomhole's hand was never raised by any other political party, nor did he present any other manifesto to the people of Edo State. What happened in Edo State was a strategic alliance between Labour Party and the AC. It is a joint agreement. (Displaying a document)...This is a joint statement issued by the state leadership of Action Congress and Labour Party on the working alliance entered into by the two political parties in the state on November 23, 2006. The first person that signed for AC was Chief Tom Ikimi. These are AC signatures and there are Labour Party's. So, we should not be behaving as if Oshiomole dropped from the sky. He had a political party that had already nominated him. He had a political party that had presented a manifesto to him. It was a working alliance just like Shinkafi and Olu Falae did in 1999. If Shinkafi had won the presidency, Falae would be there as vice president, but a member of AD. When they lost, Falae went back to AD. Yes, the platform was AC but the candidate was Labour Party. And this understanding was for the purposes of governorship election for 2007 and in Edo State, without more. Now that Oshiomhole won, Oshiomhole is running a Labour government. But he has not lost sight of the party; that AC was part and parcel of that victory. And he did not stop there. There are six political parties that are commissioners in Edo State. That will tell you how liberal a Labour government could be.
What would the larger picture look like in time to come?
Well, we have started mobilising for membership. We are encouraging the young people of this country to go and register. We are talking to political parties and their leaders that share the same mission, vision and ideology with us. We want to have a synergy whereby we will be able to form a granite coalition in the forthcoming election. The bigger picture, as I see, is very interesting. And I must tell you that that will be hinged on the reform. By the time we are through with reform, if PDP want to rule for 60 years, we will support them. But without the reform and PDP wants to rule in 2011, based on what happened in 2007, Labour Party and other political parties will say know.
You seem to be quite optimistic about this reform; but given the fact that even when you go into the actual reform, it is still the same PDP people that are likely to...
I am very optimistic about the reform because the existence and the continuation of a democratic system of government are dependent upon the reform. If we don't have a reform, that means we don't love democracy. The system is bad, period! It is not good. Look at Ghana, South Africa, and Liberia. I am not going outside Africa. Is it not a shame? It is very shameful. It is unfortunate that people that should have come out to apologise to Nigerians for their roles, for the roles they played in 2007 - instead of apologising to Nigerians - they are pretending as if they are saints. Nigerians are not fools. Nigerians are tired of them and I must tell you, come 2011, Nigerians will express it. You have pushed them to the wall.
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