Institutions for poll conduct have becomepartisan, says Onaiyekan (1)

John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Catholic Archbishop of Abuja and a former President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), spoke to NKECHI ONYEDIKA-UGOEZE in Abuja on critical national issues such as the Non-Violence Accord signed by the presidential candidates, controversy over Gen. Buhari’s certificate, militarisation of elections and the statement on the 2015 elections credited to Rev. Fr. Mbaka. 

On preparedness of INEC for the 2015 general elections 

I MUST say that I am not even too well-informed about how well-prepared they are; so, how can one comment on it. But that is part of the problem, too. The preparedness of INEC should be transparent and clear; we should all know how far they have gone. 

  When I keep hearing that there are many people, who have not received their Permanent Voter Cards — is it Governor Uduaghan, who said that more than 700,000 people in Delta State have not collected their PVCs — it is clear that the fault is not with the people. 

  We have given money to INEC, for them to organise these things; there is no reason about 700,000 voter cards should be lying in their office unless, of course, this is part of rigging. 

  You keep 700,000 voter cards under lock and key, to be then used in whatever way you like on the day of the election! 

  I am sure that Governor Uduaghan is not just talking anyhow. For me, that is a clear sign that there is something seriously wrong. 

  If INEC is not ready, then there is no point throwing us into an election that will, ab initio, be questionable. Whoever wins will leave room for complaints and I think Nigerians deserve more than that. 

  Whatever you design, as the way for getting access to your voting doesn’t work, then you must allow other ways. This is where the Temporary Voter Card (TVC) comes in. All you need to be sure is that this man deserves to vote whether he has a PVC or TVC. 

  On the situation in the Northeast, how many local governments are under the control of the Boko Haram? Some are saying more than 20 local governments. 

  We were with Mr. President and he said it’s only four local governments; in some other local governments, may be some incursions here and there. 

  This is the story he is being told, but people from there are saying that when we say that 20 local governments are under the control of the Boko Haram, it means you can’t just walk there and continue to run government as usual. 

  The question we are asking ourselves is; there is no way you can send electoral officers, monitors or observers into those areas; the few people remaining in those areas, who are living there freely, are people who have become Boko Haram, and who have given their allegiance to the Islamic caliphate of Shekau. 

  Because, there are some people, who have actually joined Boko Haram and are left in peace in that area provided they follow the law of Boko Haram. 

  Meaning their own version of strict Sharia law, but these are few people. I don’t see how elections can take place in these places in a few weeks’ time. 

  Mr. President was in Maiduguri finally, and he was advised to tell the whole world that all those refugees would be returning to their homes within two weeks. That kind of statement — well, two weeks will soon come, what magic are they going to perform? 

  May be he has some ideas; may be his military officers have assured him that they have discovered a way that they are going to stamp out Boko Haram from all these places so that people can return to their homes within the next two weeks. 

  I pray that it is true but for me, it can only happen with a miracle. If it doesn’t happen, it means that a whole chunk of Nigeria won’t vote and if they fail to vote, whatever result you have at the end, some people will say that if they had voted, we would have won. It will amount to disenfranchising eligible voters. 

  INEC is saying that the Internally Displaced (IDP) people will vote in the refugee camps. Yes, those are the refugee camps that you know. 

  Less than half of the IDPs are in the refugee camps; there are many of them who don’t want to go to the refugee camps because they don’t get much there and it is not even safe. 

  So, many displaced people are staying with their friends and relations all over Nigeria. Unless you relax the rules by saying no matter where you are, present yourself and you will vote. 

  But for that to happen, INEC should have set in motion some kind of IDPs so that they will have special register with which they can vote anywhere. But I am not aware of any such thing. 

  Also, a huge number of displaced people are stranded in Cameroun and Chad and we are not aware of anything being done either to bring them back home or negotiate with the governments there to look after them. 

  They are just there and considered as refugees, and they are not a priority to Camerounian and Chadian governments; they are their problems. It is a shame on our country; we should be able to do better than this.

The duration of things to calm down if elections were postponed (they are actually postponed) 

  It is a pity that this whole issue of insurgency could not be resolved reasonably before the elections because it is going to complicate the elections. 

  But be that as it may, we cannot postpone the election now; it has to go ahead. That gives us a greater challenge to ensure that whatever happens at the end, we should be able to manage any sense of disgruntlement that may appear, depending on how the result go.

On the Non-Violence Accord signed by the presidential candidates on the 2015 elections

I MUST say I am happy that such an event took place, for two reasons. One, that the different political parties agreed to come together to discuss this agenda of how do we ensure a violence-free election. Secondly, I find it quite significant that the initiative for this kind of meeting came from the government. 

  We are talking of two major presidential candidates; of course, there are other elections at the state and local government levels. 

  Even though all political parties have responsibility to ensure free, fair and violence-free election, I have always insisted that the responsibility of government and the party in power is crucial and most important. 

  They have the greater responsibility to ensure free, fair and violent-free election than the opposition for the simple reason that by the way things are in Nigeria, it is the government in power that practically controls all these things, and unfortunately, the tendency in the past was for the government in power to control all these matters in their own interest, 

  Which is why all the institutions meant to conduct the elections, as impartial umpires, have really not worked very well since these institutions, willingly or unwillingly, become partisan. 

  And as they become partisan, and go out of their ways to ensure that the incumbent continues, it creates problem for everybody because the opposition feels cheated. 

  While some of them in the opposition can gallantly accept this “defeat”, there are others who get terribly provoked and express their provocations in different ways. 

  Very often, the post-election violence is not simply a matter that is provoked and perpetrated by the political elite that force people to kill one another, although there is an element of that. 

  We must realise that when people go out on protest, they have a reason to do so, especially as they don’t have a way of getting redress, and at the level of the mob, you can no longer control them. 

  Even the youths that go on rampage, they are politically alert and if you don’t leave them with any other way of expressing their mind, they go into violence. 

  Even now that they have signed a solemn and sacred accord to avoid violence, there are still so many people who say that this is not serious. 

  One elder statesman said that the accord won’t work and his argument for it not working is that, “Buhari will never agree that he lost.” 

  But this gentle man is coming from the assumption that Buhari will lose. That is not helpful since you cannot predict the outcome of this election. 

  We, the people, should decide this election, and INEC should make sure that what we say is reflected in the results, and this should be done so transparently that any reasonable person will not have any cause to complain about the outcome. 

  For that to happen, you need more than an accord that was signed in a big ceremony, but the accord is very important. 

  I think we should not underestimate this beautiful picture of Buhari and Jonathan hugging and smiling broadly, which was in all the newspapers and television; it has gone viral in the social media. We should not underestimate the symbolic meaning of that. 

  We met the president and I told him that we were going to publish that picture in all our church bulletins, and tell our church people that, ‘the two major presidential candidates were hugging and laughing at one another; therefore, you have no reason to be killing yourselves when the people who are the key players are hugging and smiling at one another.’ 

  But like I said, prevention of violence in the forthcoming elections will demand more than signing an accord; it demands also sincerely deciding that we don’t want violence. Both sides know what causes violence. 

  Starting from the opposition; because of the experience, and because of the way the security agencies have been operating, the opposition very often feel that they need to defend themselves and so, they tend to look for ways and means of ensuring that they are not at the mercy of government in power. 

  As I said earlier, it is the government in power that has greater responsibility; if you are talking of violence and the instruments of violence, it is the government in power that controls it — the guns that are bought with our money. 

  Therefore, the role of security agencies — the Police, the Army, DSS and the Civil Defence Corps — I pray that the government in power will seriously ensure they put all these institutions where they should be and ensure they treat everybody equally, and not going to protect only the government candidates and disorganising the strongholds of the opposition.

•TO BE CONTINUED