Britain introduced rigging in Nigeria –Onukaogu, Anambra REC

Posted by admin Anambra, Headlines, INEC Politics, State News Sunday, November 20th, 2011

By ALOYSIUS ATTAH
Sunday, November 20, 2011

•Onukaogu
• Photo: Sun Publishing

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Chukwuemeka Onukaogu, a Professor of English and Literary studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife is also a Pastor in the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Worldwide. As the Anambra State Resident Electoral Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), he supervised the conduct of the 2011 elections.

Professor Onukaogu in this interview speaks on conducting a credible election in Anambra among other issues. Excerpts…

Political watchers say that the 2011 election was a remarkable improvement from that of 2007 even though we are not there yet in terms of credible elections. As an insider in the electoral process, what is your own assessment?
Generally speaking, I think I will say I’m impressed with the outcome of the last elections in Nigeria. For the first time in the history of electioneering in Nigeria and Anambra State, the campaigns were more of issue-centered than personality. In the previous era, there were virtually no campaigns unlike the last exercise.

There were extensive use of the mass media in their campaigns.They also used the GSM revolution greatly in the area of coded short message services ( sms). So in that perspective, I can say that there was considerable improvement and again to a larger extent, people had confidence in INEC. When I told the political parties that we were going to provide a level playing ground for the elections, they believed me and they went ahead to campaign extensively. The desire to rig was minimally absent in their minds; that’s why I feel that to a great extent, there was considerable improvement. Also, we on our part did our homework thoroughly. Funds were made available and I was given a free hand to run the election. Nobody dictated to me from outside regarding the election.

It is on record that in the United Kingdom (UK), there has been no judicial intervention in elections for almost 100 years until the year 2010 November which is a clear departure from our own case here. What do you think is responsible for the serial litigation that trail elections in Nigeria?
The British State has existed for more than 100 years so their system has been evolutionary. They’ve passed from one stage to the other and by the time you talk about 99 years or 100 years, they had more or less evolved a near perfect system. We are trying to evolve our system of electing our own leaders.

We had our own traditional system of electing our leaders but before we could perfect the system, slave trade came and carried our men and women away. Institutions we had here were bastardized and abused; so what was handed over to us by our colonial masters who used their superiority in terms of technological know- how to suppress us was not as good as what they had in their own home land. In any case, the colonial masters who came here had vested interests; they put in place a political system that will perpetuate their influence and they started the system of rigging. They started the system of electioneering malpractices, they had favoured candidates and they were not prepared to allow the political system to evolve properly.

Take for example, the case of Patrice Lumumba in Congo; Lumumba was the choice of the people but Western powers thought that he was pro East, Marxist in orientation and they blocked him. They conspired and got him killed and The United Nations turned blind eye to the circumstances surrounding his arrest and murder. In other words, the colonial masters – Belgium in alliance with France didn’t want a democratic alliance in the then Democratic Republic of Congo that was people-oriented. We can associate that with what happened here in Nigeria.

The 1959 election which the British government supervised was not as perfect as we were meant to believe because these were evidences to show that the British government rigged the election in favour of some particular parties they wanted to remain in power to perpetuate their interests when they’ve gone home. If we in Nigeria have not perfected our system, it is not because we are inherently evil or bad, it is because we are still in the process of learning. If the military have not intervened and we’ve had a continuous process from 1960 till date, we would have perfected it. Within the short period of time the military have allowed us to come in, we have involved a system of electioneering campaign and election which other African countries are beginning to emulate.

The open ballot system which we operate here is not what is obtainable in civilized world but it suites our purpose. For instance, Liberia today is adopting our system, Rwanda is also following, even Uganda and Kenya are coming to study what we are doing. So, I think that with time, we will be able to perfect our system and come out with our own election process that will be people-oriented and command national and international acceptability. If you compare what has happened so far and what we have done, you will agree that we have come a long way. I will give it 80% grade in terms of perfection.

The average Nigerian should be proud to say that we have men and women who can deliver in terms of perfect elections. The major reason why litigations still trail our elections is because we have not perfected this system. Another instance, in America, UK, and other parts of Western Europe, when election results are being announced, the contestants listen keenly, and by the time 80 percent of the results are announced, the loser usually sends a congratulatory message to the winner. But here, no one believes that he or she has lost election. Everyone expects to win even when some of them did not actually campaign for the election, they still expect to be declared winners.

And because they don’t have faith in themselves, they believe that all others involved in this system are corrupt. So, whenever they loose, they refuse to accept the reality until the judiciary system declares that they are losers. Until the political class begins to be magnanimous in defeat and in victory, the tendency to challenge whatever results declared will always be there. And in any case, the bureaucratic limitations we have in the system are also a factor. It is possible that we may make mistakes here and there in the process of conducting elections and it is the judiciary that will look at the law, and tell us to our face where we have gone wrong.

For now, I don’t think it is actually extraordinary for people to complain that there are gaps or shortcomings here or there. That’s why we have the constitution, the electoral laws and the judiciary to interpret to us where we have gone wrong so that next time, people will not run foul of the law. To me, I am impressed that people are now going to the tribunal instead of taking laws into their hands.

In Anambra for example, there was no post election crisis, the people had confidence in what we did. The masses were not angry; they were satisfied with our conduct. The politicians themselves were not quite satisfied and they have gone out to complain and the tribunals are now telling them where they were wrong or right and we here are bound to accept the pronouncements of the tribunal because we abide by the rule of law.

Before you were posted to Anambra, you might have heard many stories about the state, what was the actual impression when you eventually arrived?
The stories I heard about Anambra were limited to an extent. I am an academician, I was involved in the classroom and I was not a political scientist either. I am a linguist and I was concerned with language learning and teachings so I didn’t know much about Anambra State, but when I was posted here, people were scared about my safety. They thought I was going to a hot bed, but I was not scared because I know whom I was following. My leader is always in front of me. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ who leads me and will never lead me astray. So, when I was coming here, I consulted Him (Jesus Christ) and He told me that I should go. I am talking of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. He led me here and he has been faithful. He has kept me in Anambra State and has made me an icon of excellence and a beacon of hope to the political class and to the masses of Anambra State.

What of the problem of some INEC officials or adhoc staff who compromise on the field during elections.
They should be arrested and prosecuted, that is why we have independent observers and monitors. There are sanctions against any errant official and whenever we have evidence, we prosecute. The law allows us to prosecute and not even wait for the police. What the police do is to arrest and arraign the culprits and we do the prosecution. People should help the commission because the REC cannot be in all the polling units at the same time.
We recorded 51 election malpractice cases after the elections in Anambra which we are now prosecuting. The Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) is helping us on that and I’ve forwarded the names and files to the headquarters in Abuja which the legal unit of the commission is handling.

How do you react to the allegation by some aggrieved individuals that you entered into negotiation with some candidates or stakeholders during the election?
I never entered into negotiations with anybody and neither did I compromise in any form during the elections. I had a very open relationship with all the stakeholders. I never took money and I never encouraged anybody to bring money too. I don’t think there is any other state in Nigeria where up to five political parties were able to win elective positions like it happened in Anambra. For instance here, ACN, APGA and PDP won not only at the state level but at the national level. Five parties including Accord and Labour parties won seats at the state level and if I had compromised my position, one party would have won all the seats. Ironically, today in the state, except for the Labour Party and Accord, other major parties see me as their enemy.

The ACN doesn’t see any thing good in me; they see me as a symbol of evil while the APGA also sees me as a traitor. Why? Because to them, I compromised. The PDP also has no good record of me because it was not business as usual. Maybe, if I had compromised, one of these major parties would have been saying, hey, he is a good man, he is the best friend of our party, but because all of them see me as their enemy testifies to the fact that I stood my ground and I have no regret doing that.

Some of them alleged that certain contestants gave me millions of naira and things like that but these are all strange and wild allegations. The funny thing in the whole story was that I never met one on one with most of the major contestants not to talk of entering into negotiation with any.

-Sunwp_posts

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Posted by admin on Nov 20 2011. Filed under Anambra, Headlines, INEC Politics, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry