Cross River: ‘Jonathan’s victory not cash-induced’ – Info Commissioner

Posted by admin Cross River, Elections 2011, Goodluck Jonathan (2010-present), Presidency, State News Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

Cross River State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ugbe, speaks with MUDIAGA AFFE on the conduct of the April 16 presidential election in the state and the tenure elongation ruling by the Court of Appeal, among other issues. Excerpt:

The presidential election witnessed an impressive turnout in Cross River State although critics said it was cash-induced. What is your take on this?

In no way was it vote-for-cash, I think we should not reduce our country to that level. This was a very serious election, one that would decide who the President of this country would be. For the first time, people also saw that the National Assembly election was credible and it was that motivation that brought them out to cast their vote during the presidential election. People came out massively to do this without any form of inducement.

So, it would be wrong for people to say that it was vote for cash. What amount of cash would you dole out to induce 73 million Nigerian voters? Of course, it was not all the registered voters that came out to cast their vote, but the sizeable number that came out did so because they wanted to be a part of the decision of who the next president of this country would be.

So, are you saying they voted willingly for Jonathan?

Yes, they came out willingly to vote for President Goodluck Jonathan. He is the only one, among the presidential candidates, who combed the nook and cranny of the country during electioneering. He went to campaign for votes and he was the most visible in the media. He was the only presidential candidate that came to campaign in Cross River State. That in a way meant that others never considered Cross Riverians to be that important to them.

If you study the pattern of vote casts in the various states, you would discover that Jonathan won in the strongholds of the opposition parties.

Would you attribute the votes to Jonathan or the Peoples Democratic Party as a party?

It was a combination of both. Jonathan represents the PDP and the party produced him. Again, our politics is maturing, it is getting to that stage where people look at issues; where people look at the candidates and say this is the candidate that would best give me what I expect and they vote along those lines.

The Court of Appeal has affirmed an earlier ruling on the tenure elongation of some state governors, including Governor Liyel Imoke, what is your reaction to the judgment?

We are quite happy that the Appeal Court affirmed the earlier ruling of the High Court to say that the governorship election will not hold in our state for the reason that the first election of April 2007 was annulled and a rerun was conducted in August 2008 which Governor Imoke won overwhelmingly and he took a fresh oath of office. His tenure started from the day he took that fresh oath of office and that was the position of the earlier ruling. We should not be sentimental about these issues. The constitution was amended, but it was only done after that process, so, we cannot amend the constitution and ask the law to take retroactive effect. It is not going to happen that way, we should keep sentiments aside and face facts as they face us.

People have said that the governor is planning to hand over to a Southerner when his tenure ends, whereas the Northern District has never produced the governor. How true is this?

I think that is mischievous on the part of those saying that because Imoke had said on a number of occasions that when he completes his tenure, the next governor will come from the Northern Senatorial District. That district has not produced a governor yet and Imoke has given his word through the mass media a number of times. So, it will be mischievous for someone to insinuate that the next governor will be a Southerner.

Opposition parties have complained about the conduct of the National Assembly election in the state, what is your position on this?

That is natural. To us as Nigerians, it is something that is in us and I pray we get out of it soon if we must grow as a nation. We have the attitude of winning and praising the process; and loosing and condemning the process. Often times we lose and say, it did not go well. This is something that is in our nature and we must consciously work hard to get it out of our system. There is no system that is perfect in this world.

There has been no perfect election in any part of the world, not even in the United States or the United Kingdom, but you do not find people who will lose and come out to condemn the process, it won’t take the nation anywhere.

Four years is not eternity, if you lose an election, find out why the people did not vote for you. Use the next four years to work on that so that when the next election comes, you will get the people’s votes.

-Punchwp_posts