“Our Fears for 2007”
— Lai Mohammed, chairman, media committee, Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD)
By Emeka Alex Duru and
Edward Dibiana

Lai Mohammed

In a couple of months now Nigeria would have been through with its first transition journey after two terms of the present regime. As a key player in the system, can you offer an analysis of the journey so far?
Well, our journey has been quite tortuous, I don’t think there’s anything unusual about that. But what is quite worrisome, however, is the view held, not just by a clique, but one which is gradually permeating the entire society, that some are indispensable. It is very sad in the sense that yes, once in a while in any man’s history, in any nation’s history, you have a strong man; you have strong personalities, who have succeeded in actually having a larger-than-life posture.
But in every such country, for it (country) to survive, there must be institutions; there must be systems. Its systems and institutions should actually outlive personalities. Now we should really invest in building an enduring structure, having an impartial electoral commission; making sure that we develop our democratic institutions, to give priority to the rule of law especially. Its only those things that can really assist us in true nation-building.

Are these core values you have mentioned not discernable in the present dispensation?

Regrettably not. You see, one thing about rule of law, where it is supreme, it does not matter whether it favours you today, or does not. That’s the beauty of rule of law. That’s why it is said that the law is blind. It has nothing to do with the individual or the personality before him. What does the law say? What does the procedure say?
Now, today, I can give you several examples of the lack of respect of the rule of law. I can give you several examples of the lack of respect for court orders; I can give you several examples of refusal of key participants in this administration to even obey the rules they set for themselves.
Take, for instance, the landmark decision of the Supreme Court as regards the issue of the withheld local government council funds of Lagos State, you see we are not talking about the ego of one person, we are talking about what the Supreme Court of the land has said. And you see, you cannot pick which laws to obey and which ones not to obey. I read in the (newspapers) today, that a Federal High Court judge threw out the Solomon Lar case and that the Ali-led faction of the PDP rejoiced and said now that they have confidence in the judiciary.
Now, is it every time that judgement goes in your favour that you have confidence in the judiciary?
Three weeks ago there was a pronouncement by the supreme court that the so-called local government monitoring committee has no place in the constitution. In other words, once funds are released to states for the local government, it is not part of federalism for any super body at the federal level to monitor and trace what happens to that money. In this part of the country, especially with the ruling clique, we seem to believe that the means justifies the end. It's not always so. I hope that it should not be so. It is just like saying now that because I want to become the governor of Kwara State – and I am very confident that I am a very competent person and people have seen that and they think that if I become the governor of Kwara State, that I am going to turn around the fortunes of the state, provide employment, but I have some obstacles, probably some aspirants who I know that given the corrupt system could win the election, but would not do anything for the state, then that allows me to kill them.
This is the kind of thing that is happening in the system. They want to believe that yes, because for instance, there is probably evidence that most of these local government chairmen are doing nothing with the funds allocated to them; as a matter of fact, that probably they are just stealing the money – that I don’t like; that my party does not subscribe to – but what we are saying is that the only way to make sure that the local government chairman does not steal money, and that he actually uses the money to develop the local government council is by having strong institutions and system that would make him accountable.
A situation whereby you want to recall a member of the House of Assembly, of the House of Representatives, or the Senate, if because he enjoys the confidence of the party or a clique it is frustrated, does not allow for the growth of democracy. Winston Churchill led Britain through the most difficult period of her life, in the war, lost election immediately after because they were two different issues. You could be a damn good leader in wartime, but you could be a poor leader when what is needed should be reconstruction, economic reconstruction and reconciliation. But he came back; he bounced back a couple of years later. This is what democracy is all about. But what we are witnessing today is that there is a lot of intolerance for the rule of law, especially by the Federal Government. And most state governments have actually looked at what is happening at the top, and they have followed suit.
In any event, there is too much concentration of power at the federal level and that does not actually allow for any form of federalism.

All these lapses you have pointed out seem to be the reasons why you came up with ACD, but the PDP is today boasting that your party does not pose any threat to its plan to retain power.

(Cuts in) You see, it is quite sad, even Mr. President at a point in time admitted that the PDP was not a political party. Professor Maurice Iwu (INEC boss), admitted openly that what happened in 2003 was not a free and fair election. Also, by what happened in Anambra, and even the Court of Appeal’s decision, it is clear that there were a lot of malpractices and fraud in the elections.
That is why the PDP has lacked, and still lacks legitimacy. That’s why they’ve not been able to do anything. Its shameful that out of the 36 governors we have today, about 28 of them happen to come from the PDP. But if you look at the number of Executives today that have been found wanting they are from the PDP stock.
Now, when the PDP says we don’t pose a threat to them, its simply because they know there would not be a free and fair election. In a free and fair election, the PDP will not win many of the states they control today, because people are completely disenchanted with the party. You see, any government that cannot impact positively on the lives of the people is a failure, and while we are ready to give kudos to Mr President in certain areas of governance, I think Nigerians are quite disappointed with the Federal Government, and with the PDP government at various state levels. So, if PDP today says we do not pose a threat to them, then it's either they are grandstanding, or because they believe they are going to rig elections – or both. But I want to assure the PDP that Nigerians are today wiser. Nigerians are today ready to protect their votes. I think the era where peoples' vote don’t count, or you don’t count their votes is gone forever. PDP should wake up to this reality, look around themselves and see who is left in the party. The party is now a shell of its former self. I am very confident because I feel the pulse of the people, and even many of the people today who are still in PDP are there because of the patronage they will share between now and the end of the administration. PDP can only be found in two places anywhere in Nigeria today – in Government Houses and government offices where they are in power. For those who are still hanging on, it may be that they are still getting something out of the government.

But the PDP national chairman recently described the ACD as a bunch of frustrated politicians who cannot win any electoral victory. How do you react to that?

Well, you see, Dr. Ahmadu Ali is a politician of sort. You see, two great things make a political party. One, who are the people and personalities behind that political party? Two, what are the programmes of that political party? And thirdly, how is that political party getting across to the people?
Take the first one, who are the personalities behind the political party? I am sure today that you will find more credible people in ACD than you will find in the PDP. People who left the PDP to join the ACD were those who could no longer tolerate the lack of democracy in PDP. They didn’t fallout because of contracts, they didn’t fall out because of appointments. You see, people tend to forget this. The fall-out took place in 2005 after ministers had been appointed; after the booty had been shared. So many of them that now left the party and came to ACD were still holding appointive offices under the PDP. This is what the PDP wants people to gloss over.
What happened really, was that from 2003 it was clear that the PDP government was leading Nigeria towards a one-party state. They encouraged dissension and division within other political parties, notably AD and the ANPP. They welcomed with open arms, Senators, House of Representatives members who left their parties to join the PDP.
But along the line, it was clear that the issue of the third term took off a long time even before this final parting of ways between some members of the PDP and Ahmadu Ali. And the only way the third term agenda could succeed, was for them to have complete control of the party machinery. In the process, people like Audu Ogbeh ran foul of the clique's internal plotting. Now, you can see that Audu Ogbeh could not stomach it any longer, and he wrote to Mr President – which was leaked to the press – and he was forced out of the party. That was the beginning of the crisis within the party, remember. Then, the disagreement and cold war between the President and the Vice President, whereupon the President often described his veepee as being disloyal. I think the final straw that broke the camel’s back was the de-registration programme of the PDP. It was clear from their de-registration exercise that they were trying to exclude certain members from the party, because they had an agenda. The agenda was willy-nilly to make Nigerians accept tenure elongation. So they wanted people who were pliable to that machinery that would whip members into order. It was quite scandalous that the Vice President of the country would not be registered in his own ward. So, it was exclusion and de-registration and the disenfranchising of key members of the PDP that led them to flock into ACD. By the time they came, they didn’t come to a constituency that was non-existent. We started as MDD, because they were told that we were strong enough, that there must be movement to defend democracy. Those happenings within the PDP was a tragedy for democracy, which if unchecked would lead to the demise of democracy. So, this movement formed as core movement for the defence of democracy was what metamorphosed into ACD. So if you look at the origin and the process, it is not as if overnight they felt frustrated in the PDP and they came into ACD. No!
It was a gradual process of disenchantment with the PDP that led to this.

There is regardless the allegation that ACD is a mere fall-back platform for the Vice President in the event of him losing out in the power game in the PDP?

We’ve heard that, and I have said it several times that as at today, Atiku is not a member of the ACD. Atiku has said about two days ago that he is going to contest on the platform of the PDP. Atiku also made it clear to anyone who wants to listen. In the interview, he said that not even Mr President can deny him the PDP ticket. So, for people to insinuate that Atiku is behind ACD is not true. I have told you the process that led to the formation of ACD, it was a gradual thing. It's quite unfortunate that people just want a short cut to solving problems. It is true that a lot of Atiku’s associates joined the Movement for the Defence of Democracy, but the veepee has remained a member of the PDP. When he opened his media campaign office, he was asked, and he had said, “I am getting nomination as a member of the PDP”. So as at today, he is still a member of the PDP.

Recently, you raised an alarm concerning an alleged plot by the government to come up with an interim government arrangement. What informed this fear?

Because we have it on good authority that the presidency, aside from floating the idea, and calling senior and elder statemen to converse the possibility of an interim national government, what we see on ground does not give us confidence that this government actually wants to conduct an election, when today, August 1, 2006, the review of voters register is yet to start anywhere. And now we are being told that the new voters card will have the picture of every voter engraved in it. Now, we are in August. If we are in August and there is absolutely no preparation towards even voters registration, no sensitisation towards voters registration, even after voters registration, there is what is called verification exercise. So, when do they want to do all these?
Again, our understanding when we were told that both Houses of the National Assembly have passed the electoral law was that its gonna be the open, secret ballot system. Our understanding is that there is going to be what is called the modified open ballot. People will queue up in the morning, do accreditation, and all the agents of the political parties would know exactly how many people have been accredited, and so when it comes to voting time, the voters must not exceed the number of people that have been accredited. This one is a very simple, but effective way of checking rigging. But now Professor Maurice Iwu is saying no, that it is going to be like what happened in 2003, and that leaves so much room for rigging and electoral malpractices. Now, we are being told that even the money that INEC needs has not been released. If you look at the scenario on ground, and if you look at these few scenarios I have painted and the fact that in recent times, even the United States of America yesterday had to say no to interim national government, we begin to wonder why would the Federal Government be talking of interim national government. There is certainly no need for it. In the first instance, there is no crisis; there’s not an inconclusive election; there is no constitutional crisis, so why would there be interim national government? Of course, its just part of the tenure elongation programme of the government.

What is the level of your party's mobilisation across the States?

You see, for instance, yesterday the ACD was launched in Anambra State… two weeks ago, it was launched in Asaba, Delta State. Previous Saturday, it was launched in Adamawa and on Thursday it was launched in Taraba. The FCT launched its own chapter last week Thursday. Niger State is launching this Thursday. You see, mobilisation and sensitisation for the ACD is growing very well everywhere in Nigeria today. As a matter of fact, Nigerians are so disillusioned that they see ACD as an alternative. The crisis and violence in the PDP does not endear the PDP to anybody.
The present case of late Engineer Funso Williams, to me, will scare more people from the PDP than any other single act of the government, and regrettably if you look at the people who have been killed over the years, and whose murder have not been resolved, are all from the PDP. So, we are getting more and more converts by the day and our programmes are also attractive to the people. We want to go about this thing in such a transparent manner that the imposition of candidates would never occur in ACD, because we are going to adopt the simple option A4 system in all the appointive offices and as much as possible in all the elective party offices.

Do you have any fears for 2007?

My only fear for 2007 is INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission). If INEC can actually conduct a free and fair election, 2007 will just come like any other day. Election will just come like any other day. You see, election violence are never perpetrated by the electorate. There is a set of people that are responsible for electoral violence; the police, the thugs, and INEC officials who make rigging possible. You see, every electorate goes to vote for his own candidate and leaves and this is why I am so worried about the impartiality of INEC. The body has shown in its utterances that it cannot be an impartial umpire in the 2007 elections. Because I was reading with amazement and utter disappointment statements that are credited to INEC, the way the Vice-President is being abused, INEC seems to forget that it is a public commission, and that Iwu and every officer there are public servants. Even if it disagrees with the Vice-President, there should be official channels to express that. You see, it is okay for people like us to probably criticise the government, criticise the president or the vice-president as politicians (but) is INEC also in the political arena?
All that Atiku said was that the public has lost confidence in INEC, the president could have said that. My question is, if the president had said that, would they have reacted that way? This shows that INEC itself has taken a position. And that in itself is danger.