• Only amendment of electoral laws can bring good governance to Nigerians
From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
Yabagi Yusuf Sani is national chairman, Action Democratic Party (ADP). In this interview with Sunday Sun, he speaks on why his party opted out of the coalition being planned by some political parties to wrest power from the APC in 2027, why opposition parties are too weak to fight the ruling party and other national issues.
Nigeria is currently on her 26th year of uninterrupted civilian rule. What is your assessment of the journey so far and of the government of the day?
Democracy is a journey, it is not a destination. This, of course, you will agree with because even America that you can say is the father of democracy, so to speak, they are still trying to perfect it. They have not been able to succeed to say we’re at a destination that we can now say democracy is working for everybody. If you now look at Tinubu’s administration, and you look at it from the perspective of our own situation, when I say our situation, I’m looking at laws that govern the act of governance because it is a constitutional democracy that we are practising, isn’t it? And it presupposes that you have opposition in the scheme of things recognized by the Constitution. It also presupposes that whoever is in power is expected to, as a matter of constitutional demand, to meet the yearnings of the people as far as their welfare is concerned, as far as their security is concerned. Why? Because people have given you their sovereignty, meaning the resources and their allegiance. So they are expecting you to work for them so that they will be safe, and they will enjoy the dividends of democracy as we normally say. So now, if you look at President Bola Tinubu’s administration, so far, I wouldn’t say, so far, so good because against the background that I’ve told you that welfare and security is at the core, it is the demand. And if you now say, okay, how much has the administration been able to meet these requirements since we are practising constitutional democracy, you must have to look at it from that perspective.
You may say, maybe they are initiatives to meet that demand, but perhaps those initiatives were not properly articulated to meet these two constitutional demands. And to that extent, it will be difficult for one to give this administration a pass mark. But they say the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Isn’t it? So this administration has to rejig whatever it is that they are doing so that the kind of hardship, the untold hardship that they brought onto Nigerians, they will begin to address those hardships. Certainly, there is nothing wrong in bringing such highly geared capitalist programmes, but the capitalism itself. The system says that to do according to your ability. That’s what capitalism is all about. This means that every citizen is expected to fend for himself, right? Okay, but you now know that your citizens are not in any way strong in the majority to survive under the capitalist programme that you have brought. Meaning that as it is practised in other climes, you are expected to bring targeted palliatives, which is called dampers. So that yes, you are practising capitalism to achieve what? Efficiency, isn’t it? But for it to be effective, you now have to think out of the box, to bring out those programmes that would attenuate the hard effects of these programmes on the people that are not strong. Of course, not of their own fault. I’m talking about the poor, the indigent, which you have in abundance in our society.
Tinubu will not say he doesn’t know that Nigeria has almost 75 per cent or more poverty-stricken individuals. So if you are bringing a system that that works for ninety per cent efficiency, then you have to bring a programme that covers these people that are not able to compete effectively. That is the economic aspect of the programmes like withdrawal of subsidy on petroleum, on exchange rate, which has brought about untold hardship. Yes, as a government, you can say I’m doing this like a child birth, the labour is painful but the joy comes when the baby is delivered, right? But now, is this baby not going to be a stillborn if care is not taken? After the hard labour, you now have a stillborn. So that again is another thing that the government should quickly think about and wake up to their responsibilities of ensuring that it doesn’t become a stillborn baby at the end of today because the issue poverty is getting more and more endemic. Nigerians are beginning to lose hope in the government. It’s only the few, this few do not have the kind of favour of the larger society. I’m talking about rich, the elite. The poor does not like the rich because of the way the rich in this kind of environment behave because they are no systems that check the rich in ensuring that the rich pays its tax when due and as appropriately, and that corruption is also curbed. This system does not do all that so the poor is left to its fate. And therefore, that has generated some kind of friction between the rich and the poor in the society.
So as a government, if you now come and introduce a programme that only benefits the rich, the elites, then you are compounding the problems because the poor looks up to the government to save them, you know, from the elites. Unfortunately, this is an environment where the rule of law does not work. It is rule of the pockets that works. If you have money, you can buy everything that you want to buy – The judiciary, the police, the National Assembly, every institution that is put in place to protect the poor is for a price. I mean, if you can pay the price, you can get it.
So that is what is compounding the problem for Bola Ahmed.
Now, to even make the matter to become even more dangerous. I use the word dangerous for a purpose. You have a situation where a president in Nigeria by our constitution is like an emperor. All the checks and balances are at his beck and call. Why am I saying so? He appoints those that are put in charge of those institutions that are supposed to check his excesses. We can start with the National Assembly. The National Assembly you have today is nothing different from the department under the executive from what we have seen. Why does it happen like that? It’s like what I told you. Money speaks in our own context as a country. So it is the system. It didn’t start with Tinubu, that’s why I said it is the system. The system also does not tolerate or help matters for the poor that we are talking about. So you have a problem here and the problem is ourselves. We have to make a system that will make anybody that comes to power to become the president of the country to be somebody that you can control, that will have to be answerable to the people by way of his programmes, by way of his actions, by way of whatever he does. You know, you have a situation that is almost hopeless, by way of the system working for the people. We need a system that is clean, which is government of the people, for the people, by the people, isn’t it? So this one, by design, is not government of the people by the people for the people. And it’s not the fault of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it is not the fault of Buhari. It’s not also the fault of Goodluck, Jonathan or Obasanjo, it is what we put in place. So if we want something different or something that will work along the lines of what we are practising, we have to tinker with those laws because they are so many loopholes, so many things to be exploited.
Like you know, elections are fundamental in every democratic setting. But if the processes of conducting these elections are not free and fair and credible processes, and the person that dictates the tune here is a person who is also participating in the elections, which is Mr. President, he appoints the INEC commissioners, REC and what have you. He appoints them, expressly. He signs their letters. So how on earth, somebody that appointed you, you will now come back and tell that person that he has failed? It is just humanly impossible, especially in the kind of environment that I have described that does not work in accordance with the rule of law. So Mr. President fires you today, where are you going to? You want to run to the National Assembly that he controls or to run to the police or run to the court to say oh, this man, because I said he didn’t win, that’s why he fired me. They’ll say well, too bad. I’m trying to tell you that in order for us not to lose the essence of what you are trying to achieve, meaning, how do we get it right? Isn’t it? You cannot, believe you me, assess any government under the system we are operating today as a government working for the interest of Nigerians because we didn’t put in place a system that will work for the common man. We put in place a system that works for the elites.
There is an urgent need to amend the constitution to change these laws. But how can we get these amendments done when the opposition politicians are defecting en masse to the ruling party? What do we need to do in the constitution to enable the opposition to work better?
Simple. Once we amend the constitution to work for the people, that before somebody leaves his party, he will have to think twice. It’s a shameful thing that even governors leave their parties, forgetting about what adverse effects it will have on the party they are leaving. So what you need to do is that since our system does not recognise the individual during elections, the ballot paper carries only the symbols of the political parties. Not the individual’s name or picture or anything. So once you are leaving the party, of course you, you will leave and leave whatever position that you may have earned, because it’s not yours really, it belongs to the party. So you can’t go away with that title again, or the benefits of, , the office or anything like that. Or with the name that you are called, be it governor, or senator or anything like that. The laws must be very specific. It shouldn’t be ambiguous as we have it today. In some cases, they say when there is crisis in the party. Okay, when there is crisis in the party, it doesn’t mean that the party has been deregistered. That party still exists, and there are people that are there, so if you are leaving, leave the office, go away and the party will find a way. Because in any case, what is democracy itself? It’s management of crisis. That’s what politics is all about. So crisis is a part and parcel of democratic settings. So, it’s expected that there will be some crisis in parties, but so long that party exists in the eyes of the law. You know, whatever crisis the party is having should not be used to destroy that party further by you saying I’m leaving. Why don’t you stay and sort out the problems in the party? Since it’s about you solving the problem? It’s not about you taking off and saying my party is in crisis. Your party is in crisis, but it is still existing. The law still recognises the party, Isn’t it? If you are a member of the National Assembly, it doesn’t matter if your party is in crisis, they cannot say you can’t attend the sittings again or you cannot function as a governor again. The only time you cannot function is when the symbol that you are carrying does not exist in the eyes of the law again. Then you can now say well, you know, too bad, I have lost. So we have to make it to be very, very realistic and to serve the purpose, which is democracy itself, not to make it a personal thing. It’s not supposed to be your property; it belongs to the people. So, the excuse that it is in the constitution, to me, is a misnomer. That once there’s crisis in the party, you can leave. Why should you leave? It’s us. We the people of Nigeria will have to make the system to work for us. So this is the problem, one of the challenges that the opposition parties are having. You spent your money, your time, your resources to ensure that somebody wins the election. And as soon as the man becomes elected, is sitting in the house or in the office as governor, the next thing you’re thinking about is how do I leave this party and go to another party? And in most cases, they are the people who are the architects of that crisis. They sponsor it simply because they want to leave and then join the other party. They’ll pay money. Give money to start making crisis that did not exist.
There’s also one thing again which I must add. When elections are concluded, the so-called winner should not be sworn in if there is a case against that person. The person can only be sworn in after every case that he had has been dispensed with. It is then that the person can be sworn in. Because once you swear in somebody, the person becomes an institution, it’s no longer the individual that you’re looking at, and he uses the paraphernalia, everything of the office to fight the opposition. And then the opposition again, you don’t make the INEC to be a defendant in your case because it’s unheard of that INEC will come out and and criticise themselves or accept that something that you are saying is true. You know, when INEC is the one who conducts the elections, everything that you are talking about was done with the full cooperation of INEC and this INEC is also a defendant that’ll come to court to give evidence. That shouldn’t be because there is no way you can win that case.
We are seeing members of different parties, mostly opposition, coming together to form a coalition under the umbrella of the ADC to bring about a leadership that they say will better serve Nigerians. Is ADP a part of the coalition?
No. We don’t believe in it. What you believe in is the system that should be changed. It’s not the person, that’s the point I want to make you understand. How do you explain a situation where three elections conducted the same day, using the same system, using the same people, and at the end of the day, you now had only two elections that were successful in terms of transmission and one was not successful. When everything was done same time, same paper, same people, transmission the same time, you know. And they now come and say no, one, there was a glitch and that glitch affected only one. We need to really change the system. Amend our laws, empower the opposition. Regardless of how much coalition you do, you know. In addition to the system itself like I’m talking about, we also have another thing that will work against the coalition that they’re trying to put together, which is the primordial sentiment. In this country, unwittingly, we’ve boxed ourselves to a corner whereby when elections are taking place, it’s not you that is of consequence to anybody. It is from which region you are coming from, it is what kind of faith does he practise. It’s reduced to that.
So no matter how much you coalesce, if you do not belong to that sentiment, you are wasting your time. Because Bola Ahmed Tinubu, whether you would like it or not, the South will support a Southerner in 2027, regardless of what you tell them. And if you tell them you are going to build taps in their houses that will be bringing out money all they need do is open it and money will come from CBN, believe me, they will not vote for you. It is become of that sentiment that we have unwittingly boxed ourselves in a corner. And another challenge you are going to have is even if you say you are going to take another southerner, you have to contend with two things, two challenges. What are they? One, we know that human beings are human beings. And like I was telling you about the judgement that, don’t proclaim anybody the winner until after all cases are dispensed with, it is the same thing. The person you are bringing, is he going to do only four years that remains, when our history tells us differently that every president without exception tries to see how they can get a third term? Even two terms are not enough.
Now the challenge is this, perhaps you bring somebody from the South-East or even from this South-West. In the first instance, we’ve talked about the power of incumbency, whereby the man can bring out whatever results he wants. He can deploy the police and the military if you want to make trouble or allow you to go to court, and the court will tell you, technically this is not right, you know, you should have done this in the morning and not in the afternoon. So that is there for him, waiting for you. Then the one I’m talking about, that’s the primordial sentiments. Because even though Jonathan had the power of incumbency, he couldn’t exercise it because it was against the grains as far as that sentiment was concerned. That’s why he couldn’t make it. Even his own party members, when it came to the time of elections, even his national chairman did not vote for him. His governors did not vote for him, because they said, no, it’s our turn, isn’t it? So, I haven’t seen anything different from what we have today that will make me believe that somebody from the north would be able to sway the southerners to vote for him to become the president of this country. And then if you take somebody from the south other than Tinubu, the northerner will say oh, so you now want to have 12 years. So you know, they will have to start thinking that. Because you know very well that once somebody is there, you know, no matter what promises you made amongst yourselves, it will not work because constitution says he has two terms. Before he finishes, they will sponsor people from the other side to say, ah, he’s good. Please let him, is it not only four years? Look at how he’s done. So you have another problem. That’s why I said unwittingly we box ourselves to a corner whereby we have an emperor as the president. That’s what the system, the law says, that’s what the sentiments also say. Because Bola Ahmed Tinubu is aware that all is noise they are making, it’s noise making, believe me. Forget about performance. Our elections are not based on performance. To a very large extent, performance, if you’re looking at it, I think it even comes last, really. It is last, because for obvious reasons. You can go and do cast your votes, it won’t count. Where they’re supposed to matter, they will not. And this happens; these are things you have witnessed yourself. It’s not like one is just saying it. Tell me, what has changed? In fact, it is even worse under Tinubu because this is a master of the game, whether you want to believe it or not. As bad as it is, he is the master of the game and any person that has the opportunity will take advantage because we have seen it happen.
You know one thing the coalition will do which it is doing? It’s to bring vibrancy in the political space, in terms of saying that we are going to remove you, in fact we have already removed you actually before the elections. Vibrancy in the political scene. It’s okay to bring that to bring in a lot of noise, a lot of movement. I mean, a lot of motion, rather, but there will be no movement.
So the coalition is not going to achieve anything?
It is dead on the start. Not even on arrival. It is dead on the takeoff, you know, as far as getting change of government because of the factors I have mentioned to you, which are historical, which are things that we have lived through. And like I asked, has anything changed? All these amendments that we are talking about, wait until it comes to the time for them to pass. We haven’t forgotten how they filibuster with the Electoral Act amendment before we got what we have, the half baked thing we have now. What you have is watered down to make it to work for them. The example of the election result – two were successful. One was not successful and what did they do about the other one? They resorted back to the old system of manual counting, manual declaration, manual everything, which was what we wanted to get away from completely. That was the essence of the digitalisation and all the billions spent by INEC. What did he get you? Nothing, practically, if you want to be sincere with yourself.
Since 2019, youths have become more involved in pushing for change in the system. How do we channel the energy of these youths into bringing about the needed change in our political scene?
We need to do a lot of things. And number one is the mindset of even the youths you are talking about. I want to use these two disruptions in the form of EndSARS protests and EndHunger protests, You know, both of them were fuelled more or less by the youths. I want you to really take a very deep look at the intensity, the intensity of those two protests. EndSARS was more intense in the southern part of the country. Hunger protests were more intense in the northern parts of the country. But these are supposed to be things that cut across the length and breadth of Nigeria because all of us are suffering from the same thing. If it is hunger, the north, south, west, we are suffering. If it is EndSARS, the whole country was suffering from the brutality of the police force. So ask yourself this question, why of the two protests, why was one more intense at that time and the other at this time? Perhaps, if you can get Nigerians to think Nigeria, not think their comfort zones, maybe we’ll begin to now address the problems that we are talking about. So which means it’s not only in politics. It is also visible in our social interactions. So, when we begin to now think Nigeria, not north or south, or Muslim or Christian, then we’ll be able to get it right.
So you’re advising the youths now to shun sentiments and be more patriotic in pursuing the change they desire?
If they want a bonafide and true something that will work for them, for their future, then they have to start thinking – it’s not because this man is a northerner or a southerner that we are doing this. The government exists for the people, but immediately the government can find oxygen somewhere, from one side, they’ll capitalise on it. But if they cannot find space anywhere, they can’t find where to breathe, the government has to agree to make the needed changes. But in our own case, easily, the moment it starts, It becomes something different.
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