Attempt to deny South of 2023 presidency amounts to third term agenda —Bewaji

Dr Wumi Bewaji, the executive secretary of the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reform (CODER) and former Minority Leader in the House of Representatives, was among the arrowheads of the forces that frustrated the third term agenda in the buildup to the 2007 presidential election. In this interview by BOLA BADMUS, he speaks on the journey so far for Nigeria as it marks 59th independence anniversary, politics of 2023 and the menace of corruption.

 

A lot of people differ on the strides of Nigeria since its attainment of independence in October 1, 1960, in view of the various challenges dogging its path. Do you think there is any cause for celebration?

When we talk about 59 years of independence that is a long time. When you are looking at a 59 year-old person, such a person has become a senior citizen. Nigeria has every reason to celebrate because there is this pessimism around that people do not see anything good in Nigeria. Some people do not see anything good about the country; that we are going in the wrong direction and things were better before. Now, some people are even of the opinion that we should not have obtained independence but you know this is a country, where at independence, had just two universities: the University of Ibadan (University College, Ibadan) and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, (which was established in 1960) but today, we have 43 federal universities, 48 state-owned universities and 79 private universities. All of these put together, we have 170 universities. When you compare that to the two universities we had before independence, you will see that we have come a long way. At independence, Nigeria was just a mere British colony but today, Nigeria has grown from being a colony to being the largest democracy in Africa.

Nigeria is the largest democracy in Africa and it is a shame that the present government does not even realise the gravity of the position that we now occupy. A few days ago, we heard of a coup attempt in Ghana but Nigeria has enjoyed uninterrupted democracy for 20 years being the largest democracy in Africa. It is something worth celebrating. Moreover, we are unarguably the largest economy in Africa, as we are now 210 million in population. We should celebrate ourselves, our freedom and independence and we should concentrate on the bright side. Every country has its own problem even the United States is presently grappling with the unfortunate election of a right wing extremist. A few weeks ago in the United Kingdom, the parliament was suspended,. If that had happened in Nigeria, people would have said,‘oh, this is now a full blown dictatorship.’ That means we are doing well; we are doing extremely well. We should be happy; we should celebrate our 59 years of independence.

States, LG get 85% of VAT, Nigerians should demand accountability ―…

The challenges confronting the country have made some people to call for zoning of key offices in the land. To what extent has the policy worked for the country, given the discreet move by some forces that the Northern part of the country retain the presidency in 2023?

On the issue of zoning of the presidency, we have a very chequered history of long years of military rule and as a result in the near 40 years of the existence of Nigeria, the North ruled Nigeria for nearly 95 per cent of that period and that was what led to the emergence of (Gen.) Olusegun Obasanjo but upon the emergence of General Obasanjo there was an unwritten agreement that power would rotate between the North and the South. Despite the fact that our democracy is 20 years, we must recognise the fact that the Nigerian federation is a very fragile one.

So, that gentleman agreement must be respected. Any attempt whatsoever to bring back the era of the so-called northern hegemony will collapse the federation. My advice to the Fifth Columnists within the major political parties is that we should tread softly. The situation in the country does not allow for these reckless statements. Whoever is trying to fight should know that he is playing with fire. We have the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) in the South-East; we have Boko Haram in the North; we have ISIS in the West African province. Our security agencies are stretched thin. I do not think that this is the right time to make reckless statements about the issue of rotation. Rotation has come to stay, President Muhammadu Buhari is from the North and by 2023, he would have spent eight years and then, it would be the turn of the South. Any attempt to make anybody from the North succeed Buhari will be interpreted as a third term agenda by the Buhari administration.

I served in the Constitution Review Committee between 1999 and 2003 and between 2003 and 2007. The idea of putting it in the constitution was muted at a particular point and I will say that the advocate of that (plan) were northerners because at that time, somebody from the South-West was in office. We debated the idea but in the end, it was suggested that it should remain a gentleman agreement. This is what is sustaining the federation itself and people should not exercise fear.

You can imagine if Obasanjo had wanted someone from the South to succeed him and you knew most of the problems that former President Goodluck Jonathan had were due to President Umaru Yar’Adua, a Northerner, who had not been able to complete the eight-year tenure. As a result of that, even the constitution has been amended to say that if you succeed someone, you are completing the term of that person, therefore, you will not be able to run for that office again. In recognition of the fact that this federation is a very fragile one, we have to manage it in a way that it is in the interest of the diversity that we have in the country. I represented Lagos State in that committee and that was why we did not put it in the constitution.

 

In your own opinion as a lawyer and former parliamentarian, is Nigeria truly operatinga federation?

We are truly a federation and I can also tell you that the state of our democracy is also fine even though it is not perfect; we have problems here and there.  For example, almost six months after the general election, we are still in court over it. No other country in Africa, I am not even talking of developed nations, does that. At the end of the day, I think being in court is better than being on the war front fighting for the so-called mandate. There is also the need for us to move away from judicialisation of the electoral process.

The court should have very limited role to play in the entire electoral system. Election petitions can be decided within two months if only we review the law and they streamline the groups upon which the election result can be challenged. For example, the Independent National electoral Commission (INEC) conducted an election and it should be expected that INEC certificate should enjoy the highest presumption of regularity.

Once the INEC issued its Certificate of Returns to an individual, then it will require a huge rock to fall down that individual to lose the certificate. If you are a Ph.D. holder and someone who has only primary school certificate holders has defeated you, that means there is something unique that the electorate found to ensure that the primary school certificate holders to defeat you. After the election, that should not be a ground for you to approach a court of the land that he does not qualify to contest.

Also, I will advocate that as a nation, we must move away from certificated qualification for elections.  Nothing should stop anyone who has not seen the four walls of a school from running for a political office in the country. If I did not have a secondary school certificate and under the law, and my vote is good enough to elect me, that should be good under the law, coupled with my votes by the electorate, I should be able to enjoy the votes of others even if they were professors.

Also, if I can vote for those who went to school, those wo have also gone to school should also be allowed to vote for me. That is the liberty for us to say those who had not have a particularly certificate can’t be voted for, that’s anti democracy and we must shift emphasis from that. Those who put that in the constitution were only focusing on power and not on democracy which is about choice which can be limited.

 

What your view about agitations for restructuring of the country?

Of course, we must restructure, that’s the only way to go.

 

Why do you think we need to restructure the country?

We need to restructure in the sense that you know we talk about unity in diversity. Nigeria is a federation and at Independence, we were familiar with the Lancaster Conference, the Independence Conference in London. The founding fathers of Nigeria made it known that their solution to the diversity was to be able to use that diversity as raw material for unity. You can’t deny the fact that Nigeria is diverse; there are many ethnic nationalities in the country and all over the world, you have such diversity. The solution has always been a federal structure.

Now at independence, what we had if you look at the 1960 Constitution, was a federal constitution. The 1963 Constitution was purely a federal constitution in which the component units of the federation were allowed to develop at their pace. Look at the 1960 Constitution, we had 22 items in the Exclusive List. So, the areas where the Federal Government had exclusive jurisdiction were limited. But under the 1979 Constitution, they grew to 68 and that trend started since 1966 when (the late General) Aguiyi-Ironsi came in and he thought that the solution to Nigeria’s problems was to have a unitary system and that consumed Aguiyi-Ironsi. He was consumed by that and then we reverted back to Decree 1 which was federal in structure. Now from that 1966 to 1979, we had that federal structure in place but there was a problem. I had the opportunity of meeting the late Dr Ajayi, he was one of the drafters of Decree 1 and he said the problem they had was that because in the Army, the structure they have there is command and obey structure. And that when they were drafting Decree 1, that they had a problem about what to do with a situation whereby if you now have a Head of State at the federal level, then in those regions, the military governors were presiding.

Of course, there were very senior military governors then. The military governors at the regions or states would be junior to the Head of State and so, the Supreme Military Council (SMC) headed by the head of state is now the highest organ; it was the parliament. So, the idea was that there was no way the head of state would sign onto a law, and then a junior officer in his region or state would alter it.

That was how the inconsistency clause was introduced.; that where a provision of an Edict, because law at the region or state was called an Edict and that at the federal level was called Decree, runs in conflict, the provision of the Decree would supersede to the extent of that inconsistency and that was what was transferred into the 1979 Constitution and that was how we ended up with a unitary system of government under a federal constitution. I said this because your question was why do we have to restructure? So, the need for restructuring is to recognise our diversity.

 

The people of the oil-producing areas in particularly are vehemence on the adoption of the principle of fiscal federalism that will allow each region control their mineral resources. What do you have to say about it?

Yes, that is the resource control argument. The argument, of course, also derives from the idea of having true federalism. At Independence, what we had was each region controlling their resources and you then pay tax to the Federal Government. It was only under the military the arrangement was changed to a situation whereby the Federal Government now controls everything. And that was how the idea to placate the people who were arguing for true federalism came. That was how the idea of the 13 per cent derivation was introduced but surely, it is like scratching the problem on the surface because continually, people are going to agitate for restructuring.

So, the restructuring we are talking about, you know when Mr Festus Keyamo appeared before the National Assembly, he said something about restructuring the Supreme Court; letting each state have their own Supreme Court. This is something that will not go away until we address it. We must restructure. The diversity is enormous and then unity in diversity does not mean that we are not a country.

Yes, we are Nigerians. Recall that Chief Obafemi Awolowo said: “I am first and foremost a Yoruba man before I am a Nigerian’ and that is the thinking of everybody and that is what sustains this idea of rotation; of one region waiting for its own turn. So, we cannot pretend that our country, Nigeria, is one. Yes, we are working towards attaining unity but unity must not be blind to diversity. It must be unity in diversity and not otherwise.

 

Issues concerning the vice-president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo have dominated the media space with insinuations that some forces are making moves to remove him from office ahead 2023. What do you think is really happening, given your wealth of experience in the past?

I know in recent times, there have been issues around the vice-president; that some cabals are ganging up against him, I am not so much aware of the Osibajo problem. But I think that it is too early for us to start talking of the 2023 elections. The ministers have just assumed office and Nigerians are waiting to see the ideas from the government. They are waiting for ideas to come from the government. Yes, you have an economic team that has been appointed, but you wonder what the team will be able to perform.

You are putting in an economic team in the fifth year of the administration. It is like you are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and then you are setting up a committee, whether you want to go by road or by train. I think the economic team is a bit too late. They already have their work cut out for them. At this point in time, the last year of the administration will be spent on election. So, the government only has about three years to remain in office and out of that, you have already spent like four months. It might be a good idea for the government to concentrate on finishing the projects they have on ground rather than playing the politics of 2023.

 

Judging from the path the country has taken since 1960, with instances of failed promises, will you say the country has leant any useful lesson?

Like I said earlier, we have achieved so much. Earlier, we spoke about the issue of corruption. Corruption is a huge problem that the country is facing because all the programmes and infrastructure, and others need money. Nigeria is a country that has been plagued so much by corruption since independence with the better part of our resources taken outside of our country. That is why we must fight corruption with all seriousness and sincerity. For me, I hold corruption for those failed dreams. This is because Nigeria is blessed; we have all the resources, material and human resources. In spite of that, we still manage to become the best economy in Africa. I think we should tackle the problem of corruption. The lesson that we can say that we have learnt is that it is a journey; nationhood is a journey; it is not an event; we will continue to explore. The good thing about it is that we’ve found democracy and I think the bulk of our problems will be fixed by democracy, right from the problem that we had earlier on in our different associations. Some of the problems under military dictatorship, where there was no transparency, accountability and all of that will be addressed under democracy. While we say the fight against corruption is politicised, when you get there you also go after others (when you take over). Then we will get to a point when everybody or each and every one will account. For me, democracy is the biggest gain.

 

What kind of electoral reform do you think the country needs now, in view of the plethora of contentious issues that often trail the conduct of general election in Nigeria?

We have to reform the law; we need to reform the law. For example, everything related with party nomination should start and end with the party. We have the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party; you have the state committee and you have the National Working Committee (NWC), as well as the Board of Trustees (BoT), so we have this hierarchy. We must put in our law that whatever is decided by these organs of the party is the final and you can never challenge any party primary in the court of law. It is the job of political parties to decide who will fly their flag. That will surely promote internal democracy.

That was why I talked about organs of the parties to promote internal democracy. Yes, for example, you are running for National Assembly election in Lagos, you participated in the primary, whether you won or lost, there is an appeal process from the local government level. You file an appeal process with the local government executive. From there, it goes to the state and from there, it goes to the national. And from there, you can even appeal to the BoT. So by the time you go through the process, whatever is the decision of the BoT will be final.

That takes care of internal democracy. Internal democracy is not got in the court of law. When you go to court, you are going to exhibit the constitution of your party. You are still going to convince the court that this is what the constitution of the party says that entitles me to my claim. You can imagine a situation where an enemy is planted in a political party and the elders of the party come together to say, we know you are being sponsored by someone else outside, we will not allow it. So, that party must have the right to do so.

Or let’s say in our party we believe in in free education from the primary to university level and here comes Mr Robinson, who does not believe in free education and he wants to fly the flag of our party, we should be able to say ‘No, you can’t be our gubernatorial candidate because you don’t believe in our manifesto. Why do you want to contest on our ticket? That is internal democracy in itself. To reduce it now to a mechanical process whereby someone now goes to court is like taking it to the extent that somebody who did not take part in a general election is declared winner of that election. That is anti-democracy; we should get rid of that.

That is one. Number two, on election petitions, there must be valid grounds upon which someone can challenge elections. If you say your opponent is not qualified to run, and you are making that complaints after he has defeated you and you are now going to court to say the person ought not to have been allowed to run because he is not a Nigerian. The fact is if a Ghanaian can come to Nigeria to defeat me, it means that he is a good man and that the electorate have chosen him.They knew this man was from Ghana; they knew his great grandfather came all the way from Sierra Leone and he was able to come to Nigeria to defeat me. I should not be allowed to go to court to say, ‘oh, he is from Sierra Leone, declare his election null and void.’I know people who have only primary six school leaving certificate and they are extremely brilliant. I think that we should de-emphasise certificate.