In this interview with IMOLEAYO OYEDEYI, Acting National Leader of the Ohanaeze Youth Wing, Onwuasoanya FCC Jones, appraises the recently held governorship election in Anambra State, citing the key areas the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should improve on ahead of subsequent elections in the country.
Anambra State governorship election has been held despite the threats by the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) and other non-state actors. Many people see this as a victory for democracy in Nigeria. What is your take on this?
Yes, it is a victory for democracy; it is a victory for Nigeria. It also an evidence that the majority of Igbos will want to remain in an equitable, fair and well-governed Nigeria. The average Igbo man does not want to leave Nigeria. But the reason some of them have joined the call for Biafra is the apparent injustice and marginalisation being meted out to the South-East region by the Federal Government. But if the Igbos are made to understand and given reasons to believe that there will be good governance in Nigeria that will protect their interest and not persecute them for being Christians, then, they will want to continue to contribute to the development of Nigeria as a nation and to the advancement of our democracy. So beyond this being a victory for democracy and Nigeria’s unity, it is also an evidence that the Igbos want to remain in an equitable and fair Nigeria.
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But generally, how will you rate INEC’s performance in the just concluded election?
I think what happened in Anambra is an improvement on the election held in 2019 and other ones that were held between then and now. Apart from the malfunctioning of the BVAS [Bimodal Voter Accreditation System], which significantly disenfranchised a lot of potential voters, who may not have been patient enough to scale through the long accreditation process, I think INEC deserves a pass mark for that election. They did very well as the only thing we can complain about is the technical glitch and network issue. We had expected that the commission would be well prepared knowing that they were going to employ a new technology for the election. We had hoped they would have mapped out a good strategy to ensure that the technical problem does not arise. But notwithstanding, they deserve commendations overall.
It was discovered that the voters that came out for the election were fewer compared to those that turned out for the 2017 election. Can we say this came as a result of the heavy deployment of security operatives for the election or palpable fear from the registered voters over unforeseen attacks by gunmen?
Well, I think those who came out to vote or the number of valid votes recorded in the election is less than 15 per cent of the actual number of registered voters in the state. Even though this is lower than what was obtainable in the previous election, where we had between 20 and 30 per cent voter turnouts, we can say that the earlier threat by IPOB and other pro-Biafra agitators, who had initially declared that there would be no election in the state and the various incidents that preceded the election, like the murder of the late Professor Dora Akunyili’s husband and other killings affected the turn out in the election. People were afraid, even though our organisation, the Ohanaeze youth wing, did everything possible to encourage people to come out and vote. Before the election, the Anambra chapter of our organisation led by Comrade Onyekachi embarked on a campaign across the 23 local governments in the state to canvass and encourage the youths in the state to come out and vote. And I think this did a lot in ensuring that people come out to vote.
Meanwhile, the presence of security agents before and during the election in the state could not have contributed to the apathy. Rather, it came as a plus. So, we should give the operatives credit for the peace recorded during the election, because if they had not been on ground, people would not have come out to vote, because nobody wants to die. So the presence of the security operatives helped in no small measure as it gave the people the courage to come out and vote. The presence of security men gave the people confidence that nobody was going to molest, harass or kill them.
But basically, I can attribute the low turnout of voters to two factors. The first is that before now, many people did not believe in our electoral process as they believe that no matter what they do, anybody the Federal Government anoints will be announced the winner. So this made a lot of people turn their back on the election. The second reason was the threat issued by IPOB to disrupt the election, threatening to exile anyone that participated. So, we must commend the security agents for restoring confidence in the people to come out and vote. We must also commend the Federal Government’s determination to conduct the election and their purposefulness. They were single-minded about the fact that the election must be conducted. And they succeeded in having the election. The INEC with all the threats, intimidation, blackmail and propaganda from the non-state actors was still able to deploy men and materials for the election. And I believe it is worthy of commendation.
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For the electronic transmission of results that INEC employed for the election, some people complained that there were still elements of rigging, while others insisted that the e-transmission of results reduced the possibility of rigging in the election. What is your take on this?
Well, the electronic transmission of results is a welcome development. We must consider the fact that no system is 100 per cent perfect. The fact is that even in America with an advanced democracy, there are still complaints here and there over the system of voting. That was the reason the country’s former president, Donald Trump, said he contested the result of the 2020 presidential election, because he believed that the ballot was rigged. So if America could be complaining of rigging, then, who are we to say that an electronic system we are just trying after about 20 years of democracy will be perfect? It is expected that in one way or the other, some people might want to manipulate the system. So, it behooves on INEC to strengthen its ICT department further to ensure that the electronic system is strong and well secured, because while they are ,making efforts towards achieving free, fair and credible elections, some corrupt politicians will also be trying to circumvent the process and hack the system.
Talking about the governor-elect, who has finally got the mandate to govern the state, what are your expectations from him, considering the fact that many people have said he is coming onboard with a fat credential?
Many people rate Professor Chukwuma Soludo very high and expect so much from him. And I believe this will be a big challenge for him, because when people expect you to perform wonders, but the system did not permit you to do that, it definitely becomes a problem. So I think the first thing he has to do is to manage people’s expectations very well by telling them the truth and the situation of things in the state. He should not make promises he cannot keep, because people are taking and keeping records better now than before. So when he says, for instance, that he will make 1,000 billionaires out of Anambra and create 1,000 jobs, he should make sure that these promises are kept, because people will be watching. People believe in him, given his records as an economist, technocrat and former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). So he has a very big burden on his shoulders. It would have been easier for people to have zero confidence in you and expect you to fail, but you went ahead to perform very well. But when people expect you to turn water to liquid gold, it might be a very big problem for you.
But I believe that one of the things people will expect from the governor-elect, being an economist, is to prevent hunger from gripping the state, because the biggest economic policy anyone can propound as a governor or president is to ensure that people can wake up in the morning and have something to eat even without working. One of the duties of the government is to ensure andprioritise the welfare of the people. He should not be a theoretical economist; he should be a practical one. He should not come up with theories that work in America, because such theories may not work here. What is important are the things he can do to alleviate poverty and ensure that the majority of the Anambarians are no longer hungry.
He has to also work hard in the area of security, because people are dying in the state. Even though the security situation of the state seems to have been normalised during the election period, he should make the peace sustainable and provide a security system that will ensure that people can sleep with their two eyes closed at night. Also, jobs should be created for the youths. He should not be an elitist governor as some of his critics have claimed he would become if elected. He should embrace and work with all classes of people and not just those in his elite class. People who are not as educated as he is should not be seen as smaller human beings.
The state is reputed to have creative youths and education colossus, such as Chinua Achebe, Adichie and the like. So he should be able to manage these diverse talents all to the benefit of the Anambra people, no matter who they are and where they are coming from.
He should also ensure to not carry over the animosity of the electoral period into his government. He should know that at the end of an election, governance begins. At this point when he has been elected the governor, he has become the father of all. And he should also be very careful not to promote godfatherism in the state. History has shown that in the last 20 years, Anambra is one state, where godfatherism has not really worked. So while he owes a great level of gratitude to those who supported his emergence as the governor of the state, he should also protect the interest of the people that voted for him, including the market women, farmers, businessmen and the youths, who risked their lives in ensuring that he is voted in as governor. He should ensure that no matter what happens, these people do not get angry with him. Of course, the godfathers and the big men who contributed to his governorship ambition can afford to get angry, but he should always have the masses on his side. It is very important at this point in time.
We really expect much from him, because he is one of the few politicians in the state we could say have actually been coming from somewhere, unlike those who just jumped into politics, because they feel that they have the money to spray around and want to be popular even if they have no idea of governance. So, Soludo has no reason to fail. He has no excuse to fail. In fact, if he fails, we will believe he fails intentionally. So this is the time for him to demonstrate the Soludo that we know to transform the CBN. So let him transform Anambra State and continue from where his predecessor stops. He should also bring up the entire governors and stakeholders in the South-East region together and not discard any brilliant initiative put in place by successive administrations in his state. He should aggregate the ideas that emanate across the entire zones, factions and groups in the state, no matter who has brought up the ideas.
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So going forward, what improvement do you want INEC to make in the next state elections in the country?
I expect that the improvement INEC brought forward and shown in the Anambra election should not be a one-off. Let the improvement be sustained. I have heard that some leaders from the opposition parties in the state have congratulated the governor-elect. And that is to show that when our electoral process works, the chances of litigation and post-election crisis will be greatly reduced. So, INEC should learn from this and sustain the improved transparency recorded during the election to further foster people’s confidence in our democracy and electoral system.
The next election is in 2022, INEC should begin to prepare, train personnel and gather materials for the election. There should be no elements of failure or technical glitch in the next poll. They should get all the required equipment to ensure that their network does not fail no matter how rural the location of the election may be. And the idea of disenfranchising people because BVAS did not work should be prevented by all means. And for whatever reason, we should not go back to manual accreditation of voters and manual transmission of results. INEC should secure the transmission lines so that at the end of the day, the total number of votes people cast at the polling unit will be what we will see at the collation centres. There should not be any disparity between the actual number of votes cast at the polling unit and those presented at the collation centres. So let INEC see this Anambra election as a test-run for the 2022 elections.
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