Factors that’ll sway votes in presidential election —Pam, Middle-Belt leader

Reverend James Pam is the secretary of the Association of Middle Belt Ethnic Nationalities (ASOMBEN). In this interview with ISAAC SHOBAYO, he speaks on the forthcoming presidential election, among other national issues. Excerpts:

The Presidential and National Assembly elections are due in a few days. How would you analyse the character and trend of the campaign of the political parties for the election and why?

The campaigns have gone very caustic with issues abandoned and personalities being attacked. The parties signed peace agreement but unfortunately, not fully abiding by it. There is too much character assassination in the campaigns, especially by the two biggest parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP. Very few of their characters have spoken on issues and I believe PDP has done better picking on issues, especially on the economy and food security issues in the country. But the ruling party is just trying to defend itself. For example, security is the major problem of this country and the government wants to tell us security has been handled.

If APC rigs this election, Venezuela will be a child’s play —Galadima

To what extent have the candidates addressed fundamental issues bordering on the national economy, security, youth unemployment, among others?

I said the ruling party has just tried to defend itself and present its scorecard. It is not portraying the true position. The true position, as being given, especially on inflation, economy and poverty rate, by the National Bureau of Statistic (NBS) is not good. For example, on unemployment, the bureau has just shown that three million lost their jobs in the last 12 months. That is the truth, but the government wants to tell us that it has created jobs. In fact, in the last three years, 10, 000 jobs were lost. Regarding the economy, we have seen inflation trying to move upward again. GDP projection cannot be achieved. The projections for last year were not achieved. Foreign agencies have said we cannot achieve the expectations put in the Economy Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) of the government.

So, the government in power has done poorly in terms of the economy and unemployment reduction. Agriculture recorded some achievements. Insecurity has worsened 10 times over. Boko Haram was probably in just three local government areas in Borno State before the advent of this administration. But now, its fighters are in six local government areas and state like Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Adamawa, Taraba, Benue and Plateau are still recording death weekly. The insecurity situation has worsened in the last three and a half years.

As for foreign affairs policy, the minister of external affairs has been silent. We don’t hear about him at all. Another worse area under this government is that of key appointments by the Federal Government. They have been lopsided and skewed in favour of a particular ethnic group and religion. That is violation of the constitution with regard to federal character.

What are those factors and issues that you think may sway votes in these elections?

The failure of the government generally is driving people away from it. There is general failure of government all around. But the specific areas where the people are most dissatisfied with government are security and nepotism. People don’t want to talk about them, but the truth is that Christians are afraid of the government, because it is glaring that the administration is favoring the Muslims.

Concerning insecurity, we in the Middle Belt have suffered worse experience than ever before. And then, there are no jobs. The rate of unemployment is worsening. The general poverty rate released by the (NBS) is bad. I think these are the key issues. The economy is poorly managed. No job, no security and there is the religion factor where one is being favoured against the other.

What makes you think the PDP will perform better, if it wins the presidential election?

Nobody can say. In 2015, people were dissatisfied with Goodluck Jonathan; he was labeled as clueless. And there was the talk that people knew what General Muhammadu Buhari could do. They believed that he would do better, but he has done worse.

The only thing is to give somebody else a chance; no repetition of neither the same party, nor the same person. Somebody else should be given a chance. You said PDP. Yes, PDP is the next biggest party and most people are preparing to go for the PDP, rather than waste their votes on any small party. I agree and go with that. PDP should be given a chance again.  As for the guarantee of whether or not it can solve the problems, I have my doubts. It may do some things differently, but I don’t know how much it would achieve.

What will you make of the keen interest being shown by the United Kingdom (UK), European Union (EU) and the United States (US) in the elections and the recent outburst of the governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai?

Absolutely, there is no basis for the government to fear. These people only encourage us to play the game by the rules. The EU, UK and America just advised us to make sure that there is free and fair election. They didn’t do anything wrong. As for the foreign observers who are coming into the country, they are on invitation and that is the general practice worldwide. It is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that actually invited them. For a governor to threaten them with death, because body bags are used for carrying dead bodies, is preposterous, shocking and a big shame. El-Rufai has disgraced Nigeria. That kind of language should not be heard from somebody in such a high office. Many of us are demanding that he should apologise and retract the statement.

But the Presidency said there was nothing wrong with the statement; that it was made to protect the interest of the country. How do you see that?

That is a shocker upon a shocker. The Presidency came out in support of what he said and somebody from the Presidency was explaining that he was only being patriotic; that he was trying to protect the interest of Nigeria. Every one of us can defend the interest of Nigeria no matter the situation, but should never threaten anybody with death, just because elections are around the corner. It was too much.

I support the PDP spokesman calling for withdrawal of the statement or they would pull out of the peace agreement that was made by majority of the political parties. The APC has violated it by the statement from one of its governors and the support of such by the Presidency.

Don’t you think pulling out of the peace agreement might further threaten the elections?

If Governor e-lRufai will not retract his statement, then the party he belongs to has violated the agreement. This country has been talking about hate speech. The technical definition of hate speech is a statement, or even one word or a gesture that could possibly lead to hate action. What el-Rufai said about body bags can incite people to violence. That is the real hate speech. That such a statement came from el-Rufai is unfortunate.

Those who helped draft the peace agreement, Cardinal Hassan Kuka and others, should call the APC to order, because it signed that agreement. It has violated the agreement.

Various regional groups, including Afenifere, Ohanaeze, Northern Elders Forum, Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and the Middle-Belt Forum have endorsed Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, just as some former military Generals, acting as a pressure group, said they were supporting President Buhari. What is the significance of such endorsements?

That is politics, democracy, freedom of speech and expression. Everybody is free to express their opinion, as long as they don’t violate the law of the country or hurt another person. Nigeria’s politics stands on a tripod; there are three forces working in Nigeria and majority of Nigerians are influenced by these factors. Geography, ethnicity and religion determine our behavior. Our voting pattern is based on these three factors. It is, therefore, not surprising to see those regional groups taking side as a bloc. It is a healthy development.

For those of us in the Middle-Belt, we are fully in support of our leaders in the forum who made the declaration on our behalf. In short, the Middle-Belt is for Atiku.

The other group you mentioned, retired military officers, is free to pledge their support for Mr. President. They come from a constituency. A very important factor that we should not miss is that the military in Nigeria has formed another constituency. You need their support; they can sway votes. They can decide who wins or not. Both serving soldiers and the retired have formed a very powerful constituency in Nigeria. We cannot run away from this. They are rich and their retired colleagues are in power as politicians, traditional rulers or businessmen.

Do you have any cause to doubt the sincerity of the (INEC?

On the surface, INEC appears to be working hard to ensure that we have fair elections, but some of the things it does, it doesn’t announce them. The major one that came up is the additional 30,000 polling units. Nobody knows the criteria used. People are even saying they don’t know where they are.

In 2015, just before the elections, INEC tried to introduce 20, 000 additional polling units, but the people kicked against it. So, INEC has done it without telling us the criteria for doing it. The latest thing INEC has done that people are suspecting is the ad-hoc staff that have been hired. How did INEC employ the ad-hoc staff?

I will quote Honourable Bitrus Kaze, formerly of the House of Representatives, who went on the social media to complain about the list of the ad-hoc staff that will work in his local government. He said the list of the ad-hoc staff looked like they were picked from Sokoto or Kano state. He said in the entire list, names of indigenous person from Jos East Local Government were not up to 30 per cent. So, how did they arrive at that list? The same thing, he said, is the case with Jos South Local Government which is predominantly Berom, adding that there might be foul play in the making.

But INEC, on the surface, is working hard to make sure we have free and fair election. The greatest fear of people is the interference by the security agencies. The police and Army should stand far away to ensure that nobody violates any law.