Senate mustn’t be retiring home for governors —Senator Umeh

In this interview, Senator Victor Umeh representing Anambra Central at the Red Chamber speaks on governors using the power of incumbency to clinch their party’s senatorial tickets at the end of their tenure. He also throws light on the chances of Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in the forthcoming general election and the recent judgment of High Court on submission of parties’ register. COLLINS NNABUIFE brings excerpts:

POLITICAL parties are currently conducting their primary election ahead of the 2027 general elections, looking at the calibre of candidates that are coming out from other parties, what are the chances of NDC winning this election?

Well, you spoke about candidates coming out from other parties. I want to tell you that NDC will offer Nigeria the best candidates for this election. And the signs are already there. Because since His Excellency, Mr. Peter Obi, to be joining NDC, along with his friend and colleague, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, NDC has not been the same again. Nigerians have followed them to this party. That’s why you are seeing a lot of aspirants struggling to contest for one position or the other across Nigeria.

So the party is in very strong contention in the forthcoming general elections, not just for president, for all positions. And we are looking forward to having the conclusion of our own processes.

We are still on our own because people are still coming. And the primary in the party will conclude between 29th and 30th, when we will do the presidential nomination. The other primaries will take place on the 28th of this month. So the party is a beehive of activities. And we’re only hopeful that Nigerians will see the change they’re looking for at the end of the process. Okay, recently there was a judgment by the

High Court in Abuja recently quashed the directives of the INEC on deadline for submission of a party’s register. Do you see this as good to the opposition or is it like a trap?

Well, that judgment is a well-considered judgment. But for the fact that it’s the judgment of the first court, the High Court, it will be very risky for any party to begin to lay down its arms or be out of guards. And then now relax and say it’s been extended to 30th of September. If you do so and there is an appeal by INEC and the appeal overturns that judgment, you’ll be like a fish out of water. So every sensible party will be struggling to conclude its processes within the timetable announced by INEC until the Court of Appeal looks at the judgment. That’s if INEC appeals anyway.

You wouldn’t know whether INEC will appeal or not because INEC has 90 days within a which to file the appeal. If they want to be mischievous, they will wait for maybe two weeks to the end of 90 days then now lodge an appeal. Everything will become uncertain again. So to be safe, to be on the side of caution, it is important that we follow the INEC present timetable and then conclude our processes. But as to the reason for that judgment, I agree with it totally. The INEC couldn’t have compressed all the activities within two months against all the political parties, particularly for a party like Nigeria Democratic Congress, which was just recently registered.

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And you see that a lot of preparations were required. One, all parties were ordered to conduct their congresses and convention on the party leadership, first of all, then submit their register on or before 10th of May to be able to take part in the congresses that started and fixed for end of 30th of May final. So for you to be able to run through all this, you see that most of the parties are grappling with the challenges of time constraints to be able to engage in very elaborate detailed processes.

If you look at it, you see that INEC had no reason to do that even in the first place. The law allows INEC to conduct the presidential election, not later than 30 days to the end of the expiration of the current term, not later than 30 days, that means that INEC timetable could be elastic as much as 30th of April, 2027, where it says you cannot conduct an election less than 30 days to the end of the current term.

That is to say that INEC can still conduct presidential election validly by 29th of April, 2027. So why bring it down to 16th of January, 2027, almost clear five months ahead? They wouldn’t have done that. They would have left the election to take place between February and March, 2027.

By bringing it down to 16th of January, they’ve thrown all the parties under pressure. What would they be doing if they conduct the election on the 16th of February for presidential? So what would they be doing? And the law is that anybody who wins an election will be sworn in at the appropriate time, litigations can go on.

So there’s no reason to take away the time the parties will use to prepare for the primaries, for nomination of candidates, and box everybody into this tight schedule. So that is why the federal high court judgment was very good. And it will be an opportunity for INEC to begin to be wary over regulations it makes, guidelines it gives.

There’s no point creating this problem they have created now. But we’ll wait, if they want to go on appeal, we’ll wait for it to happen. But that will be an academic exercise, because no party will wait beyond 30th of May to conduct its primaries because that judgment is yet to be tested on appeal.

The National Assembly seems to be a retiring ground for governors. So many of them have claimed the tickets of their party to run for the Senate, what is your take on that?

They can’t retire to the National Assembly. Maybe they also want to answer senator after being governor.

You know, because the National Assembly is not a retirement ground. If you come there, the business of lawmaking is very stressful for those who are committed to the work. It’s very stressful.

So if they think that they come to the National Assembly to sleep, they were making a mistake. I think they want to come to the National Assembly to also answer senator. Having been governor, they want to come and be senator as well.

And well, for those who are healthy, there’s nothing wrong with it for those who can come. But I think after serving as a governor, one should take a break and allow other people to do it. And you can see the problem it has created in most states where a governor that is to leave office 29th of May next year, has booked a seat for going to the Senate after he vacates office on 29th of May next year.

People should do things and take a break, you know. It’s been difficult for a lot of people to contest for primary ticket of the Senate in the various states against their governors that are rounding up their tenure as governor. People have been brushed aside because nobody can stand against a governor that is sitting in a primary.

A lot of my colleagues have become victims of this. Most of my colleagues are not coming back and very painful too because some of these things were done with huge disrespect to the senators that are serving and their governors are interested in their seats. These things shouldn’t be so.

I believe that when we come back, if we’re able to come back after next year’s election, if we’re able to come back, we’ll be able to look at such laws because it doesn’t promote cordiality and good relationship among political leaders. If a senator is in office, maybe he’s been a governor before. It happened in one state where a former governor was humiliated in the primary because the current governor wants his seat.

He wasn’t given a fair chance to contest for that ticket. He was stopped from attending, assessing the venues of stakeholders meetings and from outside, he watched all these things happen. And this was somebody who has been a governor in that state for eight years, but the current governor treated him like he was nobody. You know, such things should not be encouraged. It’s not good for our democracy.