We can’t all sit on the sidelines and allow people to keep destroying our country —Jega

KEHINDE OYETIMI provides excerpts of an interaction between the Toyin Falola Interview Series and Profesor Attahiru Jega, a former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Here, Jega touches on Nigeria’s electoral reforms, education sector, corruption, among other issues of national importance.

You became particularly prominent for your pioneering efforts as president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). You later became INEC chairman, and now you are partisan, as a member of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP). Do you have any regrets participating in the business of government?

I have been privileged to have been very active in the Academic Staff Union of Universities from around 1985 after I returned from my postgraduate studies. I first became the vice president in 1986, and then I became the president in 1988, a position I held until 1994, largely because the union was being proscribed and de-proscribed by the military regime. It was a fantastic learning experience for me. I related very closely with progressive-minded academics who recognised the need for investment, human capital development, and who became very concerned that the then military rulers were destroying Nigeria’s education which is the essential foundation for the growth of our country.

With regard to participation in government, I started becoming more actively involved in committees of either state or federal government from 1999 after the transition to democracy. I never served in any capacity under military rule. I am a professor of Political Science; I know a little bit about democracy, theories, practices and governance generally. Opportunities arose for which I was invited. I must say that I never asked or lobbied for any position that I have held. I saw them as opportunities to contribute to national development just as I contributed in the struggles of ASUU to defend education for national development. By the way, I was never on the board of the NUC, although currently I serve as a member of what is called a strategic advisory committee of the NUC.

In all of these responsibilities, whether in ASUU or what you may call government positions, the only executive position in government that I held was the chairmanship of INEC. Most of them were board memberships which were part-time, and where I was only contributing ideas or helping to direct affairs for the reform of institutions. Many people perceive the kind of positions that one holds in government as co-optation. Some people would prefer that either as academics or progressive leftist revolutionaries; that we should sit by the side and criticise rather than get involved because involvement may have the danger of being co-opted. As far as I am concerned, I hold certain principles very dear to my mind and in all the responsibilities that I have had, I have never compromised any of those principles.

Again, I have chosen to join a political party.  I am a registered member of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP). That decision was borne out of my experience in election management in INEC. I am a political scientist. I have studied the evolution and development of politics in Nigeria, the role of political parties, and how since 1999, although we say we are on a trajectory of liberal democratic government, we are actually in a situation in which our elite, more generally, and our politicians in particular, are running the country aground. I felt that we can’t all sit on the sidelines and watch what is going on and allow people to keep destroying our country.

INEC said it could not determine how much political parties spend in electioneering. A politician once said that he borrowed about N27 million to purchase the presidential nomination form of his party. Isn’t this a problem?

There are problems but those problems must be solved if our country is to move forward. By doing our best, we would not only help keep hope alive that things can change but also serve as encouragement to the younger ones. But that doesn’t mean the abandonment of the principles which are fundamental in whatever we do.

The NUC is dominated by academics. Look at the role of the NUC in the assault of the education system. While we are complaining that there are not enough teachers in our universities, the NUC goes around establishing more universities. Look at TETfund. What is your take?

There is no doubt that the National Universities Commission (NUC), in the way it functions, leaves much to be desired. Obviously, the original intention was that it was patterned along the UK university commission. Over time and particularly because of its foundational laws were developed under military rule, it deviated from that original objective. A lot needs to be done to ensure that the NUC works in such a manner that it protects and defends the interests of the Nigerian universities. It must also focus on careful, strategic planning for the growth and development of tertiary education in our country.

One of the challenges is that the NUC has many public sector institutions work in accordance with the laws that established them. The implementation of the laws is mediated by the character and deposition of the people who are placed as heads of these institutions. No doubt over a long period of time, we have had people who were rather weak in the way and manner in which they would stand the negative influence of politicians with this issue of the rapid and uncontrolled development of our university system without careful planning.

What is your take on the illusion of self-aggrandisement of the political elite, especially in relation to the present socio-economic realities?

There is absolutely no doubt that the bourgeoisie in Nigeria are rabid in the way in which they pursue the accumulation of wealth. They do so with greed, clear irresponsibility and impunity with regard to the rule of law. I also believe that fighting corruption is not an illusion because you can bring sanity to the process. No country in the world is free of corruption but if you put the rule of law as supreme, a lot of sanity can be brought into the governance system. In our context, that is the difference between the character and nature of our bourgeoisie and the ones in other countries that we are trying to emulate. This is a major challenge and obstacle to the development of our country.

If you are pursuing a liberal democratic development trajectory, then obviously there won’t be any substitute to giving primacy to the rule of law and ensuring that institutions are strong, ensuring that there is good governance, and transparency in the way in which people hold public positions. You will not eliminate corruption entirely but you can bring sanity into the governance process and ensure that people, when they steal public resources, are caught and penalised. But in our own context, the hegemonic control of the governance process is that the impunity is incredible. The only way to address that is to get people to recognise the need to improve the governance process even under the kind of context that we operate. We must strengthen the integrity of the electoral process. We must improve the legal framework of elections. We must mobilise people to know the value of elections and participate. Improve the recruitment process by political parties.

The so-called fight against corruption is really ineffective. Those who have stolen public funds and who are threatened by the EFCC for prosecution, once they move into the APC (the ruling party), then you don’t hear anything about their prosecution. The only way to address these issues, in my view, is to have a revolutionary transformation of society and improve the context of governance within the framework in which our governance system is predicated.

To get out of the current mess, some people say ‘reform’, some say ‘revolution’, some say a ‘combination of both.’ What are the prospects of thorough-based reform in support of Nigerians?

Even if we can appropriately define the reforms that Nigeria needs, the ruling elite have no commitment to driving and bringing those reforms about. If you put greed and selfishness and you pursue self-serving objectives, and you are unable to develop an elite consensus in terms of a development trajectory for the country, then you only succeed in breaking the country rather than reforming it. At the PRP, there is a commitment to the transformation of both our politics and economy. This is a transformation based on principles of governance that is people-oriented, participatory and that uses governmental institutions, resources and processes in order to satisfy the fundamental needs and aspirations of the people. These are related to human dignity and security in all its components. This is impossible because there is hegemonic control by the bad tendencies in governance. The dominant parties have closed the recruitment process in such a manner that only people in their own model can go through the electoral process and get into the governance arena whether legislative or executive. No doubt, to bring about this type of transformation, there is the need for a broad alliance of people who recognise the need to change the developmental trajectory of our country. Among the progressive forces, we need to change our strategies; we need to be broadly participatory and broadly inclusive. Many of our young men and women nowadays are switching off from the political and governance processes. We need broad alliances. As progressives, we need to interrogate our methods and strategies and make them broadly inclusive in order to address those challenges that can bring success and development to our country. You can transform a country through revolution.

Should ASUU go on strike?

It depends on the conditions.

What are the conditions?

If we continue to have what we have in this country, where government is not proactive but rather defensive, where government abnegates its responsibilities. Every country that recognises the value of human capital development invests appropriately in education. Where government does not invest appropriately in education, where our academics, well trained globally and also competitive globally, are underrated and not listened to or respected in their own fields of endeavour, then obviously there would continue to be crisis in the university system.

ASUU and many other unions would write to government on certain demands, there would be no response. It is only when ASUU says it is going on strike or even only after ASUU has gone on strike that government will quickly constitute a committee that will sit and negotiate with them. By the time that happens obviously it becomes very difficult to reduce or minimise the damage that has already occurred. And then government will quickly sign an agreement (sometimes without even deep thinking) and then they will not implement these agreements. They are not even proactive. You sign an agreement and you are unable to implement it. Be proactive; call the unions and say ‘look, we signed this; we wanted to do this but we can’t do it for certain reasons’. You are dealing with a union of academics who will see reasons as they are rational in the ways they look at things. You don’t do that; you ignore things, until they threaten to go on strike, and eventually do so. Immediately you constitute committees with no intention of resolving the outstanding issues. That is where we are now.

Fundamental aspects of an agreement reached in 2009 have not been addressed in 2021. Instead of building the access and capacity of existing universities, you are creating more universities. You are creating universities within the same pool of staffing that has been in existence for over ten years because there have not been serious capacity building.

What happened to Nigeria 61 years after independence? What accounts for the failures to realise our potential as a nation?

One of the major factors which accounted for this failure to achieve our aspirations at independence has to do with the squandering of opportunities. The federation of Nigeria was a colonial construct. In constructing this federal arrangement, the British, to a large extent, used divide and rule tactics, exploiting ethno-religious diversities of the country. Regrettably, our leaders at independence saw themselves, rather than working together to build a nation, as leaders of smaller constituencies. That probably explained the absence of an aggressive pursuit of nation building and national unity.

The tensions and politics associated with that led to the encroachment of the military and long periods of military interregnum that we have had. The military rulers we had, in their strategies to remain in power, continued with the strategies of divide and rule on ethnic and religious grounds. Their primitive accumulation of wealth in terms of vandalisation of state resources and looting commenced and continued to grow and expand disproportionately. Nigeria is a country that is rich and has great potential but it has been busy mismanaging the diversity whether under the initial independence period or military rule. Since the transition to the so-called democracy, things have become worse since 1999. The mobilisation of ethnicity and religion has reached its height. We have seen so many crises and conflicts. We are currently in a situation where almost on a daily basis we are seeing the growing lack of capacity of the state through the governance process to even carry out the basic functions of the state which is the protection of lives and property and securing the citizens. The key challenge is how to begin to change this negative trajectory of development and reposition Nigeria in a very positive direction. It may be difficult but it is not impossible if we apply our minds to it and develop the necessary consensus to be able to do that.

How do we recover amid the huge debris, given how the fabric of this society has been destroyed?  The North has become one huge crime scene, given the manipulation of religion and politics. Can we find a common ground, going beyond religion, of likeminded people? How do we get someone with a certain level of mental clarity who wants to govern Nigeria in 2023 in managing diversity which has been so terribly destroyed?

One of the major challenges that have brought us as a country to where we are is the poor management of our diversity. We have not utilised the benefits of having a federal system of government to be able to better manage this diversity. The bottom line is the character and disposition of those who find themselves in leadership positions. If we continue to allow a political electoral recruitment process that brings into the federal and local levels people who do not think or act beyond their parochial confines, then the challenges will continue. The fundamental starting point is to recognise that we are a diverse country but we are all citizens of this country and our duties, rights and obligations are defined constitutionally; and also that everybody deserves the protection of the right to religion and other citizenship rights of residence. If rights are protected, we will minimise fears and suspicions, and then get to relate with each other as citizens.

Are the two leading parties, APC and PDP, irredeemable, considering your presence in PRP?

I think PDP and APC are almost irredeemable. They are marriages of convenience by the politically active elite, majority of whom focus on the actualisation of self-serving objectives in elective positions. Many of them see participation in elections as investment; some of them sold house, took bank loans to get elected into office. They engage in elections by hook or crook. Once they get into the governance process, obviously they do their best to recoup their investments. How was the APC formed? Many of those who drove the process of the merger were also from the PDP. The clear political framework upon which both the PDP and the APC operate is such that they can be said to be responsible in the last twenty years for the deepening crisis of governance and leadership in our country. I am not saying that everybody in APC and PDP is bad but it is a bad tendency because political recruitment processes in these parties are controlled by godfathers and moneybags and would only bring in people that they know would do as directed.

Can INEC play any role in improving internal party democracy by ensuring certain rules are in place?

What INEC does or does not do is all a function of the legal framework under which it operates. We paid a lot of attention to electronic transmission of election results, to the more recent issue of direct primary. We have forgotten that they have raised the threshold of how much a candidate can spend to become a president, senator or governor. What they are trying to do is to turn the democracy into a plutocracy: a government by the rich for the rich.

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