In the raging cacophony in some political parties over the choice of candidates for the November 6 Anambra State governorship election, the national chairman of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Chief Ralph Nwosu, speaks on the underlining issues in the protracted crises, influence of money politics, rash of litigation and conflicting court orders, as well as the controversial rejection of electronic transmission of election results by the National Assembly. KUNLE ODEREMI brings the excerpts of the interview with journalists by Nwosu.
Some of the political parties are contending with serious issues concerning the choice of candidates for the November 6, 2021 governorship election in Anambra State and you were quoted to have said the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) should be disqualified from the poll. Why did you say so?
I am not saying so. The three parties disqualified themselves on their own volition. They disqualified themselves through their own actions bordering on abuse of processes and rules set by the electoral bills, the constitution, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and even their own party policies and doctrines. By their sheer impunity and indiscipline, they have offended their members and the people of Anambra and Nigeria. How long do you want our democracy, our country and people to suffer this type of indignation, callousness and fraudulent tendencies? It is time we moved on. Enough is enough! After 23 years of our democratic regime, should the system be degenerating and not improving?
The parties failed themselves and their members in not doing the right thing and by the level of greed and ineptitude displayed by their leaders and some of the contestants. Imagine the kind of money being bandied and used in trying to corrupt everyone, including structures and institutions in the entire ecosystem in Anambra and across Nigeria! Look into the judiciary with court orders and rulings from all the courts in the land.
As we speak, the APGA is split into four bodies and each has court orders or judgments emanating from different courts. Last week, some judges were held hostage and more or less forced to give judgment in a case that they had earlier adjourned for hearing in September. This is notwithstanding the fact that INEC had said from the beginning that the APGA had not nominated or elected delegates, according to their constitution, to conduct an indirect primary election.
The PDP is caught in the same web because of the rancorous nature and effects of too many greedy and inordinate godfathers within the party. Up to the date for the primaries, the list of delegates continued to change until they conducted a process in which they had 16 candidates that had invested billions of Naira campaigning across the state succumb to an imaginary super delegates of less than 230 persons. The aspirants paid over N400 million officially and a lot more to private pockets, to the party and numerous others in Abuja and God knows where else! And they spent more than N10 billion lobbying delegates at ward levels. Then, the party leaders came up with an unconstitutional super delegates’ list that continued to change in a deliberate mode to continue scamming political merchants posing as governorship aspirants. That of the APC is beyond voodoo. Quote me! They were supposed to be conducting a direct primary election where supposedly over 500,000 of their registered members were to vote in the different wards and some cabals led by a governor manufactured dude results in the most bizarre and insulting manner in an absolute disregard for the wishes of Anambra APC members and stakeholders.
It is true no general likes to disclose his tactical plan when going against a foe. But one would still like to ask: what is ADC strategy to win the Anambra election?
One of our strategic paths is continuous public enlightenment and leadership by example. The APC, PDP and APGA think that the way of democracy is in corrupting every institution of the nation, weaponising poverty and using the machineries of state to coerce and intimidate the people. Our authenticity is giving Nigerians confidence and hope. This country still has a good number of patriots in the intelligence and security agencies. INEC seems to be learning from their past mistakes. The efforts of the commission so far have thrown up the decadence in the so-called powerful parties. In spite of the offensive noise within the political space, our people have become aware of effects of parochialism in public policy and national development.
So, to help us in ADC navigate within the fluid terrain of Nigerian politics, we are beginning to reframe the prisms in national discourses and development paradigms. Instead of continuing with the lenses that have kept most of us hostages of ethnic and religious biases, the horizon for us in ADC is continental and global. The ADC mission in the Anambra election is to crystalise our third-force position and establish a clear credible alternative status by winning the election and making state the Ijele of Africa. Our DNA does not permit parochialism. It has taken us many years to arrive where we are at this moment and we are delighted to have reframed our political and development paradigm to a more audacious pan-African and global perspective. While the ruling parties at the national level and in the states have corrupted and divided Nigeria beyond anything imaginable, the ADC will deepen the solidarity and inspire boldness in our public policy formulation. A nation enmeshed in infighting and clannishness can never come to a point of reckoning. The syndrome of the North versus the South, East and West, the Niger Delta and the Middle Belt should be off our radar. Kano and Maiduguri cities, over 300 years ago, were centres of trans-Saharan and intercontinental trade. But the myopic politics of recent times has reduced Kano and most Nigeria flourishing cities of old to poverty-stricken ethnic enclaves, where terrorists, bandits and ethnic militia are causing havoc. Think of Kano again as an intercontinental business hub of a peculiar nature and Lagos as a global centre and epicenter of global commerce. Calabar, Port Harcourt, Jalingo, Minna, Ibadan, Sokoto, Lokoja and Abakaliki all have their strong positionings to gain continental and global acclaim.
The ADC candidate is said not to have the muscle to run a good race. How does your party fund an effective campaign in Anambra, considering the heavy weights in the epic contest?
I have heard of all forms of concoctions and lies about ADC and our candidate. Our strength has never depended on money but character, integrity. And do not forget that all Nigerian youths adopted ADC in an online poll this year and also our strategy of 35 percent women inclusion; these are values and disciplines that money cannot buy and virtues that are unquantifiable. People must also consider the debt profile of these other candidates. They all come with a heavy baggage. All of them are either heavily indebted to the Assets Management Company of Nigeria (AMCON) or the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) radar. The ADC candidate, Akachukwu Nwankpo, may not have all the money, but you can go to the bank with his integrity and competence. The people of Anambra and the new Nigeria we aspire for have become wiser and ready for the Third Force with fresh ideas. The people desire newness, which the ADC, as the third force, provides.
Recently, the National Assembly voted against electronic transmission of result and electronic voting, which has been eliciting national discourse. How will that decision affect your party and what is the position of the ADC?
Frankly, the National Assembly members are playing the Russian roulette of our democracy and with all of our life. It is foolhardy for legislators to be so blinded and be shameless in passing bills to leave gaps for frauds or infuse corruption into our bills. Wisdom demands that a people build integrity into their systems. By now, we must be consolidating our democracy. Integrity, transparency and credibility in the electoral system will ensure sustainability, as well build resiliency into our body polity. We need to move beyond quality of elections to improving quality of governance. Electronic transmission of results ensures that the results are not tampered with when agents move from one point to the other. Electronic voting is another matter altogether. We support this but in addition, there must be paper trail for all elections. That is the practice in the most advanced democracies. After 22 years, we should have a refined and dependable electoral system.
Given the frenetic moves in the major parties to resolve their internal contradictions ahead of the election, what do you think are your chances as a party in the Anambra governorship election?
I must tell you that by all standards, the ADC candidate is best qualified in terms of background, experience and record of performance in public service and character. Ndi-Anambra, just like all Nigerians, are tired of the two parties because of the adverse situation of the country and the polarity and culture of corruption that these people have posited in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). If you conduct surveys in the streets across all the constituencies, “No PDP and No APC” has become a singsong. In Anambra State, it is the same for APGA; after 16 years, the people want them out. So, Anambra intends to bequeath Nigerians with the third force. ADC has penetrated deeply in Anambra and across Nigeria. Again, if you have followed elections in Anambra since the beginning of the democratic administration, some of us have played major roles in enforcing regime change or changing non-performing parties in Anambra. In this case, APGA, APC and PDP have shut themselves out of this election.
What do you think of INEC? Do you expect a free and fair election?
So far, INEC has done well. They have insisted that the parties keep to the rules in their internal processes and primaries. INEC has been clear that APGA did not conduct a delegate election. INEC has also issued a CTC to the fact that APC did not conduct a primary election in Anambra. They have also waved the red flag against the super delegates’ election of PDP. The institution is showing the boldness, not minding whose ox is gored. INEC fought alongside the people against the National Assembly on electronic transmission of the result and they are not giving up not minding the recalcitrant parliamentarians. I want to believe that leaving a legacy for posterity now resonates with the chairman of the commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu. So, irrespective of the court orders being bandied around now, INEC has provided all parties sufficient evidence to ensure that they get justice at the end of the election even if court orders make them to include these three political parties that have shown absolute disregards to processes and established protocols. Therefore, for now, we are working hard and we are trusting INEC.
Another major issue in the public space across the country is the arrest and detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. What do you have to say on his current travail?
I am truly perplexed on the motive of the Muhammadu Buhari administration concerning Mazi Nnamdi Kanu. APC cannot silence the voices of the opposition and agitators by being high-handed. Within the last few months, a country that has the highest unemployment rate; a country that has become the poverty capital of the world; a country that has become beggarly and a perpetual borrower; a country that has recorded the highest banditry attacks, insurgency and terrorists’ invasion, ransom kidnapping, name it under President Buhari’s watch have been prevalent. We can go on and on, including the infiltration of all manner of dare-devil fundamentalists; a country that loses its high profile military, security and intelligence personnel like chicken.
It beats me that the government is yet to realise that Nnamdi Kanu speaks to the root cause of the problems in our land. For me, the government of President Buhari must wake up to the challenges enveloping the country and free Nnamdi Kanu. Nnamdi Kanu, Sunday Adeyemo (aka) Sunday Igboho and other such agitators are bold and should be listened to. Biafra is a form of agitation or euphemism for justice, equity and good governance devoid of corruption of any sort. So, rather than this macho gangster-style diplomacy and international delusion, President Buhari should deal with the underlining issues that are tearing the great country to shreds. APC is shaming our seasoned diplomats and public officers and shaming all of us too by their conducts.
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