LAGOS, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Monday Onyekachi Ubani, ex-Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja branch, spoke to Temidayo Akinsuyi
There has been this argument on whether President Goodluck Jonathan is a hero for conceding defeat. While some Nigerians have hailed him, others said he did what was expected of him as a loser in the election. What is your take on this?
It is not so surprising that all of a sudden some people are eulogizing the president, praising him for conceding defeat. Some other people have asked, what is the thing he has done that is special? I am going to be very objective with my response concerning this. Before the election of 2015, there was so much tension in the air. It was looking as if Nigeria would disintegrate. Also, don’t forget that there was this prediction that in 2015, Nigeria may likely disintegrate. And the signs were there. Threats were coming from the South-South militants and the menace of the Boko Haram was becoming unbearable. Lives were being lost on a daily basis and the tension was all over the country with everyone agitating for one thing or another. A week before the election, if you take a look at what transpired at the international airport, especially at the departure hall, many Nigerians ran away from the country because they were expecting the worst. Also many South Easterners left the Northern region to the East as a result of this election. The general belief was that if Jonathan loses there was going to be a problem, and if Buhari loses, too, there was going to be hell. And so, Nigeria was clearly on the brink such that any slight mistake could have caused a conflagration. Nigeria would have been burning by now. And so it was with great relief, and to some of us, exciting, when that news broke out that few minutes before the announcement of the final result President Jonathan conceded defeat when it became obvious to him that he had lost. His action doused so much tension and reduced the palpable fear in the air and then whatever negative things anyone expected to have happened, never happened. That is why people now started to eulogize President Jonathan for that singular act. Note that what he has done, which is conceding defeat, is not normal, it is unAfrican, unNigerian, to concede defeat. So, we must get the perspective right. It is not that he has done something so extraordinary, but it is unprecedented because this is the first time an incumbent president will lose an election in Nigeria, it has never happened before. So, if anyone does not appreciate what the president did, that person is not being objective. I, as a person, have always put President Jonathan where he belongs to. I do not like his style of administration, especially his inability to tackle corruption. But for this singular act he did, he endeared himself to me, he endeared himself to many persons worldwide. That is the reason why many people are eulogizing him.
How will you rate the performance of INEC, especially given the fact that card readers and PVCs were used to conduct the election and that the governorship elections in some states were declared inconclusive?
We must take time to look at the problem of INEC. INEC, as it is today, is not independent. INEC has a lot of issues militating against its independence and efficiency. But one cannot take away the fact that INEC tried so much this year to give us a semblance of an election we can call a bit free, fair and credible. It is better than that of 1999, 2003, 2007 and even that of 2011. Of course, we are not comparing it to that of 1993, but we are saying under this Fourth Republic, this election is a clear improvement, especially with the usage of PVCs and card readers, even though the card readers failed in some places and we have to resort to manual. There was the issue of logistics too where some of the officials did not come on time, ballot snatching. If the card readers had worked the way they have explained to us, there won’t be any issue of ballot snatching. But by and large, this election was an improvement on previous ones and I must give the INEC Chairman kudos for resisting so many temptations.
What were some of the mistakes that the PDP made that made Nigerians reject them – maybe the APC can learn from it?
There are so many sins of PDP. You will recall that it was not just today that I have been singing about the sins of PDP as a political party to the extent that I felt so offended and wounded in spirit when people were now tagging me APC lawyer because most of my views tallied with what APC stood for. But all along I have been talking about the issue of misgovernance, ineptitude, not carrying the people along and insensitivity to the overall plight of Nigerians by PDP for 16 years. We have PDP officials boasting of ruling Nigeria for 60 or some boasted one hundred years, yet they were doing nothing that will make them remain in power even for one month. So much money came into the system but there was no reflection of this money in the lives of Nigerians. The infrastructures remained undeveloped. In the educational sector, under PDP, education became so costly that an average person could not afford to send their children to school. Those who can afford were sending their children abroad because the standard became so low here. The system collapsed completely to the extent that no Nigerian university is among the first 100 in the world, even in Africa. Under PDP, universities were closed down for almost a year and they were not perturbed.
You have always been in the vanguard of genuine change in Nigeria. Now that power has come into the hands of the progressives, what are your agenda for them?
When we started on this issue of getting a country that is functional, we didn’t know that this change that we have been clamouring for will happen during our lifetime. We started this over 20 years ago. I have always been canvassing for new ways of doing things and condemning misgovernance and impunity in the system. We are glad that at last, the opposition decided to come together and do the right thing. God gave them victory and they are now in government. The question now is, Now that they have found power, what are they going to do with it? My prayer is that APC will not squander the goodwill that the people of Nigeria have bestowed upon them. I must say this that the president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari has sought for this power four times. At a point, he even wept openly when he lost in 2011. Now that power has been given to him eventually by Nigerians, may he never squander the goodwill he enjoys, because no other person has gotten the kind of goodwill that Buhari got in 2015. It was all over the country, even in the South East. I was in my polling unit till 3am. What we want now is that once he is sworn-in, he should hit the ground running, especially on the issue of power. Within eight months, let there be a direction about power. If he can tackle the issue of power, unemployment, insecurity, allow the economy to bubble again, and not allow any man that is corrupt to be found near him, he will continue to enjoy the support of Nigerians. Let him work with people that can move this country forward. Within 100 days, we should know the direction of this government. It is also important that this government says things right because people are listening. What people want to hear is the right word and not things that will provoke them. Let him not get people that will scandalize the government around him; he should be careful on who he is bringing into his administration.
Credit: Daily Independent (Nigeria)
