Second Republic politician and a former presidential candidate, Khalifa Hassan Yusuf, has said that the forthcoming April elections may turn out to be a failure. He argued that the indices that would lead to credible, free and fair polls were absent from the nation’s polity.
Speaking with Daily Sun in Damaturu, Yobe State, Yusuf who contested the presidential seat in 1983 on the platform of Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) with Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dr Nnamidi Azikwe, Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Alhaji Waziri Ibrahim and Mr. Tunji Braithwaite, maintained that the credibility of the headship of INEC was not enough to ensure free and fair election:
“We will wait and see whether Prof. Attahiru Jega and his team alone will succeed. Though I have been praying for him to succeed because I know he is a decent, very good man. Unfortunately, the system will not allow him to deliver what many expect from the election. Do not forget he is not the only one handling the election. People must assist him, I mean the security agencies, electorates and even politicians. Ironically, Nigerians have not changed.” Excerpts:
Elections in Nigeria
“In the past, things were different. I became the presidential candidate of my party without spending money. Today, can you become the councilor in your ward without spending a lot of money? In our time, Malam Aminu Kano who I succeeded in PRP and I went through primaries without bribing anybody. Everybody knew where he or she belonged. You could not just come from anywhere simply because you had money and then given the party ticket. The process must be followed.
Today, if you amass wealth may be through pilfering of public funds, you can then decide the party you wish to contest. It does not matter even if election is coming up tomorrow as long as you have money. You can also decide to leave a party if the leadership fails to give you ticket and then proceed to another party where you can bribe everybody to make you the candidate. This is the system will run now and it cannot guarantee credible election and emergence of good leadership. If you do not have money, you do not have a place in Nigerian politics.
I retired from politics not because of my age. Afterall, there are older people than me in elective posts but because I do not have money to bribe people to vote me, I do not even believe in buying people as the new generation of politicians do now. Until we change all these, we may not have credible elections.
It is true Jega is a good man and I have been praying for him to succeed but that is a mere wish. Can Jega succeed alone? This is the big question because Nigerians of 2003 and 2007 have not changed. Do not forget he is not doing it alone.
The politicians have not stopped rigging. In fact, they have learnt new technology of ballot stuffing, snatching of ballot boxes, double voting and all manners of electoral malpractices. The electorates too are still poor; they are still willing to sell their votes to the highest bidder. The police or security agencies in Nigeria have not changed. Jega will only sit in Abuja, he cannot be everywhere on election days. What I am saying is that nothing has changed and Nigerians should not expect any miracle in the coming elections. It is still going to be as usual.”
Why corruption persists
Corruption in public service persists because we have made our system to be so. The system is very bad. We need to make elective offices less attractive by reducing what we are paying our elected officers. How can a National Assembly member be receiving about N200 million annually? It does not matter whether the money is paid in any name, it is public funds. Until we make elective offices less attractive, politicians will continue to make politics a-do-or-die –affair. It will also discourage politicians in public offices from stealing. So a lot need to be done to our system.
For me, I’m not looking for a good president but a very powerful legislature. It is the legislature that makes the law and when the second arm of government is weak, then the nation’s system is in shambles. If you have a bad president but a vibrant legislature, the president will be compelled to sit up through checks and balances.
I do not mind whoever the president is, Atiku or Jonathan. I am yet to see who will change the situation of Nigerians and Nigeria. Nigerians should be careful in electing those who will make law for them. A good legislature will bring good governance because already the judiciary has proved to alive to its responsibility though there are pockets of challenges in our judicial system.
Roles for traditional rulers
They have little role play in the present situation. Though we have been yearning for the independence of the traditional rulers and religious leaders so that they will only play adversary role in politics rather than being partisanship. Things have not really changed as expected. I remember when we were in NEPU, we fought some battle to discourage the traditional institution from being dragged into politics because we believed it was not healthy for our culture. They are our fathers and custodians of our custom but people wanted to drag them in. I do not think there is any great role for them to play now.
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