Source: Nigerian Tribune

THE Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) has just got back two of the states it won, that is Ekiti and Osun, and there is the impression that with this, it should be able to go into election on its own without considering any merger  with other parties...
I am happy you said we got back those states, because, basically, we did win those states and many states of the federation. The decision of the court to upturn the earlier judgments at the Appeal Court  has further strengthened  the party, and has given hope to Nigerians. It has repositioned our party  as the party to beat; you  know I have always been at pains to explain that  it is mischievous to label our party either a South-West party or a southern party.

Our appeals cut across the entire nation; that is why, today, we are getting overtures from every part of the country. In states like Taraba , Adamawa and Bauchi, there is an insurgence  and exodus of people from the northern part of Nigeria to our party. It is right to believe that this exodus wouldn’t have happened if we had not won in Ekiti and Osun. And the same also goes for the South-South; in Akwa Ibom ,Delta , Rivers and Bayelsa states, we have an exodus of people from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ACN.

As to your question on why we need an alliance, in our party, we don’t talk aboutalliance but  merger , and, because of time , we insist that whoever is going  to work with us,  we will all use  a common platform. It could be a name change or adoption of a new party, because our experiences in the past showed that alliances don’t work very well. There are many forms of alliances; we could decide that every party should contest on its own platform from the state Assembly to the governorship and National Assembly, and then the parties come together for the presidential election . The drawback we had the last time we had such an arrangement was that one party might not be strong enough to win a particular constituency on its own, whereas if parties worked on the same platform, they might be able to beat the opposition.

The other option could be that in a state or constituency where one  party is strong, we  will field a common candidate against the other parties. Again in the interest of self- interest , if you say party A will field a candidate, party B, which is supposed to be part of the alliance, will say “if this man wins, he will not remember us’’ , so they  will not  work for him; whereas if it is a common  platform , the candidate knows that no matter what  happens, he will have to take care of the entire party if he wins.

Considering the little time left before the 2011 elections, is that still possible ?
You know we still have four months to the election; people keep talking as if this election is  tomorrow , and what prevents any party going into convention from changing their name or adopting a new platform? This takes just a couple of weeks, I mean 21 days’ notice to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). I believe there is still enough time. You see, in politics, a thousand friends are not enough, one enemy can be too much to handle. That is why we are not averse to those who feel we should work together, but we are very very strict on the terms or conditions of such cooperation .

How far have you gone about the discussion on mergers, because, at a time, there was a deadlock, but now you have renewed discussion on the matter?
There are two committees that were set up; they are  yet to report back to the national caucus of the party, but I believe they are meeting. They also understand the urgency of the matter. We hope and pray for the best. You see, the ACN as a party is not obsessed  with winning  at the federal level by all means; we are not the kind of politicians that will say it is a do or die thing , we are  not going to enter into an alliance  with the devil. That is not  the character we are made of, but there are appeals from many different Nigerians that say “please,  save us, save the country from collapse.”

The PDP have shown clearly they don’t have any direction. There is even more pressure from non-partisan politicians , from elder statesman that say  “ACN,  please make sacrifices for this country.”’ But  then, again , we don’t want to do anything that will make us lose the  essence of our party. Should the ACN  go into any alliance and win the next election, the expectation will be so high  from the people. We have, for four years,  sustained consistently our position  as an alternative  party. We make suggestions  where we feel we could do better. Therefore, we have to be very careful.

There is the belief that your party is eager to go into merger because it is afraid of the might of the PDP. You also emphasised dislodging the PDP; are you really prepared for the task?
You say my party is afraid of the PDP. I think the whole of Nigeria is afraid of the PDP, because they have messed the entire country up for almost 12 years now. What is the scorecard of the PDP? To use the word fear, you are  probably not correct, but the entire country has a morbid fear of the PDP coming back to power, because  they do know that this country will continue to sink.

As to whether  we  have the capacity, the strength and the popularity to defeat the PDP, the answer is yes , yes. In a free and fair election, the PDP will be lucky if they win four or five states. For the presidency, there are three things the PDP  has used over the years to get to power: government largesse, INEC and security apparatus. This is  why we hope the INEC  will get it right  this time; that is why we also suggested in one of our releases that, for the purpose of the 2011 elections, the police should be put under the supervision of the INEC. Once there is a level playing field and the security is impartial, the PDP will fail woefully in many states. We are ready for the task. Ask anybody on the street; they don’t want the PDP again. Left to Nigerians, the PDP is no longer acceptable .

Members of the National Assembly  have come under criticism for various reasons, first for allocating fat salaries to themselves; secondly, for their desire  to be part of the National Executive Councils of their different parties, and thirdly, for the demand for automatic tickets for themselves. Is their action not a threat to democracy?
Somebody gave me an analysis recently. He said that, on the average, a senator earns about 20 million naira a month. Doctors went on strike just because they want to be paid half a million naira a month, which means our senators are earning about 50 times what our doctors are earning. The Central Bank of Nigeria governor came up and said the National Assembly consumed 25 per cent of the national budget,  but they fought back and said no, it was actually about 3.5 percent.The point is, we have less than 500 members in both chambers of the National Assembly, and if they consume 3.5 per cent of the national budget in a country of over 150 million people, it is obscene.

We have always challenged  members of the National Assembly; if they say they don’t  earn N15 million or N18 million each, they should  come out  and tell Nigerians how much they  actually earn.

We have been told that the National Assembly has added another  alternative to the capital project; they can’t win the battle on the platform of emotion, blackmail or threat. Let them come out and tell the whole world , ‘this is what we take.’ the Revenue, Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC) should come out and tell us how much was approved for them, and also, the office of the Accountant General should come out and tell us how much they are being paid monthly; let us reconcile  the figures.

Our National Assembly members have forgotten that  they are, first and foremost, products of their parties, and they now want to take complete control of the party by amending the constitution and the Electoral Act to give them control  over the management of affairs of the parties. It is not done anywhere; it is  a case of the tail now wagging the dog, not the dog wagging the tail.

We have never seen anywhere in the world, a legislature that is so disconnected from the people. There is a massive disconnect between them and the people they are supposed to represent, and all they are fighting for is either automatic ticket or the privilege of being automatic members of their parties, NEC to ensure they return back to the National Assembly. They are not known by the quality of the laws they make .

The 2011 general election is so crucial to the advancement of democracy, and this poses a big challenge to Attahiru Jega,  INEC  chairman, do you have the confidence that the election will be better organised than that of 2007?
If  the INEC and the government heed  some of our advice, I believe there is a bright chance of conducting a better election  in 2011. First, we said all Resident Electoral Commissioners who have been indicted one way or the other by judicial pronouncement of conspiracy in election malpractices should be relieved of their appointments, and also that government should ensure that the police should be put  under the direct supervision of INEC. Again, before the election, they (INEC) must publish the list of all the political parties and do a physical audit of all  the polling booths.