EDO GOVERNORSHIP: I have absolute confidence that judiciary`ll do justice June 3, 2007 | posted by Mobolaji Aluko (Archives)

 

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GUARDIAN

EDO GOVERNORSHIP: I have absolute confidence that judiciary'll do justice — OSHIOMHOLE

By Dapo Akinrefon & Simon Ebebulem
Posted to the Web: Monday, June 04, 2007

COMRADE Adams Oshiomhole is not new in Nigeria, in fact, during his tenure as President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, he was seen as messiah of the masses whenever Nigerians needed someone to air their views. Oshiomhole, who contested the Edo gubernatorial elections on April 14, claims in this interview with Vanguard, that his mandate was stolen. He thus expresses optimism in the judiciary that justice will prevail just as he maintains that the PDP did not win elections in the state.

While giving a general overview of the Obasanjo administration, he gave a low mark to Obasanjo even as he tasks the in-coming administration of Alhaji Musa Yar'Adua. Excerpts:

The much talked about 2007 general elections have come and gone with controversies trailing it. How have you been able to cope despite your alleged stolen mandate?

First is that you said elections have come and gone, but that may not be true because up till now, PDP members are still thumb printing ballot papers, they are still voting. You and I may think elections are over, not for the PDP, they were caught in the act of thumb printing and voting, they were arrested even though the police command is supporting the PDP, so it may not be correct to say that the elections are over.

But for the rest of Nigerians who were told officially that the elections were held on the 14th of April, 2007 and in Edo State, that mandate was stolen from me and awarded to Osunbor, I have no problem; I think they have the burden of guilty conscience. It is bad for you to steal into somebody’s home and steal a property that does not belong to you, but it is worse when you try to undermine the will of a whole people, and yet, they are the very people you want to govern.

I think for me, I am the happiest of them all because I am walking freely on the street, I go everywhere, people are praying for me; men and women of God, old and young; so I have no problem but I know the other camp has a lot of problem, that is the burden now, so they rather than me have the burden of coping. We have tried to do two things; first is trying to reach people to thank them for the confidence and support and for the sacrifice because the PDP killed at least six people in this state because they went out to vote for me. The people have paid a huge price but they are not deterred and we have also had to assure them that we are doing something so they don’t think we can give up because this is a country where people sponsor rumours and all kinds of stories. I am quite happy that we are doing everything we can to ensure that the thief never has peace of mind and I know they will never have it because they murdered sleep.

You have gone ahead to the election tribunal to seek justice; how optimistic are you that you will emerge victorious and that the judgement will be in your favour?

I hare two grounds to be optimistic; the first is that the Federal Government which controls INEC, because every Nigerian now knows that INEC is not only part of the executive but directly under the control of Obasanjo and since he has chosen not to behave like a petty politician who was just interested in his party, not his country, making it; he has thoroughly abused his powers as to use INEC to undermine the will of the people of Edo State and award a fictitious result in favour of Osunbor.

Of course Osunbor has made the point over and over, and Anenih has also said so that the President had to pay them the final bride price for Obasanjo’s late wife, Stella; I would have wished that I was never dragged into this anyway, but unfortunately, they made it an issue that the late first lady would have wished to have Osunbor as a governor. Like I said before, Obasanjo ought to know that Edo State is not a wristwatch either to be given to Chief Anenih as a long service award for his retirement in politics nor to be used as a bride price to settle his in – laws; that will be insulting the good people of Edo State. He’s done his worst if you ask me to use Federal executive powers to do what they have done.

The good news is that we are running a system that is based on the principles of Separation of Powers; so the President could use INEC, the police or even the army; but he does not have control over the judiciary and there is enough evidence that a number of judicial pronouncements have embarrassed the Federal Government, therefore, the new judiciary is capable of standing its ground. Tony Anenih does not have what it takes to fix the judiciary, the judiciary will do justice. They are not under the control of the executive, and they cannot be fixed by Mr. fix it. Therefore, we expect a level playing field at the tribunal based on law and on facts. From the evidence that we have, they are overwhelming and I therefore, have absolute confidence that the judiciary will do justice.

It has been argued by some PDP chieftains that you don’t have any evidence to show at the tribunal, how true is this?

I read in the papers that Oshiomhole has no evidence; is it from the lips of an accused person that you want to lift a statement? I don’t think I shall comment on that. We have made our submission already to the tribunal and they are sweating now, they say we have no evidence, but they are still voting to cover up the evidence and it was even reported by your paper that where they claimed to have won overwhelmingly, they are still voting there because they declared figures which cannot be backed up in the ballot box to stuff in more ballot papers and we can only wish them luck but they do not have the capacity to cover up all the evidences and we shall nail them, while some of them will be sent to prison.

We actually don’t know why you turned down the olive branch extended to you by Osunbor, when other governorship candidates’ various political parties were called?

It’s simple, you see, there are Nigerians who think that every Nigerian has a price and therefore, at the end of the day, every matter or dispute can be resolved by giving an appeal to money or giving, “juicy political appointment”. Unfortunately, they are dealing with a completely different human being. What drives me is not the quantity of money I have. I went into politics, not because I wanted to complete my father’s house. Therefore, if you want to offer me all the money in government treasury, if you want to steal and pass it to me, you are wasting your time, because it does not appeal to me. In any case, if I am susceptible to such manipulation, I won’t be here and I would not have survived NLC for eight years.

The second is that I am not unemployed. I am not looking at how I can get busy. I can pick and choose any kind of work I want to do either here or abroad by reason of what I know my exposure and as Nigerians might even say, my connections, whatever that means, in decent places. Therefore, those tools for manipulating average elite are not applicable to me. Thirdly, the PDP did not understand that what is at stake here is not just question of wanting to become the governor.

I made the point at the beginning that I am not just interested in the results of this election, I am also interested in the processes, because, for me, there are fundamental issues involved, the right of the Nigerian people, having gotten rid of the military and are back to democracy, the keyword is that the people determine who rules. And my involvement in this process was to join forces with all other Nigerians who are dissatisfied with the electoral process, to demonstrate that it is possible to get through it, so that’s why I am in it.

What has happened has reinforced my determination to be against the system until we can cure it of all the impurities and imperfections. Lastly; I said somewhere that it’s like an armed robber who succeeded in breaking into your home and takes it over. This is a house that has been given to you, either by the community or your forefathers, to manage for public good, but the robber comes using all weapons, including killing, which the PDP actually did in Edo State. They killed six of those who were coming to vote for AC. He (armed robber) succeeds in over powering you and takes over the house. And then everybody is shouting “thief, thief, thief’ and he says “hold on” I extend to you an olive branch, lets talk peace.

You see, this house requires peace for us to make progress” I cannot make peace with an armed robber. And I use the word armed because, first they rigged the votes and did it with the forces of fire arms so, it qualifies for armed robbery. I can’t sit with armed robbers in PDP to discuss how we can bring peace in Edo State. Once it is evil, I do not do business with evil. Even if I were hungry, it would be more honourable to die, than to do business with political criminals.

For example, I asked Dr. Ogbemudia “How do we deal with the fact that he (Dr.Ogbemudia) a former governor of Edo State, who by the way, did very well, and who I respect very well, at least, based on his past contributions, not his present (I must qualify that) He asked people on the eve of the elections to go out and vote. I also, on behalf of my party and myself appealed to the good people of Edo State to come out and vote. The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria made a public broadcast declaring holidays that Nigerians should go and vote. And Nigerians in our naivety as we can say in our reflections believed us and came out to vote.

And the PDP mobilized their things, armed them to the teeth and with police watching, they wasted several lives in Edo State in cold blood, just to make a statement that it carries a death penalty to vote for Oshiomhole and those people paid the supreme price.

And I told Ogbemudia that I would be unfair to God because I know little kids who lost their parents before they were one-year- old. And I knew that I was matured enough in my 40s when my father passed on that I should thank God. That is not to say I did not miss him. But when I want to console the father of one of the primary school for just going to vote. By the time the man narrated to me first that he would never have voted again because of his past experience. Two, he decided to register because Oshiomhole was going to contest. He so believed in what I shall do for Edo State and Nigeria that he told all his household everyone of them must register. And they went to register on election day, he told all his family to go at the same time to vote.

And when two of them had voted and were waiting for the third, the PDP thugs had been signalled to come and they killed three people, one of which was his son, this young man had just finished from Ambrose Alli University. The dream of the parents, the first child and he was wasted. I asked Ogbemudia “what are we here for?” why should I do business with people who are responsible for that murder? If they need the state to survive, I don’t need the state to survive. Many of them have always worked for the Nigerian state. I have never worked for the Nigerian government. So, we are coming from different  backgrounds. Therefore, I do not need to be in government to survive. But the blood of those young men and women, who were wasted, must never be in vain, I told him.

As former president of the Nigerian Labour Congress, how would you assess the out-going administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo and what are your expectations from the incoming administration of Alhaji Musa Yar’ Adua?

I don’t know how to approach it because this in itself is sufficient to address. I think different people will score President Obasanjo’s government differently.

What about from your own point of view?

My point of view will try and aggregate the feelings of the average person that I speak for as president of the NLC. President Obasanjo came in as a well respected statesman, not only in Nigeria but around the world and the circumstances under which he went to prison raised his profile about his commitment to the common goal for Nigeria and it suggests some deep commitment to certain values. That added to the general public’s perception that this was a man who Nigeria needed at the time he came in to bail us out of the crisis we were in.

As president of the NLC, I can say that Chief Obasanjo came in with some reasonable quality of milk of human kindness; he appreciated the other side of life that for many people, life was tough and those qualities were exploited by the NLC and we were able to get the substantial increase in wages and the jerking up of the minimum wage. Almost about a year into his administration, you had a more humane, more pro – worker person.

But the one that is leaving, is the one that came in on May 29, 1999; this one has been so manipulated that at first, he was confused about the social purpose of governance. He became a slave of statistics, unable to see beyond official figures and therefore, he was celebrating what he saw as huge achievement, totally unaware of the poverty that most Nigerians were wallowing in as a result of the same statistical figures ha was throwing around.  So, it is not the one that came in 1999 that is leaving now. The second is that he was very tall in ideas. He talked about corruption, distilling some procedures in governance, call it due process.

Opening up of the system, the increased emphasis on transparency, physical discipline and all of that. He was very tall in terms of the ideas and I continue to appreciate him for that because you could have leaders that are even in deficit when it comes to ideas. I think we can list them. But he also suffered a lot of deficit in terms of the personal discipline to deliver on the idea he had identified. For example, on the issue of corruption. I had given him all the support that I believe he needed because anybody who wants to fight corruption will need the support of Nigerians to deal with the powerful people, who feed fat on it.

What are your expectations from the incoming government?

Purely, Alhaji Musa Yar’Adua is the exact opposite of President Obasanjo, no military history and therefore he is a refurbished democrat. I also know that as a younger Yar’ Adua, he was a leftist. He must have shifted considerably now. But I imagine that he would not have completely lost everything now. And therefore, I shall not see him as one of these extreme rightist. I don’t think he is one.

As a governor in Katsina, he was definitely worker friendly, I didn’t have cause to organise a strike there or picket because he took the welfare agenda of workers on board and therefore I describe him as a worker friendly person. But as they say, the sweetness of the pudding is on the eating if he takes President Obasanjo economic reforms hook, line and sinker, without attempting to reform the reforms, he would have committed suicide ideologically.

Therefore, if he going to be his own man, I shall expect him to take on board some of the reforms like anti – corruption, the idea if not the practice of due process, the awareness that government should be transparent, the whole thing about the banking reforms and I expect him to look beyond his political party to look for men and women (professionals), who are competent. I think that’s one area where Obasanjo did some good to himself. He has to agree that the bottom line in any economic policy is that it has to have the capacity to deliver on the welfare agenda of the people. Obasanjo’s reforms did not deliver on the welfare agenda.

 

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