Comrade Aluh Moses Odeh, a youth activist and an apostle of a New Nigeria, is the National Leader, All Middle Belt Youth Forum (AMBYF) as well as a public affairs commentator. In this interview with EJIKEME OMENAZU, he speaks on the recent off-season elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states, among other issues. Excerpt:
How do you see the recent off-season governorship elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states?
The recently held off-cycle elections in Kogi, Bayelsa and Imo states have shown that liberal democracy copied from the West has failed woefully in Nigeria. The conduct of these off-cycle elections is worse compared to what was held in February and March 2023. It was an outright disregard for the electoral law. Imagine a situation where election result sheets were out before electorates could go to their Polling Units to cast their votes. Elections have become the survival of the fittest and have lost all sense of credibility. I can, in nutshell, say that the democratic process in Nigeria after 24 years, is still struggling to find its bearing, a proof that it cannot work.
Could you explain the victories of the APC and PDP in the three states?
Did I hear you say victory? It is said ‘the harder the battle, the sweeter the victory’. In this case, there was neither battle, nor harder battle. There was no victory because the emergence of those Governors-elect as standard bearers of their parties never saw any contest, but crude ways marred by irregularities and suppression of other aspirants. This negates democratic process. During the election proper, were the electorates allowed to freely make their choice without intimidation? No! Somebody wanted to be their governor at all costs. Since there was no room for contest, you don’t call that victory.
Could you explain the poor performance of the smaller political parties in these elections?
Politics in Nigeria understands only one language. Money. No matter your bright ideas and understanding of the economy on how to make the country great with a performing economy, without rolling out money, you will lose, as the people will prefer to go for a daft that will give them peanuts and take away their wealth. The smaller parties have their own huge problems as they are more interested in milking dry their candidates than winning elections. In fact, they are transactional politicians. Imagine what happened in one of those smaller parties in Nigeria before the 2023 general elections when a presidential aspirant defected from one of the two major parties to that party and became their presidential candidate, how that small paty erupted with in-fighting because they perceived the entrance of that presidential candidate may lead them to Aso Rock. Some of those smaller parties exist only by nomenclature, which in reality, are derivatives of either of the two major political parties. Until members and leaders of those smaller parties change their mentality about making money from the parties, to contributing money to build the parties and winning elections, then they can eat because they have laboured, it will be difficult for them to make a headway in the Nigeria politics of today.
Why have the two main ruling parties, APC and PDP, continued to dominate the political scene and waxing stronger despite their poor image?
It is not about Nigerians pitching their tents with other political parties, but about confidence of the electoral umpire that is also a political party, but not accessible to ordinary Nigerians. As it is right now, INEC is a political party with the judiciary as the electorates. They decide who gets what. The two major political parties are not strong at all since they cannot manage their internal crisis. In fact, they are weak. Look at the conduct of their primaries. Do they respect their own constitution? No! The worst thing you can do is to ignore the constitution of your organisation. They feel threatened and live in fear because they are weak. Why are they disrupted and disorganised when a member started troubling them; or, lack ability to manage internal party crisis that mostly end in court where the party is at receiving end? However you look at it, you cannot take that giant size from PDP which does not mean the party is strong since a newly formed party was able to demystify its incumbency in 2015 and subsequent defeat for two consecutive times in three election cycles tells you the party is weak. Their problem is that they lack inner circle leaders who can go back to the drawing board to review their failure and come up with strategic plans directing their members on what to do. PDP has structure without connection to the grassroots for information dissemination.
How would you explain the failure of Labour Party in the three states during the off-season governorship elections, despite its popularity in the 2023 general elections?
Labour Party came to the limelight because of Peter Obi, who pitched his tent with the party. His subsequent emergence as its presidential flagbearer changed the narratives for the party. But, they could not manage that fortune well to excel. If all those who were elected on the platform of Labour Party through the Obi factor had contributed their resources to rebuilding the party for the past four months, the party would have performed very well in these off-cycle elections. In politics, structures matters because the old poor farmers in the villages that constituted bulk of votes do not have access to the Internet, television and radio to hear about Labour Party, compared to PDP and APC. So, there is the need to educate them about the party through its structure at their polling units and wards. This also takes us to the Obi factor, which I earlier mentioned. Remove Peter Obi today and Labour Party will be nowhere to be found.
How do you see the performance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies in the off-season governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states?
The first assignment of Mahmood Yakubu started from off-cycle election in Kogi and Bayelsa states in 2015 where he proved he was not fit to be Chairman of INEC as he declared that election inconclusive. He is the only INEC Chairman that conducted the most expensive election with the poorest results as he has his own language to tell us to justify the reason for his incompetency which is Inconclusive and Glitches. In fact, his performance is very poor compared with his education as a Professor. Some of us before the charade that took place on November 11, 2023, knew that under Mahmood Yakubu, INEC is a political party whose candidate must win the election. But, unfortunately, candidates who were on the frontline did not care to know. On the part of the security agencies, their actions were instigated by the politicians who were hell-bent on getting to power at all costs. Their overzealousness in perpetuating this evil that will work against the future of their children is totally bad as there is no good profit from any evil act that lasts long. Before the election, there was a report by a candidate in a particular state about recruitment of fake policemen to disrupt the elections which the security agencies were unable to unravel. On election day, there were reports about actions of same fake policemen. The INEC under Mahmood Yakubu is yet to beat the National Electoral Commission (NEC) and Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) as we keep hearing people lamenting the abysmal performance of INEC compared to history of Nigerian politics. This is an indication that INEC is not independent. So, it is a failure.
As a public affairs analyst, how would you explain the continued depreciation of the Naira as against the Dollar? Don’t you think this development contradicts the rating of Yemi Cardoso and his team?
Nigeria is an import dependent economy. So, our Naira will continue to depreciate as long as there is pressure on the availability of dollar. The increasing borrowing by the government for consumption is a big problem. Our market is so porous that the dollar is being used to transact business here in Nigeria. In fact, the geometric progression of the dollar over Naira immediately Cardoso was confirmed by the Senate as the substantive Governor of CBN to date, means that he and his team have failed.
The NLC president, Joe Ajaero, was recently attacked in Imo State when he was there on a Labour mission. How do you see the way the stakeholders have been handling the issue?
The whole scenario seems like Nigeria is a jungle. Our police do not see themselves as being responsible to the ordinary citizens, but the rich. That is why we are where we are. They are overzealous in executing evil without thinking of the negative effects of their actions on the future of their families. I will reserve my position on the handling since an apology was said to have been tendered by the National Security Adviser, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu, and the reported arrest of those who attacked Comrade Joe Ajaero as stated by the NSA. This to me is a welcome development. Nigerians also want to see to it that those attackers are made to face the music to serve as deterrent to others. The NSA should know that Nigerians will take him by his words, as such, he should make public every stage of this case from the arrest, through the arraignment and the outcome of the court processes.
