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New Page 18
IBB, others must account for
their stewardship
MR. Bamidele Aturu is the national convener of the United Action for
Democracy (UAD) which is a coalition of civil society groups. While dismissing
IBB’s purported growing popularity in the South-West, he insists that the former
military president and other past rulers must first account for their deeds
before seeking the people’s mandate. He spoke with Deputy Political Editor
THOMAS IMONIKHE. Excerpts:
WILL you back former military president
Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) for the presidential election in 2007?
I think the issue is not that IBB should
be singled out. It is about the fact that those who have participated in the
governance of this country and who have not allowed themselves to be subjected
to any audit process in terms of what programmes they implemented and what
policies they fashioned out ought really not to be contesting for elections so
soon after all the looting that took place. So it is not IBB alone, even
President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Even if he is doing two terms, his likes
are not supposed to be allowed to contest without accounting to the people for
what they did while they were in power. I think that is the central issue
because we are not trying to deny any Nigerian his or her right to contest
elective office as guaranteed by the 1999 Constitution.
But the point I am making is that there
are many questions that these rulers past and present have not answered. We are
talking about the huge amount of money that Nigeria made under these regimes
whether it is Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), whether it is IBB, whether it is
Vice-President Atiku Abubakar. I think we must make this point very clear. What
I am saying is that people cannot be recycling themselves when there is no basis
for them to show that there is any moral competence that they can govern this
country. So that is the general thing. I think we are looking at it from the
perspective of the fact that there is a group of people who have been in power
and who have not justified why they were in power, and who have not accounted
for all the money that they got while in power and they have friends.
The money they are throwing about to
conduct the elections even shows that these people ought not to contest
elections in the first place. So its a moral question and political too.
IBB has reportedly won the support of many
Yoruba politicians who are said to be working hard to sell the candidacy of the
Minna-born general. What do you make of the latest inroad into the South-West
geo-political zone by IBB?
Anybody can make inroad into anywhere in
the presence of poverty in Nigeria. There is so much poverty and opportunism in
the country. So once there is a lot of money at your disposal you can make
inroad anywhere and that is the problem. Those who are not poor financially are
also poor intellectually. All they think about is their selfish interest. In any
case where is he making inroad to? To the same people that they were using
before to do the things that they did.
I don’t want to identify any individual. I
am saying that people who are making inroad are doing so in a particular area,
among the elite, among those people that have always been known to sell out on
the rights and interest of our people. So the question of inroad is about money
and not about the masses and workers, and not about civil society. This inroad
that you are talking about is among those opportunists and praise singers who
make money because they are out of job.
Do you foresee IBB defeating other
presidential candidates in the South-West in a free and fair election?
None of the people in power today or in
the past whether IBB, Obasanjo, Abdulsalami Abubakar, or Governor Bola Ahmed
Tinubu of Lagos State can win in a free and fair election. What they have done
is to monetize politics and they bribe electoral officers to rig elections. So I
don’t want us to keep talking about IBB alone but he is one of them. None of
them has won a free and fair election.
Recently, Prof. Wole Soyinka advised IBB
to apologise to Nigerians for annulling the June 12, 1993 presidential poll
believed to have been won by the late Bashorun MKO Abiola or forget his
speculated presidential ambition. What is your view on this?
As far as I am concerned, it is not a
question of apology. We must audit that election. We must know those forces, or
individuals, or interests that scuttled the peoples mandate. It is important. We
need to know actually what happened. Of course, people have the votes but we
need to know why the June 12, 1993 presidential election was scuttled and for
what purpose and how they did it. That is the only way the country can begin to
reconnect with its past but if you just say apologise, anybody can apologise. I
mean if IBB goes and says well, I am sorry for what I have done, would that
qualify him to occupy the presidential villa, Aso Rock Abuja? Would that qualify
him to rule our country and continue to use the Constitution which the ruling
elite have desecrated?
I think it should go beyond mere apology.
It is about doing a total comprehensive auditing of the Nigerian society. Anyone
who has ever played any political role in the country at the level of councillor
and above must account for his or her stewardship. We need to know what went
wrong, we need to know why people misgoverned this country, we need to know why
people stole so much money. So I think these issues go beyond a mere apology for
the annulment of the June 12 election.
Nigeria itself is not based on that
election alone. I don’t see us to be parochial in our views. We will be
parochial if we say that just June 12 is the basis of our problems. It is a
fundamental error and we should not make such kind of mistake.
How do we carry out the comprehensive
auditing of our public officers serving or retired that you are advocating?
We have called for the convocation of a
Sovereign National Conference (SNC) where everybody, every interest and every
group will come together, negotiate a common position, write a new constitution
and then we will be able to work out a mechanism for the general society. It is
not only about financial auditing but also political auditing. That is what we
are trying to do and only an SNC that can work out that kind of auditing process
that can also produce an autonomous constitution. That is the only process and
that is why it is surprising that the government will continue to oppose the
convening of an SNC claiming that those who are in power now, those who are in
the National Assembly have our mandate but we know they don’t have our mandate.
The fact that the elections were rigged, that even people who were not qualified
are leading chambers of the National Assembly is enough evidence that those
lawmakers don’t have the moral mandate, the credibility, and political
legitimacy to handle such a conference or to make laws on our behalf. And that
is the tragedy.
What is your advice to the electorate as
aspirants woo them ahead of the 2007 polls.
Nigerians must be careful, they must
organise, they must fight all the oppressors, identify all those people who have
been looting our treasury and they must ensure that never again will they sell
their votes. Because when you sell your vote, you are selling your future, when
you sell your vote, you are selling all those things that will make this country
to become great and your conscience will always prick you. This is because at
the end of the day we don’t have any other country that we can call our own. We
must scrutinise everybody so that nobody is deceived.
I think we need to be vigilant.
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