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This is no democracy
— Okwu
Mr. Maxi Okwu, Deputy National Chairman of the All
Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), insists that the resurgence of the State
Security Service (SSS), is a clear manifestation of a drift into fascism and
that unless the wielders of power accede to the much touted Sovereign National
Conference, Nigeria is walking a perilous path. He spoke to Kalu Okwara
AT last, Mallam El-Rufai appeared on the
floor of the senate to apologise for his intemperate language. What is your
reaction?
It is welcome development because for the
first time, El-Rufai has blinked. The man is so garrulous and over-confident,
and does not care whose ox is gored. He had the temerity to say he is not
accountable to the National Assembly but to Obasanjo. So for him to eat his
words, the senate must insist on principle. They must pursue this case to its
logical conclusion. I am not too excited about this senate, not only on personal
capacity but also the Conference of the Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) which
I serve as its Secretary, We believe that this National Assembly is
illegitimate; it is being controlled by somebody who did not win the election,
and that they are at the beck and call of Obasnajo. But for El-Rufai with his
all-conquering posture to come head bowed to the senate and apologise, the
senate should see that as a signal that they should sit up and earn their
respectability. But having said that, El-Rufai apology could be accepted as
apology for his careless utterances. But on principles, El-Rufai must go. He may
be a star performer or one of the whiz kids of the cabinet, it does not matter.
But for the fact that the man was indicted by the Public Accounts Committee of
the senate which found him guilty of breaching the regulations of the civil
service, insubordination to the Vice President, and employing two assistants
without authorisation of the Vice President Atiku being the chairman of the
Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE). And he is paying these assistants who have
just left school two million naira a month. This was done with the approval of
neither the National Assembly or Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal
Commission (RMAFC).
Even this World Bank notes indicated that
the assistants were not qualified to earn such salary based on their competence.
For wasting about N19 million of public fund, El-Rufai must go. This will serve
as a deterrent to public officers from wasting our resources. El-Rufai has
wrongly expended public fund, breached all regulations and disobeyed even his
master and friend, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. So for the purposes of setting
standards, democratic culture and the future, El-Rufai must go. That is where we
stand.
What do you make out of President Obasanjo
condescending to apologise on behalf of his minister when he was reluctant in
doing so for his own notoriety of intemperate language over the years?
If you read very carefully, the
president’s so-called apology on behalf of El-Rufai, he warned the National
Assembly to be careful. In fact, in the apology, he threatened the National
Assembly. So it is a trojan issue. He did not mean what he said, because if he
did, he would not have threatened the senate as he did towards the end of the
letter. The apology is neither here nor there if you read it very carefully. But
then, for the fact that he did apologise on behalf of his minister really shows
that he was avoiding the issue. So that does not merit serious consideration and
I am happy the senate asked him to explain what form of action he intended to
take based on their demand that he must revoke El-Rufai’s appointment. On the
issue that El-Rufai uttered expletives, he was merely imitating his master.
Obasanjo is an expert in using foul language. So it is a case of the baby cow
learning from its mother how to chew the grass. El-Rufai is a good student of
his master. What is the difference between "the best answer to a fool is
silence" and "you are an idiot" as Obasanjo used on the Christian Association of
Nigeria (CAN) president in Plateau State or "CAN my foot." These are not proper
usages for people holding high public offices. And the sooner we begin to imbibe
democratic culture, the better.
It appears the State Security Service (SSS)
has once again woken up to remind Nigerians of the Military dark days. It has
clamped down on Insider Magazine and Global Star newspaper. Now
Chief Odimegwu Ojukwu has been invited by it. What is your reaction?
This is exactly what the CNPP has been
crying out against. The invitation of the Ikemba of Nnewi, Chief Chukwuemeka
Odimegwu Ojukwu by the SSS, in our view completely negates the democratic
culture we are trying to nurture. What does the SSS have to do with purely
democratic engagement? We are no longer under a military regime. If we believe
we are practising democracy, why should the SSS get itself involved in
democratic exchanges when the police and other agents of law enforcements are
there? What worries us is that the SSS seems not to have overcome the sort of
orientation the acquired under the military regime. They are yet to acquaint
themselves with the liberal democratic culture we are trying to nurture. This is
what worries us. Again, when we in the CNPP and NUD tried organise a mass
action, they called us for discussion. But this is outside the purview. If it
were the police, it would have been okay; or even the PDP or government could
have invited us for dialogue but certainly not the SSS. We are merely exercising
our rights under sections 39 and 40 of the constitution.
Now see what has happened.
On the hallowed premises of the National
Assembly, the NLC went to canvass an alternative view point on the Obasanjo
amendment bill of the labour, the SSS arrested them there. They arrested them at
the highest point of national debate where they went to exercise their
democratic right. And after that the SSS proceeded to capture the premises of
the Insider Magazine. The letter they wrote was that they have a duty to
protect the person of Obasanjo who they equate with the state, and then other
institutions and persons. The implication is that it is a catch-all phrase,
meaning that if you criticise the government and its officials, you are gone for
whether a politician or journalist. These are ominous signals, indicating that
the worst days has begun. We are now entering into fascism. We have said it
before that Obasanjo’s agenda is one-party dictatorship. So this SSS is one of
the institutions he will use to achieve the objective, including the police,
army etc. which were maximally used during the 2003 general elections.
They have begun in full giving, trying to
muzzle the press, the fourth estate of the realm, clamp down on the opposition.
And as they have passed the Labour Bill, they will descend on the opposition
parties after wiping out the labour. So Nigerians are in for a very hard time.
And we are saying that this cannot happen in a liberal democracy because the
security service has no role whatsoever in purely democratic engagements. The
sooner we realise this and start fighting for ourselves the better for us all.
Otherwise, we are heading towards fascism.
So we are shouting again. We shouted during when they arrested the NLC members,
and we are shouting because we know soon they will look in the direction of the
opposition parties. We know that.
What is the implication of this on our
nascent democracy?
It is that our democracy has been rendered
useless. This was done the very day they desecrated the ballot box by telling
Nigerians that there was no vacancy in the Aso Rock. Recently again, Chief Tony
Anenih told us that Obasanjo will be the one to determine who will succeed him
you cannot win election in this country except. You control the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC). It is no longer possible to go to the
polls and expect that the democratic concept of one-man, one vote will count,
and with the final deployment of security services, the matter is closed. We may
be claiming to be a civilian government, but this is not a democracy. This is
not democracy at all. And that is why we are fighting, trying to enlighten the
citizenry on the dangers ahead. We insist on the national conference because it
is the only way out, otherwise, we will end up in chaos. So as true democrats
opposed to military rule, we are saying that the time is ripe for Nigerians to
come together and fashion out an acceptable democratic terms of our
co-existence.
What then is the update on the Sovereign
National Conference being spearheaded by the Nigerians United for Democracy (NUD)?
The train is moving very fast. Last week,
we met with the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), some civil rights and
pro-democracy groups led by Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti and Chief Femi Falana, Ndigbo
Lagos in preparatory to meeting with the Ohanaeze in the East, within the week,
we shall meet with the Patriots who have prepared a draft bill and constitution
for the national conference. We believe that before the end of the month, all
the key stakeholders would have been consulted. We expect in the mid of October,
all pro-SNC groups will hold a national summit to agree on the roadmap.
We observed that most of the members of
the CNPP stayed away from the INEC meeting with political parties recently. Is
it is consonance with the CNPP’s demand that year that INEC should be dissolved?
We still maintain our position that there
must be electoral reforms as part of national reform in terms of constitutional
re-engineering. But we had to highlight the electoral reform because that is the
basis for seeking office and sanctioning non performing public officers.
However, at the last meeting with INEC, some members attended although the
leadership of the CNPP under Alhaji Balarabe Musa and myself could not because
of some other commitments. But then, the admittance of AD and PAC was a welcome
development as opposed to the last meeting when we had to walk out on the INEC
because they refused to allow the PAC attend the meeting. However, we did not
attach much importance to the meeting because we know that as usual, Dr Guobadia
would like to use us for their own ends. They have ran into murky waters and
wanted to use the political parties to whip up sentiments that would favour
them.
They rigged the PDP into government and
after having been used, they have been dumped. You can imagine after making a
proposal for N700 million and you are given N7 million. It is pure contempt.
So let them stew in their own juice. If
they had been more transparent and less partisan, we would ensure that we fought
for them. He claimed he presented N300 million for parties funding, and I know
that we lobbied seriously for annual grant for the political parties when we
noticed that it was omitted in the budget proposal. It is a constitution matter.
The sub-committee on electoral matters put in N300 million for us but the
general House did not approve it. I believe INEC has not done enough. It did not
have to go through the Ministry of Finance to get party funding because the PDP
that produced so many governors does not need INEC funding. So they can afford
to kill the other parties funding and continue to use government money to fund
their party. INEC was supposed to lay before the National Assembly a proposal
for party funding as prescribed in the constitution. Since the law says you must
have an office in Abuja, at least the grant would ensure that the office will be
open every day. It is now that they asked for N700 million and was given N7
million that they are calling on parties. They pocketed the N300 million meant
for parties to monitor the voters registration exercise for which we are still
in court.
Recently Osita Okechukwu issued a
statement claiming that the CNPP had been invited by the World Igbo Congress
(WIC) to attend its congress in the USA but you controverted him. Is there any
division within?
Let us distinguish personalities and
relationship from issues. Personality first; I am the Deputy National Chairman
of APGA that had zoned the presidency to the South East. I believe in the party
objective. We fought for it in 2003 when Dim was our presidential
candidates.
And we will fight for it again whenever
(emphasis), there will be another presidential election. My party’s stand is my
stand. Recently the South East Political Forum met in the residence of my
chairman, Chief Chekwas Okorie, and we all agreed that we would fight
assidulously for the realisation of a Nigerian President of Igbo extration if it
means that that objective would be realised on another political platform; I
played a key role in the communique drafting. I am talking of Maxi Okwu of APGA;
I am a true son of Igbo land.
We now come to the CNPP, which is an
association of many political parties with all sorts of views and tendencies.
And the secretaryship is zoned to APGA, which I hold for them. The fact is that
the CNPP was not invited to the WIC, otherwise as the secretary, I should know.
But Maxi Okwu was invited on my personal capacity as an Igbo son.
Therefore, the CNPP could not have
attended the congress. If they had invited us, we would have considered the
invitation. And with due respect, the CNPP has not discussed the issue of
presidency because we are still in the court. Until we resolve the issue of 2003
presidential election, any talk of 2007 is a mirage.
What is your message to Nigerians in the
face of all this?
My people of the South East made a
statement recently akin to Late Mahatma Ghandi of India who preached peaceful
resistance. You may quarrel with concept of Biafra depending on which side you
are. But the statement made by Ralph Uwazuruike and his Movement for the
Actualisation of the Sovereignty of State of Biafra (MASSOB) is a signal to the
government of Nigeria to address injustice, marginalisation and resolve all the
nation’s problems. You do not live by intimidation and harassment. If you drive
such a movement underground, you increase the tension. In the Niger Delta, the
ethnic militiamen have taken over the whole place. And therefore, my appeal to
those Nigerians holding the instrument of power is to accede to a national
confab which they can only delay at our own peril. People that went to
disintegrate do not talk. They move into the trench. So the sooner Obasanjo and
his co-travellers see this wisdom, the better for the nation.
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