Jonathan Should Win 2015 Election For Peace Sake

___Barr. Becom

Clement Apeyie Becom is a Lagos-based lawyer and human rights activist versed in constitutionality. His interest in and concern for a stable polity have led him to fighting legally for a number of wrongly premised dispositions. In this discussion with Uzo Chikere, he bares his mind on a couple of political issues concerning the country and other sundry matters. Exerpts: 

As we build up to an election year, 2015, how do you see the quality of preparation both on the part of the electorate and the contending politicians and the parties?

The way both the parties and the electorate are going about it, let’s pray that there will be no anarchy, because if at the level of just primary or party congress, and there is in fighting within party, I wonder what will happen when the actual election is on board. But right now, you can say that INEC is trying as regards preparation but they are not living up to expectation in that regard. They announced that they are going to upgrade their register; give people permanent registration card so that you can vote anywhere, I believe that is the meaning, but as at today, Friday, November 7, 2014, there are some polling units where you cannot find even a fly from INEC office to ensure that this exercise sails through. This is the beginning of their failure, because when people will start critisising or complaining; I could not vote because INEC could not regularize my voter’s card which prevented, and denied me of my franchise, that’s already a failure on their part. Then a house built on faulty foundation is bound to collapse; and if they continue of this path, they will not get the credibility they had in the past. And the election will turn out to be marred with irregularities, which may result to anarchy. Again, as it is, the future of this country remaining one is bleak; its feature attaining peace and stability which is the primary aim of any government is being threatened. Take for instance, we said that Yar’adua gave amnesty to MEND; Boko Haram are out now disturbing, asking for same. If Jonathan plus or minus decides to give them, tomorrow, the Oduduwa will ask for theirs in Mile 12, and start burning down shorps; and who told you that Ohanaeze and their group will not also demand same? But in all this, we pray that Jonathan wins the election and see us through for the next four years for the interest of peace. But if he loses, MEND will never allow any oil exploration company to work for one hour in this country, because they will say they are paying back. And the only way to avoid that is either to get Jonathan win the election or for it to go to another minority group in the country; letting the president emerge from minority in any other part of the country. It should not go to the West, East, North or any other core group. It could come from Benue, Edo, Cross River, or any other state that has minority ethnic groups. That can settle the issue of insecurity in the country. I am not saying that Jonathan is good, but if he is allowed to win again, in spite of this entire disturbance in the North, it will still be better than a Northerner winning the election. For a Northerner winning the election, then MEND will pay back. It was a mistake for Yar’dua to have granted amnesty to MEND and other militants in the Niger-Delter; it is the basic problem we are facing today. And the Igbos will not fold their arms if they see somebody from the North now becoming a president, or Jonathan settling with Boko-Haram, giving them money, good condition. Other people will also be watching. They are watching and considering that if criminality is a source of wealth, let us go for it as well; because MEND did it and succeeded; Northerners have started theirs, if they should succeed, and some people are putting Jonathan in a tight corner now, the other two remaining groups will start their own whichever way it goes.

What is your take on the preparedness and proper enlightenment of the electorate with regard to the elections approaching?

As it is now, we are going backwards. That register is supposed to be updated every year. Because somebody who was 17 last year, is 18 this year, and he or she is qualified to vote and be voted for, depending on what position he or she is contesting for. Now you leave the register for over four years, unupgraded; you now want a very little space of time for everybody to gather and do that which they could have done with ease. You will put the people in perpetual suffering and bondage. You could be there from morning through afternoon to evening without it getting to your turn. Meanwhile people are running around for their livelihood and government doesn’t know if they are alive. I INEC want us to believe that they are serious and to avoid irregularities; they should employ more hands and ensure they map out two weeks for this exercise. Those who have not registered at all should be registered if they have attained 18 years and those who have registered and want permanent card so that they can vote anywhere should not be disenfranchised by their (INEC) negligence and irresponsible act. That is for preparation, as it is now, it is in a shamble. They have not prepared well; they are not there for us. Giving us few days for this exercise means that if you cannot meet up, you cannot vote and by so doing they would have favoured some areas to the disadvantage of others. That is also a stepping stone to rigging election.

Looking at the scenario as the build up to 2015 elections, all manners of party men and women, are defecting from one party to another. Should it be so?

You know that constitutionally, freedom of association is guaranteed, and political parties are avenues for association. You can belong to any association of your choice because it is your right. If you decide to belong to PDP and along the line, you don’t like PDP again, you can move to APC or any other party. But it must have to be done in line with the law. And when such people who are already in the House or elective position want to do it, the party’s reaction should not be done out of the law. In Tambulwa’s case who defected from PDP to APC, in my view, does not look like he wants to go and be with APC. He might have been sent there to be a mole or spy on APC by PDP; know how they are planning for the election and be reporting back to PDP. On surface, you might be seeing them fighting; you will be thinking that it is real; it might turn out to be film trick. It could be one, he is not interested in going this time; it might be that he wants to play a role the will usher him into becoming a governor in the election after 2015 because I don’t see somebody of his caliber leaving PDP for any reason. If he really wants to contest, he should go for the primaries and prove himself to the people. And you cannot trace any genuine reason he is leaving PDP. That is why I believe that it may be a game plan. Look at the issue of Nuhu Ribadu last time; he pretended that he was actually the flag bearer of CAN then, but the way he behaved after the whole exercise shows that he was being used by the PDP. He was not sincere with ACN. Some of them moving from one party to the other in my view, art to go and obtain information for the parties the pretend to be dumping. You move to APC today, tomorrow PDP; that doesn’t show they are serious nor are they trustworthy; if you are with them, you must hide some facts from them. The moment he picks the ticket, he may; oh! I am no longer for you; I am going back to my party. And by this time, he would have gone deep into their secret which he might report back to whoever was fronting him.

Now that you have mentioned Tambuwal, the issue is, considering that in Nigeria one wins election on party platform rather than on independent candidacy, should he retain his seat or should it be declared vacant before the expiration of his four-year term?

The law is very clear on that; once a member defects to another party from the one that provided him the platform on which he won an election before the expiration of his tenure, he automatically loses his seat in the house; It is a constitutional provision. In the case of the Speaker, the house has to meet and declare the seat vacant. In this case, they did not do it; they ought to follow due process of the law and suspend him from the activities of the House. But removing all his security aids and others just like that, is wrong because, is like placing the cart before the horse, and illegal. As it presently, he is still presumed to be there because, they have not declared his seat vacant; they have not informed the constituency he is representing that nobody they have no representative now; unless that is done, he is still there. The moment he stated that he was no longer a member of PDP, the House would have reconvened; informed his constituency with conduct of a by-election to replace him. But that was not done and that is why he rushed to the court to prove them wrong. You know that government does things in a hurry and as soon they realize the consequences of their action, they start reversing. Now the House is on recess and every seat is vacant and until they return Tambuwal is still a member of the House. The National Assembly is a company formed by the electorate, but the painful part that I keep lamenting about is the lack of transparency. We are the chairman/managing director of the company; we don’t know how much they are receiving as salary; we don’t know the allowances given to them; we only say that power belongs to us; where is the power now that belongs to the electorate? I also think that the problem we have in this country is we lawyers and journalists, why? One the electorate is yet to be made to know adequately they have the power to recall their representative if he is failing in his mandate to properly represent them. This is in section 119  and … of the Constitution for the National Assembly and State Assembly respectively. But if we were up to gate in public enlightenment on this issue such that the electorate will be made conscious of the fact that the power they are using is ours, probably things could have different. Nobody will start raising their shoulders simply because they are Honourable, because they can be removed any time; it’s just two-thirds majority registered voters in that constituency.

Given that even when people have every good reason to seek legal redress for being wronged in Nigeria they shy away from doing so, would you not say it is the Nigerian attitude?

It is the Nigerian way of life which we must all change. In those days, an Ibo man coming to Lagos for business would look put =N=5 million in his body; hop into a luxury bus; can you see the folly there? But now, you are going; your account details intact; you buy everything; you instruct the bank to transfer money into the relevant account. That is change which seemed impossible. So also, we should be growing politically; we in the media and the bar should show example and others will follow. Prior to my taking LASTMA to court, nobody ever thought that could happen; LASTMA, Road Safety, VIO; none of them has the power of imposing fine on suspected traffic offender. They can only give you Offence Notification and date that you will be taken to court; even if it is mobile court, yes. That will afford you the opportunity to say whatever happened. Failure to do that, they are denying you your right of being heard, and they are becoming judge in their own case because they belong to the executive arm and they cannot take over the duties of the judiciary clearly spelt out in section 6 of the 1999 Constitution. That is why they ruled against Road Safety at Ikoyi just recently that they have no power to impose fine and warded =N= 1 million damages to the plaintiff who is a lawyer. By the time the lawyers make moves to correct these wrongs on a daily basis, we will be there very soon.

How far have gone with your case against LASTMA?

The case is at the level of appeal and is coming up on the 11^th of November (last Tuesday). They have filed their brief but there is an error of which I have informed the court. But they did not take steps to regularize that item. But on the day of adjournment, I will still continue with the case. I believe by the grace of God, the Court of Appeal will not behave like the lower court.

As a judicial officer, in your opinion how would you describe our judicial process in terms of delayed or quick delivery of justice?

The problem of the judiciary as it is caused by all of us; grouped as follows, the lawyers, supporting staff, the court itself and the society at large. The supporting staff and some lawyers will know that a case is not supposed to come to court, will bring it and start bringing in technicality; tomorrow, next and the days ahead it is adjournment. And this is why the people lose confidence in going to seek redress in the courts. A matter that will take a traditional ruler a day, the court will have it linger for 15 years. Meanwhile, the judicial staff at times engage in some roles that mislead the magistrate or the judge. Some can go as far as removing some documents from the file. We just concluded on recently where a file was missing and after series of petitions the file has resurfaced and reassigned to the former magistrate at Igbosere Magistrate Court. Anybody who has passed through that will not like to go to court.