PDP May Not Offer Active Opposition

…Barr. Etiaba

Barrister Emeka Etiaba was a governorship aspirant for Anambra State on the platform of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) in the 2010 gubernatorial polls in the state. The son of erstwhile deputy governor of Anambra State, Dame Virgy Etiaba in this interview with Uzo Chikere, talks about the just concluded elections and expectations from the in-coming administration at the centre. Excerpts:  

What is your assessment of the just concluded 2015 polls?

I will prefer to do the assessment in two over views: the global one that is Nigeria as a whole and the other one is my own constituency, Nnewi constituency in Anambra state.  The global, I give us a pass mark. I think we have done very well because we have been able to move from one elected government to another and we have been able to at least on our own effect a change of leadership in Nigeria without the barrel of the gun. So to that effect I say we did well. We did well because, especially, that the president (Goodluck Jonathan) conceded defeat and having conceded defeat anybody who says he is fighting on his behalf would have been wasting his time, so everybody conformed. I must tell you that on a global note we did well and it is worth commending.

But with regards to my own constituency, Nnewi, I can tell you that we are far from it. We are far from it because I only hear people talk about usage of the card reader but in my constituency it was not even used, nobody made pretences that it was to be used. I hear in some places they were but not in Nnewi.  Secondly and sadly too, it is becoming increasingly difficult to have the best candidates win election especially in my own constituency also because it’s all about the amount of money that you share.  It’s in your ability to buy the votes. The election here is always won by the highest bidder. You pay for each vote you obtain. If you see what happens there you will simply ask yourself: Is this election is all about? Can very good candidates who do not have money really make it? It is very difficult but we will continue to push through. We have gone back to the era of godfatherism where people now sponsor people because somebody has to bring out money. So in sum on a global note we did well as I said earlier but talking about my own constituency where I voted and I superintended I found out that we are miles away from it. Of course there was no violence in my constituency, there couldn’t have been but on the whole you know there were some flashpoints like in Rivers State, Cross River, Ebonyi etc. where there were recorded violence but we thank God that contrary to the predictions of some pessimists we are still together as a country and we are moving forward.

Can there be any lesson to be learnt on the loss of the PDP at the centre?

The lesson is that everybody now knows that if you are at the helm of affairs you really have to work hard to make sure that after four years you are not disgraced out or replaced by the people. The loss of power by the PDP also gives hope to Nigerians that we can really effect change. But one may ask: Why did the PDP lose? The answer is very simple? It wasn’t much of non-delivery of dividends of democracy. No. it was because certain questions were unanswered: They were majorly issues of security; issues of corruption and APC were smart enough to narrow their campaign issues to corruption and insecurity. If they didn’t do that, maybe President Jonathan wouldn’t have lost because based on infrastructural development the government has not done badly.

Do you see the PDP playing active opposition role?

PDP may not but God will always bring up people that will do that. Remember that the people that played active role in the APC, over 70 percent are from the PDP. As the game goes on with Buhari and his government you will still see one or two or more disenchanted people now moving out again to be on the other side. PDP at the onset may not be able to do it but as time goes on they will gather moss and will be able to offer the opposition that we need.  

Most Nigerians believe that Boko Haram is a political weapon used by the North to distract Jonathan and by extension pressured him out of power. Do you share in such sentiment?

If that is the case we will soon find out whether Boko Haram will continue after Jonathan. Of course Boko Haram has always been there but they got out of hand under Jonathan probably because they were being treated with kid’s glove. Again it depends on how you look at Boko Haram. If from the on-set Jonathan decided to eradicate every Boko Haram-looking man or woman in the North what the people from the North will say is that its genocide, probably that was why he slowed down from being harshly decisive on them. But now that a Northerner will be at the helm of affairs we will see how the reaction will be.

Where does the present political configuration leave Ndigbo?

It does not leave Ndigbo in a comfortable place but also remember that the out-going government at the national level also did not leave the Yoruba’s in a comfortable place and the Yoruba’s fought hard and with the collaboration they formed with the North, that is where power resides today. Definitely the Igbo will not be able to occupy the position of President, VP, senate president, Speaker House of Representatives because they don’t even have elected officers on the APC platform. But when people blame Ndigbo for political naivety I laugh because it is not quite like that. Though, we are republicans, masters of our own opinion the truth about it is that the Igbo man had a reason to support the South-South Presidential bid of Jonathan because of our antecedents. Igbo man needed to play the fool because before now, before Jonathan the saying was that the Igbo man was the one that let the South-South man down years past when they had political collaboration so we needed to now play the fool and that fool we have played. Time goes on, even if the Igbo man is not favoured in this government which I do not believe will be the case, we will still need to fight another day because no group can joke with Ndigbo in this country. If you do you will be disappointed because they are a great people by every standard.

Do you see Buhari as having the stamina to fight corruption?

If there is anybody among the political gladiators who has created the impression that he can fight corruption it’s Buhari. Everybody knows that he is not given to so much opulence and greed. Nigerians know his antecedents under the military and I don’t think he has changed.

Will you say the election was free, fair and credible?

We have gone beyond that. We have an election that has produced people that will run the affairs of the country for another four years and we are not fighting as a nation. My opinion as to whether it was fair and credible the truth about it is that I don’t particularly believe that it was fair; it may have been free but may not have been fair because if you look at certain parts of the country you realise that there were petitions written about many under-aged voters; card reader not used in most areas while in some areas there was a stiffer application of the card reader rule. So whether it was free I don’t have a doubt but fair? I don’t think it was fair.