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.
