Presidential Election: What Peace Committee told Jonathan, Buhari - Cardinal Onaiyekan
Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja diocese, is a member of the Peace Committee, comprising respected Nigerians, which was put in place in the build- up to the 2015 elections. In this exclusive interview, Cardinal Onaiyekan gave an i
What was the idea behind the peace committee and what was its membership like?
This is one of those things that just happened and unless you believe in God who directs human affairs you might be wondering how it happened. The Abuja Accord was brokered by President Jonathan himself because it was the Senior Adviser on Inter-Parliamentary Affairs, Chief Ben Obi, who anchored the whole arrangement of that meeting in January at which Kofi Annan and others were present.
That meeting was held a few days before the earlier scheduled date of February 14 for the elections. We just saw the group on television when they met and made that accord, which was signed not only by Jonathan and Buhari but by about eight or seven other presumed presidential candidates. Part of the accord called for a committee of credible and respected Nigerians who would help the group to maintain the letter and spirit of the accord. Then Mr Ben Obi, who has not been given enough credit for the work he did, was the one that went around looking for a few people and he came here to request if we could join that committee. I didn’t know how General Abdulsalami Abubakar and Admiral Ukiwe also got drafted into the committee, but at the end of the day Abdulsalami was the chairman, while Ukiwe was the vice chairman. The rest were drawn from different groups.
At the beginning, we were many but as time went on some people had reasons to be busy doing other things, especially when the election was postponed and the postponement itself simply reduced the sense of urgency, since there were six more weeks. However, a few of us continued to meet regularly and even the postponement of the election had generated its own controversy. We held meetings to discuss it and the service chiefs were invited to some of our meetings. At a time, even Professor Jega himself was present at our meetings and, at times, when these people were not around they sent representatives. The purpose of the committee was precisely to help sustain the letter and spirit of the Abuja Accord, to get the contestants to campaign in a civil way (I am not sure we succeeded in that) and above all that the election should be free and fair and violence-free. I did
remember when we were trying to draw the terms of reference of our committee. The main opposition party-the APC-was the one that insisted that we should not only call on the contesting parties to behave well but also include responsibility of the institutions of state that are supposed to guarantee the free, fair and violence-free election. They specifically said we must include in our work the responsibility of INEC and of the security agencies, namely soldiers, police, SSS and others and maybe add a little bit of the judiciary. That way the whole picture would be complete.
As the election eventually got closer and tension increased because of the inflammatory language we were getting from both sides of the political divide and it became clear that the contest was between these two people - Jonathan and Buhariour work became all the more necessary. This was why three days before the election we managed to call the two contestants together to remind them of what they did in January and asking them that even at that stage they should face Nigerians and make a statement of recommitment to peace and also to tell their followers to be committed to free, fair and credible elections. We drafted a statement on March 25 and they signed it, both of them. That document not only appealed to the two major contestants and leaders of their two groups but also to the agencies of government; that INEC should do all it could to enable them do their work without fear or favour and that the security agencies should play according to the constitution without partiality.
You would also understand that this insistence on the agencies of government is very significant by reason of the hindsight. The perception was very widely spread to the effect that whether it is INEC, army, police and others, they are all agencies of government and therefore, there is a tendency for them to operate in such a way as not to put the government of the day at a disadvantage. Which means being neutral and impartial became very difficult in the PDP government and the whole problem was how do you make sure that institutions that are under the control of the PDP government will operate in such a way that they do not work against the interest of the opposition? In previous elections, there was no guarantee of that, even the posting of police commissioners very often was done just a day before the elections and it seemed obvious that the postings were done specifically to put the right people in the right places in order to get a particular job done. Even the INEC structure itself was such that if they didn’t themselves go into rigging they very often stood by and allowed rigging. This was one of the new things that came out during this election; this emphasis on government institutions.
There was the joint appeal for the institutions to be allowed to do their work according to the constitution and it was wonderful. We do believe that that particular pre-election declaration and accord made quite an impact to calm nerves because before then we reminded the two of them about the tension out there; the mass movement of people from one place to the other to their home towns where they considered that they could be safe, meaning there was a perception of impending grave danger and we must do something about it.
That was how the pre-election accord came about. Of course, after doing that we had to wait for the election itself to take place by watching what was happening. Again, the good thing with the committee is that for the first time in the history of elections in Nigeria we had a group that sat there ready, a group that was not just that of monitors and observers but one that was there and somehow acquired an amount of authority - moral authority - and was making it available to intervene. It became obvious that without that kind of a group there was such distrust between the two parties.
What specific issues of concern were you discussing with Jonathan and Buhari during your meetings with them?
We were simply reminding them of the accord they had signed in January. But we also highlighted to them what we were seeing that was giving us cause for concern, particularly the tone and quality of their campaign exchanges. Naturally, both of them were defending themselves or accusing the other. For example, the APC was accusing the PDP of really planning to cause trouble if they did not win the election, that the PDP was putting all kinds of obstacles in the way of the electoral process. The APC was quoting all kinds of rumours which they claimed were being peddled by the PDP.
For example, the rumour about the sacking of the INEC chairman, that of an alleged interim government and even the one that the PDP was preparing for a military takeover. These were being canvassed by the APC and they were saying it in such a way that they took it seriously. Then, when we went to Jonathan, his position was that the APC was going around with the impression that they had already won the election, therefore, if anything should happen and the Nigerian people voted against the party, they (the APC) were already preparing the ground for their supporters to claim that the election had been rigged and that this was not correct. I remember President Jonathan saying “we are neck and neck” which was significant because neither Fani Kayode nor Fayose was talking in terms of neck and neck; rather they were claiming victory for the PDP. But President Jonathan was quite sober about the matter, insisting that they should allow the process to go on for Nigerians to decide.
I must say this is the first election I have seen that it was the ruling party that was complaining about the electoral umpire, and the situation whereby the opposition was the one defending the electoral body and its chairman. So something special had happened there and in my own opinion it was also positive because one of the things I do hope Buhari government will look into is the law that guides INEC, the law that determines how it is formed and how it operates in such a way as to plug all the holes that may make its independence really guaranteed. For as long as INEC depends on the government for its budgets you wonder how truly independent it is. We were even told, for example, that procurements by INEC had to pass through the government processes, which means that at the end of the day, they are still under government control. This means the INEC chairman cannot decide who his contractors would be, for example, and we do know that in this matter of government contractors there are government contractors. They should put something new in the electoral law, such that the INEC is made up of a very powerful independent committee that is not made up of government appointees but people who are impartial. In some countries, they work out a formula whereby all political parties are represented, but this is not the case with Nigeria.
By the way, the two accusations from both sides we repeated to the candidates and both of them denied it. The APC said they were not planning to cause confusion; it was the PDP that was planning to do so. Jonathan on his part asked, “am I a mad person to create a problem that will destroy all I have done in the past six years”? He said he too had heard such rumours but they were mere rumours and he didn’t know why they were carrying them around. But when they were both together I remember I was the one who told them they shouldn’t forget what people were talking about now. It is out there in the public domain and many have not only heard and read about them but many believed it; many had made up their minds and attitudes with respect to the rumours. Therefore, it would be good if the two of them would come out and dispute these rumours in order to douse tension.
At a point former South African President Thabo Mbeki was also involved in the peace process. What role did he play?
Thabo Mbeki’s initiative was quite different from our own committee. It was not only Thabo Mbeki but also the African Union, which had a very high-powered observer group, and ECOWAS. Of course, the European Union had already delivered their interim report to Mr. President. For the Americans they operated under the umbrella of two organizations: the National Democratic Institute and the IRI. Both of them even joined hands to cover the elections. Each of them did its own work, but I must say that their roles were not the same as that of the peace committee, in the sense that we were involved as Nigerians, talking to our own people in the interest of our nation, while these others were foreigners who were here to encourage us to do things properly. You might ask if the AU has any credentials to do this because within the AU are many dictators who have never allowed free and fair elections in their own countries (laughter…)
We understood you were with President Jonathan when the results were trickling in. If, indeed, you were with him what was your reading of his mood?
No, I was not there. We met on Sunday. A meeting was called for four o’ clock on that Sunday but by the time I left my room here there were about six more states to be declared. Apart from the fact that we already had the results as collated by the social media up to the last vote, we were comparing and the results that were being presented were
We do believe that that particular pre-election
declaration and accord made quite an impact to calm nerves because before then we
reminded the two of them about the tension out there; the mass movement of people from one place to the other to their home towns where they considered that they could be safe; meaning there was a perception
of impending grave danger and we must do
something about it
exactly the same as what had been tallied before by different organizations. So by the time I left my house here we already had a clear picture that Buhari had won this election.
Apart from that, from even the ones that had been brought in and were being reported, Buhari was leading with almost six million and the six states left were such that at most they would just cancel out each other. So we started our meeting at pm and by the time we left it was obvious that the election had been won by Buhari. But the meeting was called to see whether we could do something while these results were coming out and to see whether we could see the two parties to make some general intervention to ask people to keep cool. While we were doing that there was a little debate as to whether we should wait for the results to be fully completed; some said no’, if we waited it might be too late. I was personally talking in terms of logistics, and that as we were seated there and Jega was about to finish his work and that from what we could see there was no point pretending about the winner of the election. Unless there was a major upheaval we could not see how the PDP could win the election. So I said we better take it for granted that Buhari had won and begin to determine what to do now that the election was over.
We were still arguing as to whether to go and tell Jonathan that he had lost when Jega had not declared it or to go to Buhari and said he had won the election when it was yet to be declared; that what kind of peace committee are we? Do we, therefore, disperse and go home to come back in the evening? We were still on this debate when eneral Abdulsalami phoned Buhari to ask if it was possible for us to meet them within the next few hours by which time the results would have been out. The idea was that even if there was going to be any problem immediately after the election if we saw them at that time we would be able to offer our suggestions.
It was in that phone call which took place around 5: pm that Buhari himself told Abdulsalami who kept his phone on loud speaker that he had just received a phone call from Mr. President conceding defeat and congratulating him. The whole group then rose up, everybody shouting to od how wonderful it was From that point on our job was easier and clear. We immediately reached out to the illa to see Mr. President, this time to thank him, and we did see him that evening. The whole purpose was to thank him for what he had done and eneral Abdulsalami spoke to him in a very fatherly manner, while each of us took turns to assure him that what he had done had changed the game of politics in Nigeria and his name will be written in letters of gold.
At that point, we left him and immediately the press came in and waited for us outside. That was when we had that press conference by Abdulsalami - with photographs. From there we went straight to obito Crescent, Buhari’s campaign headquarters, but it was crowded with cars and the young supporters of APC who were there with brooms all over the place, chanting. In fact, we needed security men to put us through the crowd to enter the house where we also met Buhari and while we were there, Osinbajo arrived too. In the case of Buhari we congratulated him on his victory and gave him some bit of advice that, henceforth, he was no longer the APC candidate but the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. President, not only of the 5 million Nigerians that voted for him but also of the 2 million who did not vote for him. We also reminded him of the need to tackle certain standing issues quickly with a new approach in order to achieve the change that was the main thrust of their campaign. Each one of us was raising a particular area of concern. Our chairman, Abdulsalami, spoke generally and also mentioned the importance of security. Dangote, of course, spoke on the economic situation, how the whole international financial community was watching what would happen and how he believed the present situation would open the gate for investors to come into the country where they will no longer be afraid of chaos.
Some people spoke about corruption and I had the opportunity to stress on the area of cohesion, that the campaigns had done a lot to polarize Nigeria along ethnic lines, North-South line, Christians- Muslim lines and the need for the new government to go out of its way to bring Nigerians together so that we can face our problems together. I even went ahead to remind the President-elect that I hope he was aware that during the campaigns, a lot of lies were told about him, one of which being that if he became president he would Islamize the whole of Nigeria. Therefore, now he had a golden opportunity to prove them wrong and I told him Nigeria was well-placed to give examples to the rest of the world that Christians and Muslims can live together in peace, respecting one another.
In the course of working on the peace committee, were you at any point in time under any pressure to act in a particular way?
No The only pressure we had was that of the anxieties that were all over the place, which we shared with all Nigerians. We did not apply for the job, we went in freely when we were contacted and we were not appointed by government, neither did we have any financial backing, not even allowances. et me put the thing this way: I worked the way I worked on that group, I have been here all along during all the elections and all the periods of crisis in this country and one thing that had always struck me is that we suddenly found our nation in turmoil; sometimes in crisis you find terrible riots where hundreds of people, sometimes thousands of people were killed and we were all angry about it. But there was always a sense of impotence, the inability to do something, so everybody sits in his house and keeps complaining, especially if you are not directly affected. But if you are directly affected, you would pack your load and children and run away. But we never really got any group that said, no, we must do something, we cannot just sit down and watch’. Therefore, I saw this committee as a wonderful opportunity for me to finally not just to sit down, watch and just pray and hope for the best but to be actually part of a proactive initiative. I believe others who were in the group did well for the same reason; some of them were living in agos but they always went through the whole wahala’ of waiting at the airport to travel down to Abuja.
If the outcome of this election had turned out the other way, did you foresee the possibility of violence?
It depends. If the APC had lost there were two scenarios: if they were declared losers through a manipulation and perversion of the electoral process, it would have been extremely difficult to get APC supporters, especially in the north to simply see it as the work of od. And it might have been quite difficult for even Buhari to come out and say he accepted this result; it was unlikely he would have accepted it if he was convinced that he was robbed of victory. But if everything was transparent, as it is, as we think it was to a large extent and it becomes clear (as the social media was also keeping the records) and they came out to show that the PDP had won the election, my feeling is that Buhari would have respected the results and he would have equally made the kind of gesture that Jonathan did. Whether that would have been enough to guarantee peace and stability all over the North, that is something I cannot say. But obviously if APC had lost, it would have been more problematic. By the way, we are hearing that apart from thumb-printing going on in the south, places where PDP was totally in charge and overwhelmed everybody, there were also places in the north where we had allegations of long lines of almajiris going to vote with P C cards. So there had been some elements of rigging on both sides, but I think the massive kind of rigging that we used to have was not the case this time around.
What would you consider to be the greatest achievements of your peace committee?
This is the kind of question I prefer other people to answer, but let me say that we had a purpose, an aim and objective; we pursued that objective with a single heart and might and od blessed our effort. In other words, it is not the committee that can say they really did everything, they only facilitated. If the two contestants did not cooperate, we did not have a way of forcing them. For example, we couldn’t get the police to arrest them and bring them before us. If we were judges, we could but we were not. We only invited them and they came.
So what are the lessons derived from the committee?
The lesson is that, and I hope Nigerians and politicians would accept the lesson, that at the end of the day the old adage that honesty is the best policy is still very true. That every effort made to have a free, fair election is, at the end of the day, in the best interest of everybody. We do hope that the tendency for those who are in power and in control to misuse their power in order to pervert the election process, thereby not allowing Nigerians to make their choice free and fairly is now gradually no longer the case. The fact is that when you have a government that is not based on a free and fair election, government has no moral authority and, therefore, cannot act efficiently. Second, because the people’s choice has not been respected, such a government is riddled with all kinds of characters who ought not to be there. The result is no matter how good the president is, he is saddled with a whole crowd of criminals and schemers, which is why you can find a very nice man as president and his government is rotten and he is unable to do anything.