Akinyelure: Nigeria Can’t Afford Another Poll Shift
Chief Pius Akinyelure, a former Executive Director at Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc, is the Vice Chairman, South-west of the All Progressives Congress. In this interview with Gboyega Akinsanmi, he spoke on issues bordering on the rescheduled general election. Exc
Prof. Attahiru Jega recently told the Senate that he could not guarantee elections would hold as rescheduled. What does this portend for Nigeria? If he says he cannot guarantee elections, who else is going to guarantee elections? Is he talking about his ability to conduct credible elections or it is about the security aspect of the elections? If he is talking about the security aspect of the elections, we know whose responsibility it is to guarantee the safety and security of people and properties in this country. It is the duty of the Nigeria Police to guarantee security of lives and properties in this country. It has already been established that the military has no role during elections. So, we have to rely on the Nigeria Police to maintain law and order around polling units and during elections. There is a court judgment that outlaws the use of military for elections. But if the president goes ahead to use the military, what will the APC do? Well, the situation is clear. The court has already decided that military officers should not be found around polling units. The court did not say the military should not do their jobs as contained in the constitution. But they should not participate in elections neither should they be used as law-enforcing agents around polling units and stations. This is the responsibility of the Nigeria Police and not the Nigeria Armed Forces. That does not mean the military will not continue to do their jobs to protect lives and properties in the country. Recently, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone II, Mr. Joseph Mbu was quoted as saying for every policeman killed during elections, twenty persons would be killed in place. Are you concerned about such a statement? For me, that is a very reckless statement. I feel happy that the Inspector-General of Police issued a statement the following day that the police have the responsibility to protect the citizens and will not recklessly use firearms against the public. The IGP is the overall head of the Nigeria Police. So, I will believe him more than I believe Mbu. Mbu is just reckless. We, as a party, do not have control over how police officers are posted. But we will insist law enforcement agents do their jobs according to the constitution and other pertinent laws. Everyone is free to join any party of his/her choice. What is important to us is to be able to reach out to the electorate and tell them what we intend to do for them. We premised our campaign on issues. What is it that is wrong with our society? We tell them how we intend to correct what is wrong with our society. If they believe in it, they will definitely join us and effect the change we are all looking for.
We believe there is time for change in the way we do things. We can count one after the other. There is need for improvements here and there. And that aspect of improvement is what we want to pursue to ensure Nigerians get better things than what they are getting now from the federal government under the Peoples Democratic Party. In the distribution of the PVCs, South-west is the least of the geo-political zones. This means a good number of voters will be disenfranchised. How have you been bridging the gap? In Ondo State, we are going house-to-house to visit our members to find out who among them have not collected their PVCs. If we see any of them, we encourage them to go and collect it. If it is a question of not having money to travel to where they register, we have to work out logistics to enable them collect their PVCs. We do the best we can to assist them. The important thing is that we are creating awareness and sensitizing them on the significance of the PVCs.
Whatever they require to collect it, we would provide it just to ensure our party members get their PVCs. We do the same thing in other South-West states. We are encouraging our members, visiting them, talking to them, finding out who has not collected and working arrangement for them on how they can collect their PVCs. I do not see any other way to do. Are you concerned about reports that the rescheduled elections may not hold? The reports have not been confirmed. People are just guessing. We believe election must hold on March 28 for presidential race and April 11 for governorship contest. Change of power cannot exceed May 29. To go beyond that will create constitutional crisis, which I believe Nigeria cannot afford at this time. I believe everyone is concerned with the holding of elections because of the roles of international community. All stakeholders will make sure that the elections will hold as scheduled.
With the collection of PVCs, averagely, about 80 per cent of registered voters have collected now. That is good news. Even if 100 per cent collected, only 30 percent comes to vote. There is nothing you can do about it. The result is based on people who participated in the voting and not on the number of people who have PVCs. Apart from having PVCs, people have to be encouraged on the day of the elections to come out and vote.
There should be no impediment. There should be no harassment. There should be no arrest of opposition members as it happened in Ekiti and Osun States. We can prevent this by educating our people and making them to know all these things. Once they insist on their rights, for me that will be a great improvement. People should not be docile. It is our constitutional rights to exercise our franchise. With the way things are – what are your expectations in the South-west and by extension Nigeria? From what we can see so far, we believe APC will win in the South-west convincingly. Everything is looking good. In Oyo, we are okay. In Lagos, we are alright. In Osun, we are doing fine. In Ekiti, things are taking up. In Ondo, things are taking shape because of the rift between two factions of the Peoples Democratic Party. At the end of the day, we believe we will win convincingly.