One year after: Nigeria currently passing through credibility issues of 2023 presidential election, says Chief Ameh

,..Says countries abreast with true situation capitalising on polls’ legitimacy, credibility to undermine Nigeria
….Adds Tinubu always prepared for the office but overwhelmed by Buhari’s unprecedented failures, corruption
…Says outcome of Edo APC governorship primary shows nothing good can come out of the party

By Chris Ochayi

High Chief Peter Ojonugwa Ameh, a former presidential candidate under the defunct Progressives Peoples Alliance, PPA, in the 2015 general elections, in this interview x-rays the events that characterized the conduct of the 2023 general election, one year after the election adjudged to be most controversial in the history of presidential polls in Nigeria, was conducted.

Ameh, who was also the National Chairman of PPA and two terms National President of Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, also accused the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, of deviating from all the assurances contained in the 2022 Electoral Act and INEC guidelines, such as the accreditation of voters through the means of BVAS, and real-time uploading of results from polling units to the IREv.

Currently the National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, the main opposition voice in the country, Chief Ameh spoke on other burning issues of national importance such as calls for reversal of fuel subsidy removal, hyperinflation, crisis in the Labour Party and APC’s conduct of its governorship primary in Edo State twice.

By Chris Ochayi

February 25 marked one year after the presidential election that brought President Bola Tinubu to power. What is your take on the outcome of that election one year after? Any lessons learned? What is the way forward for Nigeria going forward in terms of conducting elections?

The 2023 presidential election conducted by INEC was simply an electoral smash and grab that was validated by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.

Recall that in the run up to the election, all the assurances contained in the 2022 Electoral Act and INEC guidelines, such as the accreditation of voters through the means of BVAS, and real-time uploading of results from the polling units to the IREV through the same BVAS were rather observed in breach by the Commission.

Recall also that the fiercely disputed results of the presidential election of 2023 came with many fallouts, especially when what was speculated, and believed to be the true results that were warehoused in the electronic server of a foreign entity, were already known to the leading countries, thereby leading to credibility issues that our nation is currently passing through.

Our government is only trying to be subservient to those countries may only come as a temporary relief, but the fact remains that those other nations are capitalising on this legitimacy and credibility situation to undermine our nation to the extent that a war with Niger Republic was narrowly averted.
The current economic hardships our country is facing also stem from the legitimacy crisis that arose from the presidential election. Our government has not been able to summon the courage to say no to the biddings of the Bretton Woods institutions, which has led to the removal of whatever little and rare welfare services the poor gets from the government in the name of fuel subsidy.

It is our hope that going forward, the Electoral Management Body (INEC), amongst others, should be able to maintain its independence by being neutral and unbiased in the discharge of its mandate.

Also, the laws setting up INEC should be looked at, and where necessary amended to insulate it from the interference of the executive branch of government by the removal of the appointment of the Chairman, National Commissioners, and Resident Electoral Commissioners from the hands of the president.

The Electoral Act should also be amended to make it mandatory that electronic transfer of results be the norm and in any conflict with manually tallied result, the electronically tallied result in the IREV will take precedence.

Nine months after the removal of fuel subsidy by President Tinubu, the nation is now experiencing hyperinflation with NECA and Oil Marketers calling for review of fuel subsidy removal and floatation of the naira. Do you agree with this call?

I do not really think that the government will reverse the removal of fuel subsidy and nairn floatation because of the government being beholden to the Bretton Wood institutions. Recall the controversies that trailed the emergence of candidate Tinubu as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Remember the messy Court litigation that followed ath the election petition tribunals, most especially, the certificate scandals. Those countries with the biggest stake in World Bank and IMF may never endorse the reversal of the these two policies no matter how harsh and hard they are on us, the citizens of Nigeria.

Was Tinubu prepared for the presidency, or has he been overwhelmed

You are talking about the grab 2023 presidential election, There is this biblical quote that says, “He who plans evil shall see destruction waiting for him at his doorstep.” I remember that in 2012 when President Goodluck was in power, there was this attempt to remove the fuel subsidy which was vehemently and fiercely resisted by Ex Governor Tinubu as he then was and others including Prof. Wole Soyinka, Gen. Buhari, as he then was, and others.

There was also this conspiracy of the elites, especially the northern elements led by former Governor El Rufai, Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar Atiku, etc in collaboration with their southwest partners to remove President Goodluck.

At that time. Life in Nigeria was still bearable to the ordinary Nigerian. Except the Boko Haram menace in Borno and Yobe States which was also encouraged by these elements to help make Goodluck’s government ungovernable and normal sundry criminality here and there.

Fast forward to 2015 and beyond, Nigeria has become like hell on earth, killings and bloodletting have become our new normal. The humanity in us has been benumbed. We hardly shudder anymore at the mention of more than one hundred and fifty persons killed in a single night.

The APC government that President Tinubu brought to power in 2015 brought with it sorrow and tears. Hardship became the order of the day, coupled with rising inflation. Corruption which was in single digit under Jonathan rose to close to triple digits inder Buhari.

And now Tinubu has taken the helm of affairs, the situation has not improved and is not improving. It is getting worse by the day, and exchange rate of the naira to the dollar nearing two thousand naira to the dollar. President Tinubu has always been prepared for the office.

The performance of his predecessor in office was so dreadful and appalling that he has been reputed to be the president that has superintendent the most corrupt and provincial government in the history of Nigeria, mortgaging our future and going home with whatever that would have survived us in the present. The second reason is the law of karma and retribution which is playing a part in the happenings now because of the ignoble role President Tinubu played in 2012 and beyond.

Do you think creation of state police is panacea to the security challenges facing the nation?

Let us begin on the premise that every crime is local, the law preventing such crime and their enforcement should be local too. The challenges are local and thus require local solutions. I am of the opinion that state police should be the starting point for restructuring of the country.

Nigeria has been yearning for this in the last fifty-four years. The centralisation of authority as a result of the unitary federalism that was forcefully imposed on us by the military both before and in the 1999 constitution as Amended has resulted to the stunted economic and democratic growth of Nigeria, but also in the insecurity that has enveloped the country.

I feel that with the introduction of state police, the locals and indigenes who will constitute one hundred per cent of the force will fully and faithfully take custody and the fate of their locality and state into their hands by ensuring that no criminal entity from within and without the locality and state are given any breathing space, and the idea of waiting for order or permission from Abuja before major operations are carried out will come to an end.

Too much hunger and poverty in the land, where did we get it wrong.

The hunger and starvation ravaging our land did not start today.
The genesis could be traced to 2015 when President Buhari, as he then was, assisted by the current President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu , ascended to power under the platform of APC.

The then President Buhari came with a hateful and vengeful mind and attitude, consigning whatever thing that was good from the outgone PDP government into the trash can.

He imposed his provincial and religiously bigoted bent on the nation, alienating a majority of the citizens from participating in Nigeria’s affairs, elevating nepotism to an art, elevating the rights of animals such as cows and rams herded by his fulani kinsmen way and beyond the constitutionally and God given rights of ordinary Nigerian.

Herders/farmers clashes became the new normal, and killer herdsmen were literally given the marching orders to go, conquer, and occupy the Middle Belt region including Southern Kaduna, Taraba state, which are reputed and recognised as the food basket of the nation, and the forest Southern Nigeria.

These areas became afflicted with unending killings and bloodletting. Farmers who hitherto depend on agriculture for their livelihoods were either killed, kidnapped for ransom, or forcefully removed from their ancestral inheritance by these cold blooded murderers.

With the above violent setting orchestrated by President Buhari, coupled with the desertification that had ravaged the far north, farmers, both commercial and subsistence farmers, were driven out of their vocation, leading to low output in production thus necessitating the astronomical rise in the cost of agricultural products which has gone beyond the purchasing power of both the average and unaverage Nigerian, and now recently excercerbated by the now famous “subsidy is gone” that has pushed the cost of goods and services to levels that are pushing Nigerians to great beyond prematurely.

APC ran into quagmire with the conduct of its Edo State governorship primary twice, any lesson learnt?

Can anything good come out of Nazareth. This can also be translated to “Can anything good come out of APC”. APC has become like an affliction sent to Nigeria to punish us for not being able to recognize what was best for us.

Like in the bible where the Israelites asked Prophet Samuel for a king that would rule that like other nations, we asked that President Jonathan, a gentleman with democratic ideals be pushed aside in favour of a northern irredentist and revisionist dictator who never took responsibility for his acts of omissions and commission.

To answer your question, the Edo APC primary has shown that internal party democracy which is the bedrock on which a political party is built is non-existent in APC, and therefore, it cannot give what it does not have. Remember that where there are too many godfathers in a setting, the Edo situation must surely arise.

The party is lucky that they have an experienced and smart National Chairman who advisedly declared the primary inconclusive, otherwise, they would have been out of the ballot of the Edo state 2024 governorship election as a result of breaching the venue principle of the Electoral Act, 2022.

What’s your take in current crisis rocking the soul of Labour Party?

Internal conflict is not peculiar to Labour Party alone and these can be resolved with proper application of internal party democratic processes through the use of appropriate Party organs and the inability to manage the internal affairs in an inclusive manner is most evident in the crisis that we have seen so far.

It is no news to you and many Nigerians that Mr. Peter Obi is the force behind the growth and popularity that Labour Party enjoys today and he got this love because of his leadership qualities i.e competence,accountability and honesty towards the management of public funds and the general warfare of the people.