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I have served- fortunately, in and out
of government under different
circumstances. But one of my most
memorable times in government was
actually not my time in Cross River, but
here in Abuja as a member of the
Economic Intelligence Committee. Now, I
will give you a background to this as we
lay the foundation as we go forward.
We had an instance. The National
Economic Intelligence Committee is a
body set up by the Federal Government to
snoop around, find out what is going
wrong in the economic management of
Nigeria and report directly to the
President or Head- of- State as it was
for appropriate action. We had-forgive
me if I call names because this is
actually a factual situation. We had a
situation once and this was in 1996 or
’97 where the then minister for works
decided he wanted to import bitumen for
road construction whereas we had huge
tanks filled with bitumen in Kaduna and
in fact, the Kaduna Refinery had stopped
producing because they had to evacuate
what they had otherwise they couldn’t
produce any longer. Bitumen is a bye
product of petroleum refining, it had
filled up and there was no place else to
dislodge it we couldn’t produce any more
the refining company had to stand still
because of that. But then, the minister
wanted to import bitumen. What was
shocking even further was that the
quality of bitumen he was attempting to
import was not of the standard required-
that can be changed anyway, but we had
better standard in Kaduna. We import
heavy crude at that time from Venezuela
and the Nigerian crude is mainly
light crude in other words, it doesn’t
give you a lot of bitumen. So, we import
heavy crude from Venezuela we pipe it
right down to Kaduna and refine it. And
he had written strong memos threatening
that he would not build roads. In other
words, he would not implement the budget
except he was allowed to import bitumen.
And we had written quite a robust memo
to the then Head –of- State, General
Abacha that it would be economically
suicidal for us to go on this way
generally importing anything that was
required whereas we have the capacity
and capability of producing these
things. So, the arguments raged back and
forth and you could see that the Head
–of-State himself had become a
prisoner of what was going on and he
couldn’t take a decision. Abacha
holding court with Diya and Abdulsalami
as courtiers
So, he decided to call a meeting of all
those who primarily use bitumen and
those who were responsible for producing
it. In other words, he called General
Buhari who was then Chairman of PTF, he
called the Minister for Petroleum, Don
Etete, the Executive GMD of the NNPC and
I think Engr. Bayero was his Group
Managing Director at the time. And of
course, at the National Economic
Intelligence Committee being chaired by
Professor Sam Aluko, myself because I
wrote the memo and did the investigation
and of course the Head-of-State, General
Abacha was flanked to his left by
General Abdulsalami and to his right by
General Diya and to- I can still see
them with my eyes on the right side
there was em, the minister for Words who
was General Adisa. I tried to leave that
to the last, it was just an eye opener
for me actually. And so, we made our
presentation and why we didn’t need to
import bitumen into the country. We
really had more than enough and PTF
which was then chaired by General Buhari,
was quite frustrated because they had
this arrangement where by they had this
arrangement that they had to go through
the Ministry of Works to get their
bitumen and he wasn’t getting bitumen
and they couldn’t do anything.
And the Minister for Works insisted that
they had to import bitumen and the
impression outside was that Abacha was
very stern, no nonsense but on this day,
he was like putty and there was General
Adisa throwing tantrums he was virtually
speaking in pidgin English: “I no go do
anything if you no allow me import this
thing oh.” He was doing it like a
child; you know I am not going to do
anything. He would lounge back at the
chair as if to say this was a sheer
waste of time inviting us here when the
General could just give instructions.
Who were these bloody civilians sitting
down here and telling us I couldn’t
import bitumen. And each time he
threw up a tantrum, Abacha would look at
him and say: “Adisa, cool down.” I
whispered to Prof. Aluko and said I
think, we are beyond our league here
there is something going on here. He
said, well, what ever it is, we will
know today anyway. In the course of the
discussion, it was heated the argument
wasn’t whether we should import or not,
it turned to Dan Ettete who had earlier
on submitted a memo to General Abacha
and there was a disparity in the price
of Bitumen. I think the price he had
quoted was much higher than what General
Adisa had quoted. Now, let us get this
in proper perspective. The argument
wasn’t whether we had Bitumen in Kaduna
now; the argument was between which
prices was better between the price
submitted by the minister of Petroleum
to import it and the price that the
Minister for Works had gotten.
DRAMA
At that point, General Abacha said to
Dan Ettete “Dan” he always calls his
Ministers by their first names. He
said “Dan, the price you’ve given me for
Bitumen is XYZ but the price I am
getting from Adisa is this, or am I
wrong?” Before Ettete could
answer, General Abdulsalami turned to
him and said “How can you be wrong,
sir?” You can’t be wrong, even if you
are wrong, you are right.” Then he
turned to his right and looked at
General Diya and said “Dipo” before he
asked Diya anything, he said: “Of
course, you are right sir.” Then
he (Abacha) turned round and looked at
Ettete and “So, what are you telling
me?” And Ettete stood up-
virtually on his knees and said, “I am
sorry sir.”
Well, I started this way because I
wanted to paint a picture of what is
wrong not with just the electoral
system, but with the entire system that
we run. So much authority is in the hands
of one person and so much responsibility
is expected of that person. Today,
reading a post script on Prof. Jega, no
one has said any negative that he is the
man. And every one is pleased about
that. But he has been handed a mission
impossible. My responsibility here is
perhaps to proffer some suggestions as
to how we can turn this mission
impossible to mission possible.
ON IWU
Let me start this way. Professor Maurice
Iwu is truly an enigma, he enjoyed the
limelight. He enjoyed all the attacks
that could be thrown and meted at him he
remained undaunted. I think, he belongs
to the School of thought that believes
that bad publicity is better than no
publicity. So, even though he was being
attacked and scolded and all sorts of
things were said about him, he didn’t
shy away from even going to the United
States and condemning the elections
talking to Nigerians in the Diaspora
about his work, he didn’t shy away from
it. I was told he organized a rally to
ensure that he will come back to do the
work he was appointed to. Why do I call
him an enigma? The truth is the Chairman
of the Independent National Electoral
Commission has little or no bearing on
the success of elections, that’s the
truth. To me, it’s actually immaterial
because he is head of the administration
he takes the brunt. The best he can do
is perhaps draws up a blue print but the
implementation of that blue print is
outside his control. So, if elections
are rigged in say -Taraba State- we
don’t do that stuff in Cross Rivers
State (laughter).
Every one looks at Iwu and he proudly
says we did this or that. Hogwash!
The election rigging process proper.
Let me now take you through the process
of an election. We have a hundred and
twenty thousand booths in Nigeria. At
the hierarchy, you have the Chairman of
the Independent National Electoral
Commission then you have the zonal
Commissioners,then you have the Resident
Electoral Commissioners and they are the
heads in every state the zonal as the
name implies are zonal heads you have
six zones in Nigeria, so you have six of
them. Then you have the Resident
Electoral Commissioner and there are 36
of them of course and Abuja. Then for
each local government, you have an
electoral officer. Beyond that you have
a hundred and twenty thousand polling
booths and they are headed by presiding
officers. The people think that at the
end of the elections the PDP would just
decide who wins and who doesn’t and
announces the results. I think the
process is a bit more sophisticated than
that.
Meet your REC:
This is what happens; the Resident
Electoral Commissioner is usually from
another state. The electoral officers,
they move around. They usually from that
state but for the conduct of elections
itself, you would probably move from
Cross River to Akwa Ibom or to Abia but
these musical chairs don’t mean nothing.
When the Resident Electoral Commissioner
comes before the elections are
conducted- of course when he comes to
the State usually, he has no
accommodation; monies have not been
released for the running or conduct of
the elections and all that because we
always start late. He pays a courtesy
call on the governor. It’s usually a
televised event you know, and of course
he says all the right things. Your
Excellency, I am here to ensure that we
have free and fair elections and I will
require your support. Now, At that
courtesy call, most governors at least I
did, will invite the Commissioner of
Police because he is part of the action
and he sits there.
One-on-One meeting
After the courtesy call, the Resident
Electoral Commissioner now moves in for
a one-on- one with the governor the
says, “Your Execellency, since I came,
I’ve been staying in this hotel, there
is no accommodation for me and even my
vehicle is broken down and the last
Commissioner didn’t leave the vehicle so
if you could help me settle down
quickly” and the governor says Chief of
Staff, where is the Chief of Staff here?
And the Chief of Staff appears. Governor
says: “Please ensure that the REC is
accommodated –put him in the
Presidential lodge, allot two cars to
him, I give you seven days to get this
done. Then the relationship has started
I am going to share some of these things
with you so that we don’t leave here
with any illusions. A lot of us folks
who have gone through an election or
have been elected for one thing or
another see, groups like SNG, the CNPP as
woolly eyed dreamers, you have to come
down to the brass tacks. since I am now
a high breed between both. I want to
bring you both down to backsides.
Let me take you down to what happens so
that you can change it ...
Let’s digress a little and consider the
risks of Nigeria’s failure. We the
elite, I am one of them, I am elite we
send our kids to the best schools around
the World, when they come back they are
mis fits, they cannot fit in and so
ultimately we are designing a system
that would destroy us in the end. Let me
take our minds back to Somalia. Somalia
is mono religious, mono-ethnic they only
have clans they have one tribe. What has
happened there? It’s a failed state
because the elite in Somalia were so
disconnected from the people that once,
they had some money they buy houses in
England, Washington and all those places
they were not investing, putting their
best foot forward and I think that was
what Pastor Bakare was talking about.
If you want to be in a contest, you put
your best foot forward back home at the
end of the day there was such a
disconnect that even till today, they
cannot bridge it. Let me tell you, the
last recognized President of Somalia is
buried in Lagos-Siad Barre. We are a
multi- religious,multi-ethnic and
multi-problematic. The reason why most
people worry about us is if we explode,
who will contain us? Let me also say
this, I know what I am saying now is an
aside I will go back to the elections.
When we conducted the consensus in 2006
or so the raw figures we were over two
hundred million when they went and
processed the figures it came down to
140million.
When you look at those figures and
compare to those we had in ’91 at a
growth rate of 2.1 or something like
that, is really just an extrapolation
because we were too embarrassed to admit
are true numbers. If we get it wrong we
fail like Somalia, in Somalia, half of
them are in Kenya, Ethiopia a few are in
Europe here and there, who will contain
us in all of West Africa and Central
Africa and that it is imperative not
just for our selves but for the rest of
the continent that we get it right.
Back to our election
rigging lesson
Now, back to the elections, once that
relationship has been established
between the governor and the REC, if you
are governor who is “A Governor” maybe
two nights after you just pop bye at the
governors lodge and see the REC and say
ah, ah REC how are you doing? Are you
OK? He says, ah! Your Chief of Staff has
been wonderful. He has been very nice to
me he supplied me the vehicles and
everything is Ok. A few weeks to the
elections, the REC sees the governor,
you probably have on the average about
three thousand five hundred, four
thousand depending on the state polling
booths in every state. So, REC goes to
the governor and says Your Excellency,
could you please give us the names of
about four, five thousand people so that
we can hurriedly train them we need them
as Presiding Officers. You need
experience, a good coach is that who has
played and has lost matches in the past?
The REC now goes down and says we need
to conduct a training programme for the
presiding officers and em, headquarters
hasn’t sent us any money yet- you know.
And the governor is like: How much
would that cost? He say’s how much will
it cost. REC replies: N25million for the
first batch, we may have about three
batches. Governor: Ok, the Chief of
Staff will see you. Now, the Chief of
Staff, you call him: “Make sure, that we
arrange N25 million this week and in two
weeks time another N25 million and
Seventy-Five million in all.
Chief of Staff: Your Excellency, how do
we do it?
Governor: Put it under Security Vote.
In other words, its cash, ok, now, cash
in huge Ghana Must Go bags -some of my
colleagues will shoot me- (turns to the
audience) is any former governor here?
(Crowd replies no!) Good. Cash is
lodged in huge Ghana Must Go Bags for
the REC and of course, to be fair to
them, they call their electoral officers
and say the governor has been very
benevolent, he has given us this and
this. I say three batches because they
have them in Senatorial districts. So,
you have one in Calabar, you have One in
Ikom and Ogoja, those are the
headquarters of the Senatorial
districts. (Each)one costs twenty-five
thousand. Of course, the sums are not
properly retired. I don’t know how
much of this twenty-five million worked.
But, there is a rapport this is going
on. Summon your party chairman
Now the governor now turns round and
says: call me the party chairman. The
party chairman appears and the governor
says: INEC requires 50 thousand people
for conducting the elections. See to it
that we meet their needs. The chairman
goes and you hear in the evening on
radio and television: There will be an
urgent meeting of all chairmen and
secretaries of XYZ party at the
headquarters. They should report
promptly at 10am matters of urgent
interest will be discussed. End of
announcement.
Now we have texts, its easier in no time
everyone is here. It’s a very short
meeting, please go back and within 48
hours submit from each local government
two-hundred and fifty names of trusted
party members. So in a week the deed is
done. The names, sometimes even passport
photographs are required are sent to
INEC.
Carrying other
electoral officials along, where FG
misses it.
And the training programme is carried
out. Let me, pause a bit, this is at
party level. They are usually civil
servants. They may be teachers, whatever
but they are party members. The
remuneration, for each of them for the
elections from Abuja is ten- thousand
Naira for the day’s work. But the State
in its benevolence gives fifty to a
hundred thousand Naira to each of these
folks right before this election.
Ensure party stalwarts
take charge.
This is even where it gets even more
interesting. So, you have each of the
three or our thousand pooling booths,
they are manned by party stalwarts. They
are usually party stalwarts. You don’t
send any peripheral member these are
stalwarts they are there. The
remuneration from Abuja has not arrived
but that of the state was received 48
hours prior. On the day of elections,
each polling booth has no more than five
hundred ballot paper that is standard.
It’s election time, we
are all the same.
There is not polling booth that is more
than five hundred. So only two hundred
people appear here, three hundred there,
one hundred there, fifty there, four
hundred there, at the end of election
what happens. The Presiding Officer sits
down and calls a few guys and says “hey,
there are a few hundred papers here,
let’s thump print. This is the real
election. Well, this is not a PDP thing.
I am not here to castigate the PDP it’s
a Nigerian thing. This process may sound
comical and jovial it happens through
out the country, whether its Action
Congress or APGA it’s the same thing. We
are all the same. They start thump
printing, some are overzealous. So at
the end of the day you find some voting
more than the number of people that were
registered to vote. That’s when you go
“you too do.” Other wise they do it, you
have 95 percent turn out. You start
wondering where were the voters I didn’t
see so many people. And the election
results are announced XYZ party wins and
it takes a week for this paltry ten
thousand Naira for each presiding
officer to arrive.
Listen to this before you ask your
question: Who is the most important
person in an election? – the presiding
officer. And if there are a hundred and
twenty thousand of them (booths) there
are a hundred and twenty thousand
presiding officers, they are the most
important people in the elections, not
the Chairman.
Any hope for redemption?
So, as long as we keep applying that
same method, you will get the same
results. It's crazy to think that
because you substitute Iwu for Jega all
will change. In other words, Iwu is a
crook, Jega is a saint. Jega is great,
he has an impeccable reputation. Iwu was
great, now he seems not so great. Ok,
they are both professors, they have
reached the peak of whatever discipline
that they profess. The point is that it
is the system and the personnel ;and the
chairman has little or no control over
that. Where are we now, we don’t even
know when the elections will be. The
Constitution amendment seems to be
stalling somewhere. So it’s either in
January or in April. Sometimes, we
behave as if we invented democracy. We
always want to draw new rules. We should
know the day of elections. It should be
fixed. We should know on so, so, so date
I think, America is the 4th of November
or so and if it falls on a Sunday it
doesn’t make a difference. You point I
am making here is that date is fixed,
you know. Because, in a democracy,
election should be a norm, not an event
.In our democracy, election is an event.
It's like, we are going to spring on to
you with fire works, hey, we are going
to have an
election, we are all running around- I
know most politicians are broke right
now,
so we are all running around the field.
Secondly, if you have your ears to the
ground there are whispers that may be we
need to postpone this thing. The
whispers
are there. In a democracy, you postpone
an election. You postpone things you
didn’t
plan for, not things that are there in
the Constitution that says you must do
this,
that and that, you can’t but –you know
two ways of moving forward. This is
where I
like what SNG and CNPP are doing.
What we must do
We need a critical mass of Nigerians to
get out and vote its important because
the
more ballot papers that are legitimately
used on election day, the fewer
available
to be used to rig the vote that’s the
truth. Don’t keep to yourself and think
that
they announce results. They are more
sophisticated than that. And that’s why
the
aspirants who felt cheated and had the
resources to employ forensic personnel
those
elections were upturned Edo and Ondo,
because they could establish multiple
voting
by thump print.
Taming the Federal Might. Which
Nigerian State could this be?
So, if it's an AC state the procedure is
the same I remember a state, that State
will
remain nameless. I hear the story that
the then President was so determined
that he
must change the leadership of this state
and he called the IG and said look, that
Governor is a security breach. Lets have
elections and flush the governor out and
the governor knows he is under siege. A
week before the elections, a new police
Commissioner arrives. And you know if
you are a governor and a new Police
Commission arrives before elections, you
know something is wrong somewhere and he
spends two, three days without going to
see the governor which is again a breach
of
protocol. The day he decides to see the
governor, the governor says, I won’t be
at
the office. However, if you come to and
he gives him a particular address we can
discuss. Then the chap goes there and
smartly salutes and it’s in a high brow
neighborhood of the city. (a member of
the audience shouts
Ikoyi ) Duke replies: No! It's Yobe!
(General laughter).
Bringing the CP on board.
The Commissioner of Police walks up to
the governor and smartly salutes and
says:
Your Excellency, I just came to
introduce myself. My name is Mr. So, so
and so. And
the governor goes: Ah, you are welcome.
I heard you were here two or three days
ago
and I was wondering whether I won’t see
you. Anyway, you are welcome. Have you
settled down? Yes I’ve been given
accommodation and all that. And the
governor asks
where was your last posting? He tells
him, he says fine. Governor: That car
over
there, this is the key and this is your
house.
Commissioner of Police says: ( I wasn’t
there so I don’t know if this is true,
incidentally that Commissioner of Police
served in my state at one time. He has
since retired.) The Commissioner of
Police now says: Your Excellency, this
Obasanjo
is a very bad man. He is a very, very
bad man. If you see all the things he
has
planned for you eh Olorun maje(Yoruba)
God forbid. How do we move on? How do we
get
out of here? What I have
done is I’ve tried graphically to paint
a picture of a
process. How do we change
this process? One, I think, since we
cannot change
attitudes as quickly, we
must one ensure mass participation. In
an election where
there is a very high turn
out the results are usually genuine. The
most celebrated
election in Nigeria, June
12, 1993 what happened? People came out.
The more people
who come out to vote the
fewer –there may be mago, mago here and
there but there
wouldn’t be much in such
a critical manner to upset the will of
the people. Beyond that,
if you don’t vote in an election, you
have no reason to
criticize the government
and I tell folks everywhere that guys, I
would say, I have
lived my life. You guys
have not and you are all criticizing
Nigeria but did you
vote in the last
election? Most of them say no then I
say, you’ve lost the moral
right to criticize what
the government does because you were not
part of the
process. Is there a way
out? I think there is. I think we need
to employ
technology. It's just a
suggestion and I want to share with you.
I have said this in
one or two fora and I’ve
heard people say it's not been done in
America or the West
why should we do it here.
I say they don’t have the attitude we
have here.
Necessity is the mother
of invention it’s not necessary for them
to do what I’m
about to suggest.
For the purposes of this,
3455, this number is for a phone and
that number is unique
to you and valid for that
election or the set of elections. And
each party has a
numerical equivalent. AC
could be 1, the PDP could be 5, the
Labour Party could be 3
whatever. And on the date
of elections you decide that your number
even if you don’t
have a phone and I am
coming to the criticisms about this.
Even if you don’t have a
phone, you can go to a
centre where they have a bank of phones
and once you put in
your number 3455 it
recognizes you it cannot be duplicated.
Its only you that has
that number and for that
election on that date, once it's used it
cannot be used by
anyone else. Then you
can do this one from your house or
anywhere, and any time
between the hours of
9-12. When it says which party, you say
3 or 4 what ever the
number are you sure you
say Yes. You press it then you’ve voted.
With that, I think
we can conduct election
but people say ah,
its to technological and
I say why do you always underestimate
the people in the
rural areas? If you send
them money this way, won’t they be able
to cash it? Why is
it that when its to
conduct their civic responsibilities it
becomes high tech? I
know this country, I ran
a state for eight years, I know the
nooks and crannies of
my state. We are not the
most enlightened of States in the
country but the rural
folks, you see, I had a
deal with MTN and Glo to ensure that
every community in Cross River State has
a base station for that I gave them
sites free of charge so, virtually every
nook and cranny of Cross River has a
base station. Even the most rural of
places; even in Bakassi when we still
had control of it. And they all use it.
They still use it to call their folks in
the urban centres to say send us money.
Why is it that when it comes to civic
responsibility, it is high tech? because the
politicians don’t want to use it ,that’s
the truth. I am not saying this is a
perfect system it can be fine tuned that
will ensure that within an hour or two
every one has voted and the results are
near perfect. Of course, once you design
a system, there are those who their work
is to un-design the system. There are
people like that and they work
backwards. Once you have that we also
think the same way. How do we work
backwards, where can this be faulted? It
can be faulted in many ways. The service
companies if you are able to break
through the integrity of the system, you
know, here and there but I think we are
going to think outside the norm. The
point I’m trying to make is we have to
think outside the box. I want to
commend the federal government, each
time the government talks about
elections he keeps on talking about
credible elections brilliant sound bite.
But it must go beyond the sound bite and
let's not kid ourselves by thinking that
by putting a Jega there that all is
well. With Jega there all will be well if
he is able to design along with his team
a system that is virtually fool proof.
In other words he himself must
understand the system of elections, he
needs to know how it works and how it's
been holding. As I speak to you, we’ve
not started voters registration. That
exercise will take any where from three
to four months. It will take at least,
ninety days to run through its course,
another six weeks to tidy up before it
is published lets not kid ourselves. You
can have elections anytime, but you
can’t have credible elections in
January. So, for those thinking we can
have elections in January, I think we
have to rethink the process we cannot
credible elections in January. We may
have elections but it may not be
credible. Where are we? We need to get
out of these holes, we need to traverse
the length and breath of this country.
We need to recruit an army of people may
be five thousand in each state, two
hundred young men and women who will
reach our give each of them a task to
ensure that he registers at least a
hundred person. That alone, will bring
twenty million people into the fold. We
also need to ensure- this is what they
did in the Obama election. Fortunately,
I was monitoring the Obama election,
whether you are voting age or not, you
are able to send text and move around
and get people to vote. Its one thing to
register, some folk tell me how can I go
to line up for hours to vote for this
person. This is again what pastor Bakare
was talking about, if people are not
excited about the candidates they will
not come out. Look at the four people
running, they are all clowns. I’ m going
to watch television; I’m not going to
vote because either way a clown is going
to win. So, we have to get involved in
the process we can’t all run for
offices, we all can’t. I ran for office
at the age of 36. Mine, was an
interesting story because at that time,
you needed to be forty to be governor
but I had a strong urge to be governor
but I was under aged and every body knew
my age in Cross River. I’m probably,
one of the few politicians that use
birth certificate they all use
declaration of age. Before I knew it, my
birth certificate was all over the
place. Politicians then said look at
this young man, we’ll make you
commissioner don’t worry. But I have
been Commissioner at the age of 30
already. So why would I want to be
Commissioner. For the purposes of
this, 3455, this number is for a phone
and that number is unique to you and
valid for that election or the set of
elections. And each party has a
numerical equivalent. AC could be 1, the
PDP could be 5, the Labour Party could
be 3 whatever. And on the date of
elections you decide that your number
even if you don’t have a phone and I am
coming to the criticisms about this.
Even if you don’t have a phone, you can
go to a centre where they have a bank of
phones and once you put in your number
3455 it recognizes you it cannot be
duplicated. Its only you that has that
number and for that election on that
date, once its used it cannot be used by
anyone else. Then you can do this one
from your house or anywhere, and any
time between the hours of 9-12. When it
says which party, you say 3 or 4 what
ever the number are you sure you say
Yes. You press it then you’ve voted.
With that, I think we can conduct
election but people say ah,its to
technological and I say why do you
always underestimate the people in the
rural areas? If you send them money this
way, won’t they be able to cash it? Why
is it that when its to conduct their
civic responsibilities it becomes high
tech? I know this country, I ran a
state for eight years, I know the nooks
and crannies of my state. We are not the
most enlightened of States in the
country but the rural folks, you see, I
had a deal with MTN and Glo to ensure
that every community in Cross River
State has a base station for that I gave
them sites free of charge so, virtually
every nook and cranny of Cross River has
a base station. Even the most rural of
places; even in Bakassi when we still
had control of it. And they all use it.
They still use it to call their folks in
the urban centres to say send us money.
Why is that when it comes to civic
responsibility is high tech? because the
politicians don’t want to use it that’s
the truth. I am not saying this is a
perfect system it can be fine tuned that
will ensure that within an hour or two
every one has voted and the results are
near perfect. Of course, once you design
a system, there are those who their work
is to un-design the system. There are
people like that and they work
backwards. Once you have that we also
think the same way. How do we work
backwards, where can this be faulted? It
can be faulted in many ways. The service
companies if you are able to break
through the integrity of the system, you
know, here and there but I think we are
going to think outside the norm. The
point I’m trying to make is we have to
think outside the box. I want to
commend the federal government, each
time the government talks about
elections he keeps on talking about
credible elections brilliant sound bite.
But it must go beyond
the sound bite and lets not kid
ourselves by thinking that by putting a
Jega there that all is well. With
Jega there all will be well if he is
able to design along with his team a
system that is virtually fool proof. In
other words he himself must understand
the system of elections, he needs to
know how it works and how its been
holding. As I speak to you, we’ve not
started voters registration. That
exercise will take any where from three
to four months. It will take at least,
ninety days to run through its course,
another six weeks to tidy up before it
is published lets not kid ourselves. You
can have elections anytime, but you
can’t have credible elections in
January. So, for those thinking we can
have elections in January, I think we
have to rethink the process we cannot
credible elections in January. We may
have elections but it may not be
credible.
Where are we? We need to
get out of these holes, we need to
traverse the length and breath of this
country. We need to recruit an army of
people may be five thousand in each
state, two hundred young men and women
who will reach our give each of them a
task to ensure that he registers at
least a hundred person. That alone, will
bring twenty million people into the
fold. We also need to ensure- this is
what they did in the Obama election.
Fortunately, I was monitoring the Obama
election, whether you are voting age or
not, you are able to send text and move
around and get people to vote. Its one
thing to register, some folk tell me how
can I go to line up for hours to vote
for this person. This is again what
pastor Bakare was talking about, if
people are not excited about the
candidates they will not come out. Look
at the four people running, they are all
clowns. I’ m going to watch television;
I’m not going to vote because either way
a clown is going to win. So, we have to
get involved in the process we can’t all
run for offices, we all can’t. I ran for
office at the age of 36. Mine, was an
interesting story because at that time,
you needed to be forty to be governor
but I had a strong urge to be governor
but I was under aged and every body knew
my age in Cross River. I’m probably,
one of the few politicians that use
birth certificate they all use
declaration of age. Before I knew it, my
birth certificate was all over the
place. Politicians then said look at
this young man, we’ll make you
commissioner don’t worry. But I have
been Commissioner at the age of 30
already. So why would I want to be
Commissioner.
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