Jega caused polls postponement –ABC Nwosu

Apprehension is high that there may be a repeat of the 2011 post election crisis in some parts of the North which led to the loss of lives of many innocent citizens. In this interview, a former Minister of Health, Prof ABC Nwosu, takes a review of the security situation and insists that Presi­dent Goodluck Jonathan must do ev­erything necessary to protect lives and property of the people.
The rescheduled elections are weeks away. How would you as­sess the preparation of INEC for the elections?
To me, those who were against the postponement are like a woman who claimed maternal ownership of a child in a case before Kong Solomon but did not bother whether the child lived or died when she said ‘divide it, let each one take her half’, while the real mother said ‘no, let it go’. Those of us who mean well for Nigeria are happy for the postponement. We should do the right thing that will enable the country to develop, have stability and peace. Grabbing power at all costs, dishing out patronage and accumu­lating filthy wealth is not the purpose for which God created this country. People should be allowed to choose who they want to lead them. The basic tenet of democracy is that nobody is good enough to lead another person without that person’s consent. People should look for our consent and we should be allowed to give that consent to who we want. We cannot be bullied into giving the consent by threat of force, or threat of incumbency or inse­curity. We should give that consent to whoever we want.
Many Nigerians believe that in­security and corruption are two major issues bedeviling the coun­try. Do you share the view?
The insecurity problem worries me because I am a victim and it has left a mark on my psyche. But for insecurity, I would have graduated from the Uni­versity of Ibadan in 1968. Then, I was a scholarship student, but I had to run to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I also left Nsukka with many of my colleagues to join the Biafran Army. Many were killed. When we came back to Nsukka, we were not allowed to graduate in 1970. We graduated in 1971. So, insecurity frightens me and I hate those promoting insecurity in Nigeria. If you know how insecurity arose in 1966, it is not different from what is happening now. May all those promoting insecurity pay with their lives and the lives of their children. You cannot threaten anybody because he is not from your ethnic group. This is the first time I would be speaking out strongly on such a matter because people don’t know how I feel. You can­not come and attack me doing my le­gitimate business because I am Igbo. I am not only an Igbo man, I am also a Nigerian, I am an African, I am a hu­man being created by God. So, when insecurity comes like that, it is offen­sive to me. Now, you see people threat­ening to cut other people’s throats if the elections do not go their way. All Nigeria is worried about is Boko Ha­ram. When we were in the National Conference, we urged the president and the armed forces to do something to control it. I am happy that the Na­tional Assembly is now congratulating them for doing something. I will like all Nigerians to unite when it concerns security and the armed forces. Certain things are beyond politics. The Armed Forces of a country are number one. I also expect that they should be able to deal with this matter of Boko Haram just like they dealt with the matter of MEND.
What do you mean by “sectional insecurity”?
I am a Nigerian, but I am also Igbo. We held a meeting in Abuja recently. You would have seen the communi­qué. It is about the Igbo from all the 19 states of northern Nigeria who are worried about their security. Why should the Igbo be worried about their security? Have you heard of all 19 states in the North worried about their insecurity in Enugu? Or are there no northerners in other parts of Nige­ria? So, it is a sectional thing. We have seen it. I am old enough to know the incidents. In 1966, I was already an undergraduate at Ibadan in third year, getting to graduation. I was in senior secondary school when Nigeria got independence in 1960. So, I know it is a sectional thing. Why should any­body, either for ethnic or religious rea­son, fear for his life in any part of this country? If we can’t address it, then we cannot progress as a nation. So, in­security is a sectional thing in Nigeria and it should stop.
If you have read the reason for the coup in 1966, corruption was one. Virtually all the military coups in Ni­geria had corruption as their reason. So, corruption didn’t start today. Any­body found abusing his office, stealing public money should go to jail. All we need is to strengthen the anti-corrup­tion agencies. If need be, set up spe­cial courts so that corruption cases will be tried speedily and those found guilty sent to jail. All I am hearing now is: ‘I will stop corruption’. You don’t stop corruption by suspecting.
One of the things Obasanjo did for which I will always give him credit is the setting up of anti-corruption agen­cies-ICPC and EFCC. You already have the police. The three should be reinforced. To complement that, there is a need for a special court. We don’t have one now. If what other contend­ing parties struggling for the presiden­cy are saying is that they will send a bill to the National Assembly or set up special courts that when people are caught, the onus will be on them to prove that they are not corrupt, then we are discussing specifics. What we see is somebody saying ‘I will stop corruption.’ My question is: how? All he says is ‘trust me’. No, I won’t trust anybody.
But do you think President Jona­than has actually done enough to fight corruption the way it should?
When the issue of NNPC came up, the Federal Government hired people to audit and they have audited. There must be due process. The governors in the opposition shouting corruption now have files in EFCC. You know how wealthy some of them were in 1998 and how wealthy they are now. What moral right have they to stand up where I am standing and talk of corruption?
How would you assess the chances of the two leading con­tenders to the presidency winning this election?
I will give a short answer. I am sup­porting President Goodluck Jonathan completely. And if you remember, in 2011, I didn’t.
Why now?
I want the stability of this country. Even in the hospital, doctors know that when a patient comes in, you stabilize that patient before you begin treatment. I was not supporting Presi­dent Jonathan in 2011 and I was noisy about that because of zoning. But in 2015, I am supporting him 100 per­cent because we need to maintain the stability of this country. You cannot just come and snatch the presidency for contrived reasons without think­ing about the effect on the rest of the country. That was what led to the civil war and the instability. And it should not be allowed. Due process must go on. If he is not returned by due pro­cess, so be it. But you cannot simply make up your mind and snatch it. And that is why I have been pleading that the presidential election must not be fought on basis of the North/South divides. If you fight this on the North/ South divides, any northerner who supports a southerner will be seen as a traitor and a southerner who sup­ports a northerner will also be seen as a traitor and his children will be seen as traitors. In Igbo land, we call them saboteurs. So, let’s remove the North/ South divides. If that is the only thing we achieve, I will be at ease. We must retain our friendship whether people are northerners, minorities or ma­jorities. But where you think that you have the number and power and you can sit down and snatch it, it portends danger for this country.
As a national figure and eminent Igbo man, where do you find the Igbo in the whole of these political calculations?
It is a shame that the Igbo people are where they have placed them­selves. The Igbo people have been seen as cannon fodder. When there is problem in the country, it is their people that are killed. When brothers quarrel with brothers and there is riot, it is Igbo’s shops that get looted. When soldiers kill themselves, it is the Igbo civilians that get killed and the Igbo have not sat down to decide. But they are deciding now. In 2011, my con­cern was to factor in the Igbo in the zoning. It didn’t go that way because a lot of Igbo didn’t see it our way. In this particular election, I am not even thinking of Igbo because we say that if you want to sleep, you will first of all struggle and get the sleeping space be­fore you start looking for the mat and mattress to lie on it. The Igbo are Ni­gerians. The Igbo are found in all the troubled states in Nigeria including Chibok. It is in the interest of the Igbo for us to continue to be Nigerians. Ni­geria took it for granted in 1966 and Igbo went back. It should not be taken for granted. The Igbo will sooner than later will find out that life does not begin and end with Rolls Royce and private jets but that life begins and ends with getting your rightful due in a country that you call your own.
Against the background of post-election crisis in 2011, which claimed many lives, what would be your recommendations to achiev­ing violence-free elections?
I won’t answer that question di­rectly. When Madalla Christmas bombing happened, the Igbo took the list of those that died and noted that 80-something percent of victims were Ndi Igbo. Whether it was Boko Haram or whatever, it didn’t make anybody happy.
In the 2011 post-election violence, Igbo people also calculated their losses and it didn’t make them happy. This time, the advice we are giving the Igbo is ‘you have suffered it before, don’t run’. We had a poem that helped us to survive the civil war called “if we must die”. I recommend that to Ndi Igbo. ‘If you have lived anywhere and made your living and the others have made your own place their liv­ing, don’t run’. But it is the duty of the President to guarantee safety of lives and property. It is his duty to deploy security agencies in order to protect lives and property.
We expect him to do it this time. You cannot go anywhere and see Igbo gathered and then you start breaking their shops and killing them. Security agencies should shoot such people on sight wherever they are. When some­body says, ‘don’t deploy soldiers’, I say better watch those people.
Professor Attahiru Jega, the INEC Chairman, has been in the news for some time now. Many people are calling for his removal before the elections. Where do you stand on this?
Whatever has a beginning always has an end. Jega had a beginning and all Nigerians hailed. He will also have an end whether it is now or in the future. He should make sure he ends well. The postponement is all Jega’s fault, not the fault of security agencies. For Jega, a professor, to be saying that he was ready when Lagos had 38 percent collection of the PVCs, where you have the highest number of registered voters, falls short of my rating of an academic. Second, in the figures Jega submitted to the Council of State, Yobe State had less than 1.1 million. It means it had collected over 800,000 PVCs, while Enugu had 1.45 million and collected only 700,000, less than Yobe and there is no insur­gency in Enugu. Again, it defies logic and logic is what defines an academic. Jega must be thanking God for the postponement and the time it gives him to make up for these self-evident lapses. He should correct whatever needs to be corrected and build confi­dence in Nigerians that he can do the job.
One of the reasons some people canvass for the re-election of Mr. President is to implement the re­port of the 2014 National Confer­ence, which had you as a delegate. Do you subscribe to that?
I regard the National Conference as a privilege and I am proud of it. The decisions reached will restore fed­eralism and reinforce fiscal federal­ism. You don’t collect more than your share. The conference laid the foun­dation for development by approving recommendation for the establish­ment of Sovereign National Fund. I want to believe that President Jona­than who set up that conference and received the report is in a better posi­tion to implement the report than any other person.
Your former principal, a man you cherish so much, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, recently tore his PDP membership card and ex­ited from the party. What do you make of that?
To most of us who know President Obasanjo, it was the most painful ac­tion to watch because he benefited im­mensely more than any other human being on earth from our effort to form the PDP. I don’t think he should have done that. To do it publicly is unheard of, unthinkable. It could not have been done by anybody while he was Presi­dent because he was a very strong President. The basic law is: don’t do what you will not have others do.

Culled from The sun