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By Gabriel Ewepu

Prince Deji Adeyanju, a human rights activist and convener, Concerned Nigerians, in this interview, says mass action may be staged to force President Buhari to sign the Electoral Act.

What is the position of Concerned Nigerians on the server controversy?

The issue of electronic voting has become a subject of controversy all over the place. The INEC Chairman performed poorly in the 2019 elections and that is why we want him out, but don’t be surprised if tomorrow Prof Mahmood Yakubu is reappointed and, in 2023, he will even do worse than what he has done now as INEC Chairman. The elections he just conducted, even the European Union and other key stakeholders condemned them.

And this is an opportunity to call on President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Electoral Act. There was the excuse that the elections were too close but now the elections are over to set the template for real electoral reform for the country because that is what the amended Electoral Act seeks to achieve.

Is this a fresh call you are making for President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the Electoral Act?

Yes. He will be writing his name in gold if he does that. In fact, it behoves on all political office holders to lend their voices to the signing of the Electoral Act. If the reforming of the electoral system is the major thing the Electoral Act achieves, then we would have achieved a lot because good governance evolves from elections, good electoral system and how leaders are produced. In essence, if leaders are produced in fraudulent ways, they do not expect good governance to take place. In a situation whereby someone buys his way into power, when he is in power in the next four years, what he does is to try to recoup and pay those who made his victory possible. If the electoral system supports credibility, when people get to the office, they will focus on governance rather than looting public funds.

Are you saying civil society organisations like yours will mount more pressure on the President to sign the Electoral Act, and if he does not, they will go on protest and demonstrations?

The first thing to do is to engage which we are doing now. If it becomes obvious that the President is not willing to sign the Act, we will be left with no option than to revert to mass action, street protests. We are always on the streets and we know what to do to draw attention to things that matter in our country. We believe the President will sign the Electoral Act

Do you subscribe to political parties coming together to look into how to reform the electoral system?

To start with, the political parties are too many. All we need is four or five political parties because what is obtainable is a farce. Majority of the political parties are brief-case parties registered by some ‘big guys’ in the major political parties to cause trouble and constitutional crisis here and there. They register and use these mushroom parties for their selfish interests and not for common good. Governance should only be for the greatest good of the greatest number. If that purpose is defeated, what we will see is that governance is reduced to the will of a few men instead of in the will of the majority.

The crises in Edo and Bauchi state Assembly, are you not worried about the situation and the threat they pose to democracy in Nigeria?

There cannot be a substitution for what is right. Democracy is about popular participation. A few people in Bauchi and Edo cannot hijack the process because there are laid down rules on how the Speaker should emerge. A situation whereby a few people backed by state government actors impose themselves and contravene the law is not right. The dance of shame going on at Edo and Bauchi is embarrassing and we condemn it in strong terms and ask that the governors there do not support what is going on.

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Don’t you see godfatherism playing out in the scenarios in both states?

Yes. Absolutely! It still boils down to the electoral system. If you have an Electoral Act that penalises people who hijack the political system, then you don’t need a god-father to be President, governor, senator, etc, and if we don’t fix our electoral system and it remains porous and shambolic, it will only make people get into political offices to pursue the interests of god-fathers.

People have been calling for independent candidacy in future elections. What is your take on that?

Well, it is something that will deepen our democracy. There are many things to curb electoral malpractices obtainable now: The card reader, electronic voting and result collation among others. For instance, if you look at the issue of accreditation … the election is not only about voting and counting if the register is tampered with, but the outcome of that election also would not be credible. If we are talking about the credible election, every process of that election must be water-tight with no loopholes for political actors to subvert the will of the people. So it is total overhaul we are calling for. The President should not delay to assent to the Electoral Act because he has nothing to lose now after winning the second term.

On the issue of the President delaying the nomination his of ministers, what are your expectations?

The late appointment of ministers during his first term slowed down the economy. Today, you cannot say who is running the economy because there is no Minister of Finance, Minister of Interior, Minister of Planning and Budget, Minister of Defence among others; it appears the country is on auto-pilot and we are seeing things that drove the country into recession. So it is for the President to quickly appoint his Ministers so that they can drive his government for the betterment of the country. From the time the President won the election through the time he was sworn-in, we have had more than two months, there is no reason his ministers should not be in place.

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