INTERVIEWIndirect primaries ‘ll enthrone worse choice of leaders-Rep Onuigbo
Rep Samuel Onuigbo, is a cognate member of the House of Representatives, representing Ikwuano/ Umuahia North/ Umuahia South Federal Constituency of Abia State on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC). He is the President, Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment (GLOBE) Nigeria; Vice President (Africa) GLOBE International; Chairman, Climate Parliament Nigeria; former Chairman House Committee on Climate Change.
In this interaction with IGNATIUS OKOROCHA, Onuigbo whose Bill on Climate change that was passed by the apex legislature and assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari recently, said declining assent to Electoral Act amendment Bill passed by the National Assembly on the grounds of high cost of implementing direct primaries by political parties, leaves the electorate with the worst choice of leaders.
The Abia lawmaker who critically examines the argument advanced by the the President for refusing to sign the Electoral Act Amendment of 2021 noted that the cost of corruption and bad governance emanating from imposition of candidates on political parties via indirect primaries, far outweighs the financial cost of implementing direct party primaries. He also speaks on other matters of national importance.
One of the reasons given by President Muhammadu Buhari for not signing the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law is that it will cost the country so much to implement the provision of direct party primaries in the 2023 general elections. What s your take on this?
Well, what you have to know is that what ever bill that has been passed by the two Chambers of the National Assembly and transmitted to Mr. President is up to Mr. President to give assent or to withhold assent. It is provided for in the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended). That is why we are in a constitutional government, where the rules guiding whatever we are doing are well stated in black and must be followed. That is the essence of constitutionalism. And the same Constitution also provides in Section 58, that where the President withholds his assent, then the two houses can override his veto using two-thirds majority of each house. So, since the President did not sign, it is up to the National Assembly to do a review and now take a position on whether to override or accede Mr. President’s observations. As you mentioned, he talked about cost of direct primaries among other things.
Have you taken a critical look at the aspect of cost that the President talked about, and what is your position on the matter?
Well, you know like I said, the legislator’s duty is well specified in Section 4 of the Constitution, whether at the national or state level. Like I said, provisions are made in case the President for whatever reason decides to decline assent.
But then, if you want to juxtapose the issue of cost of running primary election against the other cost we have suffered for nearly twenty-five years now, which is the cost of imposition, the cost of people who are not truly wanted by the electorate surfacing or emerging as flag bearers, and before you say anything they are already holding the mantle of leadership. And in some cases as has been established through several court cases by the EFCC and so many others, so many of them just abused their positions. Then by this scenario, you find out that the cost to the polity, the cost to governance, is higher through bad governance, corruption, killing the morale of the electorate whose power it supposed to be. That’s why I always say that we the politicians are the employees of the electorate, who use the power of their thumbs to elect us, to give us power, and that when we do not conduct ourselves well, they are also supposed to use the power of their thumbs to fire us. But in a situation where the electorate who are the employers do not participate in short-listing those they want to hire because people are just short-listed and brought to them, whether through a free or fair or foul or corrupt means, you don’t know and they are then imposed on the system, that’s the wisdom behind what the National Assembly did by providing for direct primary. But if the President thinks otherwise, well, that is why it is democracy. At least he has come back to the National Assembly to say, ‘I do not agree’. That is the difference between going into your house at night and coming out with a decree if you have a military system of government. But in a democracy, you have checks and balances; that is shared functions. Each arm of government is given its own constitutional responsibilities. So, we should be thinking about cost of bad governance; cost of people who don’t have the interest of the electorate at heart because the electorate have no hands in putting them there, and therefore they are not answerable to them. That cost, to me, is higher. And that cost is partly what is responsible for part of the confusion we are having because if we are to provide the best of elections; I am not talking about this government alone because the PDP was there for sixteen years before we have the APC in place now, but the total cost of misgovernance by individuals who do not owe their loyalty and allegiance to the electorate but to one man who selected them and imposed them on the people, that cost, to me today, is higher than the financial cost of doing direct primaries. And I believe that once we begin the process of direct primaries, over time we will begin to fine tune it. But the important thing is to give the people a chance to participate in short-listing and finally hiring those who are going to work for them. So, getting good governance is by far more important than the cost that you are going to incur to achieve that good governance. You do direct primaries for four years, isn’t it? But if you end up with bad leaders, some stay for four years while others stay for eight years and do serious harm to the economy, resources of the State and the psyche of those that they are governing; this kind of cost is higher and evidences abound.
Apart from what you have just said, that the cost of not having direct primary far outweighs the cost of applying direct primary in the next general elections, how else can direct primary mode help towards advancement of democracy in Nigeria?
Well, building a democratic process is a work in progress for countries that are coming out of authoritarian regime and military regime and other forms of one man show or just a group of people taking over power and running it the way it pleased. So, this work is in progress in that you have to look for those things that will make the foundation of our democratic process to be very strong. So, asking me as a democrat how do I feel, I see it as one of the efforts to improve democratic practice. Direct primary is a way of improving democratic process. Whether it will be subjected to abuse is what I don’t know. I know that in about twenty-five years, we have been running the other system where a few individuals or party bureaucrats will just sit down and make a decision, which in some cases did not favour the masses. Such challenge is what direct primary wants to address. Now, Mr. President did not sign the bill. If he had signed it, we would have run with it. Under direct primaries, those of us who are leaders will be at the mercy of the electorate, the voters. And that is how it should be. You should be working so hard to please your masters who are the electorate in this case because they called you to come and work for them. So, the masters should also be allowed to participate in employing you through the power of their thumb. The servant has to be conscious of how the master feels; and if the servant does not work well, the master should be at liberty to use the power of his thumb to sack him. This is the position and this is what is intended. It is intended to improve and deepen our democratic process. If you want people to work for you, you should first do short-listing. In this case, the electorate should use the power of their thumb to short-list you for the main general election where many others are also bringing out their candidates. Now, if the electorate don’t participate through the power of their thumb, are you sure they will be interested when a particular person is thrown up as the candidate. Here, we are talking about voter apathy, where voters will sit at home and say that they have already decided and so, there is no need to go out and vote. Therefore, direct primary will go a long way in eliminating voter apathy because it provides the electorate the opportunity to participate in short-listing people they are considering for employment, and they do that through the power of their thumb. I have said it before and I will say it again, that politicians should know that each thumb of each electorate is like a feather, and when the feathers are contributed, they will make up a wing, and it is when you have that wing that you can now fly from Yola to Abuja as a Representative, you now fly from Umuahia to Abuja as a Representative, and so it is for different parts of the country. These wings are votes and it is only when they are contributed and given to you that you can fly and come here as a Representative. So, the electorate should have a role on how you get here.
I remember what James Harrington wrote in his book, the Commonwealth of Oceana, where he was talking about tenure, and going to renew your tenure. In renewing your tenure, you have to go back to the electorate and ask for their approval and support. So, our democratic process is a work in progress, and direct primary is one of the ways of making it get better. And we have to continue improving the process until we get to a point where we have to be conscious that you must go to the people and get their consent to come and serve them; and not that you just go to the Local Government Chairman or any other Chief executive and he says go. No, it should not be so.
Many Nigerians are calling on the National Assembly to override President Buhari’s veto on the Electoral Bill. What is your opinion on this?
It is not a matter of my opinion. I have addressed that because it is a constitutional provision. So, whatever the National Assembly decides to do, that is up to them. But my emphasis is that Nigerians and indeed the National Assembly should juxtapose the cost of good governance likely to emanate from direct party primaries and the bad governance which indirect primaries will produce most of the time as a result of imposition of candidates, who loot the treasury, cause other problems. And most times the EFCC will be chasing them and they won’t even catch them. Check that cost and you will see what I am saying. When you say that democracy is government of the people by the people and for the people but the people don’t participate in the emergence of their leaders, is it still a government by the people.
One of the things captured in the 2021 Electoral Act Amendment Bill already vetoed by President Muhammadu Buhari is the electronic mode of transmission of election results. Don’t you think that the system can be sabotaged through connivance of desperate politicians and those managing the electronic system?
I don’t know; I can’t say whether or not it can be sabotaged. The question in itself is hypothetical and I don’t like responding to hypothetical questions. But what I will tell you is that electronic transmission is what we asked for. I was a member of the Joint Technical Committee on INEC. I represented the South East on that Committee in the House of Representatives. Senator Ike Ekweremadu represented the South East in the Senate; Opeyemi Bamidele represented the South West, and so on. Our Chairman from the House, Hon. Aisha Duku, sat with us. We also had Senator Kabiru Gaya, who is the Senate Chairman, and many others. So, it was a very serious interactive session and we discussed extensively. I know that at the end of that meeting, we settled for electronic transmission. Even if some people voted against it during the general voting, it is the decision of the joint meeting of the Senate and the House that will stand. So, we actually voted for electronic transmission and INEC was with us. It was a very sensitive joint Committee. Even the CSO was there. We are all looking for a way to improve the democratic process. But at the end of the day, during the voting it went the other way; however, you saw the reaction of Nigerians. That’s why I say that the servant must be conscious of what the master thinks or wants, otherwise the master will bring hammer and some stick and start flogging, and chase away people from their gathering. You cannot arrogate to yourself too much power that you don’t have, otherwise they will start removing those feathers one by one and you won’t be able to fly. That’s the way we saw it, and today it has been passed and everyone is happy about it, even though the President did not sign the Electoral Bill into law but Nigerians have known our position because we are their representatives. That’s why I say that it’s work in progress and we are moving forward. It was this same National Assembly, in the Eight Assembly that passed a bill on Not Too Young to Run, which was signed into law by this same President. Young people don’t have resources for elections, so they are going to run on their name; they are going to run on their popularity and based on their ability to exercise leadership which people have seen and want to encourage.
How do you see the issue of poor network coverage as an impediment in the application of electronic system of transmission, as earlier canvassed against the use of the mode in elections?
That was raised last time but you know also that it was overcome. INEC is a constitutional body and it is there; so don’t come up with ideas that are intended to either hinder them or reduce their powers. As media practitioners, let’s be pushing for things that are positive. I am here today, and another person may be here tomorrow. By the grace of God, I have been able to facilitate a number of things as the representative of one of the greatest federal constituencies in the country, that has produced head of State (Aguiyi Ironsi), Premier of Eastern region (Michael Iheonukara Okpara), governors (Emeka Omeruo, Paul Omeruo, Theodore Orji), then Minister (Vincent Ogbulafor, Onyema Ugochukwu, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iwuala), and so many other personalities, who are from my Federal Constituency. So, if you have the opportunity to represent such calibre of people, you have to know that you owe them service, not arrogance, not aggrandizement, not arrogating to yourself powers you do not have; otherwise, they will look for the feathers and take them away.
Some people are advocating that power rotation should be made a constitutional matter rather than the current gentleman agreement being practiced, so that every section of the country can have a sense of belonging. What is your take on this?
I don’t want to give opinions that will make people to feel that he is making this opinion because he comes from this place or that place or that tribe. By the grace of God who brought me to where I am today, I will not speak frivolously. The gentleman agreement should work, and it has been working in this country. It worked in 1998. When we finished the election of 1993, it was obvious that the late MKO Abiola had won but the election was annulled under doubtful circumstances, and the pressure continued. You saw that even when the South West belonged to Alliance for Democracy, the entire nation came together and took the ticket which Alex Ekwueme, who built the PDP was supposed to get and gave it to Olusegun Obasnjo, who just came out of the prison. Was that not a gentleman agreement? Was he the only person from the South West? But it was given to him, just to ensure peace and progress in the country. So, gentleman agreement is working, and we expect it to work this time around because we need peace, and it is with peace that you make progress. And it is when you have peace that investors from outside the country can look in your direction, that their investments will be safe there. So, it is not a question of whether it is going to be constitutional or not. Like I said, this is work in progress. So, gentleman agreement should continue because it has worked before.
Nigeria has just assumed the Presidency of the Great Green Wall in Africa. What does the country stand to gain by occupying this position?
Thank you very much indeed, Nigeria stands to gain a whole lot by using specially designed approaches to tackle the challenge of climate change. It is important to point out that the Great Green Wall is the initiative of the people of Africa. It is from the decision of the African Union that the Great Green Wall was established. Now, the National Great Green Wall, which is the one that Nigeria has assumed the Presidency in Africa as a whole is basically circulating around Nigeria. It cuts across the Sahel Sahara. Fundamentally, the purpose is to arrest the high rate at which desertification is ravaging these areas, and you know that desertification that leads to drought, leads to loss of means of livelihood for millions of people who depend on agriculture for their means of survival. So, with the rate at which desertification is coming down through the Sahel, through the Sahara desert, coming down even to our own areas, touching about 11 States, cutting across about 1350 kilometers, needs to be checked because it is a huge portion. If you begin to name the States that are affected, it’s a whole lot. And you can also see that these States have been ravaged by desertification and drought which has also stretched to Lake Chad and perhaps has contributed to the rapid rate with which Lake Chad has shrunk, and has now put the lives of over 30 million people that previously depended on Lqake Chad for their means of their livelihood at risk.
So, you now appreciate why the African Union deemed it fit to come up with an idea of how to preserve the ecosystem; an idea on how to revise land degradation because it is through land degradation that at the end of the day, you see that you are losing the land where you are supposed to plant and where you are supposed to live. So, when individuals lose this opportunity, they are now forced into migration and in the process of migration they raise serious security challenges. You can see what is going on from the Sahara desert pushing down this way.
I tried to address these challenges late last year, when I delivered a paper at the Scottish parliament. This is a huge challenge and it is important to appreciate that the African leaders have seen that and they are looking forward on how to look for means of arresting this situation and to see if we can restore ecosystem and revise these damages in such a way that you can still farm and have your normal land.
So, in terms of what you stand to gain, its uncountable, it’s huge. We are trying to restore the ecosystem, we are trying to restore things that help people to maintain their means of livelihood. So, it is a huge, huge responsibility for the Nigeria nation and of cause I am not surprised because Mr President has excised leadership in tackling climate change. Nobody should be in doubt about it and I think in several fora, I have stated in unambiguous ways that Mr President started by promising to tackle climate change in his inaugural address on the 29th of May, 2015; and he has not lifted his foot from the grass. It has been pressing down. The last time he was at the UN, he talked about planting 25 million trees in order to cover this Great Green Wall in Nigeria. And what is intended is to save means of livelihood, provide, preserve the atmosphere for trees to continue to survive. So, he has followed up in a very systematic and consistent way in tackling climate change and of course the icing of the cake is assenting to the climate change bill, which has again made him a germ’s breaker.
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