Political campaigns should not put Nigeria at risk -Alkali
PROFESSOR Rufai Ahmed Alkali
Is the party not worried about the way and manner which the presidential aspirants are going about their campaigns?
You see we have gone into the election season. With the release of the time-table by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), all the political parties in the country are also working to produce their own time-tables and guidelines for the election. Already, many people have come out to stand for election into various offices throughout the country. So, it is very difficult to say there is no excitement in the land. There are a lot of excitement or you can say vibrancy. Politics has picked up. But in some areas, we do have some people who are over doing it. The President, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and our own party have promised this country free, fair and credible election. This is precisely the reason why we spent almost three years working on this Electoral Act.
If not because of the time constraint, by now we would have finished all those processes. But because of time constraints, Nigerians asked for extension of time and the National Assembly has given additional time to look at the Electoral Act once again. So, they are in the process of concluding that activity. So there is a lot of anxiety, excitement and even tension if you like. But all the same, we have been warning politicians. We have been warning that everybody should operate by the book. The National Chairman of the party, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo, has stated this repeatedly and the National Working Committee (NWC) has been very strong on that purpose that people should stay clear from the old ways of doing things.
A couple of weeks ago, when we noticed that some campaign coordinators and some aspirants were moving over board, we had cause to invite them to the national secretariat to ask them to lower their voices. We felt that whatever they are doing, they should do it in such a way that democracy is not put under pressure and our country is not put at risk.
So far, we are happy that there have been some sort of rethinking along those lines. But it is not possible to get it 100 per cent correct. All the time, we have continued to attract attention to this factor that we should get it right.
The direction where the campaigns of the two major presidential aspirants face suggests that they may not work for each other after the primary elections. Don’t you think that it may affect the fortunes of the party?
No. I don’t think we have reached that point. But I know that the President and the former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, are seasoned politicians. They are our leaders. Their supporters are also working hand-in-hand to ensure that whatever we do, we do it correctly. So far, we are not worried. We are only worried with the press. This is because the press was in the vanguard of the struggle for the emancipation of this country during the colonial days. This has been my position. I have always been commending the press for doing every thing possible for the survival of democracy. The press made a lot of sacrifices. So, during a transition like this, the press also has to do a little of rethinking in the way you cast your headlines, the way you analyse and the way you project your stories and others because without the press, nobody will know whether there is tension or no tension in this country. It is the way the press magnifies or over blows certain stories that suggest tension or no tension. So, you have a special responsibility. If you take political parties, the National Assembly and the judiciary, the press is the major victim of any major distraction of democratic governance in this country. You should do everything possible to exercise professional judgment in the way you carry on this activity. Otherwise, I don’t think anybody who is in the position of authority will like to do anything that will now torpedo the boat.
With your remarks, it sounds as if you believe that even after the primary elections, the two aspirants are still going to work for each other?
We are not talking about two aspirants. We are talking about the system itself. If you remember, each and every one of them has to come out to offer himself to serve this country. That is the purpose. So coming to offer your service to your country should not be seen as an offence or a crime. So, what we know for sure is that we have a responsibility. As we are citizens of this country, members of various professions and even as politicians, we have to ensure that we put facts in our minds all the time that it is this democracy that can give us the opportunity to do all what we are doing; the freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of thought and the rest of it. So we shouldn’t do anything to undermine those gains.
In a few days time, the meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) will hold. What should we expect after the meeting?
Sometimes, I am baffled. You see all political parties have structures of organization. They have management tactics. We have ways or doing things. But sometimes, some Nigerians are impatient. Instead of allowing the party, especially the PDP which is the ruling party, to do our work so that by the time we come out with our positions, the rest of the country will be rest assured that we have a correct position, you people go and sit down and concoct stories and keep on misleading our common people. Those are the things that I don’t like. It took time for the INEC to come out with its timetable. So you don’t expect that immediately they announce their timetable, that same day we have to announce our timetable.
You have to do a lot of consultations. We have various organs of the party that must be carried along. Everybody has to hear his own voice. By the time we conclude these processes, then we now formally announce the timetable and the guidelines for elections. You remember that as we are sitting now, the Electoral Act amendment has not been concluded. In fact, what we are doing is what we can call anticipatory programme planning. With all these plans, we are only planning with the hope that the electoral law will fall in line with our programme or our programme is going to fall in line with the Electoral Act. So, that is why we are a bit careful.
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