Tade Ademola is the Lagos State chairman of the Inter-Party Advisor Council of Nigeria (IPAC). In this exclusive interview with INIOBONG IWOK, he spoke on a number of issues, including democracy in Nigeria, June 12, among other issues. Excerpts:
Observers are concerned that IPAC is silent on the corruption allegations on the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly. What is the true position?
IPAC is an umbrella body for parties, it is an inter-party affair, we are not to interfere in what they are doing; what we do is to give advice if they like let them take, I can only speak for myself.
There is so much that is not right, but all the same when you talk they say you are making noise, like if he was there, would he not steal money? I saw Mudashiru Obasa interview with Dele Momodu recently where he gave excuses, that this and money was budgeted for and that money is to be spent.
The problem in Nigeria is that we are in quagmire; we don’t know everybody is fighting a critical battle.
There must be a shift from the way of doing things, Nigerians need to look at things from a holistic point of view, Nigerians don’t see corruption as bad, if you talk they would say what of you, if you are there what would you do?
We hear someone’s car being seized and the next thing he has collected it. Imagine a Senator who was released but not exonerated, the whole leadership of the Senate went to visit him and he was back on the floor.
Because they said the judge was not met to go down to the lower Court to deliver the judgment. I heard while in prison he was even collecting salary as a Senator.
It is not only political parties that should talk, Nigerians should also speak out. The impression you get from people is that you are just criticising because you are not in government which is bad.
It is time Nigerians realised that when we talk and criticised the government it is because of the common good, it should be viewed beyond party lines. We get maligned for saying the trust.
Look at this government in Lagos State, during the lockdown they promised to feed the youths, but we saw what happened; there was a video that was circulating on social media where a woman brought food in a small cooler to a centre and she was chased away. This woman was even dressing as if she was going to a party, how many people can she feed with that small collar of food?
And we hear the Federal Government is feeding children in their home, imagine that.
But the House committee exonerated him of these allegations?
What do you expect from the House committee? Did they bring an independent organisation to carry out the investigation? Is it a forensic investigation? I did not expect anything from them; you can only get something different when they are not on the same page.
You said the people that would do justice have not said anything, but when it is time to use it as a political tool it would come up, for now he may still be a good boy. You need to realise that this is some of the instruments they use in politics; they keep it till the last minute to witch-hunt.
There is rumour that the tenure of council chairmen in Lagos State would be cut short; how true this is?
The rule says the council chairmen would spend four years in office, the last governor in Lagos State signed that bill into law, if they are going to do anything be young that is going to be a family affair nothing would come out of it. They have 57 councils in Lagos State whatever they do would come to them who would come back and say what you do is unconstitutional?
All these take us back to what I said; there is a need for an attitudinal change; that is what we need. Nepotism has eaten deep into us, we need to change our mind-set; just because he is from your tribe, you have not benefited anything from his government but you just want him to be there because of that.
So let’s take it like a rumour, if the current elected council chairmen are jettisoned and caretaker chairmen installed nothing would happen, there was a similar situation in this state some years back.
Read also: Court says INEC has power to de-register parties
The government declared June 12 Democracy Day, Abiola was honoured last year. What is the significance of this?
June 12 is watershed; it is what some of us suffered while in school, it would have been a day for Nigeria’s unification, but unfortunately this did not happen. Many of the active participants who took part in arriving in that decision are still alive; if you listen to what some of them are saying you would know that it is hunting them. You can’t undo what was done, the honour that was given to him cannot quantify that to him being the president of Nigeria after the overwhelming votes he got from Nigerians across the country. The honour is a normal thing; GCFR or what they gave him have not undone anything. Nigerians requested for hope and it was denied them. It is like beating a child and you are now giving him a pet in the back.
Given credence to June 12, to me, is not significant to the blow that was given to Nigerians. Personally, I lost friends; we can’t bring them back, there are people who cannot be the same from that time because of what they suffered. The ever end loser is the millions of people, the election would have brought unification to millions of people, in essence Abiola defeated Tofa in Kano, Abiola won in most Northern states except one or two states.
The problem created by that annulment is still with us, it is giving rise to the agitation for constitutional conference, succession demands they have not solved.
21 years of democracy; what is your assessment of progress so far?
We had an open ballot system where you are free to vote for who you like, there was no ballot snatching because there was even no ballot. So what happened? In the 21 century when Big Brother is conducting voting online; Nigeria is still saying go there and there you vote. The national I.D card cannot even be accessed by large sections of Nigerians. Ask INEC how many cards are with them that have not been distributed; what stops them from carrying out the distribution now, rather than wait for the election period? You have them in your offices and you have workers to do it. What stops you? Is this the democracy Nigeria Wanted?
What sorts of democracy is this, where the common man cannot enjoy the basic necessities of life, not even good roads?
What is your take on the INEC plan to use electronic voting since 2021?
Are they really ready? Have they amended the Electoral Act to that effect, so they would come that time and say they are not ready? I thought they would test it in the coming elections.
Do you know how much would have been saved from the electronic voting; the first thing is give NIM numbers to all Nigerians, from there you know how money people would be able to vote. People who run away from voting in the street because of miscreants would sit in the comfort of their home and vote. Attach a phone to everybody.
They would say no light in the villages but the people have light, or how are they charging their phones? The server that they are using in the villages or the telephone mask is not in the village, but they are making calls and using data.
It appears you have no confidence in the present set up of INEC?
It is about their past antecedents, the Yoruba’s would say if a person wants to give you cloth you would first look at the one the person is wearing.
Can a man that is not wearing cloth say I would give you cloth? It is the capacity of INEC that people are concerned about; we knew the problem they faced before they were able to use the card reader. Before the Court card said they cannot use it and here we are.
The dust over deregistration of parties by INEC is yet to settle, several parties are in Court what is your take?
INEC said it had powers to deregister parties, they then went on to delist parties even before the judgment was given, the main judgment would be given soon, but don’t forget that we still have liberty to appeal up to the Supreme Court. Even though the Court said INEC should maintain the status quo, did INEC do that?
It had happened earlier where the High Court said they can and a Higher Court said they cannot deregister. For me until all the processes have been followed you can’t say what INEC is doing is right.
Why should INEC register a party when they don’t have a party secretariat? They would call us all the time and say they are doing verification, we leave Lagos to Abuja and you see me and they verify, if there are parties like that why should you register a party that doesn’t have a national spread?
You ask me to come to Abuja all the time. We have not conducted all the elections, if you say I have not won a councilorship position, how did you arrive at that. Zamfara is a state that turns from one party to another, what if it turns to APC tomorrow are you saying PDP does not exist.
Most of these parties that were deregistered are new, we still have the local government elections in several states, but you have not given them a chance to take part in them.
