Paul Ananaba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and public affairs analyst, in this exclusive interview with Iniobong Iwok, speaks on the state of the nation, the Muhammadu Buhari administration, among other issues in the polity.
How do you react to the recent wave of defections by politicians in the country?
Part of the constitutional rights of Nigerians which section 140 guarantees is political association; it is their fundamental right to change their political association and persuasion. However, it is a different thing morally to be moving from one party to the other. Our democracy has not developed to that point where we would be having ideology. Check the PDP and APC, what is their ideology?
For those that have defected, especially in the National Assembly, is it compulsory they must vacate their seat?
The Supreme Court has put that to rest. When there is division in the party, you can defect. I am happy also that our politicians are willing to take it court so that the court could decide if when they defected there was crisis in the party. Let the APC go to court. It is a constitutional and legal matter which the court should be left to handle. The APC has the right to make such call; it is left for Bukola Saraki [Senate President] and the rest of the defectors to say if they would quit their position.
Are you surprised that the APC is breaking up so soon?
It is about the fundamentals. Do we have ideology? We don’t have any party that is based on ideology in Nigeria. For example, I am a social democrat; anywhere I go, I would vote for the party. The fact that you are in the Senate does not mean that you have political ideology. When I was in school in the 70s, we had parties that had ideology and they won elections. Politics is not about winning elections everywhere; you win where your people are, and they agree with your ideology.
Unfortunately, Nigerians believe the American and British system is the best for us; we should evolve our own system which works for us. The Nigerian constitution does not take cognisance of the people, that is why when you form party of people with different ideology, they would disagree on very little issues. Until we develop our ideology and people join party based on that and the government is based on that, we won’t make headway. Go to America, it would be difficult to convince Republicans to join the Democratic Party. Every party must have ideology. That is what makes politicians compatible. And that is what I am saying; we must not have more than 50 parties if they have ideologies. We just have everybody setting up parties for their personal interest.
How do you react to the coalition of political parties in the country against the APC?
Coalition is a normal thing; it happened in the Second Republic, it is practiced globally. What I am saying is fusion of different forms of parties.With the current defections in the country, we may not know; we may just wake up one morning to discover that there have been defections to the other side. It is not clear if the current defections are over; it is only when the candidates have emerged that you can conclude.
What is your assessment of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration?
I am not going to rate the president alone. He has done well in some areas and he has not done well in other areas. However, I think he understands this. Unfortunately in Nigeria, we don’t have rating agencies that rate people. I can’t rate him on my own because it would be subjective; I need some level of research into the ministry and agencies to see. But it is left for Nigerians to decide if he has done well and deserves a second term in office. All I can say that there should be level playing field for everybody; there should not be vote buying.
How damaging is vote buying to our electoral system?
I think the lack of ideology in the parties is why we are seeing vote buying in the system. When there is ideology, if Lagosians are Republicans, they would vote for a Republican candidate. Vote buying takes place because the parties have no ideology. If your party does not have value, you would buy votes. In the Nigerian constitution, it is the party that wins election.
Do you think INEC has done enough in checking and prosecuting those involved in vote buying?
Personally, I don’t blame INEC; it is a failure of the National Orientation Agency that has not done its job. NOA should be carrying out enlightenment campaigns, which should be on-going across the country, so that Nigerians can see that vote buying is a plague.
There is little INEC can do. The constitution does not say INEC should sanction; that is why we call for the setting-up of election offences and related offences commission and special court. The National Assembly should set up electoral offences commission and then empower special court to deal with election offences. These are the issues. Up till now nobody has been prosecuted for electoral offences in the country.
What are the other pertinent issues that must be tackled ahead of the general elections?
With the decision of the Court of Appeal on election sequence, INEC and the National Assembly should come together and agree on election sequence. All hands should be on deck. There should be no vote buying; we should deepen democracy so that the timeframe when election results are released is reduced. Right now there is less argument about elections result figures; people are no more contesting that, it is about vote buying at the polling units.
What is your view on the anti-graft war?
The anti-graft war is going on well. It has not reached its destination and we have moved on, but I urge the president to continue to strengthen it; nobody should be above the law.
You are from Abia State. What is your assessment of the administration of Okezie Ikpeazu. Does he deserve a second term?
He has done well. There is no serious contender in the state with him for the position. In the last three years he has initiated different programmes.Four years may not be enough for him to finish these projects; he needs another four years to finish them. If a new person comes in there, he would abandon these programmes and start new ones. That is the problem we have in Nigeria. Get into Abia State, we are moving forward. Ikpeazu has initiated the Aba free trade economy zone which the Federal Government is involved now.
The former governor of the state, Theodore Orji, is in the Senate but appears silent. What do you think?
Well, you can go and speak to him in the Senate, but I think he should be respected; he made a fundamental contribution to Abia State when he insisted that power should go to Abia South. Before that, there were grievances and agitations. There has been peace in the state because of that singular act. People should respect him based on that act.
