Emmanuel Dania is the national chairman of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN). In this exclusive interview with INIOBONG IWOK, he says the party would challenge the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) plan to deregister non-performing political parties; he also urges Nigerians to resist impunity, and that it is difficult to build a system where there is no rule of law. Excerpts:
What is your party’s position on the 2019 general election?
The 2019 election was a sham. We know that the election was rigged; we have evidence that the election did not reflect the will of the people. The reason we came into politics was because we wanted to change things; we intend staying alone and make the impact on Nigerians. All through the period that we campaigned, we made sure that we did not allow what they were doing to affect us; that is the 20 years vision. We discovered clearly that the result did not reflect the will of the people. We got the information from the media; we had our people on ground, so we know how the election went. Some officials disappeared with election materials, but resurfaced after with results. It was not an election, and that is where my disappointment lies about this government; the man who says he as Mr. Integrity, is the head of a government that does not have legitimacy.
Do you think Buhari’s refusal to sign into law the amended Electoral Act affected the credibility of the general election?
Yes, very clearly, and it was an intentional act; they knew what they were going to do. There were lots of stories of how electoral officials were just going to collation centres to submit result, while in Abuja they were already announcing the election results for the state. For us, we did not expect much; immediately he refused to sign that amended Electoral Act, we knew that we were going into such a situation.
The PDP claimed that there was a central server which was used for the collation of 2019 election results; what is your party’s position on that?
The general belief is that when you have somethings like card readers, there must be a central server where those results are collated. It is an electronic system, people understand these things, there must be a central server, but INEC says they don’t have a central server to store votes; for me, it is surprising and an embarrassment to the commission. I know but the question is; how did they store the information in the card readers? It is electronic; there must be a data thing. So, I believe in what Atiku and the PDP are arguing; yes, to some extent there has to be sever, where do you store the data? Anybody who understands information technology would know that there has to be server; if INEC says something different then I am surprised.
How is your party strategising ahead after the election?
We are focused, we understand the issues of what Nigeria is; it is not an issue of whether someone can reform the nation, change the nation and advance the economy. The major problem we have is that the constitution is not being followed. Any government that does not submit itself to the constitution of the country has failed on arrival; there is nothing we can do more than that. The structure that would make the country strong is not properly funded, so they are weak. The Nigerian Police, the judiciary is in a mess, so how do you stabilise? You can’t do that at all.
Are you among those calling for restructuring of the country?
No, but I shared the sentiment of those saying the 1999 constitution is not the best for the country; it is the constitution, I think we should respect this constitution and while doing that we should try and amend it. But we cannot just take out the constitution, we do our business on the basis of the 1999 Constitution, you cannot build a system where there is no rule of law. You cannot build a system which feed justice, which is what we are lacking in Nigeria. Even if you initiate policies, it has to be implemented; at the point of implementation, if the person is not afraid of the law, what would stop such person from implementing it the way he wants it?
When the President does not respect the rule of law, people would not. Until we fix that problem even if you bring all the top economists to Nigeria, things would not work. If people do things and they know there are consequences they would sit up. I have realised that there is a bigger problem in Nigeria than religion; Nigeria has too many religions. The religious problem is not between Christians and Muslims; no; the biggest problem is greed. It is because we cannot do anything collectively, is because the rule of law is not enforced. And when you don’t enforce the law, even you are Muslims, Christians from the West or South there would be problem. So, we need to really make sure the laws are enforced. I said recently; when they said government wants to recruit 10,000 police officers, how come some individuals still have personal security guarding them when we don’t have enough? We have to fix the salary of the Nigerian police, if we insist that the salary of the police is 100, 000 do you know the kind of people that would show interest in joining the police? We must also reform the judiciary.
What is your view on INEC’s move to deregister non-performing political parties?
We have a right to association. It would be very wrong for INEC to delist political parties that had made considerable impact in the elections just because they did not win certain number of positions. It is a system that we know; the election has not been free and fair; we would go to court and take them on.
May we know your position on the on-going dispute between NLC and the Federal Government on the payment of 30,000 minimum wages?
I think the statement that they can’t pay to all category of worker is an insincere statement. The moment you go into an agreement with people that you would pay a certain amount you cannot renege. In the course of negotiation you know what the expectations are; which shows that this government is not a serious government. To my party, N30, 000 minimum wages should not be too much to pay workers in Nigeria.
What is your take on the closure of the border; the government says it is to protect local industries?
I think that is not the reason why they closed the border. If government said that they close the border for security reason, to be able to identify and stop the inflow of arms and ammunition it makes sense; but when you close the border because you want to protect the local industries it is wrong because people doing legitimate business would be affected.
People who you are trying to protect cannot export, so they are not genuine, whose business are they protecting? Is it Dangote? Local businesses can’t sell to international market, and then you are killing the economy.
Atiku and the PDP are in the Supreme Court challenging the result of the presidential election; what is your take?
It goes back to what I said in the beginning; there is a judiciary error, the judiciary is in a mess, there is a lot of manipulation. It is what we know that people can do anything and get away from it. Impunity is Nigeria’s problem. Because the government has not subjected itself to the constitution of the country, they keep ignoring Court orders, so what examples are they setting?
But some people would argue that there have been some progress; Buhari just presented the budget?
It was lacklustre; like I always said our objective as a party is not to criticism this government, but to show them the way things are done that they have not seen, so that they can do better.
This government is its own worst enemy; they do not know how to sell what they are doing. Look at the VAT increase; you would have expected that a sensible government would have spent some time educating the people before initiating it. Show them and say if we get the money, these are the things we are going to put it into. This government does not appear democratic; it is bad for democracy.
What does the future hold for ANN?
Our performance in the last fourteen months has been impressive and shows our strength; we were recognised not just as a party, but on our principles. We would also focus on the grassroots.
