Barr. Chibunna John Okoli-Akirika, a former Anambra state Commissioner for Lands, and currently secretary of the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in this interview with OKECHUKWU ONUEGBU, advises the winner of the election, Prof. Chukwuma Charles Soludo on best way to better govern the state.
Why were many of your party state executives excluded from the PDP primaries during the nomination period?
That is not true. It is in the public domain that few days to the election, there were various court orders to obstruct the process and the party decided to play safe in order not to jeopardise the interest of the party, and especially, the interest of the person that would emerge as the flag bearer. That was why certain delegates whose status were affected by the court order did not participate in the primary. These include people like the five-man delegates, the state executives of the party and others whose status were affected by the court order. Then those whose status were not affected participated. There were people like members of the national assembly, Board of Trustee (BoT) members, officers of the party at the national level, officers of the party at the zonal level, former officers of the party and other categories of stakeholders whose status were not questioned by the pending court cases. That gave rise to an erroneous belief that PDP used super delegates. As a matter of fact, PDP as a party never used the word super delegates. That was a political coinage by those affected. What I am saying in essence is that it was litigations that made the party to play safe by using only delegates not affected by the court orders to conduct its party primary. Then for the campaign proper, everyone was factored in. All the strata of the party participated in the campaign. Officers of the party, from the national through the zone to the state, then three zonal offices and local government areas (LGAs) down to the ward levels were factored in. It was even agreed that every local government chairman of the party and ward should become automatic secretary at their respective LGAs or wards.
What could be the reasons behind the poor performance of the party at the November 6 poll?
Some were self-inflicted, self imposed and avoidable. First, you know that PDP is a very big party. Some felt dissatisfied over the outcome of the party primary and left. We can’t pretend that their defections did not affect the party’s performance because it did. It weakened the party internally and critically. A senator defected, about three House of Reps members defected, about two of House of Assembly members and other stakeholders defected too. So, it affected our performance. Then to the electoral umpire, what happened on the day of the election is a disgrace to the electoral system. Some were influenced by the Bimodal Accreditation System (BVAS). A situation where the BVAS could not function across the state and the timeliness too. Let me use my ward as a case study. In my ward, Amichi ward II with five voting centres, it was only in two units, unit 0010, and 009 that the machine worked fairly. Because we have about 50 to 70 voters. But in other three, we didn’t have up to 50 voters. Again, if you take a local government like Awka North comprising 14 wards with so many big communities, the total number of votes cast for PDP and APGA, if summed up, were barely over 2000 votes. You can see that what played out on the day of election was more or less a democracy by the minority. Because many Anambrarians were defranchised from exercising their franchise. Even when the INEC directed for extension of the time for voting, it was a mere one hour additional time. That was from 3 to 4pm. At many voting centres, people started voting around 2pm. Therefore, apart from the internal wrangling within the PDP, the BVAS malfunction affected PDP performance adversely.
There were allegations that the leader of the party in Anambra state, Mr Peter Obi, appropriated the party to himself during the campaigns. Why?
That is laughable. That is ridiculous. Peter Obi as leader of the party participated in the campaign just like any other person. The allegation does not hold water. As a leader of the party, Mr Peter Obi, contributed positively for the PDP to win the election, saying that he did this or that did not in any way affect what the candidate set out to do. The candidate made promises to Anambra people. As matter of fact, the PDP candidate was the candidate to beat in the election. But so many things played out. The involvement of the church in the election. Denominational partisanship politics as displayed by some clergies, prelates and laity of a particular Christian denomination. This, ordinarily, shouldn’t have been because the bible told them to pray for leaders in power not to show support to one particular candidate against the other. Otherwise, their impartiality will be affected.
Do you think PDP in the state should embark on another reconciliation exercise?
What PDP experienced during the election is what I may call a seasonal electoral malaise. A seasonal electoral fever. Anytime gubernatorial election is by the corner, the power that be, the bigwigs in the party will start fomenting avoidable problems. Thereafter, they will come back to contest for House of Assembly, House of Reps and Senate. That was after they had compromised the effort of the party for their own personal ambition. I want the stakeholders of the party to undergo a personal reorientation, a personal evaluation to stop putting their interest above the party interest. I want PDP to continue undergoing what I called genetic metamorphosis. Once that culture of communal interest is imbibed, what played out during the election would be circumvented. What PDP should do as a party is to make sure they put in internal democratic processes. So, that whoever emerges as the party flag bearer in future through internal democracy wouldn’t experience what played out after June 26 2021 Anambra PDP guber primary. Again, I like what the INEC said with regards to the 2023 general elections. They said that party primary will be conducted by June and the main election by February. If that will be sustained, there will be enough time for political parties to conduct primaries and elect their candidates.
Don’t you think the party chieftains known to defect to other parties during guber elections and those who take the party to court should be sanctioned?
I totally agree with you. That is why I insist that the entire stakeholders of the party and the party structure should undergo self re-examination. If you like call it, personal introspection. We cannot continue to suffer this thing and expect positive result. The party should come in to enforce discipline among the members. If at the end, specific persons refuse to change from their old ways, they should be discipline or shown the way out of the party. That is why I advised the party now election has come and gone to look inwards. They should set up what I called a postmortem committee from the wards to LGAs, zone and up to the state levels to find out what actually played out, what contributed to abysmal performance of the party so that such events could be avoided in subsequent elections.
Does PDP not have the intention of challenging the outcome of Prof. Soludo’s election?
I want the people of Anambra state to appreciate one thing. PDP does not believe in the psycho of elections. We believe in political socialisation and political education of the Anambra populace. That was why it was widely and individually accepted that the PDP gubernatorial candidate, Mr Valentine Ozigbo, was the most acceptable. Ozigbo was the most comprehensively campaigned candidate in the election with a verifiable manifesto. So, the fact that we didn’t win the election did not mean we should go about heating up the polity. What we will do is to put our house in order instead of going to the tribunal. We can now form what I may call the ‘kitchen cabinet’ to constructively confront the government of the day, and offer constructive criticism so that at the end of the day, Anambra will be better off. We will subject the incoming administration to constructive criticisms instead of subjecting the electoral process to the crucible of judicial process. I think it is better in the overall interest of Anambra people. But I am not saying that those who have resorted to judicial process should not exercise their rights. No! It is their right to approach the court. It is the right of political parties to go to court, it is the right of the candidates to espouse the judicial process. But for us in PDP, we decided that it is not important. What is in the best interest of Anambra is to socialize the citizenry so that next time when the opportunity is offered like in 2023 general elections, Anambra people will vote wisely. That is our concern in PDP.
Apart from IPOB’s threats, what other factors contributed to the voter apathy as experienced?
What you must appreciate is that democracy is a game of numbers. That is why before a winner will be declared in every election, it must be a candidate who scored the highest numbers of lawful votes. The requirement of majority participation in any election is the root or real essence of democracy. If the INEC said that only 10 per cent of registered voters participated, it means that 90 per cent did not participate. So, there is no way in good conscience, you will call the governor elect the product of majority decision. It is rather a democracy by minority. What INEC should do in future is to ensure that the BVAS is handled in such a manner to prevent general disfranchisement. For threats by IPOB, if they know the IPOB threat could cause voters aparthy, why didn’t they postpone it to a week or more? The election took place exactly on November 6. They still have the whole November, December and some parts of January to conduct the election. So, they should have shifted the date for the election to douse the fear. But the main issue is that the INEC machine failed to function during the election. There is no need to blame the IPOB. Malfunctioning of BVAS massively and extensively affected the democratic participation of eligible voters in Anambra.
What is the position of PDP on the bill recently passed by the National Assembly requiring all political parties to conduct direct primaries to nominate their candidates at every poll?
I cannot express opinion on behalf of the party at the national level. But I will express opinion on that as a party member. Two, I can also express opinion on that as a lawyer. Personally speaking, I am an apostle of direct party primary. It will give all the paty members opportunity to participate in electing their candidate. It bestows a duty on INEC to make sure they closely monitor and scrutinise the party register of all the political parties. How would they do that? One, they should make sure that at all material times, all political parties keep proper register of their members. Two, INEC should now go forward to monitor and scrutinize these registers so that any time election is by the corner, they will produce the parties registers submitted to them by respective parties for transparency during primaries. I will say as a person and as a lawyer that direct party primary is in the best interest of the democracy and in the best interest of the political parties provided that political parties keep proper and adequate data of their members. If INEC will not exercise their supervisory roles in that instance, the system will at the end of day do more harm than good.
What do you think would be the challenges to confront the governor-elect, Prof. Charles Soludo, and how he should overcome them when he assumes office?
Personally, I have no doubt on the capacity of Prof. Soludo as a person. I always said that the Anambra guber election was between Soludo as a person and Mr Valentine Ozigbo as a person. Ozigbo and Soludo are the two key candidates. Then, others follow. Either of them have the requisite capacity to take the Anambra state to the next level. Having said that, I will say that Soludo is in a dilemma of change and continuity. I want him to discard all those bad policies of APGA under the incumbent governor, Willie Obiano administration. He should change the policies of unaccountable numbers of personal assistants, executive assistants, special assistants and senior special assistants introduced by Obiano. He should also change the policy of lack of priorities in governance and execution of government projects. The policy of financial indiscipline should also be discarded. Allowing people to be collecting revenues without accountability is not also good. Soludo should find ways of discipline aspect of policies otherwise things will continue to be as usual. He should unlock the part beneficial to Anambra people. From all the policies of the outgoing administration, he should jettison those not beneficial to the Anambra citizens, and adopt those policies that will benefit them by imbibing the culture of financial prudence. He should respect the bilateral agreement so that the donor agencies will return to Anambra state. Mr Peter Obi administration as governor, anchored his on ANIDS, and he was able to attract development partners to execute the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Let Soludo partern his administration in a way to implement Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Soludo should think more towards change than towards continuity.