The
leadership of International Society for
Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law has observed that the major bane of
Nigeria’s social, cultural, economic and political development in recent times
is the
return and entrenchment of sectional human rights, media and political activism
on the country’s polity. These anti
modernity forces dangerously affected Nigeria and Nigerians
particularly during the Obasanjo’s civilian presidency from 1999. During the
military era, activist, media and political forces and their agendas were
focused and pluralistically homogeneous. That is to say that they spoke with
one voice and pursued same goals irrespective of religion, sex, section or
class.
But since
the return of civil rule in 1999, what looks like irreparable damage has been
done and still being done to the country’s rights, media and political communities
in Nigeria. The shocking aspect of it all is that the decadence gets worse as
days go by. Of all these, the rights based Civil Society Organizations are
worse hit. During the military, Lagos was famously and internationally feared
and respected as the citadel of freedom and democratic struggle in Nigeria. This
was because of large concentration in the State of rights based groups like Civil
Liberties Organization and Committee for the Defense of Human Rights, etc
and leading pro democracy groups such as Campaign for Democracy and the United Action
for Democracy, etc. There were also activist elders’ bodies like
NADECO,
Afenifere, etc.
During the
referenced period, independent research and investigation, documentation,
report, litigation and publicity were their major weapons of pen
and voice warfare declared against the agents of social darkness. The CSOs under
reference were very proactive and responsive and operated beyond
ethno-religious chauvinism and cleavages. In the media, the print held sway
with the likes of Tell, the News and the Newswatch magazines, etc as well Punch
Newspaper, etc as the leading
print media section of the war against anti democracy and human rights
forces. Then, they were highly respected and celebrated locally and
internationally for impeccability and independence of their researches and
reports.
Conversely,
it is alarming and shocking to observe that the reverse is extremely the case
in recent times with the worst era being the present political dispensation
particularly the ongoing 2015 electioneering.
Both the Lagos based rights CSOs and print media have diminished and
stained to the extent of relapsing to reactive, sensational and sectional rights
and media activism. Thorough
research and investigation as well as independence are no longer found in their
respective lexicons.
If a respected rights group called “SERAP”,
for instance, can reportedly issue a threat of lawsuit against the headship of
the Federal Ministry of Finance over grossly unsubstantiated allegation by one
Charles Soludo that “over N30 trillion went missing or stolen
under the watch of the Minister of Finance”; then it simply shows how
Nigerian rights CSOs have decayed. Such allegation made in an electioneering
era and victimized by a political virus called “psychology of politics” requires
further forensic and independent investigations before it can be adopted and
incorporated into a policy statement of a respected CSO.
The outcome
of our careful observations of the activities of the Lagos based rights CSOs
particularly in the ongoing electioneering is rather shocking and alarming.
Real issues affecting Nigerian masses are no longer independently taken up by
the so called “Nigeria’s mainstream rights CSOs”, except where they suit or
subjected to the whims and caprices of socio-political interest of “the
Alahausa political engineers”. For
instance, the extremely important issue of skewed and uneven distribution of
PVCs as well as their untimely production and delivery did not worth taking up
critically by the referenced rights CSOs.
This is
because the opposition political party controlled by “the Alahausa political
engineers” appeared to have had a hand in the way and manner the PVCs processes
got lopsidedly engineered. That many Nigerian registered voters numbering over
26m are yet to be issued Permanent Voters Cards barely a week to the all
important presidential poll does not concern the referenced rights CSOs as long
as the candidate of their partners uses it to emerge.
In other words, it does not matter to them if
over 26m registered voters are disenfranchised and excluded from the all
important voting. This is not to talk of millions of other Nigerians of
Southern extraction, geopolitically disenfranchised following politically oiled
insecurity and other unsafe conditions in the Northeast and the Northwest,
which forced them to flee or relocate. There are further reports of burning
of and seizure of PVCs of non indigenes in Lagos and other parts of the
North. In Anambra State, INEC adhoc staff dominated by corpers of the Southwest
zone posted to ward collection centers openly demand N200,00 for each PVC
(i.e. Odekpe and Otumoye Primary Schools in Ogbaru LGA) among other frustrating
procedures all to muzzle the voting strength of the Southeast and other
Southern minorities. Out of estimated voting capacity of 12m Southeast
residents, only 7, 178, 185 were captured as registered voters; yet less than
4.5m have been given PVCs till date.
Instead,
trivial national issues and politically fabricated others have become the major
pre-occupation of the referenced rights CSOs of Lagos axis. The creation
of the so called “election situation room dialogue” has dealt a fatal blow to
the image and assertiveness of the referenced rights CSOs. In the Anambra
governorship poll of 2013, for instance, what came out of the so called “election
situation room dialogue” as in type of fabricated pieces of information
released and posted online by some
characters peopling the “room” were hugely disappointing and unbecoming of
supposedly respected and independent minded CSO figures. One of such reports
held thus: “this is to alert the public that trucks loaded with Ghana-Must-Go bags
containing N1,000 notes from Peter Obi at Amawbia Governor’s Lodge are on their
way to some polling booths in Idemili North LGA to be shared to voters not to
vote for Ngige”. When local activists monitoring the poll in the area
were alerted, it was all false. The referenced is just one out of many.
In the
ongoing electioneering, similar parasitic characteristics and activities have
dominated the mindset of the referenced rights CSOs. Until our leadership
exclusively came on board, investigated and exposed the dark side of the Jega’s
INEC particularly as it concerns PVCs manipulation, the headship of the
Commission has been celebrated saintly by the referenced rights CSOs. Even when
the dirty and manipulative conducts were empirically exposed, the referenced
rights CSOs tried in vain to divert the attention of Nigerians and
international watchers by introducing “poll postponement and INEC Chairman’s
forced resignation attempts mantras”.
The other
day, it was “interim government mantra”. From the tenures of INEC Chairman and
the President to shifting poll date or otherwise, they do not hold
water because there are clear constitutional provisions. On the fabricated issue of “Interim
government”, for instance, assuming the APC wins presidency on February 14,
President Goodluck Jonathan will remain in office till May 29, 2015. The tenure
of INEC Chairman elapses around June 2015 and in the “shifting of poll date”,
INEC can or cannot adjust the date if it so wishes because the Constitution and
the Electoral Act of 2010 provide for the conduct of the polls even thirty days
to the next handover and this means polls conducted now or in April are both
constitutionally grounded.
All in all,
the unfolding events are not surprising to us at Intersociety. Rather, they have added momentum to our strong
view that the Jega’s INEC is determined and bent on returning the Presidency to
the core North at all costs using lopsided PVCs distribution, whereby the North
edges out the South with over 8m PVCs. It is also schemed and skewed in such
ways that the more PVCs are distributed country-wide, the higher the number for
the referenced North. The speechlessness of the leading opposition political
party and its partners in Lagos section of the Nigerian rights CSOs is not surprising.
This is because Nigeria is now a theatre of politics of slave masters versus slaves.
It is also now when the Alahausa political engineers speak, their partners in its own
axis of rights CSOs concur. Once a minority says Nigeria will burn, there
will be thunderous calls in print media for his or her arrest and prosecution;
but when
a slave master says same, it becomes a national issue
warranting conferment of a merit award on him or her.
Further, our
latest finding appears to suggest that INEC has mischievously been advised by
its “technical
partners” in the referenced rights CSOs to continuously hype the PVCs distribution
figures to create an impression to Nigerians and international watchers that it
has successfully overcome the PVCs distribution challenges. This may
have explained the reason behind latest public disclosure (05/02/2015) by one
Kayode Idowu of INEC that “INEC has so far distributed as at Monday,
02/02/2015 a total of 45, 098, 876 PVCs across the country”. Unlike the
Commission’s last update of 42, 779, 339 given on 27th January,
2015, no State-by-State breakdown was provided. Though the Commission is making
Nigerians to believe that it distributed 2, 319, 337 additional PVCs between 27th
January and 2nd January 2015; a period of five days, but until a
State-by-State breakdown is provided, the seemingly acceptable figure remains
“42, 779, 948”. Even at the referenced latest un-clarified figure, up to 24m
registered voters are still potentially disenfranchised with utter alacrity.
Finally, the
return of sectional human rights, media and political activism in
Nigeria quickly reminds of infamy of the long past such as wild-wild
west, Kano Igbo massacres of 50s and 60s as well as pogroms and other
butcheries in the North of 80s, 90s and 2000s. In nowadays rights CSO activism
in Nigeria, unless you are a “Comrade of Lagos progressivism”, otherwise,
you are a tribally leprous comrade.
In politics, once you can steal in public office within the
confines of Alahausa school of political engineering or join the
school in the context of defection, you are canonized and sainted with
your thievery sins forgiven. In Lagos
print media industry, you are leprous and pariah clothed unless you
sing, chaplet and uphold Alahausa political hegemony. In all
these, our beloved country and her long suffering people pay the price. Like we
earlier stated, with the exception of the European Union poll observers and to an extent, one Women Arise for Change Initiative,
no other domestic observers particularly those from Lagos axis, no matter what
names called, should be taken serious as per this month poll monitoring and
reports. They are seen in many quarters as five fingers of the hand of the Alahausa
school of political engineering. The referenced rights CSOs urgently
need to be rescued from sinking further into the abyss of irretrievable
entrapment.
We wish to
assert very strongly that Nigeria’s politicians who are bandying about change
or transformation as their campaign slogans must be clearly told that
both change
and transformation are tautological. If change or transformation
is to be represented in the context of animal riding, then, with abysmal
performances of the federally incumbent and the opposition political parties in
their political campaigns so far, rested in the layers of campaigns of primordialism and clannishness,
Nigeria is set to be taken one hundred years backward from today.
This is
because using speedy horse riding as Nigeria’s optimum
aim; neither the federal incumbent using transformation mantra nor the
federal opposition using change mantra, has the requisite
competence and capability to take Nigeria and Nigerians to the cradle of horse
riding. Nigeria and Nigerians having being taken to camel
riding by the federal incumbent in the past four years, risks being
taken back to same camel riding by the transformers
or descended to the level of goat riding courtesy of latter day changers or change agents.
In other
words, until and unless Nigeria and Nigerians jettison the current primordial
and Yorean
culture of socio-political practices and approaches, we can never get
to the confines of much needed and desired speedy horse riding. To achieve horse
riding speed, Nigeria must be a country practically founded on social,
cultural, ethnic, religious, economic and political pluralism; where an
Ijaw, Ibibio, Igbo, Yoruba, Fulani, Hausa, Christian and Muslim live and
cohabit and enjoy available resources accordingly. We say no to sectional
human rights, media and political activism that see some as slave
masters and others as slaves.
Signed:
Emeka Umeagbalasi,
B.Sc. (Hons.) Criminology & Security Studies
Board Chairman,
International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
+2348174090052
emekaumeagbalasi@yahoo.co.uk, info@intersociety-ng.org
Obianuju Igboeli, Esq.,
(LLB, BL), Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
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