Brief comments by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, National? Leader, Action Congress of Nigeria at the 50th birthday celebration of Sam Nda-Isaiah, publisher of Leadership Newspapers, May 1, 2012
That today we are still trying to locate where we missed it as a nation or understand why we are stuck in the politics and economics of dynamic inactivity suggests most profoundly to me that something is inherently wrong with our union.
More important and of even greater concern is what appears to be a national perplexity and inertia about how to deal with the biggest challenges to our more than five decades of nationhood: the Boko Haram insurgency and armed banditry.
We have never had it so bad. Our nation and people have never sunk low in the valley of despair and despondence as the PDP led federal government appears incapable of confronting these grave problems, not to mention the economic problems that by government’s own statistics show that 70 per cent of our people live on less than a dollar a day.??
All those that have spoken before me: Prof. Ango Abdullahi, the guest lecturer, Alhaji Maitama Sule and General T.Y. Danjuma have all spoken well. They have not only guided us on a historical tour but provided deep political insights and analysis of events and developments in the Nigerian state.
The trajectory of our political development has been laid bare before us today and to many deep thinkers, there is little wonder we are a mere entity that has not yet become a nation.
My intervention here will be blunt. I will move away from just doing a diagnosis, to suggesting the corrective surgery Nigeria needs urgently.
As I look at the nation today, I am moved by strong emotion. Anyone who loves justice and fairness, anyone who loves the people must feel a hard churning inside. The nation balances at the edge of the precipice while standing on its weaker foot.
What happened to that nation of hope and promise of many years ago, when our economy was strong and supported some level of prosperity among our people; a time when the NAIRA enjoyed some parity with other major international currencies?
What happened to that nation of hope and promise of many years ago when our youths right here in our country, at various universities and polytechnics, enjoyed quality education, a time the youths had great pride in themselves and their country? What happened? What derailed us?
Now those good times appear so remote that it seems we are talking about a different country on a different planet.
It is generally fashionable to blame the woes of our country on the long years of military rule. I do not want to tread that path of analysis any more, as we have also had long years of civilian, ‘democratic’ rule under the PDP.
We are all living witnesses to how well, this party that calls itself Africa’s largest party has fared the past 13 years. I said at the beginning that I would be blunt: In this regard, I will say it as it is: the PDP has failed Nigerians. Not a mere failure, but a very woeful one.
What we see is a serious decline in almost all facets of our national life. We see more corruption, the type that will make past corrupt governments look saintly. We see spiralling unemployment figures; poor electricity supply, general insecurity. We see brazen electoral manipulation.
We are confronted with a judiciary that can no longer dispense justice and that is fast losing?? the confidence and trust of the people, because of too much executive pressure, especially by the ruling party.?
For me, the most critical issues for our nation and the leadership now are: the need for electoral reforms, independence of the judiciary, and security of lives and property and the challenges of grinding poverty to which 70 per cent of Nigerians are condemned and the enthronement of true federalism in all its ramifications.
Nigeria needs electoral reforms that will allow for electoral fairness-
We must not relent in our struggle for electoral reforms.? The Justice Uwais Committee has already given the nation a fine blueprint, which is gathering dust somewhere in Abuja.?
The Uwais Committee produced a comprehensive report detailing the faults in the electoral process and enumerating 83 recommendations. Important recommendations dealt with the independence of the electoral commission and creating an electoral process less vulnerable to manipulation.?
The PDP recently used its majority advantage to amend the electoral act in a manner in which it abridged the rights of Nigerians to seek electoral justice. By restricting to 180 days the period in which election cases and disputes must be concluded, the National Assembly has denied Nigerians electoral justice.
It places a moratorium on justice and denies Nigerians one of the fundamental rights enjoyed under a democracy.? Just like the right to obtain justice and fairness, the beauty of democracy lies in the power it confers on the citizenry to elect the leaders they want or reject those who have failed them.
The solemn procession to the ballot box is one of democracy’s fundamental pillars. But what do we have? Brazen theft of the people’s mandate and massive manipulation of election results with the connivance of INEC officials.
The ruling party, the PDP, has always pilfered votes through brute force or brazen fraud to secure its victories.? The 2003 elections were bad but what came next was worse.
By 2007, when Nigerians really wanted to forget the Obasanjo era of electoral fraud, phantom results were again announced for phantom polling stations.? The electoral pilferage?? was so much that the opposition parties rather than going into post-electoral hibernation, as in the past, headed for the courts to challenge stolen mandates in many states.
The opposition embarked on this course of action because of its realisation that?? the integrity of our ballot papers is fundamental to the survival of our democracy.
Judiciary and Rule of Law
Also fundamental to the survival of our democracy is the maintenance of an independent judiciary that is truly committed to the rule of law.
We need to maintain a vigil over the rule of law.??? In the immediate post-election period, we have been confronted with the abuse of power to muscle out the opposition.? Through strict observance of the rule of law, our courts are to be the guardians of fairness and justice. Without such a protector, democracy lies exposed to the ravages of power.
This is the case in Nigeria today. Instead of learning good democratic lessons from judicial overturning of its electoral violations, the governing party now seems intent to overturn the impartiality of the judiciary.??
The most glaring example of this has been the government’s attempt to cut short the career of one of our illustrious jurists, court of Appeal President Justice Isa Salami. What was his crime??? Refusing to put his sense of justice on sale. For this, they tarnished his name and plotted to end his career. They rumoured that he was in the pockets of the ACN. T
his is a terrible lie against a good man.? His verdicts were not for the Action Congress of Nigeria. They were for justice. However, those in power could not tolerate his impartiality. They sacrificed one of Nigeria’s finest jurists to send a blunt message to other jurists: go against our wishes and you shall lose those robes you hold so dear.
If such a thing can befall so senior a jurist, what hope do others have??? Unless the public cries out, the ruling party may succeed in turning the rule of law from an inalienable right into a tradable item that only it owns and controls.
Given this example, no other jurists now dare cross their assumed master.? Our courts have become islands of confusion as judges balance their conscience against their careers. Sensing that the courts will no longer overturn their excesses, PDP operatives will return to the most blatant forms of electoral misconduct.
They will snatch victory like a criminal kidnapping a child but the courts will be too afraid to rectify the wrongful taking. We are in danger of justice becoming so blind that it pretends not to see anything, even the wrong done right in front of it.
Even worse, this disregard for the rule of law will spill into every aspect of our lives. Neither our lives nor property will be safe and secure from unjust interference by those who hold the staff of government power.?
Democracy As Our Only Option- As Nigerians, we all have a choice regarding which side of the? divide we want to reside. Democracy is hard to establish and even more difficult to maintain.? It requires adherence to principles and the rule of law and a strong and independent judiciary. Dictatorship and authoritarianism are easy to form and give a crude delight to those who operate them.
But while democracy now appears to be ascendant, we must keep alert. My fellow Nigerians, it is one thing to have democracy; it is quite another thing to keep it. It is one thing to proclaim democracy; it is quite another thing to live it. We have done well in proclaiming democracy; we have been far less outstanding in living it.
The Need For A National Conference:
Today, our country is at a critical juncture, with violence in some parts of the Northern states, with inter-religious strife and inter-ethnic clashes and rising demands by ethnic nationalities that we rethink the Nigerian Federation. Nigerians in my view thus need a conversation or what has been canvassed as a national conference.
There is no crisis in talking with one another and discussing our problems as a people, towards finding workable solutions.
We must talk and the time is NOW.
Thank you for listening.