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By Daniel Kanu
Martin Onovo, an activist, petroleum engineer and presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in the 2015 general election, is irked at Nigeria’s governance system.
Onovo gave reasons the country seems not to be working under the watchful eyes of President Muhammadu Buhari.
He spoke with Sunday Sun on critical national issues including the problem with Nigeria, its solution, way out of insecurity, Southeast quest for 2023 presidency, among others.
Excerpt
Transparency International has issued another damning Corruption Perception Index report on Nigeria. What is your take on it?
The Transparency International ‘Corruption Perception Index’ (CPI) report for 2021 ranked Nigeria very poorly (154th). For 2020, Nigeria was ranked 149th. The corrupt cannot control their corruption. The Transparency International report simply confirmed our position that, despite their denials, this is the most corrupt government ever in Nigeria and that corruption in this government is even getting worse. The increasing corruption in this government can be seen in three dimensions; the pervasiveness of corruption, the quantum of funds involved in corruption cases and the impunity of corrupt officials. From the $25 Billion (N10 Trillion) NNPC contracts scam, to the road construction rates that are one hundred times higher than the median rate of the African Development Bank (AfDB), to the phantom school feeding programme during the lockdown, to the fraudulent conditional cash transfer, to the outrageous claims presented as subsidy claims, to the unjustifiable amounts claimed for the maintenance of refineries, the case is the same of uncontrolled corruption. It is not surprising that the Buhari regime as the most corrupt government in the history of Nigeria, is the worst government ever because, corruption is directly destructive in governance.
There is a delay in the passage of the Electoral Bill. Do you suspect foul play?
We do not suspect foul play. We do not see any delay. We see the due process of legislation that should have started much earlier for the Electoral Bill. After the bill was passed the first time by the National Assembly, President Buhari refused to sign it into law due to some questionable provisions like the insistence on direct primaries. The National Assembly has corrected the questionable provisions and so, we expect Gen. Buhari to sign it into law immediately.
On the contentious issue of direct primaries, the National Assembly was in error on many grounds. First the National Assembly may have been unlawfully interfering with the legitimate authority of political parties and their members’ freedom of association. The National Assembly makes laws for the country and not for political parties. Our political parties have their rights to make their own internal laws without external interference.
We have practised indirect primaries considerably and have become very familiar with it. Changing it can introduce a high risk from a management of change perspective and take us back to a learning curve.
Direct primaries are cumbersome, very expensive and easy to manipulate. The ease with which direct primaries can be manipulated was demonstrated in the fraudulent Anambra APC governorship direct primaries last year. It is clearly impossible for INEC to monitor direct primaries of 18 different political parties across the entire country for general elections. Direct primaries are very obviously unrealistic. Direct primaries will promote electoral fraud and corruption. Well-funded candidates can hire non-party members and thugs to register and vote in the direct primaries of different parties and impose candidates in different parties as we have seen same thugs attending the rallies of different parties.
Since it is impossible for INEC to monitor direct primaries of all parties at all locations, manipulations will prevail.
Direct primaries will corrupt the different identities of different parties. It will promote corruption.
Indirect primary elections naturally cost less and are less complex and so make it easier to prevent manipulations.
Our opinion is that parties should independently decide what mode of primary elections they prefer direct or indirect or consensus in compliance with their different party Constitutions. That is the position in the revised electoral bill that awaits the Buhari’s signature. We agree with this position.
Do you have confidence in INEC conducting the 2023 elections in Nigeria?
There is no ethical basis to declare confidence in INEC as presently constituted to conduct free and fair elections in Nigeria. The 2015 presidential elections were outrageously manipulated. The 2019 elections were even worse. Therefore, we cannot declare confidence in INEC to conduct free and fair elections in Nigeria. After the nomination of an APC member as an INEC Commissioner was rejected by the Senate, another APC member from Bayelsa State has again been nominated as an INEC Commissioner. From these, we see the desperation of the ruling party to ensure that INEC is even more partisan.
Do you think that the politicians that have declared interest so far, particularly on the Presidency have what it takes to rescue the country?
We do not think so principally because; they have jumped the gun which exposes them as selfish, reckless, unethical and unpatriotic. The revised Electoral Bill has not been signed as at today and INEC has not issued the guidelines yet. So, these declarations are pre-mature, selfish and unethical. Authentic leaders must always put national interest ahead of their selfish interest. All politicians that have announced their intentions so far have violated the process and have put their political interests above national interests. So, it can be seen very clearly that all those that have announced their intentions before now are unfit for the office of the President because they placed their selfish political interests above our national interest. Such politicians have exposed their selfish motives and must not be trusted.
The proper sequence of events should be, that the revised Electoral bill is signed first. Then, we all wait for INEC to release the detailed guidelines after which all groups, parties and prospective aspirants must follow the guidelines strictly and comply with all relevant laws.
Why are you not running for president in 2023?
We have not told you that we will not present a candidate. We did not announce that we will not present a candidate. We as patriots plan to present the most formidable candidate for the presidency. A strong, visionary, ethical, competent and capable candidate.
Some Nigerians say the Southeast is not working hard for their quest for presidency. Do you agree?
I do not agree. Such a position is false and divisive. In 1999, there was a consensus that the President should come from the Southwest and so, affirmative actions were taken to ensure that the two candidates, His Excellency Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Olu Falae were from the Southwest. Nobody claimed that the Southwest was not working hard for the quest. Now, it is very clearly the turn of the Southeast and some sectional persons have started to conjure illogical positions to subvert it.
Power rotation is an established national norm in Nigerian politics. It was even included in the Gen. Abacha draft Constitution. So, power should rotate to the Southeast of Nigeria in 2023. The North should not attempt to disrupt an established national norm. Such unpatriotic attempt will introduce distrust and disagreement. More South-easterners will declare at the appropriate time and that will give Nigerians many options from which we can select the best candidate for president.
What do you think is the solution to Nigeria’s problems?
Nigeria’s major problems include insecurity, corruption, injustice, unemployment, poverty, debt, etc. These problems were aggravated by the mediocre governance we have suffered under some illegitimate and corrupt rulers. We agree with the late Prof. Chinua Achebe that the problem with Nigeria is squarely the leadership. Therefore, the solution to Nigeria’s problems is good leadership and 2023 offers us another opportunity to elect a strong, visionary, ethical and capable president. We must not recycle corrupt failed rulers and their collaborators again.
How can we improve the security situation in the country?
To improve the security situation in the country requires an appropriate security management system that will address the issues we have with the ruling party as the direct sponsor of insecurity and terrorism in Nigeria as confessed by the former leading national chieftain of the ruling party, Alhaji Kawu Baraje. Our security management system must also, improve the motivation of security operatives; improve our intelligence gathering and verification capacity; take pre-emptive actions; improve security response capacity and time; attack the social and financial sponsors of all terrorists, etc.
The Federal Government announced the postponement of subsidy removal by 18 months. What do you think about the rescheduling?
Nigeria has become like the Augean stable with multiple layers of dirt and rot due to unpatriotic, incompetent and corrupt rulers. These rulers have ruined our refineries and are unable to fix them or build new ones. Therefore, we have been wastefully importing petroleum products routinely at very high costs while our refineries are mismanaged to waste away. The Federal Government should not transfer the costs of its corruption, incompetence and wastefulness to the impoverished Nigerian people. This same Gen. Buhari government removed “subsidy” in 2016 and claimed that it was saving over N15 billion every month. Why will the same regime come back with this absurd story of “subsidy” removal every year again? Has the mass media failed Nigerians? We all have the documentation of all the false promises of the ruling party. Why has the mass media not held the government accountable as required by the Constitution? The ruling party deceitfully promised to fix the refineries and build new ones. It has not fixed any refinery after seven years. It also has not built even a modular refinery. Please note that this government has spent about N50 Trillion since 2015 without any significant achievement. If we can ethically spend only N1 Trillion properly every year in key development projects in the Nigerian economy, we will make a remarkable difference, but here after N50Trillion, all we have are colossal corruption, stories and huge national debts.
The position of the government is unpatriotic, incompetent, wasteful and corrupt. The solution is domestic refining which will cut the waste associated with imported petroleum products. Domestic refining will also improve our GDP, improve employment, conserve foreign exchange resources, reduce the prices of petroleum products in Nigeria and arrest inflation. The solution is domestic refining.
