Chief Olabode George speaks on why the PDP is set to reclaim the South-West, analyses the APC, politics of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the governorship race in Lagos, INEC, etc. Excerpts:
Is there anything you still think we need to do, if we are to get things right, as the election for the office of president comes up on Saturday?You know that the chairman of INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, has been telling everybody that he is ready for the elections and he is saying, if you don’t have a Permanent Voter Card (PVC) you cannot vote. I am worried. Lagos State has about 5.9 million registered voters. Only about 3.89 eligible people have collected their PVCs. So, the remaining two million, where are their PVCs? And he says, if you are registered and you don’t have a PVC, you cannot vote. Is he trying to disenfranchise Nigerians? I am also in the bracket of whom you will call the old men. So, what is going on with him? He is assuring us that all is well. Like what and how? Now, if you see all the data, all the percentages of the collections of PVCs, isn’t it worrisome?
How do you mean?
If you are the same professor teaching various classes and you taught some 100 per cent syllabus, you taught some 60 per cent, some 40 per cent, some 30 per cent and they are all going to write the same examination, because he is a professor, let him think in that line, if he is not mathematically minded. Is it fair? Is it right? So, what happens to those people who are registered and interested in coming to vote and their names will be on the register but they have no PVCs. He should have done these things four or five years before now so that everybody would have been keyed in. You educate the people; there would be a lot of information in local languages so that people are used to the system. You don’t bring experimentation on the day, on something you haven’t done before, on a very crucial election like the one we are running now.
Then, what is the way forward?
I don’t know, as we have been shouting it and he doesn’t listen. He is the Emperor of INEC. The other day he was having a Town Hall Meeting and a female journalist asked him a very pertinent question. He just brushed it aside. Jega doesn’t own Nigeria. We must know that the fallout the election will determine the future of the country. We are all praying and working to make sure that the election is trouble-free. But, if he does not provide a level-playing field, then he is the one going to conflagrate Nigeria and the country will never leave him, because the future generations will read him. I knew when Nigeria had one Dr Esua as the chairman of the electoral chief. I remember we had a retired Justice Ovie Whiskey; we‘ve had Professor Humphrey Nwosu, and late Justice Ephraim Akpata, and so on. What would Jega be remembered for? He is a young man and the younger generations are looking forward to a nation that is equitably stabilised, and not a wobbling platform.
I have asked severally if at the polling unit that if Smart Card Reader does not work, what do we do? He said those affected should come back the following day. What a joke! Come back the following day for what? I saw an old politician who must be in his 80s, making the same observations that I am making. I am not saying drive away Jega. Let him come out and answer all the questions. Let the government of the people and the parties call him to come and talk to us. We know the percentage we have collected. What happened to the remaining?
Some pundits have tipped the APC winning the election; that it is no longer a 50:50 chance for the PDP?
I see, you know they are spin doctors. They are liars. You have forgotten whom they are! They can tell you that no, your name is not actually what you know it to be; that your name is Tunji. The Pirate Radio Station they are monitoring, what is their intention? I have it on authority that they are trying to fight if the PDP wins. That reminds of when we won the election in Ondo State years back, they told the people, ‘What are you waiting for? You should go out on the street and fight.’ They slapped a commissioner.’ But the people asked them, ‘did you do anything for the people?’ The South-West is among the most sophisticated zone in terms of politics. You can see that their leader does not wear Baba Awolowo’s cap any more. They don’t use the round glasses again because they are not sincere. The real Bola has been unmasked. When he came, he deceived the old men that he was the real fighter, that he is NADECO. Truth will always prevail. You can’t deceive the people all the time.
What advantage do you think the president still has beyond the factor of incumbency, in view of the integrity of the APC candidate which is the opposition flaunts as part of its selling points before prospective voters?Show me your friend and I will tell you who you are. He sits down in their private jets and campaigns around. When he comes to Lagos, he is always in a bullet proof car. Each time I see Bola beside Buhari, I develop a goose pimple. This is an arrant nonsense. Buhari should be in the PDP not in the APC. Yes, because our party is not owned by an individual. At his age, he should be one of the older members in the Board of Trustees of our party because that is the only political party from inception that has the emblem, of the country. Yes, we have disagreements, which is normal in a growing organisation and those who jump ship and went down there, where are they today? Look at Audu Ogheh, the national chairman of the PDP, the largest political party in Africa, since he jumped to the other side, he has disappeared like a submarine. You hardly hear of him. I was shell shocked when I heard that Engineer Barnabas Gemade heading to the APC. A rolling stone gathers no moss. They just went into oblivion. It was like a flash in the pan. PDP foundation members; you left the house you have built and went into the APC to be a tenant! How can you have a voice there? There will always be disagreement, but let it be robust. Let it be genuine and you stay within and solve it.
No comments:
Post a Comment