Accord Party governorship
candidate in Oyo State, Rashidi
Ladoja, tells OLUFEMI ATOYEBI that
fraudulent practices marred the
April 11 election which produced
Governor Abiola Ajimobi as the
winner
What is your view on the victory
of Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari (retd) at the presidential
poll?
I wish him good luck and hope that
he is the right man to make Nigeria
better. He is not starting afresh
because Buhari is not a new comer
in government. We have seen him
before and we know him as a
disciplined person. We believe he
will be able to put some sanity
where necessary.
What kind of people would you
advise him to accommodate in
his government?
The President-elect should
accommodate only people of like
mind who can help his mission
when he gets there. He should
make sure that he works with
people who will make him achieve
his objectives as a president.
The president is free in his choice
of cabinet members. He is not
bound to pick politicians alone or
people from just one political party
to run the government with him.
His objectives are to redress
Nigeria, bring peace and
development better than what we
have now. The only way he can do
it is to provide employment for the
youths because that is the major
developmental challenge. A lot of
youths are out of the universities
without being gainfully employed.
It is necessary to address that.
Another major challenge to our
nation’s growth is the issue of
power. If he can make electricity
stable, it will enhance
development. Many companies
have packed out of Nigeria because
they cannot have access to stable
electricity. Maybe Buhari can move
faster in terms of power and the
companies would come back to
Nigeria.
Will it not be asking too much
from Buhari if we expect him to
tackle the problem of electricity
in four years?
It is possible to tackle the problems
associated with power in four
years. The power ministry has a lot
of information with it. They know
what to do exactly. We have been
talking about coal power
generation system, hydro-
electricity system, solar-powered
electricity and other forms of
power generation. If Nigeria moves
straight and confronts the
problems facing power generation
immediately now, it should be able
to solve them in four years.
Don’t you envisage a major
financial challenge for the next
government because of the
dwindling income being
generated from oil?
Our problem does not come from
how much we generate from oil
but what we spend the money on.
Why is Nigeria spending so much
on food importation? If we are
serious in this country, we should
produce our food here and export
for foreign-exchange generation.
With this, we can create a lot of jobs
and solve employment problem.
Our problem is not too much
money or too little money but
wastefulness.
Where do you think history will
place President Goodluck
Jonathan in Nigeria?
I commend him because he fought
well for re-election. When the
game was up, he acted as a
statesman. Have you ever seen a
presidential candidate in Nigeria
since 1999 who lost an election and
did not head to the election
tribunal? In 1999, Alliance for
Democracy and the All Nigeria
Peoples Party presented Olu Falae
against Olusegun Obasanjo. Falae
lost and went to the tribunal.
In 2003, 2007 and 2011, Buhari
headed to the tribunal to challenge
his loss to the Peoples Democratic
Party’s presidential candidates.
Hence, Jonathan is the first to
congratulate his successor-to-be. I
am sure that there are reasons for
Jonathan to go to the tribunal. In a
situation where we had 1.9m votes
without anyone of them void or
nullified being credited to a
person, how do you explain that?
There are reasons that everything
did not go well during the election
but Jonathan just accommodated
peace by accepting the loss so that
Nigeria can move forward. He
should be commended for showing
us in Nigeria that we can do things
differently.
Some have advocated for the
Chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission,
Prof. Attahiru Jega, to be placed
on the same page as Jonathan.
Do you think Jega is worthy of
statesmanship status?
I don’t think so because Jonathan is
bigger than Jega in all standards.
What has Jega done? He conducted
an election which was fraudulent
by all standards. It’s just that
people are saying that we should
just accept the elections. It was not
credible. In many places, voters did
not get the Permanent Voter Cards.
The number of PVCs that were not
given was enough to change the
course of the election. Are you
saying that Jega has done a good
job?
He had the opportunity of mapping
the constituencies with the 2006
census. We conduct a census every
10 years with a view to using it for
national planning. He did not do it.
In Oyo State, constitution supports
that we have 40 seats in the House
of Assembly but he did not obey
the court order and the
constitution. We have 32 seats and
the state challenged it and got a
ruling which Jega ignored. Please,
do not compare Jonathan to Jega,
Jonathan is far bigger in
personality.
During the elections, we had
polling units and wards where
accredited voters were not up to 50
per cent of registered voters and
less even voted. Do you think the
total votes cast during the election
were enough to say that the
people trooped out to vote?
If we have 50 per cent of voters
coming out to vote, then we can
celebrate an average turnout. The
election in Oyo State recorded 40
per cent voters’ turnout. When we
start to review the elections, a lot
of things will be revealed to the
public. How many eligible voters
had PVCs? That is where things
went wrong. Many of the PVCs were
stolen by people who denied
others of exercising their rights to
vote. How many card readers were
used? These were the problems
during the elections. Jega should
not be congratulated for
conducting free and fair elections.
In Nigeria, we are not sincere with
ourselves. We want to take
advantage of every situation and
make a lot of noise about it.
Do we have to restructure the
INEC to solve these problems?
I don’t know if the array of
professors we have appointed as
INEC chairmen is what the
commission needs to perform
better. The fact that the chairmen
are professors made them behave
arrogantly in some cases. It does
not show that a professor is a
better manager. We should look for
people who know what the job is
all about. The ability to manage is
what is important in the position.
You can find a non-professor who
will do the work better.
I would have preferred a chairman
who will give INEC in the states the
right to print the cards in their
states, buy the card making
machines for them and supervise
the process using the State Security
Service to check fraud. When the
process is complete, he can come
out and announce his election
timetable. We should solve local
problems locally. We don’t know
how many cards are outstanding
now. INEC did not compare the
cards received with the number of
registered voters.
In Afijio Local Government of Oyo
State, one-third of the cards were
not received by eligible voters who
registered. It is not compulsory that
a professor must head INEC because
they have no knowledge of what is
happening at the grass roots. They
are far from reality on the ground.
When are you going to the
tribunal with evidence to
support your claims of rigging
in the Oyo State governorship
election?
We have about 20 days before the
allotted time expires for the filing
of petitions. We will do so at the
appropriate time.
Are you optimistic of victory at
the tribunal?
If we are not optimistic, we will not
be doing it. Take a tour of the state
and look at the people’s mood. Go
to Oyo, Iseyin and everywhere else
in the state. The people are
mourning because they are saying
that we did not vote for him
(Governor Abiola Ajimobi). I don’t
know where he got the votes. That
is what we are going to ask the
tribunal to find out.
by ROTMANLUV 2023-07-08, 17:34
