phemmyutd:
The ex-militant leader has remained optimistic
about the second term of President Goodluck
Jonathan even before this time. Now, with the
time ticking closer to the presidential election, he
appears firmer in his conviction. There is nothing
anybody says that will make him to believe
otherwise. Not even the “fireworks” from the
opposition.
Asari Dokubo, like the PDP, is also advocating for
a return to the temporary voter cards. In this
interview with Vanguard, he insisted that
President Jonathan is facing unusual opposition
to his second term bid because some people feel
they have the divine right to rule Nigeria.
Excerpts:
Is it not surprising to you that the security
agencies united to say they couldn’t provide
security for the elections which primarily
necessitated the postponement?
That does not concern me. I don’t speak for the
military.
But most people see it as conspiracy against
democracy...
What is conspiracy when INEC has not been able
to provide PVCs? When it has made sure that in
Rivers State, only 56 percent of the population
have their PVCs? What of the remaining Rivers
people that they want to disenfranchise? My wife
has not collected her PVC.
Should that have made the military to
recommend the postponement of the elections?
I am not concerned about the military. It is not
my business what Nigerian military does. You
know where I am coming from. So whatever the
Nigerian military says, it is their business.
How do you react to the postponement of the
elections?
I am not in support of the postponement if all the
preparations had been done. In fact, I have
sapped myself. I worked to the point that I nearly
passed out. I was addressing Muslims in Lagos
on the 31st of January and I collapsed because I
had not been having enough sleep and time for
myself. I had thought that the elections would
come for me to go the Saudi Arabia and thank
Allah for the victory he has granted us.
But a situation where over 20 million are
deliberately going to be disenfranchised by INEC,
that’s not fair. It is very hypocritical of the United
States; I think the president has been giving a lot
of people unnecessary opportunities to meddle in
the internal affairs of Nigeria. Nigeria is a
sovereign state. It is not a satellite of the United
States of America. Will anybody in the US say
that 100 people should be disenfranchised not to
talk of 20 million people? Is it Goodluck Jonathan
or the PDP that stopped INEC since 2011 to make
preparations for 100 percent distribution of the
PVCs? How come 36 percent of the PVCs has
been collected in Lagos and over 75 percent
PVCs has been collected in Borno State where,
according to their quotes, about 20 LGAs are in
the hands of insurgents? This lends credence to
the suspicion that the APC is working with the
insurgents. I listened to Senator Mamora on
television and he said that local government
elections were conducted in Borno and Yobe
States. What was the magic? What agreement did
they have? God is revealing these people. Who
are collecting the PVCs in Borno, Yobe, Adamawa
and Gombe States? How come Borno and Yobe
have collected more PVCs than Lagos, Rivers,
Imo States? Who is deliberately hoarding the
PVCs? Is it Goodluck Jonathan? Have they
compromised INEC? I was a member of ACN, so I
know how they operate during elections. I know
that before elections, when PDP is dealing with
the top cadre of the security agencies, APC
relates with the DPOs, DCOs, the rank and file.
Is that not a wild allegation?
It is not a wild allegation. I can give evidence. As
somebody who was very active in ACN at the
highest echelon, i dealt with the national
leadership of the party directly and I know how
they operate during elections. We keep quiet
because we have friends there. But friends are no
longer behaving like friends. So, we too should
behave the way we behave.
But that was ACN.
ACN? It is ACN that has transmuted into APC
because ACN is APC. All the others are just
affiliates. They are associates. The driving force of
the party is ACN. They are using the so-called
idle followership of Buhari in the North. The
machine, the intelligentsia, the think tank,
everything is ACN. That is the way they rig
election. In the judiciary, in INEC, they have
people they work directly with. So, the elections
should not be held with the PVC. No. The
temporary voter cards, since INEC is unable to
distribute all the PVCs, we should use the
temporary one. PVC is not in our law. PVC
testing machine is not known to our law. The
electoral law does not recognise it. There is no
e-voting. So, we should go back to the temporary
voter card. INEC is deliberately disenfranchising
some Nigerians. The constitutional right of a
person is sacred to vote and be voted for. My
wife contested House of
A candidate in Reps election in 2011, up till now,
she cannot find her PVC. And it is the
responsibility of INEC to provide the PVC. It is
none of my business if somebody wants to come
and pay me money and he says he went to the
bank and armed robbers stole the money from
him. So, if hoodlums stole PVCs, what’s my
business? Bring my PVC. It is my right to vote
and be voted for. You cannot deny me that right.
You advocate for 100 percent collection of the
PVC but do you think it is possible for everyone
to collect his PVC? Besides, no law has said so.
That is an assumption. You cannot deliberately
circumvent the law. You can’t trample upon the
law.
Even when there is no law to compel the people
to collect the PVC?
But all the people who registered have their
temporary voter cards. So, if we are not ready
with the PVC, we can take their PVC to them.
Their address is there. The bio-data are there.
So, we can take it to them.
You are an ardent supporter of President
Jonathan. Can you share what you have done so
far to ensure his victory at the polls?
I have campaigned. There is nothing I can tell
you more than that. I have reached out. We have
networked and we are still doing it. We are not
sleeping. We are not losing a second.
Most people are still quick to say that amid other
challenges, the economy is down under the
president’s watch. Many believe such may work
against his re-election. How do you react? There
was a global recession that swept across the
West: Britain, US, Japan and so on. Today it is
the turn of the oil and gas producing countries. Is
it only Nigeria? Ghana economy is in tatters even
though oil contributes very little to Ghana.
Ghana’s currency is falling everyday. Dubai is in
trouble. They have devalued their currency by 37
percent as at the last count. Russia is in trouble.
Angola is almost going bankrupt. So, it is a
global economic trend. It is not only Nigeria. But
does the opposition have the recipe to manage
the economy? On a television interview posted
online, one of the campaign managers of General
Buhari was seen with loads of dollars in his
breast pockets. But he struggled to cover it. How
can leaders be spending dollars and not Naira,
thereby depleting the foreign exchange capacity of
the country? And we know that most of them
don’t spend Naira. They spend dollars, pounds
and euros. That is what is causing the crisis in
the economy. It is more demands for foreign
currency than we earn from our resources and so
the economy will be going down. It is all
Nigerians that must work. Whatever policy on the
ground, money laundering policy, etcetera, if the
people are not ready to abide by the rules, hard
and stringent economy rules, then we will have a
problem.
Do you see him winning the elections in six
weeks time?
I have always told you that we had already won.
We will win. They will complain and we are ready
for them. This election is between me and the
Gambari North. I thought INEC have extended the collect of PVC'S to march 8?why the continues clamour for TVC'S?when people who registered in Nov/ Dec last year have started collecting their own here in benin. |
