2015 election far better than that of 2019 – Dr. Tony Akabuno

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Dr. Tony Akabuno is the co-chair of Red Card Movement, a citizens’ movement that had campaigned and urged the Nigerian electorate to issue All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) red card at the just concluded election.
Akabuno in this interview with Charles Okogene, spoke on why the Red Card Movement failed to actualize its ambition of sending the two parties packing. He gave insight into why the leading opposition party candidate, Atiku Abubarkar, was endorsed ahead of any other alternative presidential candidate

How would RCM describe the outcome of the general elections?

As a movement, we had our members in all states and local government areas who observed the elections across the federation and had on the spot assessment. From our participant observations, the performance of the election umpire, Independent National Election Commission (INEC), was below par, especially in the area of collation and security. After all the pre-election promises made by INEC, we witnessed the postponement of the elections just a few hours to the planned commencement. The chairman of INEC cited logistic challenges. This was a very flimsy excuse and very disappointing to say the least. Even after the new date, we witnessed heavy militarization of an election that was meant to be a purely civil process. INEC’s handling of security was very poor.

The collation was extremely poor, as evidenced by the long delay of announcement of final result. Under this present leadership of INEC, we witnessed too many INCONCLUSIVE elections.

The dissatisfaction is reflected in the numerous court cases challenging the outcome as announced by INEC.

The 2015 election was far better than 2019. Considering the huge resources availed to the present INEC, it is very disappointing.

Were you disappointed that Nigerians did not heed your call for a red card to APC and PDP going by the outcome of the election?

As a movement, we started by sensitizing the electorate on the need to focus on identifying candidates with character, competence and capacity. We were pushing the narrative that they should look away from the usual suspects, All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because the two dominant political parties do not seem to have much to offer. We pointed citizens towards the alternative political parties. We went further by trying to ‘operationalize’ our narrative of looking in the direction of alternatives, by partnering with some civil society organizations (CSOs) to organize a summit of the alternatives (SOTA) in August 2018. During SOTA, which was a two-day event, we had virtually all the alternative political parties and presidential aspirants that were neither of APC nor PDP extraction. SOTA was a huge success.

Unfortunately, the alternative political parties and presidential aspirants did not help matters, because they were not willing to come together as a formidable coalition that could challenge APC and PDP. Every one of them felt they were the best and we also sensed a lot of insincerity among some of them. Citizens were frustrated and getting impatient that the coalition was not working. Majority of voters concluded that since they were not willing to work together, then the contest was between APC and PDP. The final results as announced by INEC validated the impression of citizens. But that was a pragmatic conclusion by majority of voters.

We all saw the final result as announced by INEC. So, as a movement we were not disappointed with citizens.
Rather we were disappointed with the alternatives, who made it impossible for a strong third force to emerge. Citizens impressed us with their patience.

After SOTA you had PACT, which failed. Why did you move from a well organized SOTA to a disappointing PACT?

RCM was NEVER involved in PACT. As a movement, we are usually deliberate in what we do. We are also certain that none of our SOTA partners were behind PACT.
I was in charge of the secretariat of SOTA, so I know the entire story from beginning to the end point. After SOTA, we had a work plan of midwifing a coalition of the alternatives, so it will be easier to market a stronger coalition of alternatives as a major third force to the citizens. On the final day of SOTA, the entire partners of SOTA made our plan public at Musa Yar’Adua Centre Abuja. The plan was named SOTA NEXT STEP. Then we agreed with all the participants that a COALITION OF ALTERNATIVES was the only way to go. Before we kick started the process of coalition, some presidential aspirants went too fast, without a proper planning to come up with something called PACT (Presidential Aspirants Coming Together). The world witnessed how PACT died on arrival.

But the former leader of RCM, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, was part of the organizers of PACT

That is not correct please. I co-chaired secretariat of RCM from the beginning, so I was
always in the loop of all communications to RCM. At no point was RCM contacted to be involved with anything about PACT. To the best of my knowledge, Dr. Ezekwesili was invited to PACT as an observer in her PERSONAL capacity. After the PACT event at Chelsea Hotel, RCM made an official statement through our twitter handle to state that Dr. Ezekwesili was at the PACT event in her personal capacity and definitely not representing RCM. I think she also clarified the true position on her verified twitter handle. The organizers of the defunct PACT can validate this. I hope this is clear?

How do you react to the insinuation that RCM was not sincere about its red card call because its convener, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, became partisan before throwing in the towel when it became obvious to her that she was no match to Atiku and Buhari?

There is nothing like insincerity in this case. Dr. Oby Ezekwesili exercised her constitutional right as a citizen that is qualified to contest for the highest political office in Nigeria. Being a member of RCM did not forbid her from contesting election. I think is qualified for the office she was contesting for. You will recall that when she decided to contest for the office of President of Nigeria, she resigned her leadership and membership of RCM. That was when a new leadership of two co-chairs emerged. The transition was a demonstration of best practice by RCM, to show that the movement is not owned by anyone. I don’t think Dr. Ezekwesili erred in her decision to contest election. It is her right to do so and she procedurally resigned from RCM to commence her campaign. A few co-conveners also resigned their membership and ranking roles in the movement, to play a major role in her campaign organization. So, both RCM and Dr. Ezekwesili should be applauded for practicalizing best practice and due process.

Even at that, RCM, at long last threw its support behind Atiku/PDP. Was that fair?

You will recall that I said that our members and citizens were getting frustrated and impatient that the alternative presidential candidates were unwilling to form a coalition that will be a formidable third force that could pragmatically challenge APC and PDP.

Under my leadership, RCM went round the country from November 2018 to end of January 2019, meeting with top alternative presidential candidates and eminent citizens.
Based on feedback we got from our state champions (leaders of RCM in the 36 states plus FCT), registered members in the streets and eminent citizens, we considered re-jigging our original mantra of #RedCardToAPCAndPDP to a new mantra of #RedCardToBadGovernsnce & #RedCardToIrresponsibleLeadership. At a joint meeting of co-conveners and state champions, it was unanimously agreed that we should drop the original mantra on our first anniversary which was 9th January, 2019. We issued a statement to that effect to indicate our new mantra of #RedCardToBadGovernance and #RedCardToIrresponsibleLeadership had come to stay. Bear in mind that the campaigns and election dates were staring at us in the face. As we were approaching February 2019, the state champions of RCM insisted that if the alternatives were not serious about forming a coalition that could defeat the incumbent president, then we should consider endorsing the presidential candidate of the major opposition party. This position was favored by 34 states plus FCT champions. These are RCM foot soldiers who are on the ground, unlike most co-conveners that are not on the field.
It was a general resolve by RCM that the current political authority (APC) has not delivered good governance and responsible leadership. MAJORITY agreed that Atiku Abubarkar was the only candidate with capacity to defeat the APC candidate. Some co-conveners felt we should go into the election without advising our members and citizens on who to vote for. Majority favoured our position of endorsing Atiku as the only candidate with capacity to defeat Buhari. The endorsement of Atiku as the most pragmatic option to defeat Buhari, was also in sync with the views of most citizens and eminent citizens we interacted with. At a well attended press conference on February 7, we endorsed Atiku Abubarkar as our preferred candidate for the 2019 election. We moved from academic rhetorics to political pragmatism. That was fair enough to our members and citizens. Going into the election without endorsing any candidate, would have been unfair to our members and viewed as a redundant strategy. No candidate after one year would have been political timidity.

In the statement you signed during the press conference, you stated that RCM leaders are not members of PDP, but endorsing the Atiku/Obi ticket as the best option to defeat the failed leadership of Buhari. That is some sophisticated brand of politics. Can you tell us more?

It is simple. Our endorsement of Atiku and mobilization of votes for him, does not make us members of PDP. We were only using our influence to support the most pragmatic candidate that can defeat a government we concluded has failed. If Atiku had been declared winner and sworn in, RCM would have immediately maintain the position of governance and leadership watchdog. As a movement, we shall mobilize against a government that is performing below expectations.

What do you think about the petition filed by Atiku and PDP?

As a movement, we issued a statement that affirmed our support for Atiku’s decision to challenge the election result in court. It will be subjudice to dwell so much on this subject. We want our democracy to be strengthened. Whatever the outcome, we are positioned to remain as a governance and leadership watchdog. Whether Buhari or Atiku, the president of Nigeria should be ready to deliver good governance and responsible leadership, or await our RED CARD.

With the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari and the impressive showing of PDP, is that an indication that Nigerians prefer both parties, APC and PDP?

I think Nigerians prefer a two party system. All the parties put together could not get a combined total of 10% vote cast. I think it will be a waste of resources and time to have too many parties that lack the resources and operational knowledge of winning a presidential election. None of the alternative presidential candidates campaigned in all 36 states and FCT. That is lack of capacity, in my opinion. If you want to be president of Nigeria, then you don’t have any excuse not to visit some states. The alternative candidates should join APC or PDP and close any visible integrity gap in the two main political parties. I believe that a two party system will strengthen our political landscape.

Do you think political parties are really the problem of Nigeria?

Our experience on the field in interacting with the old political parties and the new ones, revealed that it is difficult to differentiate between the old and the new. We discovered that most of the new parties may be puppets of the old ones. That was why the political space witnessed majority of registered new political parties adopting either of the candidates of APC or PDP. In my opinion, it is not likely the new ones will behave differently from the old ones if they have access to political leadership. Our problem is not in acronyms( Political parties). The people are the same and move from one party to the other, both old and new. Majority of Nigerians are the same, no matter the party they belong to.

Now that election has been won and lost, what next for RCM as a movement?

Election is a process, not an event. The process is still on. Until Supreme Court gives judgement on the petitions, the election cannot be said to have been won and lost. We await the outcome. But whatever the outcome, RCM remains a governance and leadership watchdog. We shall keep sensitizing citizens on leadership qualities and mobilizing them ahead of elections. We shall keep expanding our membership base.

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