Democracy In Danger As Nigeria Comes Under Creeping Fascism
Being the text of
a World Press Conference addressed by the National Chairman of the
All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Oyegun, in Lagos on Friday, June 20th 2014
Gentlemen of the press,
I have called this World Press Conference today to alert Nigerians and
our international friends of the grave threat posed to our democracy and
indeed the very survival of our nation by an increasingly-tyrannical
federal government.
Less than 48 hours after I released an open
letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, warning him to halt the impunity
in Ekiti and not to plunge Nigeria into a political crisis, the federal
government has now overreached itself and turned Ekiti into a war zone,
where constitutional guaranteed rights have been suspended.
|| "If
an army captain and his troops can enforce unlawful orders, as was done
when Governor Amaechi and other key leaders of our party were denied
their constitutionally-guaranteed rights of free movement, free assembly
and free speech, just to mention a few, can't the same troops be given
orders to hijack ballot boxes or tamper with the electoral process in
Ekiti on Saturday?"
|| "We state clearly that our party will not
accept the outcome of any election in Ekiti State that does not comply
with the best practices. The people of Ekiti must be allowed to vote
freely and without molestation for the candidates of their choice on
Saturday, and the votes must not only be counted, but they must count."
The final electioneering campaign of our candidate in the Ekiti
election, Gov. Kayode Fayemi, on Thursday 19th of June, 2014, provided
the perfect setting for the Jonathan-led administration to bare its
fangs with a series of arbitrariness and unconstitutional acts that
threaten the very fabric of our democracy...
First, several APC
Governors were prevented from attending the rally. The helicopter that
was to ferry Gov. Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State from Benin to Akure was
denied permission to take off by the aviation authorities apparently
acting on "orders from above".
Then while the plane bearing Gov.
Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State, who is also the Chairman of the Nigerian
Governors' Forum, was allowed to land at the Akure Airport, his convoy
was stopped by soldiers at the border of Ondo and Ekiti state, and
ordered to return to Akure by the leader of the troops, an army captain
who said he was under orders not to allow him into Ado Ekiti and
threatened to shoot him if he defied his orders.
Gov. Amaechi
was detained along the road in the bush for as long as it suited the
soldiers before he was forced to return to Akure. While the Governor was
being detained on the road, the convoys of the Minister of Police
Affairs and the Minister of State for Defence sped past and were not
stopped by the troops.
But the worst was yet to come. On arrival
in Akure Airport, he found out that the airport has been shut, leaving
him stranded. By the time other Governors, including Rochas Okorocha of
Imo State and Ibikunle Amosun of Rivers, and party leaders including
myself, Chief Bisi Akande and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu arrived at the
Akure Airport for their onward journey to their various destinations,
they discovered that the airport has been shut, apparently on the same
nebulous ''orders from above''.
Thus, all the party leaders and
supporters who came to the rally from across the country, including
Sokoto, Abuja, Kano, Owerri, Port Harcourt and Lagos, were forced to
travel by road back to their destinations, with the dangers inherent in
such night journey.
Against the background of my narration, and
the over-militarization of Ekiti State ahead of Saturday's election,
many questions come to mind
1. If one of the candidates in the
election could be prevented from holding his final rally with the full
compliment of his party leaders and supporters, a treatment that was not
meted out to other candidates, can we honestly say that a level playing
field has been provided for all the candidates in the election?
2. If a state Governor, despite the high office he occupies and the
constitutional immunity from arrest which he enjoys, could be detained
and ordered around by security agents, what fate will befall ordinary
Nigerians under this administration that is increasingly sliding into
fascism?
3. If key institutions of state can be abused so
brazenly just to stop the opposition from moving freely because of a
state governorship election, what will happen during next year's general
elections?
4. Where in the world are airports shut at the whims
and caprice of the ruling party just to punish the opposition? Is it
not true that in recent times, the airports in Kano and Gombe, among
others, have been shut just to prevent the opposition from using them?
5. If an army captain and his troops can enforce unlawful orders, as
was done when Gov. Amaechi and other key leaders of our party were
denied their constitutionally-guaranteed rights of free movement, free
assembly and free speech, just to mention a few, can't the same troops
be given orders to hijack ballot boxes or tamper with the electoral
process in Ekiti on Saturday?
Doesn't this give a cause for
concern in view of the over-militarization of Ekiti State ostensibly to
provide security for the election but now obviously to stifle the
process and rig the election?
6. Is President Jonathan aware of
the treatment being meted out to elected Governors under his watch. If
so, what is he doing to stop this madness before it gets out of hand?
These are some of the questions agitating our minds and, indeed, the minds of all Nigerians.
Now, let us place the events of the past 24 hours side by side with the
events of the past few days leading to the elections in Ekiti viz:
1. On June 8th 2014: Our supporters, armed with nothing but brooms, were
engaged in a peaceful procession on the streets of Ado Ekiti when they
were attacked by gun-totting policemen acting on ''orders'' from above.
One of them was killed and when Gov. Kayode Fayemi attempted to
intervene, he was teargassed and threatened with arrest by the Mopol
Commander
2. Within the past three days, two aircraft, one a
Beechcraft 1900 and another a Hawker 900, made a total of three trips to
the Akure airport ferrying cargoes of money for the Ekiti election.
When one of these cargoes burst open, naira notes with wrappers bearing
the name of a popular bank spilled out. The offloading of these cargoes,
which were then loaded into bullion vans heading for Ado-Ekiti, was
supervised by Minister of State for Defence, Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro, as
widely reported in the media and yet unrefuted. Placed against the
background of a statement credited to a PDP leader that huge amounts of
money have been made available by the FG for the Ekiti election, this
raises huge concerns.
3. Last week,over 200 boxes of electoral
materials were intercepted by security agents in Ekiti. INEC quickly
claimed that the boxes contained wasted materials, contradicting the
story by the driver of the vehicle carrying the materials. To date,
Nigerians have yet to be provided with full and credible information on
these suspicious materials.
4. On June 18th, a pro-Fayose and
PDP gang was busted in a resort owned by Fayose's Campaign Manager thump
printing ballot papers ahead of Saturday's election. The 22 young men,
who were arrested, were also caught preparing INEC form EC8.
5.
Under the guise of providing security for the election, Ekiti State has
been turned to a war zone, with thousands of armed policemen and troops
as well as fearsome armoured personnel carriers dotting the entire Ekiti
landscape. Never before has an election been held under such armed
invasion! The truth is that security for any election does not have to
be so invasive, except it is programmed to achieve one thing and one
thing only: to intimidate voters!
Against this background, my
party, the APC, doubts very seriously whether a free, fair, credible and
transparent elections can be held in Ekiti on Saturday .
Beyond
the elections, we are concerned that the PDP-led federal government has
grown so desperate to capture Ekiti State at all cost that it is
willing to do anything, and I mean anything, to scuttle the electoral
process and even threaten the very survival of our country.
In view of this, we have resolved to:
1. Alert all Nigerians to the antics of the federal government in
witch-hunting the opposition through an egregious abuse of power as well
as abuse of national institutions. We urge all the good people of our
dear nation to speak out against this unprecedented acts of desperation
and impunity. Never in the history of our democracy has a sitting
Governor been so shabbily treated as was meted out to Gov. Amaechi on
Thursday. Not even in the days of the abhorrent military rule were such
brazen abuse of national institutions committed by the federal
government.
2. We call on our international partners to condemn
this growing impunity by the ruling party and the government it controls
at the centre. Actions have consequences, and whoever fails to condemn
the acts of impunity being perpetrated by the central government will
not have the moral right to condemn the reactions that such actions may
elicit.
3. We state clearly that our party will not accept the
outcome of any election in Ekiti State that does not comply with the
best practices. The people of Ekiti must be allowed to vote freely and
without molestation for the candidates of their choice on Saturday, and
the votes must not only be counted, but they must count.
Also,
we want to call the attention of Nigerians to the fact that under the
Electoral Act, troops are not supposed to be deployed to polling
stations. Also, police personnel deployed to polling booths are not
expected to carry arms. All these stipulations of the Electoral Act must
be strictly adhered to on Saturday.
We also have it on good
authority that a detachment of troops will be sent to the Ekiti State
House on Saturday to escort Gov. Fayemi to vote and then put him under
virtual house arrest thereafter. This is totally unacceptable.
Finally we need to ask: What is the role of the Minister of State for
Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, in the Ekiti election? Is he now the chief
enforcer for the PDP? It is important to clarify this issue.
4.
We urge President Goodluck Jonathan to live up to his pledge, made
several times over, that he would always ensure that elections held
under his watch are free and fair, and that his ambition is not worth
the life of any Nigerian. The President should call his dogs of war to
order before their precipitate a serious crisis in Ekiti.
5. We
remind the President not to allow Nigeria to unravel under his watch,
through acts of omission or commission. We urge him to take a lesson
from history, and to realize that the crisis of 1965, 1983 and 1993 all
started from the South-west over elections that were either manipulated
or annulled. Our country is still reeling from the effects of those
crises and we cannot afford to plunge the nation into another crisis.
6 Finally, we urge the good people of Ekiti to go out and vote
massively for the candidates of their choice on Saturday. They should
not allow the overwhelming presence of security agents to intimidate
them, if that is what their deployment was programmed meant to achieve.
They must defend their votes to the hilt and reject any attempt by a
band of desperadoes to choose their leaders for them. After all,
ultimate power flows from the people.
Chief John Oyegun
National Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC)
Lagos, June 20th 2014