By Emman Ovuakporie
Hon. Kyari Gujbawu represents Maiduguri metropolis, the hot bed of Boko Haram insurgency in Borno State, in the House of Representatives. In this chat, he speaks on how INEC can conduct elections in Borno, the amendment of the 2010 Electoral Act, issues on the floor of the House and other national issues.
How do you react to the INEC position that elections may not hold in Borno State considering the fact that many areas in the state have fallen under the control of insurgents and elections are barely a month away?
It is now obviously sadly and unfortunately that more than 70 percent of Borno State is no longer accessible to any government agency be it security or INEC. And if the INEC boss, Prof. Jega, said that elections cannot hold in the state, this is a position I have been concurring with as a matter of fact. The insurgency we are faced with is a new form of warfare. It is not a conventional warfare for which our military has been trained to address as it obtains anywhere in the world.
So it is so difficult for you to predict how to arrest it as it is the case with a conventional warfare. Obviously, there are a lot of fears that you see people express, especially those of us who are from there. I heard the Chairman, House Committee on Electoral Matters speak on the floor of the House and he said there would be a stakeholders meeting between the Committee, INEC and officials of the three affected states. I guess at that meeting, we will suggest ways that will help us look for a practical solution to it. It is impossible to conduct free and fair elections using the extant electoral law that will return people as elected representatives such as the three senators and, probably, the state House of Assembly and House of Reps members as it were today.
If elections do not hold in Borno State for example, what does that translate to?
The Constitution is very clear about the tenure of the governor and lawmakers which is four years. The House of Reps that I am part of is winding up on June 6, 2015. And I am not contesting for any office this time around for personal reasons. But if nobody is returned to represent the people of my constituency or any other constituency for that matter because elections could not hold, that means there won’t be 10 House of Reps members and three senators, as required by the Constitution, from Borno State in the National Assembly.
In fact, the National Assembly, to a very large extent, depends on inputs from the representatives of these constituencies to guide it in shaping the debates and reaching informed resolutions and advising government on appropriate actions to be taken. So if elections are not held and representation from that part of the country does not come to the National Assembly, that will not only amount to unequal representation but a total alienation of the people of Borno State from participation in the governance of the nation. It is tantamount to yielding the entire state to terrorists where we will have no voice at all at the federal level.
However, there is a section of the Constitution which could provide some relief or window to this constitutional democracy quagmire the nation is now faced with. I am talking about Section 135 which empowers the president to delay elections for a period of six months subject to the resolution of the National Assembly, where the country or part of it thereof is physically involved in war, and such that elections are impossible to conduct. If the president can invoke that section of the Constitution to allow for the comprehensive resolution of the conflict, it would be good for every body. Such a situation would allow all sections of the country to have a voice at the federal level.
Now the Electoral Act that is being amended by the National Assembly is trying to ensure that the internally displaced persons are captured in the elections. What do you say to that?
Well, we are doing everything possible to make sure that IDPs in Borno and other states are captured during the elections. So if INEC finds means and legal frame work, it would take pooling units for them to cast their votes. But like I said on the floor of the House in trying to guide my colleagues, the internally displaced persons in the centres in Maiduguri are about 10 percent or less of the voting population. Now, most of the inhabitants of these places under siege from terrorists are still trapped in the territories captured by Boko Haram.
So unless INEC conducts elections in the captured territories, it will be difficult to return the senators, the governor and members of the House, even if the amendment passes. So we are desirous of having the meeting with INEC and stakeholders and hope government finds a way of navigating through this constitutional crisis in less than 30 days.
As a lawmaker in the 7th House, how have you acted to ensure that there is a solution to this electoral dilemma is tackled?
Well, as a National Assembly member and as a House, collectively, we have tried to give INEC the necessary tools to carry out its mandate. They have asked for amendment which we are doing. Jega, I understand, is also handicapped. Because, whatever advice I have to give him, I have to be fair to him. He is also conscious about what he needs to do and what he will be able to do. It is a sad situation. I will agree that elections should go on elsewhere all over the country, but for us in Borno State, we are currently in a quagmire.
Mr. President has said that elections will hold in all parts of the country, and that let all eligible voter endeavor to cast his/her ballot. Do you think he’s being sincere considering the quagmire you just expressed?
I really share in Mr. President’s sense of optimism, leadership and patriotism that elections should hold in all parts of the country. That is why the 7th National Assembly has been cooperating with Mr. President in the last three and a half to four years now. And that is why we quickly set aside some of our rules on Wednesday to make sure that even displaced people who would have other wise not vote in the elections under the extant Electoral Act are captured during the process with the new amendment.
However, that is a mere wish. If wishes are horses, the president would have his way in the situation. But the reality on ground does not seem to favour what we desire to have in the next 30 days or so. The National Assembly will wish that all the places in the country participate in the elections. So let’s wait and see what happens within the next 30 days. If the security situation is brought to normalcy and the people are allowed to go back home and INEC and the security agencies take charge of the process with the people having the assurances of a safe and secure exercise, then we can heave a sigh of relief. Everybody would wish for that.
But the reality is that elections are in less than 30 days and we are talking about recapturing and deploying men and electoral materials in an area that is more than the size of some zones like the South-East or South-South. My constituency in Maiduguri alone is like the size of a state in some parts of this country. And Maiduguri is now reduced to one large refugee camp. That is the case now. Many of our people are in Chad or Niger as refugees. It is nobody’s wish to be there. But it is an unfortunate global phenomenon that we have been faced with. And we are now having our own bitter share of it.
Coming back to the House, how do you rate Tambuwal’s 7th Assembly?
The House under Tambuwal as Speaker has done excellently well. It is the most stable House since 1999 in terms of leadership. Tambuwal has given a very good leadership for which I respect him. He tries as much as possible to put politics aside in whatever he does. When there is a national issue at the fore front, he tries to be passionate about it and obviously, he tries to see the side of anything that is for the generality of the people. In the same vein, we have done wonderfully well.
The PIB is almost passed now because, as we speak, debates, public hearings on the bill have been concluded. We successfully concluded the review of the Constitution and transmitted it to the states Houses of Assembly. And we have also concluded work on lots of other bills which are awaiting presidential assent. On my part, I have paid my modest dues in sponsoring four bills that would provide for robust legislative frameworks which will greatly impact on the development of the nation. I’m talking about the Food Security Advancement Bill for adequate funding intervention in the agricultural sector, the bill for the amendment of the UBE Act seeking to standardize Almajiri education, the bill seeking to establish the Frontier Exploration Agency for the sole exploration of oil & gas in the five geopolitical zones as well as the Federal Character Amendment Bill. So as the 8th Assembly is coming on to take over, they should consolidate on what we have achieved.
Nigerians would want to hear your reaction on this gale of defection in the House that is ultimately handing the majority status which the PDP has enjoyed since 1999 to the opposition APC?
I must say that I am shocked by it. Because I don’t think it reflects an ideal democratic situation. I’m surprised by the kind of politics we play in Nigeria. That you did not win today does not mean that you won’t win tomorrow. People should learn how to be good winners and losers. That you lose this time does not necessarily mean that you should move to another party just so you could get a ticket. I, for one, voluntarily refused to run for any position for good reasons, even when every member of the National Assembly was given an automatic ticket by our party in Borno. So I don’t encourage this politics of convenience that our people engage in just because they want to remain in power. This will hardly deepen and develop party politics in our country.
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