By Dayo Benson
Dr Tonye Owei is the group co-ordinator of Goodluck for Nigeria,an initiative  committed to the emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan as the PDP presidential candidate. In this interview he spoke on PDP zoning arrangement, the Abuja bomb blast, the call on the president to resign and other issues. Excerpts:

What is the membership spread of your group and its composition?

The membership of the group  is not limited to the Diaspora. We have members all over the world including Nigeria. Right now our membership is more  than a thousand people. Apart from the one thousand members, there are others who have not formally registered as members but who have identified with the group. It is not limited to professionals actually; when the group was formed initially most of the members were either professionals or entrepreneurs in South Africa.

That was the core of the group. We were just about 20 people. But within a week we grew up to 100, mainly people from various walks of life in South Africa and Diaspora. Now, our membership cuts across different political and educational backgrounds.

What in the position of your group to the principle of zoning in the pdp constitution?

When you say the principle of zoning , it becomes a  problem. Let’s look at the scenario. You said at that time, those who collected forms in 1999 had their monies refunded.  Nigeria is not PDP.

There were other presidential aspirants who were from different geographical areas. In 1999, it was an act of expediency, because we were in a situation where June 12, 1993 elections was mollified and the military decided to pacify Nigerians by ensuring that the same part of the country that had the in- justice, with such blatant disregard was pacified . Even at that people from other parts of the country participated and any one could have easily won.

I am not a member of the PDP. Now this zoning thing has to be looked at dispassionately. The highest office must be given to the best person. Other offices will take a cue from that. And that is my own take on the zonal arrangement.

If the president for instance is from one part of the country, the zoning arrangement makes it possible that the deputy comes from another part of the country. If the governor is from one party of the state, the deputy governor should come from another.

But every other offices takes cue from the highest office. These things are done just to ensure equity.  Even if a party presents a candidate, I believe that the aim of the party is to win in the election, and the party is not Nigeria. It is for Nigeria to vote.

Dr Tonye Owei

Remember what happed during the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican  Convention (NRC) era, where two Muslims (Abiola and Kingibe) contested elections on the same ticket and Nigerians voted massively for them.

Nigerians felt this was the hope for them and brushed aside religious sentiments. The other party had a Muslim and a Christian, but Nigerians felt the Muslim / Muslim ticket was better for them. So my take on voting is that even if you say zoning is a way to bring about equity, the highest office in the land cannot be zoned because it must be for the best. Other offices will now take cue from it: therefore, the presidency cannot be zoned. The governorship cannot be zoned.

The PDP constitution cannot go against the constitution of Nigeria. Nigeria’s constitution supersedes it. At no time in Nigeria’s constitution, is any offices zoned to any particular place. Every Nigerian has the right to contest for any office.

There are calls from the North for the president to resign on account of the statement credited to Henry Okah

Since that happened, a lot has taken place. It is very strange that people can come out without any ample evidence to say the president should resign from office, just because somebody  was said to have made a statement that he was told to blame the North for the bomb blast. But we also know that the interview that was said to have been granted to Alzeejera has been questioned.

The South Africa security agency has communicated to their Nigerian counterpart that at no time was the suspect   allowed to make the phone call, not to talk of the so called interview. The man who claimed that a presidential aide told him to blame the North for the bomb blast is not certain of what he said. It is very, very pathetic that people can go to the extreme of politicising a bomb blast in which so many lives were lost.

But some people believe the president jumped the gun by declaring that the perpetrators were known even before investigations began.

Before the bomb blast happened the security agencies of both countries were sharing a lot of intelligence reports.

They knew a lot of details that you and I do not know. For the president to come out to make such a statement, he must have had facts to back it up. Investigations have finally vindicated him, because it has been shown conclusively that it was not an issue of MEND. That the bomb blast was a terrorist activity.

So, what I am  trying to say in that the army of militants groups MEND ceased  to exist after the introduction of the amnesty programme. But the truth of the matter is that MEND is no longer in existence  and so it was only the people sponsoring this bomb attack  that  were trying to stage manage it, to make it look as if the president does not have the support of his home people.

Second, they wanted to destabilize the country; because multiple bomb attack can destabilize the security network of the  country

Why is it that all the suspect in the bomb blast have been let off, despite the henious nature of the crime
We cannot say we are privy to all the facts the security agents have in relations to this attack. It will be very wrong for us to think they will throw open their findings to the public.  My own take is that let the security agents do their work. The president has said that we must get to the bottom of this. Let them do their work and let’s  know their findings. Even those who exchanged text messages will be interrogated.

How do you see the gang-up by Northern presidential aspirant against jonathan?

Gang-up or not, I believe the aim of the PDP is to win the president election.  If the PDP now decides that they want to use ethnic criteria to pick a presidential aspirant  for the elections, that will be suicidal because this time, it will not be a question of a party presenting a  candidate and having the assurance  that it will win the election. It is going to be a question of one man one vote.

The president has already promised certain things to Nigerians among which is that  in 2011 elections every vote must count. He has already set the machinery in motion to ensure that Nigeria has a credible election in 2011 in the way he has constituted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
what INEC is now proposing in that they need move hands to conduct a free  and fair electrons and the process is also on to ensure that they have more time in order to bring about the realization.

It is only in this context that Any political party that wants to present a candidate will be ruined if they present a candidate that is unelectable; because the back will still be with the electorate. The electorate will still have to choose who they want to be the president of their country. Let those people who have arrogated to themselves as the spokesmen for certain groups keep their months shut and allow Nigerians main to choose who they want to be the president of this country.

Are you satisfied with the electoral reforms portion in place so far?

I agree with you that it is not a one man show. The president cannot do it alone. All of us have a stake in the success of the 2011 elections. Let us cast our mounds to the 1993 election, when the late Abiola contested.

At that election, many Nigerians who had never voted in an election before voted and their votes counted.
The head of the electoral commission at that time Humphrey Nwosu had announced some of the results. What happened? Blatantly, the election was mollified, when it was seen as free and fair. Nigerians themselves are the prime moves of the success of the elections. Let me give you an example, In my village we are going to conduct elections and the people in my village say this elections every vote must count.

The polling booth is there and people are going to monitor it.If those people in the village are aware that we must give our vote to our preferred candidate. If those people don’t commove, do you think  it is possible to change the votes? If Nigerians are conscious of their responsibility to elect the bests for their country, it will not be possible for any body to change to figures  or rig elections. But what happen? You have Jega as chairman, commissioners, polling officers and all that and their at the grassroots people collect stipends to change their votes for those they do not want. Will you blame the president for that?

The most important thing to ensure the success of the election is at the grassroots. The press and every Nigerian most mobilized  people are ensure that Nigerian irrespective of their educational background, or circumstances must have it as a civic responsibility to vote during the election and ensure that the vote cast count. It is only when people are conscious in that way that the election will be valid.

Another problem that has been happening in the past is the independence of INEC. He who pays the piper dictates the tune. Financially INEC has never been independent. I am sure you have read the explosive of Donald Duck on how elections are rigged. You find out that at the state and local government level the electoral bodies are not independent.

The governor and local government chairman provide them with money, accommodation and even the cars that will take them round. Now it is no longer like that. Even financial independence is also part of the battle that INEC has. The huge budget of over N80b for voter’s registration is monumental. With that huge budget which we have never seen before shows that the president in elections. Even the electoral act shows the sincerity of the president.

Even when he did not totally agree with some section of the act he still signed it into law. So, this is the type of president we want not one that insists on what he wants. We are running a democratic system. I think we should give the president a good chance to succeed.