BY INNOCENT ANABA
Mr  Marc Wabara, a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain and former Managing Director of defunct  Hallmark Bank Plc, in this interview reviewed the just concluded general elections and charged President Goodluck Jonathan to face security, economy and infrastructure for the citizenry to benefit from his reign. Excerpts:

What is your assessment of the just concluded general elections?

Let me first congratulate all Nigerians for the success of the much expected 2011 general elections. Despite the challenges during the exercise, the resolve of Nigerians to rewrite the democratic history of the country by constructively engaging the process was a great factor in determining how the elections turned out. Unprecedented determination resulting in  repeated hours of queuing under the sun, all in the effort to make people’s votes count, eventually paid off positively on the outcome of the elections.

May I also congratulate the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega for his painstaking and unreserved commitment in ensuring that the light of hope of the Nigerian people did not extinguish in his hands. It will be recalled that his appointment was generally accepted by the entire people of the country cutting across ethnic, religious and social divide.

The initial plans of the commission were criticized by a lot of people. Some objectively and others lacking in objectivity. To my mind, all of these contributed in keeping INEC and its chairman constantly reminded that this time around, only transparent elections will be acceptable to Nigerians, notwithstanding some  reported cases of malpractices in some parts of the country.

President Goodluck  Jonathan equally deserves to be congratulated for promising and delivering on this promise of giving Nigerians a transparent free, fair and credible election.  The policy of non-interference in the duties and responsibilities of government functionaries, which has become a trade mark of his exemplary leadership style provided the necessary impetus for Prof Jega and the commission to carry out their responsibilities without fear or favour.

What were the noticeable challenges?

Some electorate could not find their names on the register. There were inadequate logistics arrangement at the initial stage, maybe due to apparent low voter education. Many votes were voided because of lack of proper education.

Unclear guideline regarding time for accreditation and actual voting and inconsistency between results at the polling units and those declared at the collation centers. The result of the General Elections were generally and comparatively regarded as free and fair by Nigerians, local and foreign observers and the international community.

What is the way forward?

INEC should continue with voter registration and review of the register to ensure that no Nigerian of voting age will be disenfranchised again. INEC should look inwards and identify those officials that compromised their duties and aided any form of irregularity or sabotaged the process. It should be noted that the real success of the electoral umpire is dependent on how much the people and the political parties are willing to allow.

Political parties and their candidates should begin to realize that do or die politics belong to our past. The electorate should know that anyone who sells his votes has mortgaged his future.  Even though there had been complaints on the conduct of the election, we need to put things in proper context, given that it was believed before now that Nigeria cannot conduct a good election.

We know that some people are aggrieved and may be heading to court or are in court already, in that case, we must await what the courts will say in those cases, because it is much better to head to t
he court than to resort to violence.

Are you not concerned that the courts may be deciding out representatives and leaders for us?

It is the fundamental right of the candidates to go to court and we encourage them to do so, as we believe that going to the tribunals is better than violence. We have even seen instances where the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP is challenging some of the results. We hope that after elections, people will not go to court, but that is a tall order. I believe that it is still better to go to court than resort to violence.

The South East seems to be losing out in the sharing of major political offices. What is your reaction to this?

The South East has the right to demand for any position they want but I believe that the President will do what is needed to be done to ensure that every region was properly represented.

What is your reaction to the killings that took place in the North after the presidential election?

I sympathise with the families of those who lost members of their families as a result of the violence that swept through some states in the country after the April 16 presidential election. Those who feel aggrieved for whatever reason should always take advantage of the provisions of the law instead of engaging in acts that will threaten the peace and unity of the country.

I, however, commend  Mr. President for the financial support to the various families and encourage the affected state governments to follow suit and workout compensations for the affected families, particularly those of the slain members of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC.

On the panel set up by government, I believe that we have credible people on the panel and that they will do their job properly. We, however, hope that it will not be a report too many. I believe that this panel will do a good job and their report properly implemented so that we don’t have a repeat of such a crisis. Government must have the political will to implement the report and bring those culpable to book to serve as a deterrence to persons that may be thinking of carrying out a similar attacks.

What are your expectations from Mr President?

This is a mandate that cannot be likened to any other. Taking a look at the process that led to the emergence of Dr. Jonathan as the President of the country, you will realise that he has a date with destiny and his emergence is clearly divine. I,  therefore, call on President Jonathan to appreciate that he is the father of every Nigerian whoever and wherever he may be.

The President has one constituency and that is the entire country. The President should begin the process of healing all the wounds that may have been created by  our actions or inactions as a people. Whether justified or not, the post election violence is a demonstration that some are aggrieved. I urge the President to, as a father would, reach out to those people and bring them back into the fold of a one united country.

Security: Global events suggest the need to improve on internal policing in the country. Terror activities could be reduced to the lowest ebb if the security apparatus in the country are provided with all necessary aid and technology to be efficient.

Infrastructure: There has been a noticeable improvement in power generation and supply but it is still far below what the country requires to compete with rising economies of the world.

In realising this, government should consider alternative sources of energy. The intended liberalisation of the sector should come into effect to open up the sector and created healthy competition that encourages business growth. The revival of the Telecom sector within less than ten years is a pointer.

Economy: The country’s economic challenges could be linked to the collapse of the power sector. One could therefore emphatically postulate that if power supply improves substantially, businesses will begin to thrive naturally.

It is still important for government to develop and implement policies that will discourage over reliance on imported goods to service the demands of the country’s teeming population.

If power supply improves and the manufacturing companies begin to work to meet the rising demand for their goods, jobs will be created and when jobs are created, our youths will be employed and involvement in crime will reduce and the objective of meeting the Vision 2020 targets will be realized.

To this end, policies that will promote increased local contents participation in the petroleum and other sectors of the economy should be encouraged, including support for private sector entrepreneurship both in the country and abroad, especially in the African Continent.

I urge all Nigerians not minding our religious affiliation or ethnic origin to remember that the preservation of the country’s unity is our collective responsibility. All of us cannot be presidents, governors, senators or members of the House of Representatives at the same time. Let us support our President and others elected to deliver the dividends of democracy.