By Gabriel Enogholase, Benin

Professor Oserheimen Osunbor is a former governor of Edo State, He is also a professor of law and senator (1999- 2007). In this interview, Osunbor calls on Nigerians to make the February general elections violent free just as he describes some Americans prediction of a divided Nigeria in 2015 as doomsday prophecy. Besides, he insists that only INEC, the electoral umpire, should be the one to declare election results, not the courts.
EXCERPTS:

Recently, a former Foreign Affairs Minister, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, tasked the presidential candidates of the two leading parties in the country, Goodluck Jonathan Muhammadu Buhari, to sign an undertaking to make the election in February violent free. Do you subscribe to this?

Well, people are entitled to their opinions on how to ensure that the general elections are violent free. And Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi has offered his ideal as what we need to do. It is not for me to subscribe or unsubscribe to it. I think it is a collective effort to ensure that the elections are violent free. However, I think the issue of violent free elections goes beyond just signing a piece of paper. In politics, agreements are often honoured more in the breach than in observance. One can question the utility of agreement on a piece of paper as to how enforceable it is, from the lawyer’s point of view. Well, that may not be an entirely useless exercise; it will definitely have value on some people who will believe that gentlemen should honour a gentleman’s agreement even when such agreement is not legally enforceable. But my own plea will be to the generality of Nigerians. Not just to put this responsibility on the two leading presidential candidates but to make it a collective responsibility of Nigerians to make sure that the elections are violent free and to understand that politics is not a do or die affair. Sometime you lose, sometime you win and therefore you need to accept the result at the end of the day as announced by the umpire which is INEC. I do hope that INEC will lay the foundation for the acceptability of the result by ensuring the process is credible, free and fair in such a way people will exercise their franchise. And beyond that, the court should respect the choice of the people. It will play a critical role in deciding the loser and winner with good faith and judiciously, then the people will accept the results that come out. So the way I see it in summary is that it goes beyond two people signing an agreement. It should be the collective agreement of Nigerians as a whole to see the elections violent free.

2015 is the year some Americans predicted that Nigeria may be a divided country. What do you think we can do to ensure this prediction does not come true?

Well, this much touted prediction, I understand emanated from a CIA report which does not enjoy the support of the U S government that Nigeria will disintegrate in 2015 and here we are now in 2015. I recall there was a prediction that the world was going to end in 1984 based on the book by George Orwell. There was a lot of apprehension at the beginning of that year. So I do hope that at the end of the day this prediction of disintegration would be nothing but doomsday prophecy. And through the collective will and desire of all Nigerians to remain together, put to shame those who do not wish us well and want to see Nigeria divided. The onus lies on Nigerians. If we want to succeed as one, it will be so. If we want to break up, God forbid, it will be so. The ball is in our court; our destiny is in our hands and not in the hands of other people. Assuming that the prediction will come to pass, ultimately it is what we Nigerians want to happen that will come to pass. My hope and plea is that Nigerians will cherish this country we have and play our respective parts to ensure that we remain a united and one strong nation that the world will respect.

As a lawyer and trainer of lawyers, you did say sometime ago that the court has a big role to play in what becomes of us this year. Which role exactly do you want the judiciary to play to ensure things go on smoothly?
Number one is to always bear in mind that elections are supposed to reflect the will of the people. Elections are supposed to produce candidates the people have chosen to govern them; it is the choice of the people and not choice of judges. That is why I have always said election should be won and lost at the polling units, not in the court. We have seen in Nigeria people winning election at the court because some judges arrogate to themselves the right to decide who wins an election. It is the electoral umpire that has the responsibility to conduct an election and decide who won.

Jonathan-Buhari

To have one institution conducting an election and another arm of government announcing the result, there is something wrong with that arrangement. Something intrinsically is wrong with one institution, Independent National Election Commission conducting an election and the judiciary, which is a separate arm of government announcing the result of that election. So we should revisit it and do something about it. If we do not trust INEC, remove the people and look for others to replace them. In a country of more than one hundred million people, there are people we can trust with the job. If you have cause to question the result announced, both should go back to the polls, let all eyes and attention be focused on the election by all. Whatever ills that may have been committed before, people will ensure that they are not repeated in the rerun. But a situation when court says such, such have not complied with the provisions of the Constitution and then proceed to announce that somebody has won that election, something is wrong. I will say judges should respect the will of the people, that is what an election is all about. I know the Constitution empowers the judges to do what they are doing, but that power can also be moderated or modified through amendment of the Constitution to bring about an acceptable result because, as I said in the public lecture I delivered in December last year, it will be calamitous for the nation if INEC should announce one as the winner of a presidential election and the court announced another person as winner. Can you imagine the problems we will have on our hands if that was to happen? For now the Constitution gives the court the power to announce that a different person wins the presidential election as separate from the one announced by INEC. Can Nigeria contain the problem that will arise if that were to happen? This is the kind of issues that I have been advocating for. I hope people will see the sense in what we are saying. This is not to denigrate the judiciary, it is not to cast aspersion on anybody or institution but collectively we will do things to uplift the nation and not things to draw us back or cause complications for our polity.

Don’t you think as the Chairman of the Law Review Commission that you have a role to play in this regard?
Of course we do have a role to play but I am just a commissioner in the commission. I am not the commission. So the projects we are going to do this year have been captured in the budget draft, but unfortunately, amendment of the Constitution is not one of them.

People are calling on you to contest again to reclaim your position as the governor of the state. Will you consent to this when the time comes?

As I have said before, if the people of Edo want me to come back as governor, then I cannot say no because I know the voice of the people is the voice of God. So if people are saying so and God is saying so, who am I to say no? I am an indigene of Edo and I want the best for the state and I am ready to offer myself, my abilities and talent to ensure we improve the standard of things in the state. The answer to your question is yes. I am ready, available and willing to be of service to my people and render the kind of services I did in my brief stint as governor of Edo State when asked again.

There is controversy over APC presidential candidate, Muhammadu, Buhari’s certificate. Do you think it is an issue in the coming election?

The Constitution provides that a candidate for an election should be educated to at least school certificate level. But that has also been defined as to what is school certificate level. First, it does not say you must pass secondary school exam. If you can produce a certificate that you have F, F, F in all the subjects, as far you were educated to secondary school level, you are qualified to contest any election in the country. Then if you attended primary and obtained primary school certificate and you have worked for ten years in government institution or you possess other qualification acceptable to INEC, if at all you do not have primary six, then you are qualified to contest. It is very flexible, not straight. So when a person is able to produce a diploma, degree or primary school certificate under the Constitution, he is qualified to run for office.

What are your fears for the coming elections?

I think the main fear is that there might be violence. Right from the 1965 general elections, which witnessed Operation Wetie in Western Region, there has been violence; only the elections supervised by the military are probably the ones free from violence because the military would always threaten to deal with those who fomented trouble. But elections conducted under civilians’ administration have often witnessed violence. That is, in my understanding, the reason why the apprehension that there might be violence. Considering the 2011 when there were killings in some parts of the country, we should do everything to avert the repeat of that unfortunate incident. As I said earlier, INEC has a great role to play. As Prof. Akinyemi mentioned in his letter, the leading presidential candidates also have roles to play by committing themselves to ensuring violence-free elections. They can use means of persuasion to calm their followers. I do hope our worst fears would not materialize, that the elections will come and go peacefully so that the doomsday prediction will not come to pass.