By Chioma Gabriel, Deputy Editor
Speaker of the House of Representatives in the defunct third republic, Agunwa Anaekwe in this encounter, answers questions on the forthcoming elections, the preparations being made and opines that there is nothing to warrant the postponement of the date of election as that would amount to setting a bad precedent.
Excerpts:
Which time would be more suitable for the elections, January or April?

My own view is that the election of  2011 must take place at the right time. Nigeria as a nation has both the resources and the personnel to conduct the elections. I don’t see any reason why we should change our political calendar as against what we have currently.

Professor Attahiru Jega himself has said that it is not difficult for him to conduct voters’ registration exercise and once that is done, the political parties will conduct their primaries and candidates will emerge by election. I believe  that within the time frame we have, all is feasible.

So, the January dateline is feasible?

It is feasible. As a matter of fact, the President has given a cue to the Senate President and he has recalled all the Senators on break. If the Speaker of the House of Representatives does the same thing, it is possible that within one week or thereabout, we will address the issue of supplementary budget and money will be released to INEC and voters register would be conducted. I don’t think there is anything that will make us to deviate from our agenda.

Agunwa Anaekwe... No need to postpone election.

And on a more serious note, it is not proper to be shifting dates because it doesn’t portray us as a very serious nation.
But  circumstances warrant  that, for instance, there are  a new INEC Chairman and Commissioners, who may need more time to conduct elections satisfactorily.

INEC does not revolve around Jega. He is just one person in INEC. All others were there. Everything has been worked out before he came. All that is left is to implement them. Jega needs at most, two weeks to look at the entire records.

Thereafter, he will proceed, like he is proceeding with the issue of voters’ registration. Frankly speaking, I don’t think there is anything on ground to make that election not feasible by January. My advice is that we remain faithful in whatever we are doing so as to be able to conduct a free and fair election.

The time frame could be a barrier to a free and fair election.

Between now and January 2011, is about five months. Apart from voters registration exercise, the only thing that can be serious is the primaries of the political parties and that can take place anytime.

All we keep hearing is zoning and your party the PDP has to resolve that before its primaries.
The issue of zoning should not bother anybody. Zoning is not the issue in Nigeria. We should concern ourselves with who is going to stand out in the comity of nations and represent Nigeria proudly. That is what we are talking about.

We want a man who will unite Nigeria, a man who has the capacity to maintain peace in our country. Where he comes from shouldn’t be the issue and his religion shouldn’t bother us. We should concern ourselves with conducting primaries so that the candidates will emerge. PDP is not the only party. If PDP is zoning, others are not. Parties should conduct primaries so that whoever wants to contest will contest. PDP is not the problem. We can conduct primaries.

We did it in 2003 and 2007. There was no barrier in 2003 and no barrier in 2007. I’m sure that you are aware that in 2007, apart from Yar’Adua, there were others who contested primaries both from the North and from the South. We should focus on who should take us to the promised land. Nigeria should get away from tribalising the issue of who rules Nigeria.

Peter Odili contested in 2007, Donald Duke contested and others. So, why should zoning be creating problems? We should get away from the politics of tribalising important issues and move on. Nigeria has been faltering for a long time and we should depart from politics that make us wobble. It is better for us. I think the issue of who runs this country should be given to the best. Nigeria deserves the best and the best should rule us. There is no issue at all.

Zoning is just a PDP affair.

But the way the argument is going , it has gone beyond PDP to the extent that non PDP members have joined the debate.

There is no way we will run away from sharing in political affairs. Politics is something that you must carry everybody along. That is why you must spread things around. If the first person emerges, you spread the rest but whoever must emerge should be that person that will move this country from where we are to the next level. We have the men, we have the materials but because of ethnic and other considerations, we are where we are today. We cannot proceed.

That is why I think we should jettison the issue of zoning and no zoning so that the best can emerge. We should be talking of how to move this country ahead.

But your party is taking zoning too seriously. The argument over whether its Jonathan, IBB and Atiku  has dominated the polity.

Well, the field is still very open and more people will come out. It is when the PDP and other parties call for nominations, that is  when you will see people coming out. All we have today are speculations. We may be hearing that this person or that person is running whereas he is not interested and may not want to run. But with the way things are going in this country, what we need is a completely detribalised Nigerian, not an ethnic or religious bigot.

Now, on the issue of Constitution amendment, does the amended constitution need the President’s assent or not?
Life is dynamic. It is very difficult to say this is the final position of anything until it is finally determined by the court of law. In democracy, it is one stage at time.

After one stage, you go to the next stage. And any stage you clear, you create your own example and get to the next one. People have gone to court to seek clarification on whether the President will sign the Constitution or not  and they are right.

I believe we will benefit from that legal exercise and at the end of  the day, that will no longer be an issue because whatever becomes the outcome of the court exercise will become a reference point in future. Whatever the Supreme Court decides on will be applied in future whenever the Constitution is amended. The judges of the Supreme Court are knowledgeable.

So, I don’t want to dabble into the controversy of whether the President will sign the amended Constitution or not. Our eminent jurists have been on it. It’s for the Supreme Court to give the final interpretation and the matter will be sorted out once and for all. So, the proper approach is to wait for he court’s decision on this matter.

Many are  not satisfied that the constitutional review is not a comprehensive  exercise and did not address some of the most desirable issues, like states creation.

Let me begin by saying that it is not easy to embark on a whole scale amendment of the Constitution because the constitutional  amendment process will lead to  some horse-trading before they arrive at a conclusion. Now, on the issue of states creation, that should be tackled as an SOS because a zone like the South East needs additional  states.

This issue is an emergency for the South East zone. I said this because, Nigeria is a family and the South-east zone, like other zones in the country needs an additional state to equalise with other zones of the country.

The South-east zone has made contributions to the development of this country and we have the population . Nigeria should as a matter of urgency and in the interest of justice, create an additional state for the South-East zone of  this country. Nigeria needs that feeling of belongingness. When we are looking at Nigeria, we should be  aware of the issues affecting the zones.

The South-East is a part of this country and should be treated as so. We are a family and each member of this family should have a sense of belongingness. We should forget tribalism, ethnicity and religious issues that divide us and look at how our brothers and sisters in other parts of the country are feeling. As an Igbo man, I feel very sad that we have only 80 local governments in a country of 774 local governments.

If you know the population of the people o the South-East who are the most detribalised group in Nigeria, you should know that it is a matter of urgency, to have equal states with the other zones. If you look at the Igbos of Nigeria, they can live anywhere. There is nowhere you will not see them. Go to any part of Nigeria or Africa. Igbos should be given their dues in Nigeria.

We have multitude of political parties in this country and many feel  what  Nigeria needs is a two-party  . What do you think?

I think multiplicity of parties is just making a mockery of our democracy. In as much as I will not say  that what we need is two or three parties, I want to point out that multiplicity of parties has contributed to the confusion in our democracy. I believe that we should reduce the number of  political parties we have in Nigeria. We don’t need as much as we have today. It is too much.

Finally, what do you see when you look at 2011? What do you think Nigerians should expect?

First of all, I want to commend President Jonathan for assuring Nigerians that he is going to give them  free, fair and credible elections. That statement alone is commendable. I also want to commend him for the appointment of Professor Attahiru Jega as the new INEC Chairman.

Now,  that we have this new man on the saddle, we should encourage INEC to ensure the elections and free and fair. Political parties  should hold their  primaries and ensure it is only the best candidates that emerge and that  the votes of the people  will  count  this time around like it did in 1993 June 12 Presidential election .Nigerians should also vote for the best because, the best will give Nigeria his best.