A chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), High Chief Anayo Arinze has alleged that the “holiganistic tendencies” of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will derail the 2027 general elections. Chief Arinze, who was the immediate past deputy national chairman of the African Democratic Congress in charge of electoral matters, also spoke bitterly against the recent attack on the 2023 Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party. Peter Obi in Edo State and other national issues in this interview with Cyril Mbah in Abuja. Exercise.
Please kindly introduce yourself, your full names, titles, and then tell us what you think about the political situation in Nigeria today.
My name is High Chief Anayo Arinze. I am the immediate past deputy national chairman of the African Democratic Congress. I was in charge of electoral matters for over six years before the coalition. I am equally the Eke Awka and the Onowu Ndigbo in Abuja. I am also a media consultant and the founding member of the African Democratic Congress and its Pioneer National Publicity Secretary.
What do you think about the political situation in the country? It appears that things have really fallen apart.
Yes, things are falling apart because the current party in leadership at the national level seems not to understand the rudiments of democratic leadership. Apart from introducing banditry into the country, the APC has turned Nigeria into something laughable, and the nation is being classified as a failed state by various international bodies. Right now, insurgency is overtaking Nigeria. Right now, banditry is happening everywhere in Nigeria. Nobody is safe again. The citizenry are not being protected. There’s virtually nothing on ground to show as the government’s achievements. Even ordinary headache kills people now because the medical centres do not have medicines and it is the same even in the hospitals. Also, in the medical practice, the expertise is eroding because health practitioners are rushing out of Nigeria in droves. They call it Japa. The moment somebody leaves Nigeria now, people tell them congratulations. You know, it is not supposed to be like that. Nigeria should be the hub of business in Africa. People should be coming to Nigeria to gain something, not leaving Nigeria. Nothing is moving in Nigeria for now and above all, the Federal Government is pushing a lot of heavy taxation on the populace. So, you see, people are just moving about, aimlessly, not knowing what to do the next time.
Are you saying that the APC administration has failed Nigerians?
Definitely, that is, in other words, what I wanted to say. The party has failed Nigerians. You know, they have failed and by 2027, they will have been in charge for 12 years. You know, former President Muhammadu Buhari was in charge for eight years, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took over and is now moving into his first four years.
In the past 12 years, the nation has been moving from bad to worse, from worse to worse. There is nothing that you can say that APC has improved upon in Nigeria. Is it roads? Is it infrastructure? Is it health? Do you understand? They have this slogan that they introduced, something about Renewed Hope, but it has turned the nation into hopelessness, and everybody knows that they have failed except those that are benefiting from the government.
There appears to be an increase in violence in the polity. The just concluded FCT area council elections was almost marred by violence here and there in all the area councils. Recently, the former Labour Party Presidential Candidate in the last election, Peter Obi went to Edo and he was attacked. What do you think will be the implications of increased violence to the 2027 general elections?
Before the FCT election, APC chieftains threatened that they will not tolerate any non-indigent winning chairmanship of AMAC or other area councils. They particularly singled out the African Democratic Congress and said they will deal with our candidates. What has ADC done that is wrong? We have done nothing except that we are coalescing and bringing Nigerians together to recover the country from bad leadership.
We have come to give hope to Nigerians. The APC leaders went so far as to direct that those who vote for ADC should be killed together with the candidates. In a democratic dispensation which is not an autocracy. Again, sometimes last year, the Governor of Edo State, Monday Okpebholo threatened that Peter Obi should not come to the state without his permission. He went further to state that if Obi dares to come, his life will not be protected, that his security will not be guaranteed.
Everybody thought it was a joke carried too far only for Obi to visit Edo on February 25th to attend an ADC event and he was attacked. There was a shootout. Bullets pierced his car and those of others. The house of HE John Odigie-Oyegun, a former governor of the state was vandalised. The former governor was not even respected by the attackers, who should never have dared to attack people in the man’s house. But the incident happened even though the statement from the governor was widely condemned as unbecoming in a democracy, yet the attempt on Obi’s life took place. We are operating a democracy and in a democracy, citizens of Nigeria cannot be stopped from visiting any particular state because of their political leanings or their religion. It’s unconstitutional to do so.
This same threat was issued by the current Governor of Benue State, who is also a member of the APC. This incident shows how far our politics has deteriorated, and should this continue, the implication is that 2027 general elections will be jeopardised because people will generally be afraid to come out and vote. Let us remember what happened in Abuja during the FCT Polls. Only about seven to 10% of registered voters actually bothered to participate in the voting exercise. If this violence continues until 2027, voters will definitely boycott the elections and when nobody votes, then, it is no longer a democracy, which was defined as a government of the people, by the people, for the people. Remember what happened to Igbos during the 2023 general election when Igbos were accused of not voting for the APC and many indigenes started the Igbo-must-go campaign. Is that democracy? The Constitution says that when someone has resided for ten years or more in a place, the person becomes a citizen of the place.
We are asking the ruling All Progressives Congress to desist from its holiganistic tendencies before it finally kills democracy in the country. It will not help Nigeria to make democracy a matter of do or die affair like the APC has made it. Leadership is supposed to be a selfless service to the people, and those who wish to serve must allow the people to choose them.
The governor of Edo State and the state Police Commend have some questions to answer about what happened to Peter Obi during his visit to the state. The prompt denial by the government, after the attack, does not hold water or absolve them from blame. The governor is the chief security officer of the state. There is a popular saying that when a child dies in the morning, after an owl cried in the night, the owl or witchcraft will certainly be blamed for the baby’s death. It is disturbing that Obi was attacked in Edo after the governor had warned that he should never dare to visit the state without his approval.
The APC has accused the ADC of being confused and going about chasing shadows. How do you react to the comment, and do you not think that the ADC should really concentrate more on organising itself for the future than engaging in politics of antagonism?
The ADC is well organised and we are still doing a lot in that direction. The party is led by a retired military tactician, and it will not be proper for us to disclose every plan we have on the table. If the APC is faulting the fact that we are blaming the party or the governor, it should remember that the leadership of the party in the state is the governor just as the leader of the party at the national level is the president. So, if anything happens at the state level, you blame the governor, who is the chief security officer, just as the president takes the blame for those things that are happening everywhere in Nigeria. The authorities in Edo State are being held accountable because it is the duty of the government to secure the lives of citizens even if they are visitors to the state. Any governor that cannot do that is not worthy to remain as the governor of the state.
There is the fear in some quarters that with increasing attacks on opposition figures, the opposition parties may also want to meet violence with violence. Do you have such concerns?
Of course, the ruling party should remember that nobody has a monopoly of violence and that people react when pushed to the wall. However, the opposition block has controlled its members because two wrongs do not make anything right but it is doubtful whether that restraint and patience will last longer than it has done so far because to what extent can people endure? Is it when everybody is killed? We all know that it was the APC that brought bandits into the country and they are now kidnapping people without mercy and threatening everybody. So, if the violence in the political terrain continues, there will be anarchy before the 2027 general elections. For example, now that Obi was attacked in Edo State, if any member of the ruling party goes to an opposition state and he is attacked in retaliation, is it right? What type of politics will that be? We, in the opposition thought that the era of political holiganism and thuggery has passed, but it appears that the APC leaders do not think so. We should be playing the politics of deep thinking. The politics of how to revive the nation’s economy and turn around the fortunes of Nigeria and not how to kill our opponents like the APC people are doing.
Nigeria is blessed extensively by God, Almighty both in human and material resources but the present leadership does not have the right ideas about how to harness these resources for proper use and for the benefit of the nation.
Leaders of opposition parties met last weekend and demanded that the National Assembly should again reamend the Electoral Act, which has been signed into law over the mode of transmitting results. Don’t you think that the opposition leaders are over flogging this issue and are dragging the nation back? Why are they afraid?
We are not asking for too much when we demand that the right things should be done before the 2027 general elections. It will not take more than one day to remedy the Act. Someone can move it as a motion that the votes should be transmitted electronically in real time to avoid manipulation. This is necessary to ensure that the manual records tally with what was transmitted and where there are discrepancies, people can raise an alarm. We are in an Internet age and it is even a shame to hear that in Nigeria, we are still battling and debating about how to transmit election results electronically to the portals of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The Presidency and the National Assembly know what they are doing. Do not forget that the National Assembly is dominated by the APC, and rigging becomes easier only when transmitting results manually after elections. It will be more difficult to rig when results are transmitted electronically. It is not right for Nigeria’s democracy for us to still be using manual methods to transmit election results in an electronic age.
Opposition parties are expressing the fear that with the way many governors are jumping into the ruling APC, the nation may soon be turned into a one-party state. Do you have the same fear?
It is exactly the plan of the APC to turn Nigeria into a one-party state. Remember that a former National Chairman of the party. Senator Adams Oshiomhole once said that any person who decamps to the APC even if they have sinned that their sins will be forgiven.
Of course, almost all the governors and civil servants decamping into the APC have baggage and the anti-corruption, as well as other intelligence agencies know them. So, if any of them is carrying a baggage and the person attacks the party, it will be a problem. So, the best way is to join them and remain safe because your sins will be forgiven. But, this shows the calibers of leaders that we are breeding today. How can someone finish governing a state and head to the prisons. It shows we do not yet have good leaders. There is hope in the horizon, however, because there is going to be an implosion in the APC soon with the number of odd bed fellows moving into the party from every angle. There is going to be an implosion, and the party might not have prepared itself for what is coming.
The president can intimidate everybody by having an automatic ticket and no one can challenge him but if the president fails to return to office in 2017, it will mean a death sentence for the APC because the party cannot survive beyond 2027. It will collapse no matter the antics used by the leaders. There is no way the ADC, which is being led by the people, will not succeed because the ADC is a movement and not an ordinary party in the opposition. It is a movement of Nigerians who are set to recover their nation from those who have mismanaged the resources of the nation.
Lastly, is there anything we have not covered that you might want to add before we wrap up the discussion?
Nigerians need to heave a sigh of relief, and the ADC has come to provide that type of leadership that will enable the people breath better. Nigerians, especially the youths, need jobs after their education. There are many youths out there who are parading the streets with different types of certificates but without jobs. This has contributed to increased crime rate in the country. So, we need more jobs to be provided. We also need that banditry should be wiped out from the country. People need to move from one part of the country to the other without fear of death or fear of being kidnapped for ransome payment. I used to live in Kaduna State before relocating to Abuja. Since then, I have not visited Kaduna in the past six years due to insecurity, especially kidnapping. I wish to use this opportunity to appeal to the President to have mercy on Nigerians. He should give Nigerians the space to breathe by fighting insecurity, insurgency, kidnapping, and banditry. The National Assembly should remember that they were elected to serve Nigerians and not the president. It will go down in history that the 10th National Assembly was the worst Assembly in the country that became a rubber stamp and approved everything the president presented to them without even bothering to debate them. The Legislative Arm must do its work of over-sight and act properly as the watchdog of democracy. Ends.
