Rev David Ugolor is a human rights activist and Chief Executive of Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ). In this interview with BENIN BUREAU CHIEF Francis Onoiribholo, he speaks on the crisis in the Edo State House of Assembly describing it as a dangerous political trend that does not bode well for democracy.
He also talks about the burgeoning spate of insurgencies and criminal activities ahead of the election year and in 2015. Excerpts…
The Edo State House of Assembly has for some time now been plunged into crises facilitated by the rival APC and PDP lawmakers. As a leading civil right activist, how do you see the development?
It is really unfortunate that this is happening; obviously, it is a pre-presidential election problem. You know very well that as we are preparing for the presidential election next year, we expect this kind of action across the country especially areas where the ruling party may probably not win. It is not only happening in Edo State, it is also happening in Rivers State and others. Can’t you see what is playing out in Adamawa State and what happened in the Ekiti state governorship election last month? Prior to now in Edo, you will agree with me that there is the general view that there is relative peace and that to a large extent there has been development in the last six years.
If you put all these together you will agree with me that the recent crisis in the Edo State House of Assembly has a relation with the Presidential election. Unfortunately, people are properly referred to as traders, politicians, who have no legitimacy, no value and all they are interested in is to acquire wealth and they prefer to trade away the state like what is happening in Edo State.
So what is your role in this as a rights activist?
Like I said, we in the civil society have intervened in a more peaceful manner with the understanding that the members of the state House of Assembly would reasonably act in the interest of people. Unfortunately, that is not what we are seeing; so clearly it is a build up to who becomes President by next year. Everyone wants to show to his/her masters that we are in control, and to a large extent they are not going about this in a decent manner.
The presidency is encouraging impunity in the state House of Assembly by encouraging a minority group to create chaos in the House; and this is not good for the group. A situation where the police would allow a minority group to make it impossible for a majority group to have their way is not good for democracy and transparency. It is a signal of increasing crisis situation. We have Boko Haram crisis happening and we have not been able to deal with the problem because of the culture of impunity. Now the government is also extending this to other parts of the country and we are talking about the coming election in 2015.
How can this problem be handled?
If you look at the root cause of the matter, you will agree with me that if it was handled with purpose of honesty, rule of law and due process, it won’t have gone to this extent. But because of 2015 ambition, with different permutation going on people are looking into the future and the credibility of this democratic process is being questioned. This is because if people really could always decide who becomes their representative and members of the parliament or president, they could be held accountable and we would live in a manner that would reflect such consciousness. Unfortunately, that is not happening.
If I understand you, you are saying the crisis in the House is not really because of lawmakers being in different parties?
What I am saying is that the crisis in the House of Assembly is not crisis between APC and PDP. Before that crisis happened, we had not heard of any issue of leadership tussle or dictatorship. In fact, to a large extent, there was a consensus by everybody in the House that APC had done creditably well and should be commended.
The crisis in Edo State House of Assembly does not bode well for the state and its people obviously, as the commercial life and other sectors would be the worse for it. Are you not disturbed about these actions of the politicians even in disobeying court orders with impunity?
Now, you have a country where the rule of law is no longer a basis to operate a governance system, then there would be breakdown of the system. That is how the judiciary was messed up in Rivers State because the governor who is constitutionally empowered to nominate and recommend the Chief Judge of the state was not allow to do that. And when you have a crisis, the executive is overwhelmed.
When we talk about separation of power in Nigeria, it is just in theory, in practical the executive arm makes it impossible to access funds. Whether PDP or APC is right, is not my concern. I am looking at it from history, where are we going. It happened in Rivers, Adamawa and nothing happened. Also in Ekiti State, nothing happened and now it has taken foothold in Edo. It is not right.
It is like those who commit crime today, the government listens to them. This kind of governance is not good for the system. The members of the House fighting today are not fighting for the people or value, but for their primary interests. But I am appealing to them to wait for the elections.
What do you suggest as the way out?
The President must ensure the police enforce the rule of law; but if the government chooses to undermine the process, I can assure you that the result would be dangerous for everybody because of the danger it poses to the democratic process. I want to commend the Oba of Benin for his intervention, the civil societies and other groups because Edo State belongs to all of us.
More importantly, the religious leaders must speak out; they cannot stay in their churches and be praying because when mayhem breaks out, they will not have time to go to church.
We understand that at a point your organisation and other civil societies tried to broker a truce between the lawmakers, what really happened?
I am speaking now as the executive director of ANEEJ; we work for development and partner with government. First thing we did as ANEEJ was to initiate the process and we met few of our colleagues like Olu Martins, Austin Osakwe and Comrade Eboigbodin. Initially, I provided support and capacity building for civil society groups in Edo State and we are happy that civil society awareness in the state had increased, which was our general aim. But when this crisis happened we saw it as another opportunity for us to play a role. And if you know our history, before now in the health and educational sectors, we had tried to intervene.
So under the platform of Development Alliance Platform (DAP), we addressed all the political parties to sheathe their swords because we believe that without peace we cannot be talking about development and good governance, knowing very well the capacity of these people to create problem.
So you had no support financially?
Nobody funded us, in fact, it was ANEEJ that brought the resources for all we did and the message was widely reported and again, we commend the media for that.
We didn’t stop at that, we went further to engage both parties and in fact I want to thank the role of the police who graciously created the venue and security where the two warring parties met and listened to their concern, we raised both technical and political issues and encouraged them to come together because we are just civil societies. Unfortunately, they couldn’t come to terms. We realised that there was an external interest that was influencing move to settle the matter.
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