In this interview with PREMIUM TIMES, activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana,
says by wooing discredited military and civilian despots who have
destroyed the country since 1966, the APC has shown that it is only
interested in power for the sake of power.
Is there a difference between the APC and PDP?
For now, the difference between APC and PDP is like the difference
between six and half a dozen. Frankly speaking, serious political
parties are not built around big names or personalities but on the
platform of ideology. From the look of things both APC and PDP subscribe
to the dominance of market forces, currency devaluation, privatisation
of the nation’s resources and the commercialisation of education, health
and other social services. The leaders of both parties who have been in
government at one time or the other in the past 30 years or there about
believe in the neo-colonial capitalist system. Essentially, both APC
and PDP are two sides of the same coin.
What is your reaction to the wooing of Generals Obasanjo, Babangida, Abdulsalami and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar by the APC?
In bourgeois politics the ongoing development is called “realignment
of forces”. In the process, those who have been excluded from the “come
and chop” policy of the PDP are being asked to choose their place at the
table in case the APC takes over power in 2015. The PDP has started to
fight back ferociously and violently because the stakes are so high.
Already, huge funds and weapons of mass destruction are being assembled
for the mother of all battles. Money, religion, ethnicity and other
primordial sentiments are being deployed to confuse the electorate. Did
you not read in General Obasanjo’s letter that snipers are being trained
where the late General Sani Abacha trained members of his killer squad?
Have some militants not threatened to declare war on the country if
President Jonathan is not re-elected by Nigerians? It is not that they
believe in the PDP. They too want to protect their newly found wealth
acquired through pipeline contracts worth several billions of naira.
Do you think APC will remain a progressive party as they claim?
A: The members of the ruling class of all extractions have continued
to display sheer contempt for the Nigerian people. Hence the people are
not being mobilised to defeat the PDP in the polls. The APC has no plan
to woo the youths who constitute more than 60% of the voting population.
It is the belief of the leaders of both APC and PDP that the 2015
general election is going to be fixed by the traditional manipulators of
elections. This is the basis of the ongoing mobilisation of PDP
chieftains including those who cannot win elections in their own wards.
By wooing discredited military and civilian despots who have destroyed
the country since 1966 the APC has shown that it is only interested in
power for the sake of power. I understand that one of the retired
generals is going to become the chair of the Board of Trustees of the
APC! This is a case of alienation from the people. How can APC leaders
believe that Nigerians want Generals Obasanjo and Babangida to be
rehabilitated after destroying the country? The duo ruled for 20 years
and ruined the country in the process. General Obasanjo has just
confessed that he has been installing incompetent leadership since 1979.
And he is not ashamed to make that provocative disclosure. Has he
offered public apology for his maxima culpa before wooing him? The
situation is not different in a number of states and local council areas
where the new PDP is busy taking over all the structures of the APC.
Since the APC is positioning itself to retain the status quo it cannot
become a truly progressive party.
INEC has said elections may not be conducted in the states
where there is emergency rule? What is your reaction to the statement?
The statement has confirmed that the Independent National Electoral
Commission has been hijacked by the most reactionary segment of the
political class. In order to frustrate the emergence of a truly
progressive political party in the country the highly incompetent INEC
has conspired with the ruling class to narrow the democratic space. It
has just requested the national assembly to give it the powers to
proscribe other political parties and ban their candidates. As far as
INEC is concerned the APC and PDP are the ideal political parties for
the country. By saying there will be no elections in Adamawa, Borno and
Yobe states controlled by the APC has INEC not started rigging in favour
of the PDP? Was there any incident when President Jonathan paid a 2-day
visit to Borno and Yobe states a few months ago? Are elections not held
in Iraq and Afghanistan which are waging serious wars against
terrorists? Is INEC going to appoint sole administrators for the three
states at the end of the tenure of the governors and other elected
public officers? Apart from conducting flawed elections why is INEC not
interested in promoting civic education which is one of its core
statutory duties?
What is the way forward in view of the frightening political crisis?
A: It is high time the APC and PDP were stopped from further
confusing our people along ethnic and religious lines. The media must
help by forcing candidates to come up with concrete solutions to the
crises of under development in all its manifestation. Therefore, all
genuine progressive forces in the country should come together with a
view to ensuring that future elections in the country are contested and
won on the basis of the commitment of political parties and their
candidates to implement the provisions of the Fundamental Objectives and
Directive Principles of State Policy contained in Chapter II of the
Constitution.
The socio-economic rights guaranteed in
the Constitution have to be made justiciable in the interest of the
masses. This must be accompanied by a commitment to address the
challenges of poverty, insecurity, unemployment, corruption and
infrastructural decay. For instance, since 1999 the Federal Government,
with 52% of the nation’s resources, has not completed any new road or
hospital in any part of the country! Is it what the APC wants to
continue by wooing the PDP leaders who unleashed unmitigated disaster on
our people? Or are we to believe that these characters have committed
class suicide?
Instead of waiting for 2015 we call on
all our oppressed people to learn from the Academic Staff Union of
Universities by resorting to strikes and other forms of civil
disobedience to force the ruling class political parties to make funds
available NOW for education, health, housing, job creation and poverty
elimination.
In 2011 President Jonathan was pitied by
Nigerians when he said he had no shoes while growing up. But he has
refused to buy shoes for millions of other children. The Unicef says
15.5 million Nigerian children are roaming the streets. What has the
President done to ensure that those poor kids are enrolled in schools?
Having regard to the N5 trillion given to AMCON to bail out banks run
down by the comprador bourgeoisie, the missing $50 billion from the
Federation Account and the unprecedented looting of the treasury by the
political class have confirmed that the country is sufficiently endowed
to make poverty history. The struggle to end poverty in the land cannot
afford to wait till 2015!
Source: Premium Time
