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by Olusola Fabiyi
Mr. Femi Falana
In this interview with OLUSOLA FABIYI,
Mr. Femi Falana, who is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, reviews the
outcome of the August 9, 2015 governorship election in Osun State.
You predicted that Governor Rauf Aregbesola was going to win and he won. What gave you that confidence?
One didn’t have to be a futurologist to
know that Governor Rauf Aregbesola was going to win the election. He is
generally acknowledged to have taken governance very seriously. Having
been involved in popular struggles, he has had no difficulty in
connecting with the grass roots. Through his people-centred policies he
has formed an organic link with the masses. In spite of the limited
resources of Osun, Ogbeni Aregbesola is trying to address the crisis of
poverty and underdevelopment. Through the social security scheme, the
government pays N10, 000 monthly stipend to the elderly and unemployed
youths numbering about 20, 000. The school feeding programme, the ‘Opon
Imo’ (tablet of knowledge) revolution, the establishment of a textile
factory for sewing school uniforms and other programmes have impacted
positively on the people. Mind you, the government has also constructed
thousands of kilometres of roads. The fact that he had endeared himself
to the people was the basis of my confidence.
What did Aregbesola do that Governor Kayode Fayemi did not do?
Frankly speaking I would not know. With
respect, the All Progressives Congress should be held vicariously liable
for Fayemi’s electoral defeat in Ekiti State. He is a victim of the
ideological crisis of the party. Did the party arm its governors with
any pragramme or code of ethics? The APC claims to be an offshoot of the
Unity Party of Nigeria and the Peoples Redemption Party of the Second
Republic. Both parties ensured access to education, health, employment,
abolished oppressive taxes which enhanced the quality of the lives of
the people. Today, the APC has, like the Peoples Democratic Party,
priced education and health out of the reach of the poor. The traffic
control agencies in the APC-controlled states extort money from
motorists like the Nigeria Police Force. The APC is seriously defending
the dubious rein of market fundamentalism. It believes in the
commercialisation of education and health and the privatisation of
public assets. Even in the United States, the bastion of capitalism, the
poor are housed by the state while their children can access education.
The main crisis in the US Congress pertains to Obamacare which has to
do with access to health for 47 million Americans who had no health
insurance. Here, Nigerians are told that the government cannot fund
schools, fund hospitals, construct roads, supply water etc. Nigerians
have to pay through their noses for all social services including
epileptic power supply. If civil servants cannot educate their children,
feed their family and live a reasonably decent life then the government
has failed. But due to his socialist background Aregbesola has
extricated himself from the crisis of ideological confusion associated
with the APC. He is convinced that the national economy should never be
handed over to market forces. For me, that is the basis of his electoral
victory.
Some people said that the outcome of the Osun election must have surprised the people of Ekiti State. Do you agree?
They were certainly surprised that
Aregbesola successfully mobilised the Osun people to resist the fascist
onslaught. Whereas 36,790 troops were deployed for the Ekiti State
governorship election the figure rose to 73,000 in Osun State. Some of
the armed goons were gendarmes who wore masks. Whereas in Ekiti State 40
APC members were arrested, over 700 APC supporters were railroaded to
detention in Osun State. I had to intervene to secure the release of an
80-year-old lawyer. But others, including Osun Attorney-General and
Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Wale Afolabi, were released after the
election. But at the end of the day the militarisation and monetisation
of the electoral process compelled the people to defend their votes.
But his opponent rattled him? Don’t you agree?
I do not agree with you. Aregbesola
spoke to me when the undue delay in the announcement of the results of
the election caused so much tension and anxiety. Given the support of
the people, he was on top of the situation. But the Independent National
Electoral Commission refused to collaborate with the anti-democratic
forces, who were hell-bent on truncating the electoral process.
Some people said the outcome was an indication that Aregebsola was beatable after all?
That position is misleading. It was not a
free and fair election. Election observers were chased away while many
party agents were beaten up by security forces and thugs to pave way for
the writing of results for the PDP in certain areas. Even when it was
confirmed that Aregbesola had beaten his closest rival by over 100,000
votes Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode announced that the PDP was coasting to
victory. With the arrest of 700 people and the intimidation of others
including a former governor, commissioners and legislators belonging to
the APC, Governor Aregbesola snatched victory from the jaws of the lion.
Did the arrest and detention of APC leaders work against the APC and in favour of the PDP?
For sure, the wave of arrests was
designed to manipulate the election in favour of the PDP. But it was a
wrong calculation. Aregbesola mobilised the people and so they trooped
out to vote. And when the returning officer had problems with the
announcement of the results, the voters surrounded the INEC office at
Osogbo. At that juncture the security forces pitched their tent with the
people.
Can you please justify this?
The Federal Government did not hide its
plan to engage in the militarisation of the election in Osun State. But I
was so sure that no amount of militarisation or monetisation of the
electoral process would make the PDP defeat Aregbesola at the poll.
Do you think that if the likes
of former governors Isiaka Adeleke and Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola did
not defect from the PDP to the APC, Iyiola Omisore could have won?
With respect to ex-governors Oyinlola
and Adeleke, I do not concern myself with the effect of the defection of
political heavyweights. I prefer to de-emphasise personalities and
concentrate on the programmes of political parties or their candidates.
Adeleke was intimidated and prevented from casting his vote. Oyinlola
was reported to have lost his polling unit to the PDP. It was the same
story in Ekiti State where Segun Oni lost his unit to the PDP. In an
enlightened environment voters do not take dictation from leaders.
What did you think made Omisore lose the election?
The PDP erroneously believed that it was
the militarisation of the election that led to its victory in Ekiti
State. So, it increased the number of troops deployed for the
governorship election in Osun State. But Aregbesola drew sufficient
lessons from Ekiti and mobilised the Osun people to defend their votes.
Owing to his organic link with the masses, they were prepared to make
the necessary and even risky sacrifice to have him re-elected. In terms
of integrity, consistency, pedigree, education and principle, Otunba
Omisore could not match Ogbeni Aregbesola. That was why he lost the
election.
Does he have any case at the tribunal?
Neither Senator Omisore nor the PDP has filed any petition at the election petition tribunal.
Do you think his arrest and trial over the killing of Chief Bola Ige worked against him?
I would not know. But the statement
credited to Oyinlola at the last rally of the APC to the effect that all
those who were detained at the Agodi prisons over the killing of Ige
had become the leaders of the PDP in Osun State was so weighty that it
might have assisted some voters to make up their minds.
Would you say that the security agencies were partial during the election?
In Osun State, Lai Mohammed, the
National Publicity Secretary of the APC was arrested. We have just been
informed that he was arrested for wandering. But the vagrancy law was
abolished in 1986. If Mohammed was arrested on the road, Mr. Nasir
el-Rufai, another APC leader, was arrested in his hotel room during the
Anambra State governorship election last year. Was Nasir also arrested
for wandering? To confirm the partiality of the security forces, some
PDP leaders from Anambra, Lagos, Ogun and Ekiti states were in Osun
State during the election. They had platoons of military and police
personnel guiding them. Nobody declared any of them a persona non grata.
Can you defend this?
The issue goes beyond the partiality of
the armed forces. My position is that soldiers have no role to play in
the conduct of elections. It is the constitutional duty of the police to
maintain law and order during elections. Even the Department of State
Service is an undercover security apparatus to gather intelligence,
detect crimes and pass information to the police. I am saying without
any fear of contradiction that no law in Nigeria allows any security man
to wear masks. That was the first time in the history of Nigeria that
masked security operatives were involved in elections. Beyond the
condemnation of the partisan stand of the Armed Forces, the Nigerian
people should insist that each security agency is restricted to its
jurisdiction.
Don’t you think that the
percentage of votes got by the PDP was an indication that the party is
gaining ground in the state and the South-West?
Since there is no clearly marked
ideological difference between the APC and the PDP the latter is likely
to continue to make inroads in the country. It is a challenge for all
Nigerians who are committed to genuine social change to come together,
unite and intervene decisively in mobilising Nigerians to take their
political destiny in their own hands. Instead of rejecting the APC for
the PDP, the Nigerian people should be presented with a credible
alternative political platform. With its defeat in Osun State the PDP
ought to know that naked power through militarisation will not win the
general election.
Will the number of votes secured by Omisore not be a boost for the ruling party in the presidential election?
It is not likely to be a boost for the
ruling party. Nigerians owe themselves a duty to make the 2015 general
election issue based.
What advice do you have for Aregbesola?
Understandably, the expectations of the
people are high. Aregbesola has to redouble his efforts. He has to free
the economy of the state from the tight grip of contractors by
reorganising the state ministry of works to construct and maintain
roads. The ministry has more qualified engineers than most of the firms
that handle road projects. Some of the roads constructed by the Public
Works Department under the Chief Obafemi Awolowo government are stronger
than the new roads. Some of the roads are still plied in the rural
areas. With a ministry of housing, the government does not need to build
housing units through contractors. The health personnel in the ministry
of health, the trained teachers in the ministry of education, the agric
experts in the ministry of agriculture who are not productive in the
public service should be deployed in the communities to make them
productive. Through such revolutionary measures you conserve funds for
development. During elections it is the people that will vote and not
contractors.
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