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…Says NOA neglected for far too long by government.
…Says INEC must do its job of election management and NOA do the job of Voter Education and Mobilisation
…APC should come to the PDP for coaching on party administration and crisis management.
Dr Mike Omeri, a Chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Nasarawa state, has reacted to pervading speculations about his bid to represent the good people of Nasarawa South senatorial District in the National Assembly come 2023.
In an exclusive TMS News interview with Steven Kefas over the weekend in Abuja, Omeri said he has been having wide consultations in his senatorial district and so far the voices calling on him to join the Nasarawa South Senatorial race are getting louder and bigger. He spoke on diverse political and national issues during the interview.
“Well, the consultation is ongoing. I been meeting with the people and with party officials at the local, zonal and the SWC level. I am continuing the consultation or interaction with critical stakeholders in the area, and I hope by the grace of God that I only have a few more places to go and people to visit and meetings to hold. Once I do that, I will make my position known, and what is clear is that I needed to reconfirm that the voices I’m hearing are genuine voices. So, I will not declare until I’m totally satisfied that those calls are genuine.” He said
When asked if he will be running for Senate, Omeri has this to say, “The chances are becoming more and more encouraging and attractive because every day I hear the calls becoming more strident.
“And apart from that, I see people moving around and making their own efforts on my behalf, on behalf of the project. So, the answer is most likely to be a yes.” He said
On why the people in Nasarawa South district are calling on him to run, Omeri attributed such calls to the peoples belief in his capacity to deliver and may be, his antecedents in the area.
“I don’t want to enter into the minds of the people, and there is no way I can find out why that is the case. But you know, life is all about service, service to self, service to community, service to the next person, your neighbour and so forth and so on and you do that without expecting a pay or reward.
“And even if that is the only thing you will do, and you don’t make noise about it, when the time comes, the people will feel that look this one is properly positioned. Having shown capacity to serve in one way or the other, and they choose to call you.
There are certain calls you are just in a position not to refuse. So I don’t know why they are saying I should come, but they may have seen something in me that makes me competent and suitable for the job. I will listen to them. Perhaps this is the time for me to bring my own kind of idea, my own kind of intervention, my own kind of organisation to ensure that the people move a step higher, better than where they are.” The communication expert said.
Speaking on the PDP being in opposition in Nasarawa for so long, Omeri said the party had fared well despite being in the opposition in the state.
“Inspite of the party being in oposition it still commands a substantially strong followership and this may largely be as a result of the failure of a number of the programmes and policies of the party in power. Of course, this is not to say that the executive governor has not done his best within the parameters of defining the goals of development and governance. But, people also recall with nostalgia how the PDP had intervened in a number of ways to alleviate their sufferings. So the party is still strong, it has members, if it were not so, we wouldn’t have seen the kind of contestation that went on for the choice of party officials.
“And now, the interest you know, to even vie for elective offices in the state, if it were not, we won’t have any candidate at all for anything, but there are so many people who want to be governor, people want to go to senate, people looking towards the platform to actualize their personal dreams or community dreams of the people’s wishes.” He said
Omeri also said that he saw the Nigerian voter becoming more sophisticated than they used to be. He said voters now vote for individuals and not just sentiments of political parties.
“Well, I do believe that the PDP can clinch power, but we’ll see. I also look at the determining factor to be the sophistication of the people, of the average voter, who can make a choice between two opposing views and can also decide between two candidates.
“What I see going forward is like the people will not vote based on just political party sentiments or affiliation. They will vote for the candidates that they think can do the job in any party at any point in time. So we may have a colourful outcome at the end of the day, and if we do, then it means our country is ready for the takeoff of proper democracy, where people will choose their representatives based on competence and capacity and suitability.
“And it wouldn’t matter whether I am in PDP or APC, we will begin to see the professionalisation of the political process or system, where those who are actively partisan are partisan and those who are citizens and voters remain citizens and voters, we have to have the difference. All of us as citizens must not belong to any of the political parties, but we have a right to our country and the right to our votes. So, if we have that, we can decide in any direction.” The Obowu of Keana said
Commenting on the signing of the long-awaited electoral Act Amendment bill by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday, Omeri commended the president’s courage but said the signing of the bill was long overdue and could create other challenges even for the ruling party eventually.
“It is long overdue. The people may have expected a strong explanation of why the direct primary is rejected but they are not getting any. They just need education so that they will be carried along. These are some of the flaws we talk about in governance.
“We take decisions on behalf of the people, but we don’t explain to the people why we take such decisions or actions. And then secondly, the President’s courage to sign it, inspite of all the shenanigans, it will up the ante, and possibly we will see an election or electoral process that could achieve some modicum of credibility and because he has just signed the law, I read through what was signed.
“It means the Independent National Electoral Commission must start work now. Because by August, going by the 180 days time limit for the conclusion of primaries, in another few days, we’ll begin the campaigns and the law says 150 days before election or so, campaigns can start and end two days to the election.
“So they have a lot of work to do to put the systems and processes in place to ensure that when the parties begin the nomination processes of all the offices that will be vied for in the general election thing will run smoothly.” He said.
When asked about the inclusion of electronic transmission of results, Omeri said it is a welcome development that takes us closer to achieving a seamless process in tandem with 21st century democratic solutions.
“Electronic transmission of results is plausible although our results of elections have been transmitted electronically in the past. What does it mean? it’s a simple art of imputing the results into your phone or any such devuce and sending it to either a central server or a central collector somewhere in Abuja, That is electronic transmission and it is doable, because those machines that you see being carried around are not connected with a central server where when you place your finger, it goes there because we are still voting with paper. The machines are not programmed in such a way that when you vote APC, it will record APC, when PDP it will record PDP. For now, it will still be a mixture of both electronic process and manual process.
“After the manual process is concluded, we now employ the services of the electronic process to transmit the results to a central server as we call it and that is just the difference and this thing has been happening.
“So, unless we upscale our process by acquiring machines, which would now have the various party symbols and capacity, or capability, that once you vote, if PDP, the machine records for PDP, APC record for APC, and in doing this we really need to be careful because such systems can easily be hacked. You can look at the international community; most of them hardly adopt such voting systems.
“But what is good about those processes is that you can live in the comfort of your environment without too many hassles. The papers are there, the machines are there, you take the vote, you put it there it goes very easy, very seamless, no crisis, no confusion, no ballot box snatching and so forth and so on.
“So, we need to get to that stage. When we don’t have to go and fight at the polling unit , we need to also reduce the voting time so that people don’t have to wait for hours upon hours to get accredited to vote. Let’s also ensure that the timeline for daily performance of these functions are clearly spelt out so that people don’t just go and stay, say you’re coming for accreditation and then they will say voting materials will be there by 8 or 9 but when you get there, voting materials are not there by two o’clock, that is when voting is supposed to be closing. You know, so we must try to limit or eliminate this time lapse in the process, that can help, you know, booster, the credibility of the process otherwise when it gets dark or too late people begin to snatch ballot boxes before elections are concluded.
“But when everything is done in the public glare, everyone is there and I think especially that we have not attitudinally, you know, graduated to when we will view the election and electing people, that process, that polling process as a sacred duty, in fact as a religious duty. Once we do that, and that is, of course, if we also believe that the religion we practice has a conscience, then still be open to some kind of manipulations.” He said
Speaking on the much talked about zoning of the presidency of the country to some sections of the country, Omeri said he is an advocate of competency and capability instead of where the president comes from. He said the call for zoning is birthed by injustice and lack of fairness in leadership.
“I am not too comfortable when I hear people talk about zoning even though I can understand their genuine concerns. As a nation, we should be more concerned about a persons capability to lead instead of reducing everything to where he or she comes from.
“If we keep talking about zoning, when will it be my turn or your turn to become the president?
“I think if everyone believes that justice and fairness are employed in decision making, I bet you no one will border about where the President comes from, all that will matter to all is that the president is a man of integrity and a man that will uphold the constitution and the rule of law at all times. But the moment we begin to see, once we all collectively give you advantage, then you now take that advantage and give yourself, your family, your tribe, your religion, your village. These are the things that give rise to agitations that we see all over the place. And they are needless. The criteria of religion or tribe have neither helped us nor solved our problems as a nation.
“We need to create a Nigeria that is for Nigerians that speak Nigeria. That is like the football team playing and the spectators watching the super eagles. We need to do that; we need to move beyond that. Because that is the only other place where you find some kind of synergy apart from national synergy in sports, particularly football. The next place that you see a reduced version of it is religion, whether in the churches or in the mosques and even at that there are some who are divided because they say they are in this group, they are in this sect. So we don’t need that kind of Nigeria.” Omeri said.
Speaking further on the stability of the two main political parties in the country, the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and the All Progressives Congress APC, Omeri said the PDP have better management of its internal affairs including crisis management, he said he doesn’t think there will be an implosion in the PDP anytime soon.
“Well, I don’t think there will be any implosion because the PDP has experience in the management of its affairs, and it has consistently followed the way it used to do its own thing. And now you can see that even when we had the misfortune of having a chairman that just came from elsewhere to destroy, the party remained together and wrestled that man out of the party and still regrouped. It is rebuilding, it is recruiting, and it is reforming. It is reaching out, and is restoring the values that it had. So the party, the PDP, will not implode, and it will not explode. If it were to explode, you would have seen it. But whatever happens, there is a crisis resolution mechanism, inbuilt within it, within its framework. We have party elders, we have 6 we have a vision and focus for this country. The nation is not all about PDP or APC, it is about Nigeria, and Nigerians. So if it implodes because of individual interests, by the time you finish the explosion, the fireworks and turn around to see that the country is not there. Which one, which one hurts, you need the country before you can aspire to anything. So some of these kinds of reasons usually prevail in the party called the PDP unlike the other parties that are not even able to change the date to organise a simple convention, not for the local government, not for the states, not for the zones. So they need to come for some lessons in party administration. And the PDP, no matter what anybody will say, remains a better party that has been able to manage differences.” He said.
Omeri also spoke about the neglect and underfunding of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), an agency he once headed as Director General during the administration of Presidential Good Luck Jonathan. He said the NOA has been ignored for far too long, and it is affecting its performance.
“You know, I’m on this side and into partisan politics which is different from my role DG NOA, as DG NOA, i strove to remain non partisan in the discharge of my duties. However, with the benefit of hindsight, having played a role during one of the processes, electoral processes, most of the government, the partners, and other electoral election management agencies, who all have various roles, they should collectively selflessly pack all the roles relating to mobilisation, education and enlightenment, public enlightenment hand them over to the national orientation agency. The Independent National Electoral Commission was established to conduct elections, not to mobilise sensitise or interpret or communicate the policies of government. There is an agency responsible for that, and that is the NOA. So anybody who has anything to do in relation to public mobilisation and enlightenment, public education in relation to the election, send it to the National Orientation Agency and let the government realise the importance of that agency. It is too important to be ignored, and be placed in a corner simply because some people I believe, do not want or feel challenged or threatened by the capacity, by the mandate of the agency to deliver the purpose for which was established.
“So I strongly suggest that the agency be properly funded not just for this election but for continuous voter education and public enlightenment.
“The NOA needs to be properly funded. Poor funding is the reason for the underperformance experienced so far. It needs to be respected. It needs to be positioned, it needs to be appreciated. It needs to be energised and lubricated and motivated to deliver on it’s mandate because that was why the agency was established in the first instance, the agency has a robust mandate, big function to play to redirect the affairs of this nation but it is neglected by the same people who will complain about the vices we see in society when there is an agency with professionals, staff and capacity to do the job. That’s why the government is not paying attention and I have seen that all the political parties have no role for national orientation, no role for ethics and values, no role for how we can make Nigeria and Nigerians the golden name that will attract all of us. We need to begin to look towards that. Let all the parties tell us what they want to do with orientation, ethics and values because it forms part of what society needs to guide itself.” Omeri concluded.” Omeri concluded.
