Simon Mwadkwon is a two-term member of the House of Representatives and now senator-elect to represent Plateau North. In this interview with ISAAC SHOBAYO, the federal lawmaker speaks on the recent presidential election, problems in the National Assembly, and Saturday’s gubernatorial election in Plateau State, among other issues.
What is your assessment of the recently conducted presidential and national assembly election?
The election was poorly organised. One would have thought that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would leverage on the success it recorded in the 2019 elections, but what Nigerians witnessed in the 2023 presidential and National Assembly election was terrible. It is a sham and disappointment. Let me give you a practical example of what I witnessed during my election in Plateau North for the Senate: there were no ballot papers in eight units in Barakin-Ladi local government. That would have been a total loss to me. In some units of Jos North Local Government Area, ballot papers got exhausted. While the presidential and House of Representatives elections were still going on, [ballots for] the Senate went missing. In most of the polling units, electoral materials arrived very late, and the ad hoc INEC staff were not sufficiently trained. Many of them don’t know how to use BVAS; they don’t know how to download results after voting. In short, the whole thing was not done properly; it was like the whole thing was planned to fail from the onset. So INEC’s performance as far as the February 25th election is concerned fell below expectation and further portrayed the commission in a bad light. The abysmal performance was all over the country. I want to submit that INEC did far better in 2019 than in this year’s general election.
The controversy surrounding the presidential election is yet to simmer down and the leading political parties that lost the election are presently challenging the outcome in court. Do you think anything positive can come out of this?
I want to encourage every Nigerian to be hopeful. It is better to adopt this approach than self-help. But INEC should be honest; it should know that it is an umpire and that the future of this country is at stake. What they need to do is finish downloading the results and whoever wins should be declared the winner. No matter the defect we have found in the process, someone must be declared a winner, but due process must be followed, and INEC has a crucial role to play in this regard. We cannot afford to go to war. Already, there is poverty in the land and we are more impoverished than before. Nigeria’s debt profile is high; so we don’t need to further depress the economy. Presently, our economy is at a low ebb, and nothing seems to be moving in the country. So INEC should do the right thing. What they need to do is continue to download the results and cross-check if the agitation of those that claim to have won the election is true or not, and whoever wins should be declared.
INEC has shifted the gubernatorial and state assembly elections to the 18th of March, 2023. Based on its performance in the last exercise, do you think the commission has what it takes to conduct a credible election?
The reasons adduced for the shift are not justifiable. Once you have established a process and scuttled it, no matter the reason you give, people will interpret it differently. Some people said INEC shifted the election to give credible elections and correct the mistakes it committed in the presidential election. Though this is not the first time an election will be shifted, the way and manner in which it was shifted call for questioning. It was also alleged that the commission did this in conjunction with the presidency to destabilise the political opponents in the upcoming election against the APC, knowing full well that the opposition has exhausted its resources; in essence, the purpose is to crumble the opposition. The reason that the extension will enable the commission to reconfigure the BVAS is also a flimsy excuse. But as far as the PDP is concerned, we are ready for the election whenever they are ready.
The expectations of Nigerians are high. Can any incoming administration meet the yearnings of Nigerians, considering the economic situation on the ground?
I don’t envy whoever will emerge as the next president of Nigeria at the end of the day; even at the state level, they are going to face challenges. I want to suggest that small and medium-scale enterprises should be given attention, because these are things that can keep the economy going and bring relief to the people at the bottom of the ladder. Another thing is that the incoming administration should give the power sector adequate attention and provide a conducive environment for it to thrive. It should engage in things that would boost the economy. There are simple environmental policies that encourage peace and development. In my place there is what is called a buffer zone; no one is allowed to go in there to hunt or do any other things there; these are traditional policies, and if you go there you will discover that the land would be fertile for farming. We like doing things that are far beyond us, which we cannot cope with in the long run.
Sir, as one of the high-ranking members of the NASS, people are not satisfied with the legislators’ performance. What is responsible for this and what can be done to change the perception of Nigerians?
I concur with Nigerians who are not satisfied with the National Assembly, although I am one of them. One of the reasons is that we have had poor leadership. The leadership in the Senate and the House of Representatives will just want to accept what the Executive is saying, and if you raise your hand, they will consider you as somebody who is recalcitrant, forgetting that our primary responsibility is to check and balance the Executive. How many times have we invited members of the Executive and they have failed to come, and how many times have the members of the National Assembly been accused of corrupt practices? Until we agree to purge ourselves of corrupt leaders in the NASS, we might not get it right. We should be able to have leaders in the NASS that are focused on the country and determined to ensure the country is moved forward; that humanity and the generality of Nigeria are their focus, not somebody that is there to do the bidding of the Executive or to shield the president. If some members raise an eyebrow, you now bring tribal and religious sentiments into the issue. The president is the president of Nigeria, and the Senate president is the president of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Likewise, the Speaker of the House of Representatives is accountable to the citizens of Nigeria. Until we understand this perspective, we will continue to have poor leadership in the NASS. One other thing that is giving rise to poor leadership is the Executive making sure that they impose the leadership of the National Assembly on the members and the Senate. The truth is that we rarely have leadership by members alone; there is always third-party interference. Every president will always want to interfere, which is not good for our democracy, but it is a critical issue that must be pondered on if we want Nigeria to respect us.
Though the governorship election has been shifted, what is in vogue in Plateau State presently is a campaign of calumny on a religious basis. Do you think this is healthy in a fragile society like the Plateau?
It is not healthy for Plateau State and Nigeria as a whole. There is a video from the Sheik Yahaya Gengre that is trending in which he mentioned my local government that we are surrounded by Muslims and claimed that we don’t like Muslims. As far as I am concerned, he is instigating violence against the Riyom local government, and if anything happens in this area, I will write and report him to the authorities. As a religious leader, he is supposed to preach peace, but instead he is preaching hatred. As with other candidates, these are the kinds of people that are dividing this country. ..And what is the use of bringing religious sentiment into his election? In the coming election, PDP is already in control of Plateau State, having won two senatorial seats and five House of Representatives seats. The APC is saying that even if we win, they will take it from court. If that is their belief, why are they campaigning?
Sir, what makes you think the PDP will win the March 18 gubernatorial election in Plateau State, where it has been out of power for eight years?
First of all, the entire Plateau North is a no-go area for the APC and other political parties. What the APC is doing now is to intimidate, but the PDP cannot be intimidated. The party in government in Plateau State wants to win the election by any means; we are not just going to watch; we shall square it up with them.
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