Without electronic, digital voting, we cannot end election rigging in Nigeria- Sonaiya

Remi Sonaiya, a former presidential candidate of the KOWA Party in the 2015 general elections and a professor of French language and Applied Linguistic at the Obafemi Awolowo University in this interview talks about the proposed electoral reforms bill, the recent Imo State gubernatorial election judgement by the Supreme Court among other issues. PATRICK OKOHUE reports

************The process of amendment of the 2010 Electoral Act has begun; do you support the agitations for delisting of non performing smaller political parties?

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Agreed, there is no doubt, having like seventy or more political parties on the ballot is wasteful, its expensive; it is confusing for a lot of people. But I don’t think they can impose PDP or APC on us because many of us believe that they are the same party. They are just a group of people who are just mismanaging the country and taking advantage of the resources of the country to win elections. They take money from the government and they are using that money to win elections; those that give them any moral authority than the rest of us?

So they keep saying that the smaller parties are not making impact, but you are using the money of the country to buy votes, you give people N5, 000, N10, 000 or more and because they know that Nigerians are poor they deliberately keep the people poor so that they can buy their votes.

Now they are saying that the smaller parties are not performing, if we had a level playing ground, if they are not using the state funds, if they are not being paid very huge salaries, if all of us compete in a level-playing-field, do you think all of us would not make an inroad.

So I don’t agree at all, they don’t have the moral right to say the smaller parties are just crowding the field. Yes we need to sit down and talk about the system, but the thing is they are being elected through corruption; they are not being elected in a fair manner that is the reality.

**********Part of the agitations is for electronic voting, do you agree it’s time for it?

In fact without having electronic voting, digital voting or anything close to that is all part and why there can be rigging and so on.  The system can be compromised. Let a group of independent innovative thinkers look at the situation in Nigeria. Nigeria is said to be one of the most innovative countries in the world with the highest number of mobile phones, can we not use that to our advantage in voting? But they want to keep us to their advantage.

What they want is to continue using a system that would ensure rigging and I think it is time to say no to all of that.

*********What is your take on the recent Imo State gubernatorial election Supreme Court judgement?

I don’t understand it. I reacted like many Nigerians did because I don’t understand how somebody got all the votes which were not counted earlier. So when they counted and added his votes, it happened that all the people in the constituency voted only for this man. It is surprising is it not? And this is a party that has no single vote in the state House of Assembly election, but they voted for him in the governorship election, are they making us fools or what?

Now somebody who was third in the primaries was now given the governorship election, we have to query the Supreme Court on that Judgement.

************What is your take on the security situation in the country, there is the popular view that President Muhammadu Buhari is not doing enough. Do you agree?

Obviously he is not doing enough. Look at the way IPOB was dealt with and IPOB did not kill anybody, they did not burn down villages but they unleash operation python, how come that kind of resolve have not been shown in the dealing with other security challenges? I mean the herdsmen, the Boko Haram terrorising our people.

So for me those are the questions that people are asking; how can we say the most have been done when you unleash the strength of the security forces to tackle the situation in some areas and not in some areas?

************Do you support agitations for zoning of the presidency to the South in 2023?

I don’t believe in it at all, we need competent people to run our affairs, but by the way I am one of the people who are hoping that we would not have to run election again under the current system, because it is clear that the current system is not working.

For me, I think we need a change; I am one of the people calling for restructuring of the country. What I mean is a return to federal state, where the central would not be so powerful to control the resources of the country.

***********Is that possible, even the North and President Buhari do not believe in it?

I don’t know, but that is what I want. It is my opinion and that is what I want to see take place. I believe in competence and merit. I am not for zoning that cannot lead us anywhere, I don’t believe in it.