Benjamin Okezie Kalu is the chairman of, House of Representatives Committee on Media and Publicity elected in 2019 to represent Bende Federal Constituency, Abia State. He had earlier served as pioneer National Chairman, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in South Africa, Team Leader, Australia for United Nations High Commission for Refugees’ Sudan Darfur Crisis; Chairman, Bende LGA (2003), and two-time Special Adviser to the Governor of Abia State. A lawyer and public administrator, Kalu in this interview spoke to OBINNA NWACHUKWU on a number of national issues, especially the importance of the signed Electoral Act. Excerpts:
The Electoral Act attracted much attention, nationally and globally, especially when it was passed and returned. Why does the Electoral attract so much attention when there are other legislations?
The reason the Electoral Act has become a topical issue within the continent, within the country and globally is because Nigeria as a democratic entity does not exist in isolation of all members of the comity of nations and such membership or the operation of such membership is not carried out without a framework. That is, countries that are members of the comity of nations in a democracy have a framework within which they operate and when peer review is carried out what would make a nation raise her shoulder high is the ethos of democracy it has exhibited or have advanced. I am talking about article 16 of the ECOWAS Protocol on democracy and good governance. I am taking about article 17 of the African Union Charter on democracy, election and good governance as well as article 21 of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights. There is a single line that runs through these instruments of democracy. That is, fair, free and credible election. There is a nexus between a credible election and political stability. There is also a link between credible election and economic prosperity. There is a bond between a credible election and a healthy, balanced social space. If you remove credible election, you stifle economic prosperity, you give a stunted growth to political stability and you destroy a healthy, balanced social stability.
What is the yardstick for measuring a credible election?
This 9th National Assembly took their time to highlight at least four cardinal points of what credible election ought to be. Election that is all inclusive, election that is transparent, election that has accountability element in it and election that is competitive. Inclusiveness, transparency, accountability and competiveness, that is what Electoral Act is all about; instruments of electoral reforms. Everything you see in the Electoral Act, from clause 1 to the last clause is on how to project these cardinal points of transparency, inclusiveness, accountability and competitiveness.Nigerians have come to enjoy democracy but are not happy with the level where we are and there is a good desire, a good hunger, a good yearning for Nigerians to want more out of democracy. That is why the whole interest is on that particular piece of document that appears as where their hope lies for a reformed electoral system that will advance democracy in Nigerian. The summary of the yearning of the people is how they will be given the centre stage which is the advocacy of democracy; “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. Nigerians have always yearned for this democracy as if it was tailor-made for certain handful of people.So the desire, the focus, the energy is channelled towards this document because it is inviting the people to come on board if it is well tailored. So to answer your question, Nigerians are putting this on the front burner, Africa is putting it on front burner because we are the biggest democracy in Africa, the World is putting it on the front burner because we are the biggest thing to happen to the world, knowing full well that in the years to come our population is going to surge so we are controlling the economy of Africa as we speak.We are very important to Nigerians to Africans and the world and what happens here will have ripple effect on what happens in the world. That is why everybody wants it to happen well and that is why the National Assembly is trying their best to make sure that the meal that is cooked for the people will not only smell good but will taste good.
You said there was a nexus between credible election and prosperity. Can you explain?
When you have a credible election what you will raise in the country is an increased height of confidence of the citizenry in their leadership because they selected their leadership. Like I said when I started, Nigeria does not exist in isolation of other members of the comity of nations. So those members of what has become a global community have one or two things they want to do with Nigeria and one of them is economic activities. So, a better leader will raise the confidence of country A, investor A, country B, country C to come into Nigeria to invest. A credible election that will stabilise the political space will give the confidence in the investors that if we invest there, there is noimminent war, there is no political crisis that is imminent and our investment is secured. Also, once good leadership emerge there will be a proper analysis of the needs of the people and one of these needs happens to be economic needs. If the economic needs of the people are properly analysed by a political leader that has emerged through instrumentality of the people according to the ethos of democracy, one thing is certain. The policies of such a leader with regards to the economy will be people oriented and when a policy is people oriented, when economic policy is done with the people in mind; putting the square pegs in the square holes, putting the round pegs in the round holes, it will drive the economic prosperity of such a nation.
Read also: 2023: We need to upscale the integrity of our elections – Jega
Are you therefore, saying that the new electoral act will ensure credible elections in Nigeria?
Of course, that is what I am saying. Why it has taken this time is that the meal needs to be cooked with all the ingredients captured in it. If it has transparency element and does not have the accountability element, we will search for accountability element. If it has inclusive element and does not have the competitive element we will add it. So it is not complete, if the people with disabilities whom we have never included in other electoral instruments are again neglected in this piece of legislation, we will be doing a disservice to the inclusive element. But this piece of legislation has captured the interest of people with disabilities.The competitive element is the one we are asking that you don’t sit in your room and prepare a list and give to the people of Nigeria. Let the best win. That is why we are saying in clause 84 which was the only clause that made Mr President to withdraw his assent, is preaching competitiveness. That was the reason behind clause 84. It is saying let the best win. Open the space and Mr President said if you want to open the space, open the whole 9 yards with options. If the best would emerge through direct primaries let it be. Let no one complain that because it was not direct primaries he could not exercise his franchise. If it is direct primaries let it be. If it is through consensus, let it be for the political parties so that the sense of belonging, that sense of inclusiveness of all political parties will be captured. Remember, one of the reasons Mr President withdrew his assent was clause 84; that it will stifle smaller political parties if it is only one option of direct primaries. That is why he said open it up and we have opened it up so that there will be horizontal and vertical inclusiveness. The act has created a level playing ground for everyone, for every political party so as to strengthen our democracy.
During the consideration of the Electoral Act amendment bill, the Senate included consensus, direct primaries and indirect primaries but the House rejected consensus. Surprisingly, during the harmonisation session the House adopted all and….
(Cuts in)There was no harmonisation session. What we did was to have a meeting. The truth remains that the letter communicated by Mr. President to the House of Representatives had no consensus element in it. Mr. President simply said we should take it back to what it used to be. Let it be direct or indirect primaries but in the wisdom of the parliament, the Senate felt they wouldn’t want the bill to come back because the legislatures did not put consensus. If it is A B C to Z option let us put it so that everybody will feel that sense of inclusiveness.Now, what did we do? We maintained our position that we will do what Mr President said but you see the beauty of bicameral legislature is that a thing is not viewed from one perspective at all times. There must be a bifocal view on all issues. You don’t view from one view point. When we considered the view of the Senate against our view just as they considered our view against their view when it came to electronic transmission of results, they took our view, we now decided to take the view of the Senate on consensus. But all that we agreed was that there must be precondition and one of the strongest precondition which you will found in that clause 84 (2) and paragraph 9(a) is that for a consensus candidate to emerge there must be a written withdrawal by all the aspirants in the party at the primaries. And if the written consent of the aspirants is not gotten you revert to any of the other options; namely, direct primaries or indirect primaries.
Why did you put that proviso? Are you afraid it would be manipulated?
Every action taken was to secure the people. The people element of democracy is what we are interested in. I told you before that the instrument we are packaging must carry in it four focal points. I mentioned them to you which the people are yearning for. When we said competitiveness, it will not be competitive if one person sits somewhere and prepares a list that will be imposed on others. So, now, what this proviso has done is that where the aspirants or any of them refuses to accept the consensus, it will fall back to the people. If there are five aspirants that go for consensus, lobby the four others to step down for you and let them put it in writing which means the four others would have to talk to the people who brought them on board. So, the people are now brought into the decision making room through that proviso and that is in line with the tenets of democracy.
The issue of National Assembly budget has been in contention with people making all sorts of allegations that they are enjoying jumbo pay and which you were once quoted as saying that even the funds are inadequate. Why did you say that?
I addressed this question often about jumbo pay. I don’t understand what people referred to as jumbo pay. Because allowances to do your work in the office – buy stationary, toiletries in the rest room, give you a cup of tea, pay my flight ticket to my Constituency and that of my Aides. The money to take care of that is not my money. That money belongs to the office. It is from that money we pay salaries of those working for us in the Constituency Offices, it is that money we visit Constituency Offices if you are staying one day, two days, three days, four days, one week that takes care of the team that goes there, transportation and other things that you do there. Our salary is not a jumbo salary by any standard. So, I don’t agree that the National Assembly members receive jumbo salary. When you look at the purchasing power of the same amount that they define as jumbo pay today, at this moment, it all first started when Dollar then was about N130-N140. Today, it is almost N600 and yet, the so called jumbo pay is still where it used to be and needs of the people you use to take care of is on the increase, inflation is impacting negatively on them. It is from there you take care of Constituency needs and the needs are solved from the same market that everybody buys from. So the National Assembly pay is far from being a jumbo pay in view of our current realities.
But don’t you think since this narrative has been on for long, the National Assembly needs to go a step further by letting the public know that what they think is not actually what is on ground?
You just quoted me now. You said I was quoted as coming out to say that our payment is not enough. I was bold enough to say it. Some people called for my head. It doesn’t change the truth. When you said National Assembly, I speak for the House of Representatives; I speak for 360 members. When you hear me speak, I don’t speak for Benjamin Kalu, I speak for the 360 members and I know the pain they go through and I know the kind of pressure they go through and I know they are the closest to the grassroots. I know that the governors are not as accessible as members of the House of Representatives. I know that members of the state Houses of Assembly are not as accessible as members of the House of Representatives. I know that the Ministers are not as accessible as members of the House of Representatives. I know that Mr President is not as accessible as members of the House of Representatives. So, there is a gap that we are bridging and we are the face of government. If you remove federal representatives from the implementation of democracy in our current day Nigeria, I tell you Nigerians will jettison democracy because we are the ones that bring the impact of government closer to the people that make people realise that there is what is called democratic governance.
Shortly after the consideration and passage of the 2022 budget, the Presidency again came up with allegations of budget padding. Is it true that the National Assembly members pad (inflate) the budget?
You see, the word padding, I don’t know where it came from. It is a wrong word. That is wrong English if you understand the meaning of appropriation and what it means for the parliament to have power of the purse. We give colour to the budget. The parliament gives right colours to the budget. The executive might play the role of the painter with their brush but the finishing work is done by the parliament and that we do with the strokes of the brush of the needs analysis of our people. If you bring before us a project that is considered by a member representing that area as being totally irrelevant or a duplicate of what is already existing, are you saying the parliament should allow it as it is? How then do we exercise our power of the purse? The Constitution gave us the power to look at whatever that is presented to us by the MDAs, by Mr President himself.
That is why he cannot stand alone in his office and prepare the budget and sign it, unless you are in a military era. Democracy behooves on the executive to uphold the principle of the doctrine of separation of powers to do theirs within the parameters of their mandate and thereafter pass the ball to the court where the operationalisation of our mandate commences within our own parameters. That means, what is brought to the National Assembly at all times should never be seen as a finished product. The budget is not a finished product until the parliament says so and the parliament is the House of the people. So, it is the clearing house. If we fail in that duty, we would have failed the nation because there lies the dreams and aspirations of both the private and public sectors and the people of Nigeria in the next 12 months of the financial year.
If you toil with that when they have given you their trust to be their eyes and ears, to analyse, to see whether it suits, and to see whether it is a reflection of the needs of the people and the solutions they are hoping for. We can’t afford to fail them.That is why we put all the MDAs on the hot seat. First, to tell us what they did with the money we gave them last time and why they are asking for more money. If you come to us asking for more money and the money you asked for last time you did not use it for same thing that you are asking now which was approved for you last time, should we leave the money there? That is our job. Our job is to see the needs of Nigerians, analyse the limited resources as proposed by the executive and fine-tune what is before us. If in the course of doing that, we prune down from left and we flesh up on the right; that is not called padding. That is a process of appropriation.
Year 2023 is drawing very close. Do you see the South-East or what we say people of Igbo extraction emerging as Presidential candidate of any of the political parties come 2023?
It depends on participation. If you are emerging in a political party it all depends on your participation. The question you should ask is what is their representation or the participation of Igbos in any of the political parties? When you are participating more you can demand what you want because politics is about numbers. If you can’t demand, I want to see the Igbo lobbying machines not fighting machines. I need to see Igbo strategists, how they are strategising not for self but for the region. I need to see an Igbo leader that is passionate about the regional economic integration, regional political integration, regional social integration – driving it and having people following him; setting up structures that will lobby people. Not fighting people, not condemning people, not struggle; lobby, is about game of number so you lobby to get people on board. So until we start doing that, let’s stop the wishful thinking. It is a hard walk. The journey to Aso Rock is hard walk that needs structures, strategies and systems.
