PRP Commercialised, Abandoned Balarabe Musa’s Founding Ideals – Igbini

Comrade (Engr) Igbini Odafe Emmanuel, a former Delta State chairman and a two-time governorship candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), speaks with FELIX IGBEKOYI about the deregistration of political parties, the constitutional powers of INEC, and the alleged commercialisation of political parties.

What is your position on the legal controversy surrounding INEC’s recognition of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), following the Federal High Court’s decision to set aside the earlier judgment that ordered the Commission to register the party?

Both the Federal High Court, Lokoja Division, and INEC are wrong to attempt to deregister the NDC or any other newly registered political party for the forthcoming general elections in Nigeria. Neither the Federal High Court nor INEC has the constitutional power to deregister a political party that has not yet participated in any general elections organised by INEC and has failed to win even one ward in a local government chairmanship election in any state of the federation, or failed to win one local government in any governorship election, or failed to win one seat in a House of Assembly election. The actions of both the Court and INEC can be likened to a school management withdrawing a student for poor academic performance when the school has not even conducted an examination, let alone the student sitting for it and failing beyond the tolerated limit. Section 225A of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, as amended, clearly sets out the only conditions under which the Constitution empowers INEC to deregister a political party, and these conditions are activated only after the political party has Nparticipated in elections conducted either by INEC or by State Electoral Commissions for local governments and has performed abysmally.

Do you consider NDC’s use of a logo allegedly associated with another political association, PMP, sufficient legal grounds for its deregistration by INEC and the Court?

No! Not at all! It is not a valid legal reason. It is a trite principle of statutory interpretation that whatever is expressly stated excludes all others not stated. No Court or INEC has the constitutional power to add what the Nigerian Constitution excludes; doing so would amount to an attempt to amend the Nigerian Constitution through the back door. Even the Nigerian Supreme Court has strongly condemned such an act by INEC in its 2002 judgement in the case instituted by the late national leader of my Party, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, against INEC on a similar matter.

As a well-known human rights and veteran labour leader, when did you join partisan politics, and what motivated your choice of the PRP?

I never loved partisan politics because it was played so crudely, dirtily, and bloodily in Nigeria. Many of those who participate in it are so desperate for political power that they will do anything to get it. I disliked them and never loved being near politicians and Government Houses. I saw them as enemies of peace, unity, progress, and development in our beloved country, Nigeria. But as I continued to monitor and analyse global politics and to observe similar dirty games in some developed Western countries such as the US, UK, Italy, and France, I began to change my mind.

I then realised that what I needed to do to help fix the problems in my country was not only to continue criticising and condemning Nigerian politicians who do wrong and fail to be patriotic, but also to get involved, with a view to proving to them that I can do what I advise them to do and that it is possible to make Nigeria great again, as it was before 1960. More importantly, I needed to act as a peacemaker where bloody clashes are likely to occur among politicians. In fact, you will be shocked to hear from me, for the first time, that I played the most critical role in preventing violent political clashes in my Delta State when I became the Governorship Candidate of my party in 2007 and 2011. Only Governor Emmauel Uduaghan can tell you how helpful I was to him and our state. I entered partisan politics in 2006, when I chose only four registered political parties as sufficient for my ideology and mission.  May it shock you that I deliberately did not consider PDP, APP and the other so-called big moneybags political parties. I did not also consider the Labour Party, even though I am a veteran Labour leader. I carefully read and analysed the principles and ideologies of all political parties, from which I chose PRP and three others. After doing this, I drafted four letters, addressed to the parties, indicating my interest in them and my desire to vie for the Governorship of my Delta State the next year, being 2007. Of course, attached to the draft letters was a brief citation of my person, ideology, and lawful activities in Nigeria and beyond. I then travelled to Abuja, where I posted the letters at the General Post Office so that they would reach the head offices of these political parties early. I never knew where their offices were located in Abuja, let alone met any of the national officers. After this, I returned home to my base in Warri. A few weeks later, a man who introduced himself as Mr Moses of PRP called me to say that the national chairman of his party (Alhaji Balarabe Musa) had instructed him to get in touch with me and to inform me that PRP had received my letter and was happy to have me as its governorship candidate for Delta state.

About two weeks later, I received replies from the other three political parties, also informing me that they accepted me as their governorship candidate for Delta state.

At the end, I settled for PRP because of the enviable records of Integrity, patriotism and humility of the late Mallam Aminu Kano and Alhaji Balarabe Musa, who are founding fathers of PRP. I then travelled to Kaduna to meet Alhaji Balarabe Musa for the first time at his private residence. He is indeed a very humble, intelligent and patriotic man. After our discussion, he decided, in addition to appointing me the Delta State chairman of PRP, to make me the South-South leader of our party and one of his close confidants. He always sought my views on very critical decisions he took, and when I disagreed with him, he sometimes adopted mine and dropped his. One case was when I advised him to pull out of a planned alliance of political parties that was being formed in 2013/2014 against the ruling PDP. We were so close. He is a great Nigerian I miss so much.

You contested the governorship election twice on the PRP platform. How much did you pay for the party in nomination and other fees?

I never paid a kobo to my party, PRP, or to Alhaji Balarabe Musa. Instead, he gives me transport money  each time he invites me and my exco to a meeting in Kaduna, and he also personally sends me original groundnut oil from Kaduna. My nomination forms were sent to me free of charge. My duty was only to complete them and send them back to him in Kaduna via courier. He then travels to Abuja to submit them to INEC. Even after I became the Director General of the Delta State Direct Labour Agency in August 2011, following the governorship election, he still would not allow me to make financial contributions to our party.

What, in your view, caused the PRP to move from that practice to charging aspirants nomination fees?

His sad death caused this unfortunate change, which completely deviates from the principles and ideology of our party, founded even before 1960. We now have people who don’t believe in the ideology of PRP. They have taken over and run our party as they wish. In fact, this problem began even before the death of Alhaji Balarabe Musa, when, under pressure, he appointed someone as interim national chairman of PRP to replace him. That was the big mistake he told me he made and regretted till his death. Even while he was facing health challenges, he battled to rescue our party from the man he appointed, and this lingered till his death. I won’t be wrong if I say this battle also contributed to his death earlier than it may have occurred.