Senator Muhammed Saleh (Kaduna Central APC) is a retired Major General and a serving senator. In this interview with JONATHAN NDA-ISAIAH, he stated that the military has no role in elections. Excerpts
What is your take on the postponement of the elections, given INEC chairman’s presentation at the Senate ?
During and after the conversation with the INEC chairman and his team,it came across to me that not only is he determined to conduct a free and fair election but a credible one. They are taking a step forward to ensure that they even generate data which they were not able to do before.
The introduction of the card reader will help them check rigging as it will prevent people from voting by proxy or impersonation.
It came across to me that INEC is sincere to conduct an election that will be credible and accepted in this country. What is left now is the role of the security agencies.
Talking about security, given the fact that you are a retired senior military officer, what do you think about the security chiefs telling us that they cannot vouch for our safety during elections ?
Well, I think it is an orchestrated and hidden agenda, I was GOC 2 Division in Ibadan during the 2007 general elections and I knew our role, we had no direct role on the elections, I was given the duty of movement control and security of vital and key points including oil installations, post offices, telecommunications facilities and vital government properties and even provisions of security was not part of our duty. Ours was movement control and security of those vital and key points. So, how the military to say that they cannot provide security for the rest of the country, they cannot guard all those key and vulnerable points during elections for the rest of the country? We know the operation going on in the North East is a different kind of operation but what about the rest of the country, and again recall that multinational joint forces said they needed about 7,000 troops to combat the insurgency, 7,000 multinational troops that means Nigeria will provide a fraction of that, compare that with the total strength of the Nigerian Armed Forces of over a 100,000, and the service chiefs will come and tell the nation that they cannot provide security for the rest of the nation , it tells you that there is a lot more than meet the eyes.
Do you think the military is being politicised?
Certainly, the military has been politicized, otherwise the service chiefs have no reason to come and talk about security of election,they have no role in elections. That’s a clear indication that the military has been politicised.
Do you think the North-East is safe enough to conduct elections?
Everything is relative, we are in a democracy and democracy is closely linked to development. In this country, we have all agreed that democracy is the best form of government and democracy is the only way from time to time we can use in changing or re-affirming the confidence in the leadership that you have elected. It is the only way you can choose your leaders and there is no leader that can climb any seat if not elected and for somebody who is a beneficiary of such a process to try to scuttle it again I think we need to look at that very seriously.
There is this speculation that the presidency may write the Senate to ask for another postponement due to insecurity in the country, what do you think about that?
We have to look at it according to the constitution. We are guided by the constitution and the constitution has clearly stated the process of declaring war in the country.
So far, no war has beeb declared in Nigeria. The president has not taken steps to declare war in Nigeria, so why will he now write to us to postpone election because of war situation? He has to abide by the process of the constitution, there are processes he must follow to declare war and unless he does that any letter he writes to the National Assembly to postpone election is null and void.
What are the things the president need to do before we say we are at war?
First and foremost, he has to declare a state of emergency in the country. He has declared state of emergency in Yobe, Adamawa and Borno states, which was consented to by the National Assemby. The first time he requested for an extension which was granted by the National Assembly.
The National Assembly in that part, he can then convey to the national assembly his intention to declare a state of war and it is now the responsibility of the National Assembly to sit in a joint session between the Senate and House of Representatives and determine whether or not to grant that request. So it is not just the president standing up and declaring war, the final say is with the National Assembly wether war is declared or not and the president must follow those processes and unless this process are followed, any letter he writes to the National Assembly postponing elections because of a war situation is simply am exercise in futility
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