WE HAVE PASSED THE ERA OF ELECTION RIGGING IN NIGERIA -Hodewu Suru Avoseh

The lawmaker representing Badagry Constituency 2 in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Hodewu Suru Avoseh used to be a conservative, when he got to the House in 2007, but that seems to have been in the past as he is now in the fold of the progressives through which he won the election into the House in 20011.

Avoseh is currently championing the cause of the progressives as he is insisting that the All Progressive Congress (APC), which his party, Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) formed with Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) and others has come to stay.

He maintained that nothing can stop APC from getting to the presidency in 2015 and capturing many states of the federation.

Avoseh, who is the Chairman, House Committee on Health Services, disclosed in this interview that all hands are on deck to ensure the success of APC in 2015 and that the coming general election will come and go and Nigeria would still remain a country.

The recent merger of ACN, CPC, ANPP and some other parties into APC has attracted mixed feelings. While some people lauded it, others are skeptical that the ruling party would not allow it to work or have upper hands in the 2015 election even if they win the election, what do you say to this?

There is no good thing that would come easily, this merger is a formidable team and it is not just an alliance, it is a merger to form a new party of some political parties and we have seen the strength, it is the strength that is giving the ruling party sleepless nights. This is the reason we are making sure that the plan of the merger succeeds because the leadership of the merger are serious. There is no weapon formed against APC that will survive. It has come to stay, it is Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), no weapon formed against it would prosper. APC is the original pain reliever, if it is not APC, it is not APC, you have seen fake APC coming on board and you have seen them being crushed because they cannot just rise overnight and say they want to get registered, there are procedures and All Progressive Congress (APC) is taking that procedure one by one and it is open to everybody and the ruling party is trying to scuttle it, but there is no way it can be scuttled. We are talking about election, Nigeria has come of age, we have passed the era of election rigging, we have passed the era of removing the power from the people, you see what happened in 2007 and 2011, you saw the outcome of everything, so nobody will want to toy with the country again, it is election staright and APC would come on board in 2015 by God's grace.

People feel that now that the opposition parties have come together to form APC, the competition will be wider amongst the candidates for elective offices; also people feel that the merger is a way of fulfilling the selfish ambitions of people like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of ACN and Gen. Muhammed Buhari (rtd.) of CPC, do you think they are right?

That is why the party is called progressive, it is progressive-minded people coming together to make sure Nigeria is wrestled from the hands of the destroyers, people are bound to contest elections, they are bound to aim at contesting and with what is on ground, it is not going to be business as usual or do or die. If Gen. Muhammad Buhari (Rtd.) wants to contest for the presidency, is he not qualified to contest, if Asiwaju Bola Tinubu wants to contest for the presidency, is he not qualified to contest? Everybody would be given free hands to operate, it is the party members that would decide at the primaries. So, for anybody to have to have any insinuation, it will be ordinary insinuation, you can see what happened to PDP BOT Chairman and others, having insinuations about APC is not a problem, it is the party that is supreme, the leadership of the party knows what to do, the followers know what to do. You can see the convention of the ACN last week, where we agreed that we want to go to APC, and we agreed with what the party leadership has done on APC and from now till the convention of APC will come, we have agreed to be in APC and ACN will be no more, it is not that a part of the party is going, all of us are going to APC. ACN, CPC, ANPP and others will be no more as they are coming together to form APC. There will be a lot of ambitions and nobody's ambition will be superior to that of another person and that is the beauty of democracy. To people like us, we don't see it as a threat, if I want to contest and others want to contest, there is no crime in that, everybody that is qualified is free to contest, it is the people that will decide at the primaries.

It will be recalled that at the initial stage of the merger, some governors came together and they are not more than 10, and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu said recently that APC is government in-waiting, that they are no longer the opposition, how do you hope to take over from the PDP, which apparently has the majority governors in the country?

Let me take you back to memory lane, few years back, it was Lagos State alone that was being ruled by the ACN, but today, we have about six states and people are seeing that development is spreading in ACN states; go to Ogun State, I was there and I saw the fly over being constructed by Governor Ibikunle Amosun, it is the talk-of-the town there, go and look at the construction of roads in the state, especially in Abeokuta and it is happening in Sagamu and other parts of the state. Go to Oyo State, Osun State, Ekiti State and Edo State, so people are tired of a standstill government as PDP is known, election belongs to the people as power belongs to the people. So people are seeing it and they want that change. That change, irrespective of the number of the governors that we have now, it is not the governors that are going to vote, you can see that some PDP governors are supporting the new party, so nobody can say what will happen immediately the party is registered, se we are assured that since power belongs to the people, it would not be the governors that would decide, but the people. It is those people that would decide, so PDP is not a threat as people are tired of a standstill government. You can see the crisis all over the place, you can see our electricity, our education, we are talking about true federalism, but they are not talking about it. So, all of these, people are tired, they want change and that change is at hand.

…but people are saying that the 2015 election would be violent

Well, that is an insinuation, whenever rain wants to fall, the rainstorm, thunderstorm, wind and all of that would appear, but immediately the rain is over, everything will come down. Whenever election is coming, you will hear many things, but once it comes, things will go back to normal again. Look at the elections in the United States of America, you could see the various machinations and build-up, but after the elections, everything went down. I am not going to be involved in violence, my children would not be involved in violence, my followers would not involve in violence and APC would not involve in violence.

What of the belief that politicians are violent and they involve thugs in elections?

That was during the era of ballot snatching, there is no need for ballot snatching today, cast your vote and win, if there is anybody that is preaching violence, he is on his own because Nigerians are now more enlightened. Look at the 2003 election, you see a little modification in 2007 and in 2011, there were a lot of modifications. So, people are waiting to see good things and they are waiting to do good things. I don't see any crisis and if there would be crisis, it would be in the imagination of people.

Concerning voters card, some are clamouring for permanent cards, while some say we should use our national identity cards, what do you suggest?

Well, if there is any means for the two to be merged, it would be better because it is public funds that would be involved in voters cards, national identity cards is also public funds and they are the same formality, the same bio data and the same people. So, if they can be merged and well actualized, there is nothing wrong with it, just like the resident registration we are doing in Lagos State. Instead of carrying the same cards, if they can be merged, so be it, it would be better. But there were some problems in the last voters registration, all these should be corrected, for example, in my place, I registered on the first day of the registration and the capturing machine that was brought was for another place in my ward, so those of us that registered on that day didn't vote in our own village or polling unit, we had to go to where the capturing machine is meant for.

As the Chairman of the House Committee on Health, can you tell us what the state government put in place to reduce the burden of malaria as we mark World Malaria Day?

If you go to all our Primary Health Care Centres (PHC) as I am talking to you, you will see mosquito nets there. You know the most vulnerable people to malaria are pregnant women and children or babies, that is the reason any woman that comes to register at our hospitals is given mosquito net, it is available there, but the reason they are not distributed to some pregnant women is that they only go to our centres for ante-natal care, when they want to give birth, they go to other hospitals, which is why nurses don't give them out until someone delivers so that the record would be straight. So atimes, when about 200 pregnant women register in a PHC and it is only 30 that gave birth at the centre, they will have records for the actual  number, that is the reason most of these things are not given out. If you could also recall, sometime last year, a campaign was carried out, where mosquito nets were given to people and that is the best way of preventing malaria. If you are not bitten by mosquito, getting malaria would be very difficult. Also, in our general hospitals, malaria treatment is free of charge and they are available, even my own child went to a general hospital and got malaria drug free of charge, and they did not know it was my child. So, anybody that has malaria should go to the hospitals and he/she would get malaria drugs free of charge, so this is the best way of preventing malaria for everybody.

Can you tell us the amount of money Lagos State Government has spent on malaria prevention so far?

I am a legislator, it is the state Ministry of Health, the Commissioner or the Permanent Secretary that can give accurate data, the budget come omnibus, the budget is disbursed to the ministry, so I can not quote what the malaria budget is here.

You are spending your second term in the assembly, are we expecting you back here in 2015 or you are going higher?

One thing is that I am always very careful with my ambition, I don't allow it to clash with my role, I am in the office now, if someone allows his ambition to clash with his roles, he won't be able to work very well, so I put it in God's hands, he decided it for me in 2007, while I was still a nobody, he decided for me in 2011 and He is still there. But, my ambition in 2015 is in God's hands, people have been asking questions, go to my constituency or local government, you will hear a lot of things, but I have not told anybody my next step, it is in God's hands and He will reveal it, whatever you put in God's hand will not get spoilt, He is able to take care of that.

April 30, 2013