The National Secretary of Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Chief Peter Ameh, has built himself into a brand that knows where the bones of Nigerian politics are buried.

He spoke to Sunday Sun in Abuja, descending very hard on the current administration over the hardship and suffering in the land, the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the crisis rocking his party, the Labour Party (LP) and the determination of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to balkanise the opposition parties and ensure Nigeria becomes a one-party state.

How will you describe the 2024 political year in Nigeria?

It has been very disastrous for our people. It has been a period where political intimidation, harassment of journalists, citizens, and suppression of the voices of descent. It shows that democracy is shrinking because people want to retain power. I see 2024 as a year of setback for democratic progression, a setback for those interests, and environment needed to show that democracy is actually thriving and striving. The most important thing is that we must, as citizens, try to ensure that we are ever active and ever vigilant because the price we pay for liberty is vigilance. You cannot allow people to ride on the law, suppress the views of those who are supposed to express them, and expect that democracy will thrive. It will drive us into a one-party state, which actually breeds dictatorship. It is frightening to the extent that if political figures appear on television or radio stations, they will denounce them after the programme by saying that the views expressed are from the guest. Of course, they have to do so to avoid their studio being closed down or be arrested. If it is in the civilized clime, those radio stations are supposed to pay the guests, but now they are throwing you to the mercies of the security agencies. People forgot that Section 39 of the Constitution clearly gives us the right to freely express ourselves, to hold opinion and also impact their opinion on people who are willing to take their advice. Democracy is beyond something that should be tattooed by the image of one person, on the forehead or on the chest. It is not democracy. It is actually their belief for people to express their views and still retain their freedom.

What are the lowest and highest moments of 2024 political year?

We have recorded some mileages. But we have recorded more retrogressions than progressions this year. The worst moment In 2024 is the economic hardship for the people. There is nothing else that matters more than anything, which reduces the people?s ability, purchasing power and sense of dignity. Another worst moment was the Edo and Ondo states governorship elections. Edo was a daylight robbery. We all saw it. Election was concluded in Central and in the South, but in the North, the result was manipulated and changed overnight from what is on the IReV. Juxtapose that with what the Ghana Electoral Commission officer said that elections are conducted at the polling unit, vote cast and recorded at the polling unit, and winners emerge at all the various polling units. But in the Edo State case, the security agencies will mount the coalition centre and stop people from entering, allowing the party in the Federal Government to do whatever suppression of powers they have, and then record results for themselves. It is a very low moment in our political life, and we shouldn?t see such again. We should allow the people to decide their future. One of the biggest setbacks we have in our democratic system, retrogressing us is the fact that the people can?t hold anybody responsible because the person they want is not there and they didn?t vote the person there. Legitimacy is also very important, and even if you take power, you need legitimacy to sustain it. Mandate without legitimacy is zero. There was open vote buying in Ondo State governorship election. I don?t understand this desperation to be in government. They forgot that people outside are part of the government because their views should also count. It?s just that we are in a country where people don?t see democracy as a collective thing, but as seize power otherwise the views they are expressing are for the country to be better for ourselves, for our children and for Nigerians residing in the country. It is very important that we must have the mindset that focuses on election that is credible, free, and responsibly conducted by the electoral umpire without any kind of interference, whether from third party or from within the commission itself. The lowest moment is the Edo governorship election and the poverty and inflation rate, food inflation is about 40 per cent, year in inflation is about 34 per cent. Nigerians are really finding it very tough, but people in government have shielded themselves with very good security network. They build very high and fanciful fences that nobody can penetrate. We will pay them salaries, they get allowances, and still budget money for their feeding the way they want it. They don?t cut their coat according to the situation of the country, but the luxury they felt they should enjoy. They add to our pains because they are not connected with the people. Has the president ever travelled by road? He doesn?t even know the problem people are passing through Lokoja road, what they are feeling or the 65 km road from Enugu to Awka. He doesn?t know that there are no roads again there. If he is going to Lokoja, they go by chopper. He is a president who can?t connect with people, by stopping on the highway by a village to say how can they exist for 2,000 years without electricity or road? One of the greatest things a leader does is giving his people hope. Our leaders don?t give us hope. They give themselves hope. They benefit only themselves more. The President told us to tighten our belts because the economy is hard, but he is buying a private presidential jet of N150 billion. They told us that economy is bad yet the president and his vice are spending billions of Naira travelling all over the world. There is no economic measure put in place to live by the austerity measures they made the citizens go through. There are two different rules, one for them in government of let us enjoy our turn; those outside should suffer and wait for their turn to come. It is a completely bad system.

But has anything good come out of this government so far?

I didn?t see anything that came out of this government. They have been able to create institutions that are not working. There are institutions like the National Assembly, which ought to represent the people with strong voices. The managers of our democratic system have actually bastardized it; otherwise we would have enjoyed it more. We would have flourished more under a democracy than any military rule. But when people talk about military rule, it is the freedom that we have under democracy. Even in the worst military rule, the judiciary was very effective. They were still giving freedom and acquitting people arrested like Gani Fawehinmi and others. The judiciary was still standing on their feet, but today, you could visibly see that the kind of independence is not there. We need to sit down as a people. We no longer talk about legacy anymore, because leaders are living in the now. Most of them are thinking how to amass wealth and allow their children to continue. But unfortunately, they don?t. They are not good students of history. Which of those late politicians did their children continue? It is because they have made them lazy, taken them away from the reality of life that they can?t connect. All the money people are stealing by having 753 houses in an estate confirms total disconnect from what should be obtainable as human beings. It is painful that we are in this mess despite all our resources. Look at the politics played with Dangote refinery over crude oil and the NNPC claiming that Port Harcourt refinery has started producing. All these are lies. And because they know that they have citizens that have continued to adjust as things get harder, they do as it pleases them. A man who used to take a bus in front of his house to work, now wakes up by 5:00a.m and trek a kilometre to another bus stop to take a bus as a measure of adjusting to the Increase in the transport fare. To him, it is adjusting, but he did not ask himself why the people in government are not adjusting. We need to sit down and have a heart-to-heart talk. We can?t call for national conference because even when we submit the report, it will not be used. The Justice Uwais Panel Report did not mean anything to the people in government because they know that it will give power to the people. They knew that it would unbundle INEC. We have Oronsaye Report that talked about cost cutting measures. Nigeria has no monetary and revenue problem. The stealing of money and the volume of budget can confirm that Nigeria has no monetary problem. Our problem is the corruption and wastage taking over 60 per cent of our resources. The combination of these two forces is the problem we have. If we have an effective governance system, and government headed by somebody competent enough to manage it, pluck all these loopholes, and cut down the leakages, Nigeria will have more money to itself and prosper. Nigerians are suffering and we should not pretend about that. People are trekking more to go to work. People are borrowing money to pay for transport, and the transportation costs have increased by over 300 per cent since the president made that very irrational and impulsive statement that removed subsidy even when he has not got into the office. That and other issue like exchange rate unification were very bad decisions responsible for where we see ourselves today. We don?t want to talk about tariff on power or the national grid distribution network collapsing several times. All these embarrassment from some people talking about what Kemi Badenoch said are wrong. I am happy she had the gut to tell Nigerians what we are. Things are bad and we cannot always look for image-makers in London, or in America. If things are working, nobody is going to see anything, or respond to Kemi, because people will see that Nigerians are living in luxury and good lifestyle with good roads. It is not about religion because they travel to Saudi Arabia, Israel, France and all over the world and can see that when leaders provide basic amenities to better and ease the life of the people, make them live comfortably, the leaders will be happy too.

Why did you include the crises rocking LP as one of the low moments this year?

The internal combustion happening in LP is as a result of certain factors. There was an emergency; Peter Obi has a reputation and integrity. People love him for his kind of person and so many Nigerians rallied behind him and wanted him to get one party. What happened to Peter was that he is so popular, and loved by the people, because he had shown the kind of leadership that people want whether in his personal life, or cost-cutting measures in everything, even where he lives and what he does. People have seen that what we need first is to cut costs in governance, and block leakages, and Nigeria will prosper. Somehow, Nigerians saw the truth and rallied behind him. He decided on LP and brought that support base with him. I was in the party before him. Don?t forget, I supported LP with my resources to keep it stable, as if I saw tomorrow. Peter got what he wanted, but there was this issue of corruption he did not want to hear. As soon as it starts to rob on him, he started to avoid it. The corruption brought all sort of issues, and Peter felt the party should be reorganized so that Nigerian can continue to have belief and trust in the vehicle. But somehow, people wanted the status quo to remain and there was nothing he could do apart from making sure that people see reason the party was chosen to save Nigerians from the retrogressive situation we found ourselves. But he will get it right. I have very big trust in Peter, and I think that people should not lose hope in our political party system. I believe in the inclusivity of the opportunities created by multi-party democratic system we practice. Those of us who know the inner workings of the party will soon resolve the issues. This is not the end of LP and this is not how those that brought glory to LP will end. They will resolve the issues, give a new direction and find way forward for Nigerians.

Do you believe that APC is the unseen hand in the crises rocking the opposition parties?

The APC is doing so much to balkanise multi-party system. There have been accusations from all other parties and from what they do. Why are all the members of LP at the National Assembly decamping to the APC, even those from Plateau, which is a PDP governing state? It is to show that they must have promised to give them that much as the ruling party. They intimidate them with control power and authority, especially as there are no free and fair elections. Otherwise, many people will not take the promises made to them. Promises like giving them national cover with the apparatus of state operation, which doesn?t work when there is a free and fair election, because the security agencies should be for everybody. They are sustained by taxpayers? money. We are collective shareholders in this country everywhere one finds themselves, in the rural communities. The resources are owned collectively, they don?t belong to one family more than the other. We are having this challenge because our system is faulty. I know that the opposition, with the kind of ongoing internal arrangements, will get it right, and 2027 will be more different. We will have a more robust opposition than what we had in 2023.

What will be the political climate in 2025?

The political climate will be very robust with the people seeing the realities on ground. Various political leaders have met some leaders like Obasanjo, IBB, among others, to impress it on them on the need to rescue the country. I am very confident that something drastic will certainly happen. APC is a very difficult party that does not believe the opposition should exist. Everything is done to ensure that we mobilise ourselves effectively to dislodge the APC in 2027. President Tinubu got 60 per cent of his votes from the North yet they are suffering today. I am sure that the hunger this government inflicted on the people will count against them. Nigerians cannot continue to bear this hunger. Look at the tripled amount Nigerians paid to free themselves from the kidnappers. These are the challenges Nigerians are facing, and the president cannot claim ignorance of the situation of the country before taking over because he promised to change the situation. People are more enlightened and determined to enthrone a people-oriented government. The multiple challenges Nigerians are facing will count against the current administration in the 2027 presidential election. The government is designed in a way that the leaders bring in policies to alleviate the people?s standard of living and reduce the level of poverty in the system. Any government that cannot provide democratic dividends must be there for fashion shows. There is no micro and macro-economic index to help the growth of the country apart from scrapping and resurfacing the roads in the FCT. The incompetence of the president showed in his pronouncement on the removal of fuel subsidy. He has weakened the economy. We are not only having an export problem, but also an import problem. We have doubled the cost of importation because the ships go back empty. We are no longer a productive nation. We have problems that the government is not fixing. They cannot continue to tax the already suffering Nigerians. We don?t have revenue problem, but their penchant to literally put our money on fire. The budget is running into trillions, yet we have nothing to show for it.

What is your assessment of INEC in year 2024?

INEC deliberately failed Nigerians. The enthusiasm and excitement from the youth population that accounted for the greater percentage of registered voters died when INEC deliberately orchestrated the plan, which undermined the integrity of our electoral process. There should be a national board of inquiry where the opposition political party will nominate people to look at the server. INEC cannot audit itself and tell Nigerians that what happened was a glitch. Curiously, the Amazon it hoisted its server on never issued a public certificate over the glitch which affected only the presidential election alone and worked for the National Assembly. It promised that BVAS would be used. Form EC8A will be uploaded into the IReV, and people will use data from there to collate, but will not announce. We can see what happened in the Ghana election because the Vice President saw the collated results after the election. Nigeria does not need collation centres because that is where they change the results. INEC is complacent in the criminality reducing the integrity of our electoral system. The 2023 presidential election should be investigated; there should be an open inquiry to that result collation centre to establish what happened to that machine. We cannot spend N350 billion on the election we don?t have trust in it.

Why are neighbouring countries coming to learn from INEC despite this damning verdict?

It is not true that Ghana learnt any electoral system from INEC. Ghana first established the IPAC we have today. The political parties in Ghana were allowed to even see the serial number of the ballot papers. It is not the one we tell agents to go to the CBN. What is certain is that Nigeria has near perfect electoral architecture developed by the best brains and there is no doubt about it. But our problem is human interference where people change the results and even go ahead to block the provision of materials requested in the court of law. The attempt by INEC to be transparent is not the issue, but are people convinced that the commission is transparent? Nigeria cannot make progress unless INEC starts to conduct credible elections. That is the only way Nigerians can hold electoral officials accountable for their non-performance.

What is your assessment of the 2025 annual budget?

My concerns are the leakages and wastes. The recurring repetitions of line items that have already been budgeted for in previous years should be the major concerns of most people. We cannot continue to buy kitchen utensils, typewriters and renovation of the residents of the government officials among others in every budget year. As I said earlier, repetition of items is the major problem of our budget. (Sunday Sun: Text, Excluding Headline)

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