Odimegwu Onwumere
9 May 2007
opinion
ONE writer described the just concluded April elections supervised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as "magical selection". Another wrote that the INEC chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu is intelligent but not wise. Some political scientists claim that the worst democracy is far better than the best military rule; just like the democracy we have seen in Nigeria.
The April 14 & 21 polls were generally characterized by fraud; full of irregularities and the most heinous in the annals of elections all over the world. One wonders where President Olusegun Obasanjo's corruption fight started from and where it is headed.
This is because it was reported that elections did not take place in many states but PDP candidates were declared winners. Many candidates of the opposition parties were disqualified by Iwu just few days before the elections for reasons known only to Iwu and OBJ. Some of them (opposition candidates) were detained because the ruling party envisaged that their prescence in their states would prevent them in the PDP from rigging the elections.
This was the same way Nigerians cried foul and blue murder under the military rulers. President Olusegun Obasanjo was even one those who paid the price for daring to criticize the military for the misrule of the country. The international community came to the aid of the country then simply because the military were in power. Today in Nigeria, democracy has died in the hearts of the democrats before dying in the hands of the military. Democracy has been given another definition. It is no longer the government of the people, for the people and by the people, but government by the PDP, for the PDP against the people. Politics has also been given another definition; it is no longer defined as prudent but poignant.
Many state electoral commissioners got the beating of their lives because they failed to declare PDP candidates winners. In Abia state for example, the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Prince Solomon Soyebi escaped death by whiskers. Even the the PDP National Secretary, Chief Ojo Maduekwe was reported as calling him a fool. Said he: "He is a foolish man, we did everything for him. We offered him everything and you said you're born again".
From the above statement, the word "alleged" should not be applied here. The real fact was that the PDP offered Soyebi bribe to rig the Abia election in favour of the PDP but the consciencous Soyebi announced the winner of the guber election as it was. The candidate of the Progressive People's Alliance (PPA), Chief T.A Orji was rightly declared the governor-elect, even though he was arrested before the election by Obasanjo's Rotwhiller, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the chairman, EFCC.
In that festival of electoral sham by the PDP, the Nigerian image abroad has soared more than the corruption Obasanjo claims to be fighting. The commissioner of police in Lagos was re-deployed by the PDP-led government so that the party (PDP) will win in the State. But they still lost the state to the Action Congress (AC).
In Ondo State, the REC was allegedly still collating the results when Abuja announced the result! What of in Adamawa State, gubernatorial candidate of AC, Ibrahim Bapetel was disqualified by INEC barely 12 hours to the polls. In Anambra State where Andy Uba of the PDP was declared governor-elect, the allegation is that the number of votes allocated by Iwu's INEC to him was more than the number of registered voters in the state. Dr. Chris Ngige, the AC guber candidate was not allowed to run even though the court had declared him fit to contest.
It was a shocker that while Nigerias were busy voting to elect their leaders, those in the PDP were busy showcasing their expertise in the art of election rigging taught them by their "do-or-die" master. A lot of people died in the course of these elections; houses were burnt and hopes were shattered. Would the tribunals be the last hope for the common man since a lot of people who took to the streets were not given a listening ear?
In the street, the security forces who were supposed to guide the people unleashed mayhem and brimstone on them and sent many into the gaol and christened them political thugs.
The irony is that this is a country where Obasanjo said that he would get rid of corruption but those who are going to rule us will mount the saddle through corrupt means. This shows that Obasanjo's touted fight against corruption is only a lip service. These elections have proved that his announcement of April 8, extending the emergency rule in Ekiti State to May 29th was a single act to witch-hunt Fayose (Ekiti State impeached governor), just the way Joshua Dariye of Plateau State was humbled by him before his re-instatement few weeks ago.
My thanks goes to members of the National Assembly who truncated that dictatoral plan. Obasanjo said that his action in Ekiti State was based on post-election disturbances in the State. But have States like Osun, Edo, Ondo, and Kano amongst others not recorded what happened in Ekiti ? Now, if the Ribadu-led EFCC was created to fight corruption in the country in sincerity, this is the time for him to tell Nigerians that the corruption -fighting agency is working impartially.
He should arrest all the governors-elect including the president-elect, because the election that they claimed to have won was fraudulent. He should arrest them as election fraudsters, probe them (in truth & in spirit) and keep them just the way he has done Alams and other un-anointed and unfavoured sons of Obasanjo.
If he does not do so, then the organization would be taken as a sham on its own. It behoves EFCC to intervene in this matter by also arresting Iwu until a time when they are proved innocent or guilty. This is so because what happened in the just concluded elections were capable of conflagrating the polity. That was how little-by-little, Daffur burnt, Somalia burnt, Rwanda burnt, and Chad also got burnt.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
