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APRIL 30, 2007 VOL. 21. NO 3 |
Election '07: Short Notes
As you read this, the Presidential and National Assembly elections may have been held. So, we may have a president-elect this week, or we may sink deeper into political abyss. Whichever, what I intend to do this week is to do short notes on some of the outcome of the elections. The injustices. The shame. The bad belles. The chronic losers. And chronic protesters. The Imo Injustice: Not a few Nigerians agree that this election goes down in history as badly organised. Indeed, everything put into consideration, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), failed. It disappointed Nigerians, and that, inspite of the assurances given by its chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu, to conduct a fair and transparent election. A lot of deliberate double-speaks, double-standards, and injustices, became our lot. But nowhere were these so brazenly displayed than in Imo State. Like indigenes of other states, the people of Imo trooped out to vote for their preferred candidates in the governorship / House of Assembly elections. Martin Agbaso of APGA was a clear favourite to win the elections. This was assured particularly by the self-inflicted deluge of crisis which hit the PDP. It came to a climax when the National Headquarters of the party declared it was fielding no governorship candidate. It had expelled, for alleged gross indiscipline, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume, who days earlier the Supreme Court had upheld as the PDP candidate. Agbaso’s victory was more assured when the leader of the PDP in the state, Governor Achike Udenwa, declared that the PDP had decided to support his candidature. So, the people happily trooped out to vote. Clearly, Agbaso won the election. But what did INEC do? True to the story which made the rounds Saturday night that INEC, allegedly in connivance with some people, was bent on cancelling the governorship elections; it did. And for inexplicable reasons. What was INEC’s reason? According to Austin Eni Okogie, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, the Imo election was marred by large-scale violence in many councils. He disclosed that there were acts of lawlessness on the part of some of the out-going local council chairmen, while one person was killed. “Some candidates hijacked ballot boxes and kidnapped some electoral officers and ad-hoc staff, carting away result sheets, only to bring back completely different ones.” Okogie also revealed that the local government chairman of Aboh Mbaise, allegedly, shot five persons. I hope these chairmen, especially the ones who shot people, are in police custody. But questions: Was there anything that happened in Imo that did not happen in other states? In Imo, only one person was killed. How many were killed in Edo, Delta, Osun, Oyo, Ondo and Ekiti? Why were their results released? Were ballot boxes not carted away in other states of the federation? Why were the results released? I submit that INEC, for reasons only known to it, deliberately cancelled the Imo governorship election results. It confirmed this deliberate action by shamelessly upholding the House of Assembly elections. It is simple. Both elections took place same day, same place, with same ballot papers, with same officials, kidnapped or not, presiding. So, how did INEC separate that of governorship from that of the House of Assembly? Who is INEC trying to please? INEC should release the governorship results, with apologies to Imo people. Short of doing that, it should cancel both the governorship and House of Assembly elections. That is only fair. IGP Ehindero: The Inspector General of Police, Sunday Ehindero, should cover his face in shame. Indeed, he should quit office to save himself from further embarrassment. He has failed. And he would go into history as the most ineffective IGP Nigeria has ever had. Tafa Balogun, former IGP, could not keep his fingers to himself. But things were not this bad under him. Ehindero seems not to know a thing about security. See how cheaply his men are being killed everywhere. At no time has Ehindero’s incompetence manifested so much than penultimate week. On the eve of the April 14 elections, Ehindero allowed militants in PH to bomb two police stations – Olu Obasanjo and Mini-Okoro – and kill eight policemen in the process. These people invaded the stations. Meaning that there was no security at all in place. Even a baby knows that the days running to elections would be dicey, especially in the Niger Delta. More especially, in Rivers, Delta, and Bayelsa States. Therefore, Ehindero should have cased those states. But he failed. Remember too that these militants had once invaded the Police Central Command, PH, and wrecked havoc. On Ehindero’s watch. This man cannot protect his officers and men. How then can he protect us? Every promise Ehindero made on assumption of office, he has failed. Security of lives and property is at its lowest. And so is the morale of police officers and men. Corruption is still high amongst them. The N20 "toll gate" still reigns. Penultimate week, during the elections, Ehindero’s police couldn’t secure ballot boxes. In Ibadan, for example, they looked elsewhere while ballot boxes were snatched at will. In at least one state, his men were caught snatching ballot boxes. So, what is Ehindero still doing for us? I wonder. For Tinubu and Orji Kalu: May I here, congratulate the governors of Lagos and Abia States, Bola Tinubu and Orji Uzor Kalu, on their feat at delivering their governorship candidates. The victory of Babatunde Fashola, and Theodore Orji, as the governors-elect of their states, was sweet music to my ears. And that is not because I ever supported them. In Lagos, for example, I had no opinion on who wins or who loses. In Abia, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu was clearly my favourite. But that does not stop me from recognising hard work when I see one. Or, appreciating a good grassroots politician when I see one. Or a good propagandist when I see one. When it comes to all these, Tinubu and Orji are in a class of their own. They may be raw in their delivery, but they are grassroots politicians. And it is the rawness that people understand. The story is that they rigged in their candidates. That is the usual allegation. Tinubu and Orji campaigned hard for their candidates. And if they rigged, they only succeeded because they are popular in their states. You can only rig where you are popular. I don’t know about Abia, but in Lagos, nobody’s campaign was as vigorous as that of Fashola. In my house, it is only his campaign song that everybody knows and sings. He thus became so popular that even Chiamaka, a seven-year-old in my house, told me: “Mummy, when you are going to vote call me o, I want to go and vote for Fashola.” And in Abia, you may dismiss Orji’s style of campaign as frivolous, even childish, but he gets to the people. He tells them what they want to hear. The problem is, Ugochukwu is too much of a gentleman to match Kalu, the Aba boy. That he was able to deliver Theodore Orji, who is still in the EFCC cell, tells how much in control he is in Abia State. However, truth is, there are some states where nobody can do anything about. In Lagos, it would have been impossible for any other political party, outside the Action Congress, to win. Abia is totally in Orji Kalu’s grips. In Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River State, Enugu, Ebonyi, Anambra, Kwara it will be impossible for any other political party, but the PDP, to win. In Anambra, Andy Uba had the most vigorous campaign. In Adamawa, Atiku is in control. And in a fair election, his party would win. For the states are firmly in the grip of their governors. The other parties know the truth. They know they are not on ground. They know that even if elections are conducted 10 times over, they will still lose. And the same goes for most states of the federation. So, let's have a breather, please. Boycotting all Boycottables: The average Nigerian politician does not have a game spirit. Once he loses, everything else becomes foul. Without prejudice to the present election, that is the way of the Nigerian politician. And sadly, that has gradually become the way of the so-called democrats and opposition. Fact is, in Nigeria, it is difficult to differentiate between democrats and opposition. The feeling some people have is, once they are in the opposition, they think they have automatically become democrats. This is a lie. It is deceitful. In the face of the protests that dogged the April 14 elections, some opposition members, who falsely call themselves democrats, called for a boycott of the remaining elections. And this include some presidential candidates whose names most people do not know. In truth, if you ask me, there are only three presidential candidates. They are Umaru Yar’Adua, Atiku Abubakar and Muhammadu Buhari. But to the three, one can grudgingly add Orji Kalu because, in his own way, he has managed to rattle the PDP. His party even won one state, and has a House of Assembly member-elect in Imo. All the others are jokers. And they know that too well. I agree that the elections held were far from perfect, but question is, if they had, miraculously, won most states, would they have called for a boycott? In Lagos, those who cannot even win their wards are calling for the cancellation of the governorship elections. I don’t know why the AC is not asking for the cancellation of Lagos elections where it won, as it is calling for the cancellation of elections where it lost. Truth is, most of those calling for a boycott are paper tigers, and are doing that to cover their emptiness. The Senate President: It is difficult to know now on which side the Senate President, Ken Nnamani, is. The opposition, or his party, the PDP. I have a gut feeling that his soul is with the opposition. And that he still answers PDP, in flesh, because he needs that to remain the Senate President. In recent months, he has found everything wrong with anything PDP has done. And anybody can tell you why. It is because he is fighting his state Governor, Chimaroke Nnamani, the man who in the first place helped him become a Senator. The point remains, however, that since he became the head of the opposition (against the PDP) in Enugu State, he seems to have gradually transferred that opposition to the national level. Before the ANPP presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari chose Edwin Ume-Ezeoke as his running mate, the rumour was strong that he had Nnamani in mind. Nnamani confirmed it to reporters by saying that he had to consult his colleagues. Then, in an interview with The Guardian a couple of months ago, he re-confirmed it and hinted that if he so desired, he would have accepted. Then he gave the opposition a tip: if they come together they would defeat his party, the PDP! It worsened when he knew he wouldn’t get the senatorial ticket to represent his zone again. So, he cleverly let it be known that he was not going to run because he wanted the dignity of the office of the senate president to remain intact. After being a senate president, he was quoted as saying he cannot be an ordinary Senator again. It is either he becomes the Vice President, or the President. I think not. I think the main reason is that he knew he would have been roundly defeated. In Enugu, he doesn’t have the party structure. He is only the head of a vicious opposition. But at no time has his disdain for the PDP been so obvious as it is now – since after the governorship election. Seeing that the PDP governorship candidate was, as expected, on the way to winning the election, he became the leader of those who are calling for the cancellation of the polls. He said there was no election in Enugu. That he did not vote. He even descended to exchanging words with Frank Nweke (Jnr), the Minister for Information and Communication. He called the Minister a liar, just because the Minister said his (the Minister’s) father voted. That Senator Nnamani did not vote does not mean others did not vote. He may have decided not to vote to make a point. He says materials came late. That, definitely, is not the fault of the state government. My questions, however, are: What point is he making by calling for the cancellation? Who did he want to win? If he wishes his party, the PDP, defeat at the polls, why does he not quit the party? And to what extent has he been supporting the opposition nationally, and in Enugu State? Oh Boy! |
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