When the Managing Editor of the Independent, Mr.
Akpandem James, informed me in the afternoon of last Friday (January 18,
2008) that the Enugu State Governor, Mr. Sullivan Chime, had just been ordered
to vacate his seat by the Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in the Coal City,
I was glad that another solid evidence had emerged to strengthen the position
of many of us who have continued to insist that what former President Olusegun
Obasanjo and his fellow expert and partner in political corruption, Prof
Maurice Iwu, supervised in Nigeria last April was the worst election in human
history.
Of course, we know that Mr. Chime’s case would not be the last in this
determined effort by the judiciary to dismantle the irredeemably corrupt
edifices brazenly erected across the nation by Obasanjo and his equally
murky-minded collaborators in the inappropriately named Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP). Already, the clouds appear to be gathering over
the
the February ruling in the governorship tussle in the state, as an anxious
nation awaits new surprises from that famous land where self-celebrated masters
of thuggery, violence and electoral corruption now hold sway. In fact, I would
be really surprised if the PDP would be able to retain up to six governorship
seats by the time the Election Tribunals conclude their assignment.
Reading the judgment in
last week, the Tribunal Chairman, Mr. Justice Samuel Ottah, stated that the
Tribunal was of the view that “instances of non-compliance with the
Electoral Act, which is non-voting by majority of the electorate, goes to the
foundation and [so] it cannot be said that there have been an election. It goes
to the root of the edifice. We have no doubt that majority of the electorate
were denied the right to choose their governor. The governorship election in
of 14th and 28th April 2007 is hereby declared a nullity and therefore void.
The election of the first respondent, Mr. Sullivan Chime, is hereby declared
invalid as he was not duly elected and returned.”
As the voice of the Tribunal Chairman reverberated in Enugu that
morning, and around the nation as the day wore on, there is no doubt that most
people may have sadly remembered one misguided young man from Enugu State
called Mr. Frank Nweke, former Information Minister and Obasanjo’s Chief
Megaphone, and may have wondered where he was hiding when the tissue of lies he
had laboured so hard to string together in respect of the elections in Enugu
were being shredded by the Tribunal.
When the charade which the Tribunal has rightly described as
“make-believe or fairy tales” took place in April 2007, former Senate
President, Mr. Ken Nnamani, had against all odds, come out to clearly declare
that there were no elections in
And for this effrontery, Nnamani was rewarded with virulent attacks and several
forms of intimidation from the Emperor’s foot soldiers, but the man remained
undaunted. Frank Nweke himself, seeking to please his master who was diligently
overseeing the allocation of votes across the nation from his fortress in Aso Rock,
had loudly insisted that, contrary to Senator Nnamani’s claims, proper
elections, conducted in transparent and orderly manner, took place all over
Enugu, even though some people were ready to bet their last kobo that even
Nweke’s father did note vote in the so called elections.
What the Tribunal has now confirmed is what everyone already knew took
place, and which Senator Nnamani and several other right-thinking people in
Enugu State had at that time declared without equivocation, namely, that some
licensed fellows had merely gathered somewhere and allocated votes to
“approved” candidates, who were later declared “winners’ of elections that
never took place. It was a most unfortunate and very saddening development. In
fact, I am hoping that in the days to come, all those who had contested the
April 14 and 28 elections in
to seek further interpretations and the full implications of the ruling.
Because, if you ask me, the Tribunal has simply ordered a rerun of all the elections
that took place in Enugu State on those two days, implying also in clear and
unambiguous terms that the “results” which gave President Umar Yar’Adua and all
the lawmakers from Enugu State their “victories” had emerged from phantom
elections.
Mixed reactions have trailed what can be rightly termed Gov Chime’s
“Second Fall.” The “First” occurred a couple of days earlier, on Tuesday,
January 15, 2008, when the Enugu governor slumped and passed
out during the Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebrations at Michael Okpara
Square, Enugu. It is possible that Chime may have been overwhelmed by fear and
dread of the predictable fate that awaited him four days later at the Tribunal,
causing his strength and courage to fail him.
Well, take heart, brother; you should have known that there was no way
the corrupt electoral edifices erected by Obasanjo and his likeminds could have
survived in today’s Nigeria, where the judiciary is fast rediscovering itself,
and the people gradually developing some sophistication and discrimination in
taste as far as politics and democracy are concerned.
The Tribunal had also ordered the Independent Electoral
Commission (INEC) to conduct fresh governorship elections in
within three months. The same order had also earlier been given in respect of
the annulled governorship elections in Adamawa, Kogi and Kebbi States, all now
before the Appeal Tribunal, where Chime and his lawyers would be heading to any
moment from now (if they had not done so already). In fact, many other
electoral “victories” in both State and National Assemblies have equally been
annulled. And many more would be annulled in the days to come.
So, in the face of these ugly developments which have
tarnished Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and its Chairman beyond
redemption, who then would conduct the fresh elections if the Appeal Tribunal
begins to uphold some of the judgments already delivered by the lower courts?
Would it still be the same thoroughly discredited INEC headed by the same
Professor Maurice Iwu which had in April 2007 conducted elections in Nigeria
that have now clearly acquitted itself as, perhaps, the worst in human history?
What would give the other political parties the confidence
that this same INEC would now conduct transparent, free and fair elections,
when Nigerians are yet to see the slightest hint of remorse in its Chairman
over the revolting electoral fraud the Commission unabashedly and flamboyantly
perpetrated in this part of the world just a few months ago? Assuming the other
parties insist that they would not be able to repose any confidence in this
INEC and its unrepentant Chairman, and so would not participate in the fresh
elections it would conduct, would President Umar Yar’Adua hold the nation to
ransom simply because he is afraid of the political cost of sacking just one
man that is held in fierce contempt by most Nigerians and even foreigners? What
would Yar’Adua do about Iwu and INEC? Would he be able to summon the guts to
also dispatch him to Kuru to join his cousin Nuhu Ribadu to rue their
misfortune for agreeing to become willing and eager hands for the prosecution
of Obasanjo’s insidious designs?
Honestly, I don’t envy Yar’Adua. Iwu and his INEC are two
most embarrassing and imposing mountains standing before him, which he has so
far successfully avoided confronting despite widespread sentiments against the
man and the horrible elections he supervised. But as these damning verdicts
continue to emerge from different Election Tribunals across the nation, the
disbandment of the present INEC and the sacking and prosecuting of Prof Iwu for taking the nation
through a very costly stress and the serious doubts over his management
of resources at INEC are assuming lives
of their own and cannot just be easily wished away.
It is possible that as usual, the Servant-Leader is even
unperturbed and merely sleeping through the matter, hoping that like many
horrible things that have happened in
disappear. But as he would find out very soon, the serious issues Nigerians
have against Iwu and NEC won’t be in a hurry to disappear, because they
represent an affront Nigerians are now ready to confront squarely. Iwu is even
compounding matters and still inflaming passions by his unrepentant attitude
and brazen insistence that the elections he conducted were the best
had. What a gratuitous insult.
It is strange that
instead of worrying about the horrible corruption charges against their
godfather, the supporters of former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani are out there
rejoicing and threatening to deny Chime the PDP ticket if the Appeal Tribunal
upholds last Friday’s judgment that sacked him from office. Sullivan Chime is a
likable person, but
under his watch is yet to impress me. The only thing I have written about him
since he became Governor is to ask him to pay
the many workers of the state parastatals some of whom are still owed
more than twenty months salaries arrears, a burden he had inherited from
Chimaroke who had installed him in power through the same odious phantom
elections.
The grouse the
Chimaroke group has against Chime is that he has been trying to distance
himself from his predecessor in order not to be horribly tainted by his
polluted legacies, which he benefited from. If Chime would take my advice, let
him run now and pay with fanfare all those workers Chimaroke owed in
Tribunal gives him the boot. He should continue to distance himself from
Chimaroke and everything he stood for, even though he had served in Chimaroke’s
cabinet, and was made Governor by the Ebeano political machinery. If eventually
Chimaroke, whose “election” should also be annulled if the full meaning of last
week’s ruling is to be implemented, is able to make the PDP deny him their
ticket, he should join another party and contest in a free and fair election,
which, hopefully, would not be conducted by Maurice Iwu. Indeed, I am yet to
hear of any candidate backed by civil servants who failed in an election. The
Chimaroke baggage is one political liability that would sink rather than make
him float.
But if things were to
be done the way they should in a civilized society, annulling elections and
calling for fresh ones should not be enough. All those who manipulated the
elections should be arrested, prosecuted and dealt with accordingly. That is
the only to institute deterrence in our electoral system.
