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Let us look at the probable reason why Ngige was expelled from the PDP. The first and foremost reason is that he refused to turn over the state treasury to the PDP apparatus in the state. Those who hoped to amass financial fortunes, after he was sworn in, became disappointed and disillusioned. Since then, they have been relentless in seeking creative ways to oust him from power. When the opportunity of expulsion presented itself, via the Oyinola panel, they were quick to jump at it.

Also, in a response letter to Audu Ogbeh, the president of Nigeria admitted being told by Chris Uba that he engineered the placement of Dr. Ngige in office. Inotherwords, the president was told that Ngige did not win the election and he did nothing about it. Since divulging that information, Nigerians have openly shuddered at the casual way in which the president handled the situation. Some likened it to being told about a crime and hiding it instead of going to the police with the information. Of course, common sense dictates that the president would attempt to redeem himself by trying to show the nation, albeit belatedly, that he did not condone the crime. That, unquestionable, is part of what informed the expulsion of the two men. The Oyinola panel report was just a vehicle to achieve this.

Of course, every lover of democracy would decry the fact that a man that did not win the gubernatorial election was placed in office in the first place. It is equally despicable that Chris Uba, who admitted masterminding the rigging, was left to walk the streets a free man instead of cooling off behind bars. In this regard, the punishment meted out to both men by the PDP, is not out of place. The problem however is that the PDP action is selective justice which is no justice at all. It is not a secret that there was widespread rigging during the ill-fated 2003 elections in favor of the PDP. The rigging took place at the federal and state levels resulting in the fact that people who did not even stand for elections ended up being put into office. The courts are confirming this by reversing several election results in Anambra state and I will get to that.

The reason why I call the PDP expulsion action selective justice is that right after the 2003 elections, General Muhammadu Buhari challenged the declaration of Obasanjo as the president. He contended, with very plausible evidence, that the widespread rigging also affected the presidential elections and so Obasanjo did not have a true and credible mandate to be declared the president. His court case has suffered a lot of setbacks, due to the fact that the ruling party controls all arms of the government. Inspite of that, his concerns are very legitimate and shared by a lot of Nigerians. If therefore the president also has a cloud of doubt hanging over his own mandate, who is he to support the excommunication of someone who is on the same boat as he is? Who is he to question the legitimacy of the mandate of another? Again, the reader should not get this writer wrong here. I am not in any way trying to hold brief for Ngige. He did not win the election in Anambra state. Infact, I have in the past stated unequivocally, that he made a pact with the devil and should face the consequences. My beef with the PDP and the chief tenant of Aso Rock, however, is that they are not dispensing justice across the board. What is good for the goose is equally good for the gander. In line with that, any punishment that Ngige must face has to be extended to the president and the myriad of PDP people that are merely usurping other people's positions including the senate president.

An interesting wrinkle in all this is that the judiciary, which has been docile all along, has suddenly developed a newfound authority. It recently started reversing several election results in Anambra state. While this is a laudable move that may infact help democracy in the long run, it is a move that is plastered with suspicion. The motive seems ulterior. First of all, the 2003 election was not rigged in Anambra state alone. If they must start reversing election results, then it must be a nation-wide exercise. Also, the election fraud complaints, which the courts are only now reacting to, were filed right after the 2003 elections. Why did it take this long, about nineteen months after the fact, for the judiciary to start discharging its duties? Many believe that the move is not unconnected with the plot by PDP stalwarts, including Aso Rock, to see that the Governor of Anambra state is removed from office. This plot started way back in 2004. Led by Chris Uba, the PDP made spirited attempts to remove him from office. After an attempt to abduct him and declare his position vacant failed, his security detail was removed by Aso Rock, thereby making him vulnerable to harm. Unfortunately for the PDP, each adversity faced by the governor ended up placing him in a stronger stead with the people of the state he governed.

It is now widely believed that the reversal of election results, nineteen months after the fact, is a continuation of an orchestrated move to remove the governor from office. For how can one explain the fact that none of those removed from their positions has challenged the court rulings? How is it that they all accepted the rulings with equanimity and moved on? A school of thought has it that they are merely trying to set a precedent that would make the removal of Ngige easy. If and when Ngige faces the same fate, it is expected that PDP stalwarts would advise him to do what others before him did and just vacate his position. If he tries to challenge the ruling in court, he would be accused of trying to truncate democracy. The expulsion of the governor, from the PDP, is part of the plan to soften the political landscape around him. It is a prelude to getting the courts to send him packing. The national publicity secretary for PDP, Mr. Venatius Ikem, is already calling on Ngige to vacate office because, according to him, he no longer has a platform to govern from. I hasten to restate that if all the usurpers in the nation are sent packing, it would be a welcome occurrence as far as Nigerians are concerned. But selectively sending a few usurpers out of office is not justice and neither is it democracy.

The sad truth is that relieving Ngige of the governorship position will hurt the people of Anambra state. They have come to rely on him for infrastructure improvements, payment of teachers' salaries and general development of the state. Most of all, they believe that it may be difficult to get another governor who would continue the fight against godfatherism in the state as he has tried to. However, Ngige boxed himself into his current predicament by his infamous pact at the ill-fated Okija shrine. He should therefore be willing to take what comes from that. If he must vacate the governorship position for the rightful winner, then in the interest of democracy, so be it. However, Ngige is not the only illegitimate public officer in Nigeria. As I stated above, General Buhari unfolded evidence to buttress his assertion that the president did not win also. There are other PDP governors that did not win. In the sprit of fairness and equity, if Ngige must go, then the president should follow, along with many other governors, the senate president and more. If they are all swept out of office, it will set a lasting precedent in Nigeria that election rigging is unacceptable. It would be a perfect deterrent for would-be riggers. It would go a long way in cleaning up the stinking political process in Nigeria and pave the way for true democracy, where the urge for personal enrichment will be replaced by the need to leave a legacy on Nigeria's sands of times.

Ngige and Uba may have been expelled from the PDP, infact, it is being speculated that Uba has already left town. However, the Augean stable has not been cleaned out. If the party really wants to clean up its stinking image, then there are many more expulsions that must take place. The fact that the president was told by Uba that he rigged the Anambra state election and he did nothing about it, until now, is in itself a crime, which makes him less fit to lead Nigeria. Oyinola panel has to look into that anomaly too and make a recommendation. If one has knowledge of a crime and fails to report it, that person is almost an accessory. The same applies here. The chief security officer of the nation was told that his party rigged election and all he could do was to tell the participants to get out of his house. That is not good enough. There is therefore a good case to make that Ngige, Uba and the president are all culpable of the same crime; they are all on the same boat. If one must go, then the rest should follow. Simply put, coal pot cannot be calling the kettle black. Both utensils are used for the purpose of cooking with the attendant discoloration of their external façade. These three men have had their facades discolored by the scandal of election malpractice. The president needs to remove the log in his eyes to see well enough to remove those of Ngige, Dariye, Uba and the rest.

HERE I STAND