FEATURE ARTICLE

Eric AyoolaTuesday, May 8, 2007
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London, UK

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RE: WILL THE ELECTION TRIBUNALS CAPITULATE UNDER PRESSURE?


lfred Obiora Uzokwe's article was well written, articulate and with unassailable reasoning. As a Nigerian in the Diaspora I weep for my country and fail to see any light at the end of the tunnel when after eight years of missed opportunities and misplaced priorities that characterised Obasanjo's years in power Nigerians are once again, and on a scale never seen before, deprived of exercising their rights to vote in leaders that they want.


Alfred Obiora Uzokwe's comments about money hungry Nigerians in the Diaspora who will sell their soul for filthy lucre is very true, these apologist in the Diaspora are people who despite having the good fortune of living in countries where the people's mandates are respected will seek to justify the corruption and theft that OBJ and the PDP have perfected against the people on the ground that we should allow peace to reign. Hogwash I say. These people do not love Nigeria and do not have one patriotic bone in their bodies. They would justify the unjustifiable and defend the indefensible. They are short-termist who will never understand that to allow this brazen theft perpetrated by PDP/OBJ/IWU/INEC will not augur well for the country on the long run since it would effectively signify the end of democracy in Nigeria. We should not advocate short term "peace" which will then inevitably lead to long term and more damaging strife and ruination.

It stands to reason that following in Obasanjo's footsteps all future PDP governments will simply repeat the same theft in the guise of an election time and time again and we will indeed get to the point when the PDP will not even bother with "time" wasting charade of conducting an "election" anymore and will just declare "winners" on the basis that the people love them so much and want them to carry on for evermore.

Obasanjo has done more damage to democracy in Nigeria than ANY military coup plotter had ever done. Indeed, all military coup plotters can point to the fact that unlike PDP/OBJ/IWU/INEC, they had, except for the Dimka coup, ensured the overthrow of unpopular governments. The situation at the moment is a coup against the people by an unpopular government to foist at national, state and local level unpopular rulers whose party, the PDP, had failed woefully to improve the lot of the vast majority of Nigerians after 8 years in power.

Apologist for the charade that was held on the 14th and 21st of April in Nigeria, in a sick attempt at justifying the massive electoral malpractices, will pose the question as to who would have won the election anyway if not Yardua. The answer to this is simple. Firstly, if PDP and Yardua are so popular why rig in the first place? Surely all INEC/IWU had to do was to ensure a free and fair election and PDP would have then won cleanly, fairly and openly.

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Secondly, it is the right of Nigerians to vote as they please. Personally, if I had been given the chance to vote, I would have voted Pat Utomi for president, and would have voted at state level and local level based on the personality of the candidates as I deem fit.

Whether my vote is for a no-hoper or not is my business. It is not for PDP/OBJ/IWU/INEC to arrogate to themselves the right to make decisions on my behalf and on behalf of millions of Nigerians. The simple truth is that PDP/OBJ/IWU/INEC know that the lack lustre and lame duck Yar'Adua could not have matched Buhari and Atiku in a free and fair election. At the very best, the votes would have been split on almost equal 3 way basis, hence the need to rig massively to ensure his "election" at all cost. In all honesty I believe that Buhari would have won the most votes with Atiku second and Yardua a distant third in a free and fair election where the votes of Nigerians is allowed to count unlike the barefaced armed robbery carried out by PDP/OBJ/IWU/INEC.

I make bold to say that PDP is a very unpopular party amongst the people that count, i.e. the long suffering masses of Nigeria who despite being told of the "reformist- GSM providing-bank consolidating-foreign reserve improving- corruption fighting- debt repaying" government of Obasanjo have not seen any appreciable improvement in their lives, quite the contrary. And at state level, they have witnessed one PDP governor after the other impeached, albeit illegally, for corruption. And at local level, they have seen Chairmen sharing their allocations month after month without an iota of project to show for it.

Of course "bigmen" after "bigmen", who lack any moral right to be called leaders, will declare for the PDP since it is the quickest route to riches due to unfettered access to public funds, yet these so called bigmen do not have the followership of their people. Those who feel that some one like Adedibu in Oyo state is actually speaking for the common man on the streets of Ibadan, talk less of Oyo State, should please indicate by a show of hands.

I have great hope in the tribunals even though some will take bribes and bow down to the tyrannical and despotic might of Obasanjo. He, Obasanjo will dig deep into his bottomless bags of dirty tricks and will use his attack men Ribadu and Ehindero to intimidate and coerce those who will not play ball and take the bribes offered, but nevertheless, some of the electoral "victories" will be overturned. Most of all however the farcical election that produced Yardua as winner must be overturned if our country is to ever taste democracy again. The cost of conducting fresh elections is infinitesimal to the cost of enthroning and ensuring the return of true democracy in Nigeria. It is a price well worth paying. The repercussions and effects of leaving matters as they are at the moment are too dire to contemplate and each and every patriotic Nigerian will regret that a decisive step was not taken against Obasanjo's saddest legacy to the country when in 4 years time, PDP "wins" every local government, state and national seat and condemn us all to a full blown one party state civilian dictatorship which will make Mugabe's antics in Zimbabwe pale by comparison. It is sad times indeed for our country.