Uzokwe's Searchlight

It is ironic that would-be industrialists now take their businesses to more electrically stable countries like Ghana. ... As I write, many Nigerians are now establishing businesses in Ghana, building factories and private mansions there.

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Tuesday, January 22, 2008



Alfred Obiora Uzokwe

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ENUGU ELECTION TRIBUNAL RULING: A SWEET BOMBSHELL!


just came back from Nigeria after a two-week vacation there. During my stay in the eastern part of the country, I chanced into several people who had visited Enugu State within the same period. Their verdict, about the extent of development that had taken place since the swearing in of Governor Sullivan Chime, was unanimous. He was a performing governor, they chorused, and had started positively changing the face of the state by building roads, maintaining existing ones, cleaning up the filth that was engulfing the city of Enugu and most of all successfully tackling the security situation that once threatened to shut down the state. They intoned in unison that the governor was "determined" to differentiate himself from the disaster that was Chimaroke Nnamani and even allowed people that held opposing views from his to be. I was impressed by the picture that was painted of the governor. For too long, the south east had been a dumping ground for never-do-well governors. They were only interested in filling their pockets, living big and developing a long following of sycophants that would sell their forebears just to make a buck. If Governor Chime had decided to break that mold, I thought to myself, then he needed to be applauded. I only wished that other governors would emulate him, including governor Obi who has been spending too much time on planning but slow to churn out tangible results.


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My elation, about the developmental progress in Enugu, did not however temper my anger at the way that the PDP bulldozed itself into power. I could not banish, from my mind, the fact that Governor Chime was a direct beneficiary of the election malpractices that characterized the April 2007 elections in Enugu and Nigeria. The reader should recall that the entire people of the South East, including my own dear family, were disenfranchised during the elections where results were already written by PDP and Maurice Iwu-led INEC before the elections started. Unsuspecting citizens filed out to the polling booths April 14 and 28 only to be greeted by empty polling booths without election officials or ballot papers. Some did not have result tallying sheets and in other places, PDP-hired hoodlums harassed and frightened voters into taking to their heels to return no more. I was still hoping, therefore, that somehow some day, justice was going to be served and the dramatis personae in the election rigging saga brought to full justice.

With my feelings as stated above, it would not come to the reader as a surprise that even though I was impressed by Governor Chime's forward-looking stance with respect to development, I was nonetheless thrilled beyond description when I read that the election tribunal in Enugu had nullified his (s)election. To this writer, it was a true win for democracy. It was a win for the common man that stood in line, in April, for hours under the scorching heat only to be told later that election materials were not forthcoming. It was a win for the market woman that went out to add her voice to democracy only to be beaten back by callous and over-ambitious PDP and INEC operatives who believed that the end always justified the means. Heck, it was a win for me that wrote a piece on Nigeriaworld, prior to the elections, urging Nigerians to go out enmasse to make their voices heard only to be contacted by those who went to the polling booths and given horror stories of what they saw and how they were disenfranchised. With this singular act of courage, members of Justice Samuel Otta-led election tribunal have carved a niche in the sands of times for themselves in Nigeria. When the history of Nigeria's difficult journey towards democracy is chronicled by credible historians, they will be remembered as courageous Nigerians that helped nudge the country towards lasting democracy. It is hoped that other timid tribunals, like the one endlessly sitting in Anambra State without tangible results, will swing into action and free the people of the state from the shackles of PDP-dominated house there.

Poor Sullivan Chime! The man fainted at the parade grounds a few days ago in Enugu and later told reporters that it was due to the normal rigors of the gubernatorial job. Now we know what rigors he was actually referring to. He must have had some inkling that the election tribunal was going to come down hard on him and that triggered sleepless nights that culminated in his fainting. My advice to him is that he is too young to think that all is lost. From what I hear, it seems that during the brief stint he had with this stolen mandate, he tried to right the wrong that his party perpetrated on the electorate by first distancing himself from the disaster that was Nnamani's legacy and then hunkering down to develop the state. He is said to value the opinions of Igbos in Diaspora so much that he brought home Jude Akubuilo from the United States and gave him a visible job in his cabinet. That is impressive and commendable but good work does not ameliorate or justify the "highway robbery" that the PDP engaged in just to get him and others of his ilk into elective positions. One by one, they must now begin to pay for that injustice by being disgraced out of the offices they are usurping. No amount of fainting will draw the sympathy of the abused electorate until the Augean stable is finally wiped clean. Up Nigeria!

In a swift reaction, after the tribunal's verdict was announced, Sullivan Chime announced that he was going to exercise his right of appeal. I would be the first to say that he certainly is guaranteed that right in our democracy. However, if I were to advise him, I would say, come off the idea of endless appeals. Since he has shown the people that he could actually perform inspite of the shady way he got to power, it is possible that if fresh elections were held, he would genuinely come out victorious. If he continues to engage in protracted appeals, in the end, it will point to the fact that he is unrepentant and that would actually repel the electorate from him.

It is heartening to know that even though Yaradua is also a product of the flawed 2007 election, he has departed from the tyrannical ways of his master, the one now embroiled in abominable scandals with his offspring and in-law. Yaradua has allowed the judiciary to take its rightful place in the society, a big plus for Nigeria's match to true independence. If and when the judiciary becomes fully entrenched in the society and becomes the true bastion of justice, the need and desire to rig elections will begin to diminish as people realize that if you do and even occupy a position, you may yet be disgraced out of office. In the final analysis, "Vagabonds in Power" will begin to allow the masses to vote and ensure that their votes count. It must be borne in mind, though, that if the heartless man from Otta were still in power, the one that said he was fighting corruption but was secretly enriching family members and friends, he would have threatened the election tribunals and scared them from coming down on the side of truth. This was what he did to them throughout his tenure, reducing them to entities that only rubberstamped his sadistic and corrupt wishes. Providence has now swept the portly former general into oblivion to the delight of most Nigerians. Now, if aspiring politicians realize that there is no more "Baba" to run to for back up in intimidating the electorate and that people's votes count in elections, they will start seeking to win honestly. If voted for, these politicians would feel indebted to the people who vote for them. That would be the beginning of an era when politicians strive to fulfill their campaign promises to the electorate knowing that doing otherwise would get them booted out. What we currently have, and which is why there is little or no development in the country, is a system where the votes of the people do not count. As such, politicians do not feel the need to fulfill their campaign promises to the masses. Instead, they pay allegiance to PDP and INEC, the ones that have the true power to install and depose. Look at the cases of James Ibori, Lucky Igbinedion, Chimaroke Nnamani and others. They were the products of a corrupt regime! Instead of working for the masses, they elected to siphon the people's resources into their private accounts and live big thereafter. It is because the votes of the people do not currently count that a convicted thief in the United Kingdom became the governor of a state in Nigeria! These anomalies will begin to dissipate as the election process is sanitized via the tribunals.

The case of Sullivan Chime is not the first gubernatorial election nullification to take place. Before now, election tribunals in Kebbi and Adamawa states have removed the governors of those states. In Anambra and Rivers States, the governors were removed by the Supreme Court for issues not directly related to election malpractice but both were still the products of an exceedingly flawed and corrupt election process. My concern is that for Kebbi and Adamawa States, fresh elections were called for but as I write, there are no real signs that the elections will take place. The million dollar question is whether the paper removal of these governors will ever translate into actual physical removal? Will the issue of protracted appeals render these verdicts just symbolic gestures? That would be a travesty of justice. Justice delayed, as they say, continues to be justice denied.

The Justice Samuel Otta-led tribunal must be extolled to high heavens for having the uncommon courage to stand on the side of truth inspite of the attendant inconveniences. In the usual Nigerian style, the members of the panel must have been tempted with all manners of pecuniary inducements, some of which get so mouth-watering that it could sway the weak and corrupt mind. They withstood all these to stand with the masses. Their names must be written in gold for all lovers of justice in Nigeria to see and admire. It is hoped that tribunals that are still so timid that five or six months after inauguration, have yet to lift a finger to render tangible verdicts, would sit up.

As for the petitioners that brought the case that saw Sullivan Chime crash-land, they deserve a lot of credit too. Nigeria is a very complex and corrupt society. There are erstwhile petitioners in some quarters who, because of pecuniary inducements, have since withdrawn their petitions. The ones in Enugu State refused and followed theirs to the logical conclusion. Although someone once said that most current Nigerian politicians are corrupt and crooked and would be glad to become beneficiaries of rigged elections and only petition when they do not benefit, it is clear that the ones in Enugu did not succumb. They should therefore be emulated by others.

Having said all the above, one must caution the elated reader that there are many nagging questions that must be answered as election tribunals across the nation nullify and ask for fresh elections. Where would money for the fresh elections come from? It is a given that PDP officers would not be interested in conducting new elections talk less of free and fair ones. Furthermore, who would hold the new elections? Any attempt to rely on the recalcitrant Iwu to do a better job than he did last time would be hoping for manna to fall from heaven. This man is unrepentant and with that mind set, he would set out to justify his position, resulting in another charade. If the new elections must be free and fair, Maurice Iwu must be given the pink slip and allowed to join his Otta cohort in loneliness as the most despised men in Nigeria today. Furthermore, as these (s)elections are upturned, thereby proving Maurice Iwu wrong in his assertions that the elections were free and fair, there must be some type of sanction against him and his men who turned blind eyes to all these anomalies or aided them, declaring results in the face of obvious rigging.

It is instructive that all the governors removed so far belong to the so called ruling PDP. The conclusion to be made here is that the party, with the knowledge of their leader at the time, conspired with INEC and massively rigged the elections in their favor. This behavior must be punished somehow and people involved, like Iwu, should at the least lose their jobs.

Happy New Year All.