Who Says Interim National Government Is Dead On Arrival?
By
Dr. Wunmi Akintide
 

There is a clear provision in the Nigerian Constitution for an Interim National Government in the event of a stalemate in our electoral process or transition. If the Federal Election Tribunal, in its wisdom, declares the Presidential Election a nullity, and that is a big if, that most Nigerians don't necessarily believe that the current President would ever accept, given his "do or die" streak on the election, and his track record as a stubborn President who does not take a "No" for an answer.

It is either his way or the High Way, and he would do anything to get his wish, even if it means breaking the Law or violating the Constitution. A President who bluntly refused to have the opposition Lagos State Government starved of funds by ignoring a court verdict which specifically ordered him to do so, is not the type of President to allow wiser counsel to prevail in our present stalemate.. Nigerians would recall that Obasanjo was the same President that fraudulently doctored a draft of the Bill sent to him by the National Assembly on an issue he did not support. That was a clear violation of the right of the Legislature to make the Laws while the Judiciary interprets the Laws and the Executive implements them.

Obasanjo as executive President believes he has the right to overrule both the Legislature and the Judiciary or put deliberate obstacles in their way to get the result he prefers. I thought the idea of granting a public holiday is not a decision to be left to a President to make under our system and Constitution, but that has not fazed or detered Obasanjo from unilaterally declaring April 12 and 13 as public holidays on the pretence he wanted Nigerians to be able to travel to their towns and villages to cast their votes.

He was only fooling himself an no one else, if you ask me. Every Dick and Harry in Nigeria knew he has done it to make it impossible for the Supreme Court to hand out their decision on Atiku Abubakar that might further complicate his "do or die" attitude or posturing that the PDP and their flag bearers at the State or Federal levels must be helped, at all cost, to win the elections, even if Nigerians did not come out to vote for them. He would preferred voters to stay home, because the PDP have already figured out their margin of victory before the elections. The computer has been programmed by Professor Iwu's INEC to record 100 votes for every vote cast for the PDP at every polling booth. Those who are as computer savvy as myself would know it is quite easy to program the computer that way in a country that knows little to nothing about the efficacy of a computer as a tool for decision-making. It is gabbage in, gabbage out. Period. Nigerians should have seen it coming when Professor Iwu insist he was going to use computer to collate election results. Not even America, the author of the technology, would accept that kind of assurance from the nutty professor.

That was how come the PDP had not only recorded landslide victories in places where they fielded candidates, they also recorded even greater victories where they did not. Ondo State South Senatorial District was a good example of that. Adebayo Akala had cruised to a landslide victory in Oyo State where illicit voting and stuffing of ballot boxes had been going on in broad day light a month or two before the elections. No less than six ballot cutting machines were actually traced to the home of the Garrison Commander himself, the one and only Alhaji Adedibu, a confidant of Obasanjo who can turn day light into darkness in Nigeria today, because he is considered a sacred cow and a trusted friend of the President.

By the same token, Governor Agagu, another sacred cow who was totally rejected by Ondo State voters because Dr. Iroko Mimiko who the President wanted the EFCC to go after for challenging Agagu, was found to be cruising to a landslide victory in the sunshine state having won the returns from 11 out of the 18 Local Governments in Ondo State. The President and his hatchet men in Ondo State panicked. They suspended the counting and had their spokesman at Abuja announce a fake result proclaiming Agagu the winner at all cost because the President was only going to lose Ondo, Oyo Ogun, Ekiti on his dead body.

Whether the people voted  or not, PDP flag bearers had to be pronounced the winners willy nilly, because the President argued that electoral pundits have already flown a kite before the elections that the PDP was going to win 70% of the votes. The PDP must work to the answers and confirm that margin of victory by all means. What a country!

The elections, nationwide, are riddled with fake results as the reports of all the local and international observers have clearly confirmed. I don't know on what premise the Election Tribunal handpicked by Obasanjo can now negate or neutralize that consensus or manufacture evidences to show that the whole world was wrong.

In more upright nations of the world, the major players in those mockery of an election and more importantly Professor Iwu the Chairman of INEC who promised justice but delivered injustice, should have tendered their resignation and quit. The Inspector-general under whose leadership and supervision the day-light robbery has occurred should have resigned. Our bull-in-the-China shop Emperor and his anointed guardian angel, Yar Adua who is now going to be the major beneficiary of the charade should have been given a marching order by the National Assembly to come clean, or face immediate impeachment. In that type of scenario, the so-called Election Tribunal would have known that it is a waste of time to hold any further hearing on an election that the whole world has condemned as a facade.

If that specter has been allowed, then the Interim Government idea would have automatically kicked in and the Senate President who has, all along, wanted to maintain a level playing field between the Government and the Opposition would not have had any choice, but to step up to the plate, and use the next three months to conduct a credible election that Nigerians and the world at large can accept.

Nigeria is never going to change our addiction to election rigging which is growing worse from year to year only because we have been tolerating a scurge or a cancer in our body politic. How could Democracy ever thrive in our kind of environment when the people who are allowed to take power are the charlatans that never got the votes. Just think about that. That was why I am incline to support the characterization by Chika Onyeani, that the elections is symptomatic of another coup d'etat  too many that Obasanjo has again foisted on Nigeria because he is seriously courting a one party dictatorship for our country and putting Democracy in serious jeopardy not only in Nigeria but in Africa. Why? Because Nigeria is viewed as a leader in that continent. When Nigeria sneezes, the rest of the continent must catch cold. That is what it is.

I rest my case