|
Nigerian Elections Post Mortem: Bad Losers and Terrible Winners
By
I have taken this title straight from the mouth of one of my favorite columnists, the one and only Reuben Abati of the Guardian Newspapers. I have been reading with interest Mr. Abati's highly informative serial articles on the Nigerian Elections, parts I to 6. They represent an insightful, fair and objective appraisal of the elections, and they reflect an eye witness account because Reuben lives in Nigeria and understands all the nuances of the issues at stake perhaps better than some of us writing from abroad. I am hoping there would be more of those articles to come as we have only seen a phase of the post mortem on the elections. The next critical phase will be when the Tribunals start hearing hundreds of the petitions before them and taking a decision either way.
I think Reuben was right to identify the winners and the losers. It is natural to expect losers to be aggrieved, especially when they are convinced they have not lost fairly. What is totally indefensible is the arrogance of the so-called winners who were aware they have not won fairly but are behaving as if they have truly won a non-controversial victory. It still remains to be seen, however, how much the Tribunals will be able to accomplish between now and May 29th when the putative winners take their oath of office. The little time frame allowed for losers to petition and seek a redress, is in of itself, an affirmation, if not a continuation of the rigging improvisation of the President and the majority party in crafting the electoral laws in a way that makes it that much harder for losers to get justice before the so-called winners begin to enjoy their stolen mandate.
Of course the members of those Tribunals are not deaf. They cannot feign ignorance of the condemnations at home and abroad that both local and international observers have all expressed on the terribly flawed elections. It is clearly the worst we have witnessed in Nigeria since Independennce. But like previous flawed elections before it, this one too may have become a "fait accompli" as they say in French. I have my doubts if the whole election can be annulled as is being suggested in some quarters despite the serious condemnation of its conduct nationwide. As a matter of fact, some highly respected members of the Bench like retired Justice Eso, a former Judge of the Supreme Court, have also had cause to comment on the same elections in very unflattering terms. As a legal luminary, Justice Eso has advised the aggrieved to have faith in the Tribunals rather than taking the Laws into their own hands.
The only people I hear saying anything nice about the elections are Professor Maurice Iwu himself, the President and President-elect and the PDP. All of them are the main beneficiaries of the robbery. The nutty Professor has gone out of his way to openly side with the Government in power, forgetting his role as a neutral judge. I thought a man who has risen to the rank of a professor before being named the Chairman of INEC would, at least have attained a level of maturity that would let him know that when you are Chairman of a body like the Electoral Commission or when you are Auditor-general, or when you assume the role of an umpire, you are supposed to act and behave like Ceasar's wife. The Professor's loyalty to the nation ought to have taken precedence over his loyalty to the man who appointed him. Professor Iwu has definitely failed on that account by openly kowtowing to the out-going President and his successor telling them only what he thinks they want to hear and heaping undeserved praises on himself for conducting the elections. Most rational observers would expect a professor to know the difference between a student scoring himself high on a term paper and allowing his class teacher to do that. the Professor should have left that to Nigerians and the foreign observers.
Nobody listening to the Professor's self congratulatory statement would not realize that he has spoken like a truly committed agent of the PDP and President Obasanjo. He is literarily telling the opposition and his critics to go to hell. That ought not to be his role at all. He clearly missed the road by so doing, and I can bet, that many of his statements during and after the elections, would come back to haunt him when the rubber meets the road, and probably for the rest of his life Now talking about Losers and Winners, I see Nigeria as a whole as the first loser. Then comes the opposition put together. They started losing when they could not get together to sponsor a block vote against the octopus PDP from the get go. Like I pointed out, in a previous article, I think IBB nearly scored a home run, as far as I am concerned, when he got Nigeria to come down to only two major political parties fielding just two presidential candidates in Alhaji M.K.O. Abiola and Alhaji Tofa. IBB knew that unless such a device is forced down the throat of our people, they are just totally incapable of doing so by themselves. That is what good leadership is all about.
I know some might argue about the unilateral nature of such a move, but it was the right thing to do. If Obasanjo rather than accepting hook, line and sinker, the Constitution handed over to him by Abdulsalam Abubakar in 1999, had gone to use the overwhelming majority pf his PDP to achieve some structural adjustment like amending the obnoxious clauses in the Nigerian Constitution that says some of our leaders in Government cannot be subject to prosecution while still serving, even if they have abused their offices, stolen money, openly rig elections and commit other felonies like murder and what have you.. It was that environment that have made it possible for Obasanjo himself to have committed a number of blunders that could not be challenged in the Court of Law. That was the condition that made it possible for the EFCC or the Conduct Bureau to have no less than 31 of 36 Governors in Nigeria under one form of investigation or the other that they cannot take to Court. It was an open invitation for our top leaders to steal as much as they wish and to get away with murder, so to speak. If Obasanjo had spent his time trying to pass those amendments before his so-called determination to stamp out Corruption in Nigeria, he would have been a lot more successful than the one-sided inquisition he has conducted, leaving his friends and supporters free while declaring war on those who dared to challenge or disagree with him.
He deliberately did that, of course because he himself was equally guilty, if not more guilty than his opponents he wanted to put in jail. He would have been prosecuted for abuse of office when he chose to start raising funds for a presidential Library in his name drawing much of the funds for doing it from Government contractors or major multi-nationals applying for oil concessions from him as Minister for Petroleum. he could easily have been prosecuted when it was revealed he had no less than 700 million paid into Chief Fasawe private account for a private business. Himself and his Vice President would have been challenged when they both chose to float private Universities of their own thereby competing with public Universities run by their own Government. While those Universities are falling apart and wallowing in abject poverty and neglect. the private universities floated by Obasanjo and his Vice President are known to be waxing strong. And yet nobody could do a thing about that because the President and his Vice are totally immune to prosecution. The Ondo State Deputy Governor was reportedly found with ballot boxes during the last elections. The Police and INEC knew about it and they acknowledged doing so, but could do nothing about it. In the meantime, the same Deputy Governor has now been re-elected along with his boss in a terribly flawed elections.
The idea is that the EFCC or the Code of Conduct Bureau could presumably get the Deputy Governor arrested on May 29th, 2007. But how could they do that if he is immediately sworn in again at the end of his current term on May 29th or are they now going to wait till October 1st before swearing them in, assuming that the Tribunal does not annul their elections altogether?. These are still issues on which Nigerians need some clarifications as we await the reviews by the Election Tribunals across the country.
I repeat again that the opposition parties remain the big losers in this election. They are bad losers in the sense that they have no abiding principles at all judging by what some members of the opposition have been doing ever since Yar Adua was declared the winner. Most of them are now in total disarray fighting among themselves as to who should first go and pay solidarity visits to the President-elect seeking for political appointments and favors while many of them are now promising to withdraw their petitions against the winners of the elections. The case that readily comes to mind is the overtures now being made to Yar Adua by Governor Tinubu who expect to be arrested on May 29 for some offenses against the State. All of a sudden we are now being told that Yar Adua was the second son of Alhaja Mogaji, the mother of Tinubu. We are told Yar Adua and Tinubu have been family members from childhood and that Yar Adua never visit Lagos without keeping a night with the Tinubus.
Tinubu and Governor-elect Fashola are now ready to part ways with Atiku Abubakar and possibly declaring the AC victory in Lagos for the PDP out of loyalty to the President elect, as soon as some amnesty can be worked out for Tinubu by the new President. The Vice President nominee to Orji Uzor Kalu in the PPA was one of the first to go pay solidarity visit to Yar Adua under cover of darkness, and without confiding in his running mate.
IBB has recently ordered his supporters in the opposition rank to please support the President-elect. Few of the Governors who have won on the ticket of ANPP are currently trooping out to the President-elect without as much as a courtesy call to their flag bearer, Mohammadu Buhari. That is Nigeria for all of us. Everybody loves a winner in Nigeria and they could care less how the winner came about his victory. The opposition charlatans are bad losers in my own opinion, but so are the winners themselves.
For Democracy to thrive in Nigeria, there has got to be a strong opposition to be viewed as alternate Government. A one Party Democracy is a glorified Dictatorship. Awolowo is about the only one among our leaders to clearly understand that. In 1959, if it were left to majority of Nigerians alone, they would easily have joined the NPC/NCNC coalition Government and forget all about it. Awolowo was ready to serve in the opposition to put the feet of the then Federal Government under Tafawa Balewa to the Fire. The situation Nigeria found itself would have been much worse had Awolowo not done that. Awolowo's Action Group Government in the old West had shown his tolerance and respect for the opposition in the way and manner he treated the opposition in the old West led by Adegoke Adelabu, the strong man of Ibadan. I can tell you that the old Action Group under Awolowo was able to do as much as it did, in large part, because of their awareness that a Government-in-waiting existed in the opposition NCNC party in the old West. If the Action Group did not meet the aspiration of the old West, the NCNC was waiting in the wings to step in and take over power. That awareness was good for the old Western Region and good for Nigeria, I might add.
I call the PDP as terrible winners because all of them and especially their rookie President-elect from Katsina is behaving as if he would rather prefer for the whole nation to all declare for the PDP for Nigeria to be able to move forward. Like his boss and predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo, Yar Adua thinks a one Party system is not such a bad idea after all. He is making a huge mistake. I know he is a young man who has not been tested and proved. He is riding on the coattail of his late brother who I believe was a more experienced military man turned a democrat. I knew his late brother very well and I knew he understood better than his ideologically-driven brother who is now inheriting his mantle, the need for a strong and virile opposition, if Democracy is to survive in Nigeria.
If Obasanjo knows that the opposition is always crucial to the success of Democracy in any country, he would be more tolerant of the opposition than he did. The real savior who will save Nigeria is a President or a leader in Nigeria who will leave a wiggle room for the opposition to thrive as the Government-in-waiting if for any reason the ruling Party fumbles as may well be. I would have preferred for the PDP to be punished for all of its mistakes and excesses in the last eight years of Obasanjo. That is not saying that Obasanjo has not performed at all. He has, but my point and the point of the opposition is that he could have done more, if he had done what was expected of him as articulated in the earlier paragraphs of this article., Since he has failed to do many of the issues I have highlighted, he should simply step aside and allow the opposition to take their turn. If in another four or eight years they fail to perform, the existing opposition who could then have learnt from their mistakes could again come back to power like is done in most civilized countries of the world.
I recall late President Mitterand of France, a socialist, who for many years, waited in the wings to have his Party voted as the ruling Party in France. The French voters decided to give his Party a chance, and he did wonders for his country. I guess you could make the same case for British Labor Party candidate, Tony Blair who waited for eleven years of Margaret Thatcher and a few more years of John Major before the British voted them out, bringing in the youngest Bristish Prime Minister , Tony Blair who for 10 years has now ruled Britain on behalf of her Majesty. Add a few more years under Mr. Brown, you can trust the British to bring the Tories back to power in Britain. The same thing in the United States while in the last 12 years before the last elections the Republicans had their way. Today the Democrats are back in power and they fumble again the Republicans would come back in a heartbeat.
Why couldn't Nigeria emulate that is my question. This winner-take-all scenario is not good for Nigeria.I believe in the last elections the Nigerian voters have wanted to try the opposition for a change. But the massive election rigging perfected by Obasanjo and Professor Iwu has undercut that. I cannot understand the PDP winning more than the same number of States they have won in 1999 and 2003 despite their abysmal record in certain areas. The PDP should have left the opposition grow in Nigeria. A good President would have created a conducive environment for that to happen, even if it means working against the ultimate interest of his Party. That should have been good or better for the whole country is my point. That is why I am inclined to agree wit Reuben Abati that there have been bad losers and terrible winners in the recent Nigerian elections.
All eyes are now on the Tribunal as part the Judiciary to do their job with fairness and objectivity. I hope the Tribunals would compel INEC to come up with necessary data on those elections just like they would expect the aggrieved to also prove their points beyond reasonable doubt. But time is of the essence for justice delayed is justice denied. Governor Ngige whose election as Governor was later nullified by the Court had remained in power for almost three years in a four year term before Obi, the actual winner of the elections was allowed to claim his mandate. That kind of justice is not the type we should all be rooting for in our country
If Professor Iwu has known, ahead of time, that the South African Company that was contracted to print additional 65 million ballots according to some newspaper reports, would eventually come out to tell the world that much of the ordered ballots were still lying in some abandoned ware houses in South Africa, he would have been more careful. Professor Iwu and President Obasanjo kept telling Nigerians not to worry, because INEC was up to the job, and that the fact that the Supreme Court has said Atiku must participate in the elections, was not going to cause any disruption. That promise turned out to be a big lie..
They have only said that to give Nigerian voters, the opposition and the observers a false sense of security. They said that to give a false impression that they would fully observe the Rule of Law. Their true position was the exact opposite of what they were saying. Whether or not Nigerians come out to vote, the outcome was already predetermined in their "do or die" mind set.
I still continue to wonder how the PDP could have performed as well as they did in those elections, given their track record. Professor Iwu and President Obasanjo must have thought that the voters were clowns who would always go with the Government in power, no matter what. The presumption that the Government in power in any third world country does not lose elections is corruption-laden, and I thought that was one of the salient points Obasanjo has been laboring so hard to persuade Nigerians to accept, when he tells the whole world that Nigerians would miss him when he leaves office.
I take that statement as a subtle indictment of his successor. Nigerians could only miss him if his self anointed successor's performance in office falls far below any of the few bench marks he has set. Obasanjo hardly ever believes that there can be any other Nigerians who can match his record in office. While other nations are always saying "the best is yet to come" Obasanjo's precept is "the worst is yet to come" Such a stance does not bode well for our country at all, and that is the more reason why losers in the last elections have cause to be deeply concerned.. . I am using Lagos State as a point of reference because of the outcome of the elections in Lagos State where the Party in power, the AC has also won convincingly. What of the situation in Imo and Abia State where the PPA has also recorded impressive victories despite he PDP's steamroller nationwide? The mere fact that the Tinubu and the Kalu political machines have worked so well in Lagos, Imo and Abia despite the PDP's determination to win everywhere, calls into question the validity of the presumption that it was only the PDP alone that may have engaged in election fraud as generally believed .
The only difference I can see was that the Tinubu Government despite all the obstacles placed on its way by the Federal Government, still found some ways to meet the aspirations of the great majority of Lagosians. Why? Because Lagos is former capital of Nigeria and the biggest commercial center of the whole country. The Tinubu Government was therefore able to circumvent Obasanjo and to find other ways to meet its obligations to Lagosians.
The Tinubu Government has performed creditably I will argue. That is not to say that Obasanjo has not done some good things for our country, but on balance, I think he has done some things that are not so kosher. He, Obasanjo has set precedents that could pose greater problems for the country, if his successors decide to clone or duplicate him. That is my personal view..
Having said that, I have to say that I am disappointed that the Tinubu Government in Lagos is doing exactly the same thing that he, Tinubu, has been criticizing Obasanjo Government for. What does the Lagos State House of Assembly want to gain by going after Femi Pedro with vengeance and trying to run him out of office because he has had the courage of his conviction to run against the Tinubu's anointed candidate in Fashola. Femi Pedro like Atiku Abubakar has a right to reject the advice of Tinubu that he must not run for Governor. I respected Tinubu when he appeared not to stand in the way of Femi Pedro in running for Governor on the platform of another Party. But the threats to impeach him when he has less than a month to finish his term, is clearly a step in the wrong direction.
It is an abuse of power. Let the man finish his term just like the Supreme Court has ruled that Atiku has to be allowed to finish his term, even though he now belongs to another political party. The Lagos State House of Assembly should leave Deputy Governor Femi Pedro alone. Let him have his peace. He has lost the election. What more do they want from him?
Tinubu and Fashola who have now become the god fathers of the old and new Lagos State Government must know when to say "enough is enough" They must advise the House of Assembly to let go and let Femi Pedro have his peace. If Femi Pedro is acting as the bad loser, the Lagos State crowd must resist the temptation to act as the terrible winners. No useful purpose will be served by having Femi Pedro impeached in his last month in office. It makes no sense at all.
Dr. Wumi Akintide |