ELECTIONS IN EKITI, AFGHANISTAN & THE ANAMBRA TIME-BOMB. WAITING FOR INEC.
The great activist and social crusader, late Chief Gani Fawehinmi
got a deserving and very beautiful tribute from The Wall Street
Journal, America’s most respected financial daily yesterday Tuesday,
September 15. It was well written and the paper paid him due
respect. I was very proud to read it and I have kept it in my
archives. The irony of the whole thing was that the page on Gani was
brought to my attention by one of my colleagues, a vice-president
who read the tribute and wanted me to tell him more about the late
crusader. I was happy and told him some of Gani’s travails.
The recently concluded elections in Afghanistan have turned into a
Nigerian story. The current President and his supporters have been
accused of massive rigging and electoral fraud. They were said to
have manufactured well over 1.5 million voodoo votes to ensure that
President Hamid Karzai remains in office. There were cases of some
votes tallied being more than the total number of the inhabitants in
such areas. Even dead family members were discovered to have
resurrected to vote for Karzai. And this was after a couple of years
of the voters’ demise. The whole thing was like a Maurice Iwu INEC
at work. These Afghanis must have been sent to Nigeria well before
their election to understudy the Nigerian electoral experience. The
main opposition to President Karzai, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, an eye
doctor and a former Foreign Minister said on BBC that if those
voting frauds are made to stay, he will never allow Karzai a day of
rest. He said it in a simple and straight forward way. This is our
short topic of today.
The AC Party in Ekiti and its Senatorial candidate, Bunmi Adetunmbi
have returned to the Election tribunal to argue their case that the
recently concluded Senatorial race in Ekiti on August 15 was
massively corrupted by the bullying ruling party, the PDP in
collusion with INEC, the election body. It was clear from that
election and its outcome that a large section of Ekiti people were
either not allowed to perform that electoral duty, cheated out of
their right or their votes were corrupted and maligned.
If I can recollect correctly, this particular INEC has shown the
country that it is incapable of planning, conducting, managing and
reporting a simple and sincere election. It doesn’t matter whether
it is a regional or national election. Speaking for myself, I do not
have any iota of confidence in this INEC or its upper echelon of
leadership. There is so much cloud enshrouding the legality and
impartiality of the body. Lest anyone forget, the Anambra
Governorship election comes up early in 2010. The aspirants have all
been beating their war drums and getting ready for a battle royale.
Many of the gladiators know what is at stake. I bet not one of them,
including the incumbent will leave anything to chance. None of them
cares about INEC or Iwu because both are immaterial to the outcome
of events. However, both INEC and Iwu are compliant and complicit.
If we look at some of the major issues we have to face as a nation,
by way of emergency action, In addition to solving the power supply
problem, tackling the giant monster of corruption, the other
important matter, as important as our health care and this perennial
ASUU problem, will be solving the INEC mess once and for all.
Nigerians will collectively continue to be unhappy with the outcome
of subsequent elections if INEC is not free of all manner of
encumbrances, self inflicted or external. One other thing we need to
do quickly is sack this current Attorney General of the Federation.
This guy has worked against anything that attempts to punish crooks
and wealthy criminals. He has been a successful plant against the
fight on corruption. He is a mole in Yar’adua’s government.
The Anglican Communion just concluded their pastoral election to
choose a new leader. This election went on so smoothly, without any
rancor, rigging, bribery, killings, maiming and bad-mouthing. At the
end of this unbelievably halcyon exercise, a new leader has been
elected and accepted by all the red-robed and sometimes portly
bishops. He is in the person of the 57 year old Nicholas Okoh, the
Bishop of Bendel and Asaba Diocese. He will take over from the fiery
Peter Akinola, who according to the Anglican Constitution will leave
the Primacy next year. The whole thing looks so un-Nigerian. A
peaceful election in Motherland, a man that willingly leaves his
post without planning an elongation. We love it though. Maybe we
should enlist the support of the dean of the Bishops to help us
organize our next election in Anambra. And by the way, I saw the
picture of the incoming Primate, he looks fit and athletic. May he
reign peacefully with the love of the Lord. Welcome Primate Okoh.
Thank you, Primate Akinola for all you have done.
Tayo Shenbanjo
Columbus, Ohio.
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