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Making the Votes Count!

Brampton, Ontario, Canada
yemiadegbite@nigeriahorizon.com

Nigeria according to all eye witnesses experienced elections extraordinary, first of its kind in her history, devoid of any organized attempt to make it credible to the outside world, and also dealt a huge blow and irreparable damage to the sanctity of elections in Nigeria. Both internal and external observers described it as a farce rather than realistic elections, people have lost confidence in the system’s ability to reflect the wishes and aspirations of the electorates. The ruling PDP returned elected candidates where it has no candidates running or contesting, worse still, elections’ results were found to predate election day itself, in other words, the results were out even before the elections were conducted in some cases.

The EU observers rightly called Maurice Iwu incompetent and (I add, also irresponsible); the body also quickly condemned the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal’s not so famous judgment.

Strangely enough, our incorrigible Iwu gave himself an impressive pass mark; he has to blow his own trumpet anyway, he was quick to say that the judgment justified his earlier claim that, the elections were free and fair. I wonder what his definition of “free and fair would be. Iwu must be living in a fool’s paradise if he closes his eyes to all other harvest of nullifications and removal of so many governors, senators and assembly men left right and centre, even including the number 3 citizen of Nigeria, the Senate President. If Iwu based his conclusion and notion of “free and fair” only on the outcome of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, then, he is surely insensitive and incompetent. He has not shown enough level of comprehension of what is going on in the country and as such he has not earned his remuneration!

Subsequent events however indicted Iwu and his partial umpires. The stream of court judgments in favour of all plaintiffs who have enough courage to challenge the elections and the eventual nullifications of many election outcomes pointed to the already known fact that the elections weren’t as free and fair as the INEC claimed.
The ultimate overall winner is the Judiciary. The Bench has boldly demonstrated its independence, as clearly manifested by a number of monumental decisions made in recent times. Decisions and judgments have been made without fear or favour by some judges and that is a big plus for our judicial system and the Bench is eventually emerging as the final arbiter and custodian of Justice in the country.

There is no doubt that, the outcome of the Presidential Election Tribunal has some grey area, it shows that the system is still far from being fair let alone perfect, but for sure, there has been a lot of progress. Think about it, for the first time, a sitting president shows some signs of fatigues, anxiety and fear of what the outcome may be. Aso Rock was almost at stand still with “election tribunal fever” that is a sign that the president does not have the Judiciary under his control. Think back to the Shagari era, virtually no challengers got any judgment in their favour, including the Challenger in-Chief, the late elder statesman, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. The politicians then were so confident that, no judge will have dared to nullify any election in the country where the military and the police were willing tools in the hands of the federal government.
This time around, it was a 360 degree turn around, an unprecedented shift of position. Those who have the courage to challenge the elections have had “incredible” results. The unpredictable character of the tribunals has given many high profile candidates restless and sleepless nights, with this type of results from the judiciary, the system will continue to improve and the election riggers and the fraudulent election officials would think twice before they perpetrate their nefarious activities meant to defraud and deny the people of their true voice.

However, the system should be designed in such a way that all election petitions receive accelerated attention and resolved before any swearing in is done. The situation whereby the affected candidates have served almost half of their terms before the determination of cases against them puts undue pressure on the judges and could also increase the propensity to bribe and corrupt the system. The reference case in point is the Greek gift given to the chairman of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal Mr. Justice James Ogebe by the president. His promotion to the Supreme Court at that critical moment is ill-timed, ill-conceived, and fraudulent and a pure error of judgment on the part of the president meant to achieve an obvious unspecified aim. Whether he likes it or not, that is bribery, obstruction of justice, and an abuse of office and using his office to curry favour for himself. That is exactly what our president has done, period! That reminds me of late President Gerald Ford of the US when he took over from Richard Nixon as the president after the “Watergate” scander, he did say that, being president of the US is not one job that he liked or coveted and would not solicit in any form, but after few months in office, he told his aids that he’s beginning to enjoy his job to the extent that he re-contested the post again after the end of his shared term, but he lost to president Jimmy Carter, the Democratic nominee.

Alhaji Ya’dua after his inauguration observed that, the elections that brought him to office could not be described as free and fair, he however exonerated himself because he didn’t organize it; he only contested in the elections, which is quite logical. He promised to overhaul the system and even said that if the outcome of the petition went against him, he would not appeal the judgment. Along the way, he seemed to have changed his mind after few months in office. His desperate underground efforts before the judgement were noticeable and apparent. One could see clearly that, he seems to be enjoying his job and would not like to relinquish after all.

In another dimension, I see the president, Umaru Yar’dua as an honest man who is a prisoner of his benefactors. I have said before that, he could be a president that will make his mark notwithstanding the circumstances that brought him to the office. I know very well that, he could not have been there on his own merit without the manipulations by the powers that be. That is a very hard lesson to learn, the type of president we want and we truly deserve in the country may never emerge under the present dispensation. To break the jinx, we would have to device a way of making the votes count and respect the people’s wish. We have a very few group of individuals that can make or mare the chances of any candidate irrespective of the people’s wish, a true democracy does not and can never thrive under that condition. To establish the sanctity of elections in Nigeria, electorates must do more than a mere casting their ballots; they must ensure that their votes count.

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