news
update
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(W)REC(KING)
DEMOCRACY: 5 THESES ON ELECTORAL ROBBERY |
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Bamidele Aturu Esq
Culled from FOI coalition
Wed. May 6,2009 |
The events leading to the declaration of
Mr Segun Oni as the winner of the
Gubernatorial re-run in Ekiti State and
the declaration itself have confirmed
some of our worst fears for democracy in
Nigeria. Few people could be shocked by
the result as announced by Mrs Ayoka
Adebayo. The woman herself certainly is
aware that all is not well concerning
the election she putatively presided
over, otherwise she would not have made
a unique but patently illegal
declaration. Her declaration is shocking
and amusing at the same time. According
to her: “ Having met the constitutional
requirement, I hereby declare the PDP
candidate the winner of this election.
Anybody who is not happy with the
results should go to court”. Is the last
sentence part of the statutory
declaration, an advice, an admission
that the result is manipulated or a
political statement? Only Mrs Adebayo
can tell. Well, we have again another
opportunity to state certain fundamental
truths about
our electoral process using Ekiti as a
case study.
Thesis 1
The defining characteristic of Nigerian
electoral process is disrespect for laws
generally. This point can be underscored
by the fact that the person who
announced the result of the election,
Mrs Ayoka Adebayo, lacked the competence
to do so, not being a Resident Electoral
Commissioner known to law when she
purportedly made the declaration. I made
this point immediately Mrs Adebayo
disappeared from the public and
re-appeared at the INEC Headquarters,
but it bears restating. Section 306 of
the Constitution provides that the
resignation of a person appointed under
the Constitution, as the RECs, becomes
effective upon receipt by the person to
whom it is addressed. There is no doubt
that the President received Madam
Adebayo’s letter on the 28th of April,
2009. The Minister of Information, Madam
Dora Akunyili, confirmed this at a press
conference the following day when she
said that the letter had been rejected
by the Presidency or government. Of
course,
you do not reject what you have not
received. Once she effectively resigned,
she ceased to be a Resident Electoral
Commissioner to all intents and purposes
until she is re-appointed again by the
President under the Constitution. Mrs
Adebayo has not been reappointed as a
REC by the President. She is therefore
unknown to law and indeed is a busy body
or meddlesome interloper in the eyes of
the law. It follows that the declaration
of the re-run ‘result’ in Ekiti by the
woman is illegal, unlawful and
unconstitutional.
Thesis 2
There is lack of depth or strategic
thinking in the ranks of the opposition.
When Mrs Adebayo made the magical
disappearance and reappearance feat, it
was amazing to see some of the leading
lights of the opposition celebrate the
woman. Rather than demand that she
should have nothing to do with the
election, they left the PDP to
grandstand and seize the moral high
grounds as it were on the lack of
credibility of Mrs Adebayo. I have no
problem with using her disappearance and
her statement that she would not act
against her conscience to demonstrate
that some people were bent on stealing
votes. It is however unbelievable that
the opposition could still trust the
woman after she reappeared and said she
was still a member of the INEC family.
Could it really be that the opposition
does not understand what the ‘INEC
family’ connotes? I do not know how the
opposition viewed Professor Iwu’s
statement after meeting the woman that
there was no need for her
to report to the police anymore, it is
arguable that the Professor was
satisfied that the woman was now ready
to play ‘family’ politics.
Thesis 3
Ours is essentially a commando
democracy. The illegal use of soldiers
in Oye for the re-run confirms this. The
President did not tell us that he
deployed troops for the election, yet
soldiers were seen all over the place.
They could only have been there to do
the bidding of whoever drafted them. The
idea was to intimidate the people of Oye
and neighbouring communities and send a
signal to whoever cared that the
election robbers would stop at nothing
to capture the votes of the people and
the people themselves. The decision of
the Court of Appeal that it is
unconstitutional to deploy troops for
elections has since fallen on deaf ears.
The warning issued to Mrs Adebayo that
she must re-appear within 24 hours or
face unpleasant consequences is
revealing of the commando mentality of
those heading state institutions. To ask
a person who merely resigned her
appointment and did not commit any
offence to report for any reason could
only have been possible in a
police state that ours has become.
Thesis 4
It is naïve to expect the chief
beneficiary of distortions in the
electoral process to reform it. One is
amazed that many people took Mr
President seriously when he was reported
to have said that the will of the people
would prevail in Ekiti. The problem is
that those who believed that
‘undertaking’ failed to ask the
President to define who he was referring
to as the people. President Yar’ Adua is
morally incapable of reforming the
electoral process, rule of law or no
rule of law. It would take a revolution
to put an end to vote stealing in
Nigeria. The truth whether anyone likes
to hear it or not is that none of the
existing mainstream parties like AC,
ANPP, APGA, PPA or even Labour Party as
constituted at present can champion
serious reforms of the process. Many of
them are part of the problem. Of course
revolution requires self sacrifice and
honest mobilization that are lacking for
now. We must not despair as we really do
not have any choice.
Thesis 5
True, Professor Iwu’s INEC has messed up
the electoral process and in the process
messed up the nation. The point,
however, is that what requires change is
the system. Our demand that Iwu must go
can only make sense if it is seen as
part of a broader strategy for system
change. If it is an end in itself it
would be as meaningless as conducting
re-run elections under Professor Iwu.
Conclusion
The Ekiti rerun and the brazen manner in
which un-collated results from a
particular local government have been
used shows that election brigandage is
on the increase. The lesson is that the
people must seek alternative ways to
throw out the impostors who claim to be
leading them.
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BAMIDELE ATURU & CO.
24, MBONU OJIKE STREET, OFF AYINDE GIWA
STREET,
OFF ALHAJI MASHA ROAD, SURULERE,
LAGOS STATE. NIGERIA. TEL.NO :
01-8043418,
08023128967, 08055999888, 08033375796,
01-7218732, 01-7910967.
EMAIL:aturulaw@yahoo. com
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