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REBRANDING ANOTHER
JUNE 12TH? |
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By ARINZE ALINNOR
Culled from Facebook
Wed. May 20,2009 |
I followed an African legend religiously
for many years before his demise. That
legend is Baba Fela Anikulapo Kuti (Abami
Eda). Not many people understood him and
his philosophy while he was alive. But
some of the things he said many years
back are beginning to make sense to some
people with some strange happenings in
the polity in the recent past. Abami Eda
believed that to fight and win, you must
know what you are up against; you must
be able to look beyond the obvious and
see the actual. Fela said that Africans
and Nigerians had not won because they
did not actually know what they were up
against, and that informed their
attitude towards leadership.
Fela said that democracy meant crazy
demonstration or demonstration of
‘craze’. In one of his shows, he said
that democracy makes guns powerless. He
said that in democracy pen is more
powerful than guns. I have been
digesting the situation of things in the
polity since the demise of Fela, and I
would submit therefore that the legend
was our prophet that we did not
recognize while he was here with us.
Many are just beginning to come to terms
with all his prophetic sayings now. Back
then many thought he was just making
noise and not making sense; but now all
his prophecies are starring us in the
face and we cannot afford to overlook or
claim ignorance.
Like Abami Eda would say, the title of
my song is ‘coffin for head of state’ or
‘confusion break bone’, I would title my
own song rebranding another June 12th.
Fela would title his songs after some
strange happenings in the polity, in
Africa, or any part of the world. My own
song is coming because rebranding is the
talk of the moment and something similar
to June 12th happened recently again in
our country. Before I release my song, I
will tell you what a close friend told
me recently. My friend said that
whenever an actor or actress received
money from a producer and failed to show
up to act out his or her script, that
the producer usually use the police to
compel the actor or actress to come and
act out the script even against her or
his conscience. He said that was the
situation in Ekiti in their governorship
rerun election recently. Like Fela would
say “na secret oh, don’t tell anyone”.
Not too long ego, Prof. Humphery Nwosu
in his book released the withheld
results of the June 12th 1993 elections.
Going through his book you just have to
say summarily that the powers that be
then stopped the announcement of the
full results of the elections. Though
many had criticized him for speaking out
late but the fact and figures are now
known and the personalities behind the
annulment are also known. This time
around it was not the Vagabonds In Power
(V. I. P.) as Fela would describe them
that cancelled the elections in some
local governments but the court. The
court ordered a rerun in some areas. The
rerun would have been described by Abami
Eda as “stalemate” in Ekiti. Like the
June 12th 1993 election, the Ekiti rerun
was between the electorate and Vagabonds
In Power.
I do not know whether our movie script
writers have not considered doing a
movie on the Ekiti story line. May be
this piece might help our movie script
writers and producers work on one movie.
The tension in the state, the huge
presence of law enforcement agents, the
unbiased and biased observers, the
determined electorate, the determined
and unbiased electoral officers, the
media presence, the national attention,
the violence in some areas, the thugs,
the casting and collation of votes,
announcing of partial results, the
sudden but unclear disappearance of the
Resident electoral commission, the
tension after her disappearance, the
surprise resignation of the electoral
commissioner, the rejection of her
resignation, press briefings of the
commission chairman and that of the
information minister, declaring her
wanted, nude protest march, her
reappearance, her going back to act out
the script, the supplementary elections,
declaration of the winner and all the
intrigues must be in the script of any
movie producer that wants to picture
Ekiti in clear perspective.
Before I conclude my song, I would want
to say that June 12th is to Nigeria what
April 25th is to Ekiti State. Let us ask
a few questions. Why would the people
under the big umbrella meet with Fayose
and conditions given before the rerun?
Why would the woman (electoral
commissioner) disappear? Who gave the
pressure? Why were the votes in Ido-Osi
collated at a Police station? Why was
her purported resignation rejected? How
did Prof. Maurice Iwu get to know that
the two candidates were running head to
head when the woman disappeared? Why the
woman was declared wanted? If the
candidates were running head to head
then, what happened to the votes upheld
by the tribunal? Let’s not ask too many
questions until the allegation against
the electoral officials for bribery is
substantiated. It is time to rebrand
June 12th; it is time to rebrand all
that happened in the last rerun in Ekiti.
It is certainly not a good omen for the
brand Nigeria with good people without
discipline. If the legal provision
empowering the President to appoint INEC
chairman and electoral Commissioners is
not touched, then we know that the words
of the National chairman under the big
umbrella must be taken seriously and
they may go ahead to ‘select’ who stay
in the Villa for sixty years and beyond
in spite of their lack of credibility.
ARINZE ALINNOR A.
P. O. BOX 17985, IKEJA - LAGOS.
08033001782, 01-8964893
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