REMARK ON THE OCCASION OF JUNE 12 ANNIVERSARY 2010

We mark this year June 12 in the wake of the ongoing euphoria by most Nigerians with
the appointment of Attahiru Jega as the new INEC chair by the Jonathan presidency.
Past Nigerian rulers have never lacked in appealing to populism to deceive the
people. Ibrahim Babangida (IBB) was a master in the act of deceits while in power
1985 - 93. Tony Momoh, Wole Soyinka, Tai Solarin, Omo Omoruyi, Nkenna Nzimiro, Jerry
Gana, Olu Onagoruwa, Lateef Jakande, and Bola Ige were few examples that deceptive
regimes in the past had messed up, only few among them (dead or alive) can still lay
claim to credibility.
What I have told the media is: “Jega and Olurode are straightforward personalities
with sound integrity but that one only hopes they will not go the way of others
before them who turned into state actors and betrayed the very trust the people had
in them”. The test for Professors Jega and Olurode would be how far their integrity
can cope with the rotten polity or eventually choose the path of Professor Eme Awa
who was frustrated by IBB and had to graciously bow out of the electoral umpire job.
But as Nigerians are celebrating this false hope which the outcome of 2011 would
probably shatter, no one is asking the question: who are the contestants that Jega
and his team will be officiating in 2011 because the socio-economic and cultural
bases for electoral rigging are still intact? Is their job to legitimize the PDP
boast of endless rule through electoral heist?
 

WHAT ARE THE ISSUES IN THE PERFIDIOUS RULING BY THE RECONSTITUTED OSUN STATE ELECTION TRIBUNAL?
 

I took notice of the two major contradictory issues on the basis of which the
script-acting judges of the Re-Trial Tribunal based their perfidious judgment.
First, “lack of substantial evidence” by the petitioners; and second, Dis-regarded
evidence by the star witnesses – Tunde Yadega and Deola Olayiwola – were not
experts.
-       The issue of “lack of substantial evidence”: The Tribunal simply exposed its
fraudulent ruling that it never considered the voluminous and overwhelming material
evidences placed before it, but disregarded the evidence; because there was no
reason why it had to peruse papers that were not substantial for 12 months. Thus,
audio-visual evidences tendered and admitted by it on intimidation and violence
meted to voters by armed security operatives and party thugs, and fictitious votes
that were more than the numbers of registered voters were non-substantial?
-    Disregarded evidence: – why did the Tribunal disregard the evidences on the
experts’ analysis of the fictitious ballots and cooked-up results on the basis of
which INEC cheated the electorates in Osun State? Did the experts analysis and
videos lied about the rigging, multiple voting, violence and disruption of voting by
thugs and law enforcement agents, politically motivated killings, intimidation of
political opponents, hijack of election materials, stealing of ballot boxes,
stuffing of ballot boxes, and falsification of results? Are the judges saying that
all the evidences pleaded and admitted by it were disregarded simply because Tunde
Yadega and Deola Layiwola didn’t fit into theirs’ wrong definition and imagination
of who an expert is?
-       For any Election Petition Tribunal to rule that “violations of the electoral
law were not substantial enough to invalidate an election result” characterized by
fake ballots stuffing and post election thumb-printed ballots exposed the hollowness
of the judicial system in Nigeria. Is there a measure of fraud that qualifies as
FRAUD?  Or fraud is fraud? The issue of substantial non-compliance is a major flaw
of the electoral process in Nigeria that opens the judiciary not to ever deliver
justice, but to corrupt and compromise itself.
-    The statement by the United Action for Democracy (UAD) when I was its Convener
on February 28, 2008 following the ruling by the Presidential Election Tribunal
holds truth with respect to the bad judgment also delivered by Osun Re-trial
Tribunal of May 28, 2010. That:  “Except judges have become deaf and blind to
realities around them and if they were not mischievous and perjurious”, the claims
of “lack of substantial evidence” confers undue advantage on election rigging and
compromise the judges. “By virtue of the bad judgment (by the Presidential Election
Tribunal), the lower courts have been emboldened to indulge in corrupt and
compromised ruling and the judiciary has gone down three decades backward. In a
country where the rule of law glorifies infamy and promotes an electoral process of
multiple voting and those who perpetrated violence and irregularities becoming the
victors, then something is fundamentally wrong with our judicial
 system. A judicial system that cannot deliver justice on the basis of transparent
truth and cannot give justice is certainly not the one that can build us democracy.
If we have laws that allow judges and lawyers to disguise and lie and compel them
to proclaim and support unjust judgment, and give glory to the election riggers and
murderers, then Nigerians must be prepared to rid the polity of all these
brigandage or face the risk of unprecedented anarchy in the future”.
The People’s Victory in Osun Shall Come!
Let me paraphrase an aspect of Ngugi’s golden words of wisdom, which says: “there
are moments that there are defeats in victories, and there are victories in defeat.
What has happened in Osun with the bad ruling by Ali Garba led Tribunal is that
there are victories in this temporary setback; and one of such manifested recently
when the Retrial Tribunal requested to withdraw the certified copy of the judgment
it has already endorsed for the counsels to the petitioners. Is it to correct the
glaring flaws and inconsistencies in the already read and delivered judgment or
what?
The people’s victory in Osun Shall Come; not through a mere judicial pronouncement
(the Appeal Tribunal) on the side of the JUST, but when all those involved (as
perpetrators, accomplices and supporters) in the criminal and infamous reign of
terror in the State, have become thoroughly defeated, humiliated and consigned to
the dustbins of history.
Final Comment
The ongoing constitution review and electoral reform is a grand deception that will
pave way for another monumental fraud or moon-slide electoral heist reminiscence of
the 1983 NPN show. With the likes of ignoble characters such as Obasanjo, IBB and
their cohorts still walking the streets freely and being the god-fathers to a stooge
Jonathan presidency, credible elections will continue to elude Nigeria. We cannot
talk of credible election when the economic issues of deregulation and privatization
that are the harbinger for unemployment and job losses, lack of social welfare,
deprivation and poor standard of living, insecurity of life, etc are not addressed?
With the perfidious judgment delivered two weeks ago in Osun State on the eve of a
supposedly anniversary of Democracy, there is no hope. It is either anarchy rules or
the people rise to settle everything at the ballots since the belief of the ruling
cabals is not only to use violence to cow the people, but also to corrupt and
manipulate the judiciary with the looted fund. The people must be ready to meet
violence for violence at all levels of the electoral process - the voters register,
the electioneering, the ballots, the courts, etc. Every Nigerian that want freedom
must be prepared to rise to this challenge in their very little way and by any means
necessary.
WE SHALL OVERCOME!

 

-      Comrade Abiodun Aremu, immediate past Convener, UAD @ the NUJ Chapel, Osogbo