AGAINST KANGAROO ELECTION: THE MUCH NEEDED CALL FOR NIGERIANS TO STAND UP FOR DEMOCRACY

"In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way." -- Franklin Delano Roosevelt

The verdict is in, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, the party of the occupiers won, the Nigerian people lost! The earlier some of us in the pro-democracy movement understand this fact the better for us. Anyone that thinks the Yar’adua’s government of occupiers, with their corrupt ex-governors will voluntarily conduct a free and fair election and hand over power to winners of such an election is living in cuckoo land.

The recently concluded rerun election in Ekiti, clearly shows that our democracy has reached a dead end. What do you expect? It is only in Nigeria we asked robbers to guard the bank. The so called People’s Democratic Party is determined to end any hope of the Nigerian people for democracy in Nigeria. I had warned of their perfidy ever since they contrived to impose Obasanjo in 1999. The very heart and soul of PDP is antithetical to democracy. You don’t expect a party formed by corrupt and convicted ex-governors and militricians to “mid-wifed” democracy. I said then that the so-called Africa’s biggest party is a gargantuan fraud; a criminal enterprise set up to perpetute the subjugation of the will of the people of Nigeria.

It is sickening to read how Nigerian mainstream newspapers lump the opposition party together in their post mortem analysis after the Ekiti state rerun election. One Nigerian columnist went so far as saying that all political parties in Nigeria rigged, and that the fact that PDP out-rigged the opposition is a sad end that justifies the means!

To me the stupidity in this argument is astounding, I mean, is this the same opposition parties harassed left and right by PDP’s installed soldiers and police men? Who controls the electoral process and personnel? Can anyone in its right senses explain the trip to Aso rock by Maurice Iwu, the supposed impartial electoral officer of the nation to the president on the eve of the election? Can anyone explain to us why PDP officers were the only one permitted in that meeting? Can anyone explain the reason why soldiers were deployed to Ekiti state even though AC had warned of the attempt to use soldiers to foster violence and quell opposition to any protest of the stolen mandate? What business has Maurice Iwu had to do at Aso rock on the week of the election? Why did he avoid the press corps at Aso rock? Why was he smuggled out of Aso rock so his pictures could not be taken? And can the president explain to us what Iwu is still doing at that post; months after his term had expired?

Imposition of candidates is one of the cardinal and directive principles of PDP. They have no sympathy for free and fair election, all they know to do is how to steal election. They have never won a free and fair election in Nigeria and they are not about to pretend to do so. Anyone that argues that opposition parties in Nigeria have access to rigging needs to have their collective examine. I did not see any AC police officers in Ekiti. AC has no control over who prints the ballot papers and where they are printed. They have no control over who get to appoint the resident electoral commissioner. We now know that the resident electoral commissioner for Ekiti state was installed into office by PDP national patron, Olusegun Obasanjo, who used her to send a message briefly to his party about his control of the apparatus of power and election in southwest, when the REC was incommunicado briefly after the rerun. And as soon as Aso rock got the message, they appeased him and she sends her back to complete the task. So she came back to extinguish the little hope the Ekiti people, nay all Nigerians have left for free and fair election in Nigeria. The results she had refused to accept based on the fact that they were concocted and her conscience would not let her; turned out to be the result she gave her imprimatur to, once she got back from Abuja vide Abeokuta or is it Ota!

Many have said we have a long way to go when it comes to election, but I actually think we have not started. The same seeds they sown in imposing candidates on the Niger Delta people that breed MEND is what they have started in Southwest. They that sow the wind shall reap whirlwind. Only a fool will continue to participate in an election organized by the present regime in Abuja. It is time for the oppositions to realize that democracy is on a hiatus as long as PDP remains in power at Abuja.

The Ekiti governorship election rerun clearly demonstrated that campaigns meant nothing, ballot boxes and votes count for nothing. Just take a cursory look at the jamboree they had when the president and other PDP officials came to campaign in Ekiti, they promised nothing to the Ekiti people. They have been in charge at the governor’s office for more than 9 years, they never pointed to any achievement they made in office. They neither run on their record or promise to run things better, they came to taunt the Ekiti people. They sang to Oni, their candidate, “even if you don’t campaigned you have won!” They know they can get away with it, because they owned the ballot box, they owned the center. Nigeria is an occupied nation, the earlier we know that, the easier it becomes to throw the bum out of power. You don’t appease an occupier by participating in a kangaroo election.

Some say, “But the oppositions are in power in Lagos, Edo and Ondo states” My answer to that is simple: how did they get there? Did any of the governors in the aforenamed states win elections organized by PDP? The governors in Edo and Ondo states won largely thanks to tribunal verdicts. If the tribunal had ordered a rerun the oppositions stand no chance under Iwu and his band of PDP anointed electoral officers.

Democracy is no longer on life support in Nigeria, it is dead! And like my colleague, Femi Falana pointed out in his press release we cannot blame the people of Ekiti State. They gave their all, they always stand up against those who steal their votes, and it is time for Nigerians of all hue to stand up too! The historic resistance of the Ekiti people should be the spark that will start a conflagration in our nation. All democratic and progressive forces in Nigeria, should like we did in the time of Abacha forge an organic alliance to mobilize Nigerians to take their political destiny in their own hands. It is time for patriotic Nigerians to stand up for democracy.