Date Published: 10/18/10

The Appeal Court Ruling on the Ekiti Re-Run Elections: A Victory for Democracy!!!

The ruling by the Appeal Court sitting in Ilorin on the Ekiti re-run polls has once more re-echo in unambiguous terms the timeless truths of the lessons, Historian, Charles Beard said he had learnt from history several years ago. He said, “First: He whom the gods would destroy, they must first make mad with power; second: The mills of God grind slowly, yet it grinds exceedingly small; third: The Bee fertilises the flower it robs; fourth: When it is dark enough, you can see the stars.” Summing up all of these lessons with respect to Ekiti State, and indeed the whole nation, we can draw the following conclusions: The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is on its deathbed, hence it is so mad with power and brazen in its lawless acts; the only question remaining is how costly the funeral will be.

Now what does all of these tells us as Nigerians in this great period of history; it reveals to us, that no matter how dark the night, it will break into day. Oppressed people cannot remain in oppression forever; eventually the yearning for freedom will manifest itself. It doesn’t really matter how long it takes, good will eventually prevail over evil because evil in its very self carries the seed of its own destruction. The Hitlers and Idi Amins of the World may rule for a while, but eventually, they will fizzle out in disgrace. Good Friday may reign for a day, but in the end, it must give way to the victorious songs of Easter. Evil may so shape events that Christ will occupy a cross and Caesar a palace, but one day, that same Christ will rise up and split history into A.D and B.C so much so that Caesar’s life must be dated by his name. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.” Ultimately, truth and justice will triumph, for as Carlyle has said, No lie can live forever. The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.

In the final analysis, the Universe is always on the side of justice, but this is not to say that we must resign ourselves to fate and subscribe to the odious notion, that time will solve everything. In actuality, time is neutral it can either be used constructively or destructively. Human progress does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men and women who are willing to be co-workers with God and nature, otherwise, time becomes an ally of primitive forces of social stagnation. It is a shameful fact that the forces of ill will in our generation have used time much more effectively than the forces of good will. Just imagine what would have happened if Dr. Kayode Fayemi and his party in solidarity with the masses of Ekiti hadn’t struggled legally in the courts and in direct actions through mass protests; they wouldn’t have gotten this victory that they rightly deserved. And we must not also lend ourselves to the misleading view that God and prayers will resolve all of our problems. The very idea that prayers solves everything leads to a callous misuse of prayer, and it causes us to substitute prayers for work and intelligence, for if prayers does everything, then man can ask God for anything, and God becomes a little more than a global errand boy who is summon for every trivial issue. Prayers are good and necessary for our struggles but we are gravely mistaken if we think that the struggles would be won only by prayers. God who endowed us with minds for thinking and bodies for working would defeat his own purpose if he allows achieving through prayers what we can get through work and intelligence. The God, who gave us life, also gave us liberty. When God commissioned Moses to lead the Children of Israel out of slavery in to the Promised Land, he made it crystal clear that he would not do for them, what they could do for themselves. And the Lord said to Moses in Exodus 14: 15, why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. Always, Man must do something. When God gave his only begotten Son in John 3: 16 to the World through his magnificent love, he said incandescently that salvation through his Son is only for those who will believe. So we must pray, but we must equally do our part.

I salute the courage and fortitude of the President of the Court of Appeal, his team and the entire Judiciary for standing once again on the side of truth and justice and I congratulate the people of Ekiti and indeed all Nigerians for this victory for democracy and I am hoping that the new government in Ekiti State will return power back to the people and deliver unto them the democratic fruits of governance which they have for so long been denied.

Comrade Eneruvie ENAKOKO

(CLO Chairman in Lagos)