IMO: IS ARARAUME WAITING ON THE THRESHOLD OF HISTORY.

By Uba Maximus 

Ask any discerning Political analyst who their democracy heroes are especially in the last few months, names that will surely make the list include those of Olusegun Mimoko, and Adams Oshomole and Peter Obi no thanks to the abracradaba which Maurice Iwu, the INEC chairman graciously distributed within the length and breath of Nigeria in 2007 in the name of conducting general election. While Segun Mimiko recovered his stolen mandate from the trio of Obasanjo Ahmadu Ali and Agagu, Oshomole recovered his from the same monstrous Obj who in conjunction with Ahmadu Ali converted a failed candidate into a Governor. The case of Peter Obi although similar to the two was at the behest of one Andy Uba, the Personal Assistant to the monster an who despite the fact that he went to Anambra State last in 1982 remote controlled the State from the precincts of Aso-Rock Abuja. Interestingly political analyst will in the coming weeks add to their lists of political heroes as another crusader is set emerge on the political landscape. To become not only a Political Institution but one who surmounted all man made barriers, on his way to victory. No gain therefore saying that since 2006, Senator Ifeanyi Araraume two time Senator of the Federal Republic has been at the receiving end of a callous machination particularly the basest dark alley type headed by Olusegun Obasanjo, Ahmadu Ali and Achike Udenwa, men who in proper setting should be cooling their feet in disused prisons for atrocities against their fatherland but who today are using sirens, still feeding on tax payers’ money and making life unbearable for the rest of us.

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The travails of Senator G. Araraume for the benefit of our readers began in 2006 when the Peoples Democratic Party flagged off their primaries in 2006 to choose their flag bearers for various elective positions. The Senator had like all men of goodwill indicated interest to run for the office of the Governor of Imo State and then went ahead to buy interest form. But the people who were in prison when PDP was formed ordered that Araraume should not be cleared despite that he had neither police nor security record, otherwise and we ask, how did he become a Senator in the first place in 1999? Despite this seeming drawback, Araraume still entered the field without the support of Obasanjo, a sitting Head of State, Achike Udenwa, a sitting Governor, Ahmadu Ali the National Chairman of the Party and Ozichukwu, the National Vice Chairman South East. That’s not all; his Senatorial Zone in Okigwe where he drew his strength is the least in terms of population as they have just six local governments, what these means is that he had few delegates at his beck and call. But Araraume according to pundits appealed to the generality of Imo people and in particularly PDP delegates via what is now known in Imo as the Jehovah witness approach yes there was no ward, no autonomous community no Local Government area he did not visit before the primaries, there also no ward chairman he never visited not even those working for his opponents. This approach no doubt had plural effect in that at the end of the exercise, Araraume, was coasting to victory to the consternation of his adversaries, little wonder when the results were relayed to the Party headquarters in Abuja, a bewildered Ahmadu Ali and a furious Obasanjo ordered a cancellation of the exercise and fixed it fourteen days after to put Araraume at a disadvantage. Still sure of himself and relying on the support of the party men and women, Senator Araraume again stepped into the ring this time around against real big politicians like Hope Uzodinma, Tony Ezenna, Jerry Chukwueke, Kema Chikwe, Rochas Okorocha, Festus Odumegu, and the candidate of the sitting Governor, Iyke Ibe, but the results of the second outing was even more bewildering in that at the last count, Senator Araraume scored well over 2500 votes beating his nearest rival who merely got a little over one thousand. But the duo of OBJ and Ali would rather submit the name of Ugwu Charles who merely scored 23 votes and came a distant 24 th in the primaries. Not one to be cowed, the Senator then approached the Federal High Court presided over by Justice Murtala Nyako who true to expectation glossed, over the provisions of the Electroral Act and stated that it is the right of political parties to field candidates despite that PDP did not follow cogent and verifiable reasons in doing what they did in Imo. The court of Appeal which was set up to ensure Judicial sieving especially in cases where the uncanny poeple compromised the judicial system then took a second look at the Araraume case and pronounced him the candidate of the party because he satisfied the provision of the 2006 Electoral Act. The Supreme Court, the highest court in the land was the next port of Judicial call where Araraume’s antagonists who were not satisfied with what the three eminent Justice said, but the outcome at the Supreme Court was not salutary to these people who want to play God, worse in a state where they are strangers to wit. The seven Justices of the Supreme Court headed by Erudite Justice Niki Tobi had upheld the decision of the Court of Appeal by affirming that Araraume remains the PDP candidate in Imo. But Obasanjo, an over stretched dictator of some sorts would hear none of that and even said that the Justices of the Supreme Court should count themselves lucky that he is not in Idi Amin spirit. What to do? He then led a colony of rough necks masquerading as party executives to thwart the will of the people as expressed during the rescheduled PDP primaries. But the truth as they say is like the chamomile that stubborn specie of carpet grass which the more it is trodden upon, the faster it grows. The people again restated their resolve to have him govern them as they trooped out in their thousands to give him a mandate at the April 14 election and barely one week after supreme court declared him candidate of the party, yes information has it that Araraume was leading in over 21 Local Government Areas when Obasanjo got the wind of the outcome and ordered Iwu, the INEC chairman to stop the election and like a Zombie, Iwu did as he was told and a rescheduled election was fixed two weeks later. Interestingly this time around, Obasanjo not one to take chances on Araraume flooded Imo State with soldiers and policemen but the people again queued behind Araraume and gave him overwhelmingly mandate the type that only Mandela and the likes of Kaunda of Zambia received in Southern Africa. But Iwu, the INEC chairman at the prompting of Obasanjo would declare a certain Ikedi Ohakim of the PPA as Governor even when the man lost in the booth in front of his house, scored a little less than 500 votes in the April 14 cancelled exercise, never had a campaign or personal office except a Hotel Room and never campaigned even in his village, in fact his fellow villagers at Okohia were at loss when he was declared Governor wondering whether INEC knew the man in question. But as they say in Nigeria “anything goes and so a man who could not in strict political parlance win a councillorship election became as it were the State Governor. Expectations therefore were that the Tribunal would correct the injustice by either declaring Araraume the rightful winner or canceling the election, but it did the opposite to the consternation of Imo People who knew who they voted for. Right thinking lawyers and political analysts then saw the action tribunal as grossly miscarried Justice and discountenance of the will of the people. Besides many other analysts saw the judgment as a Judicial gift which cannot endure because equity as the say in legal parlance does not perfect an imperfect gift especially remembering that the people of Imo on that fateful April 28 2007 spoke loudly and clearly through their votes But unfortunately the lower tribunal preferred the path ancient common law courts which had a reputation for mechanical Justice, a justice that prefers the mighty to the downtrodden.

Because Araraume believed he truly won the elections in question both at the April 14 and 28 and because he was convinced the Tribunal in advertently feel prey to predatory prowess of dark men to arrive at a travesty of Justice anchored on garland of weak arguments, Senator Araraume headed to the Court of Appeal where equity like an avenging angel it has always been will be set to act in personam to quench his thirst for Justice and restore his mandate. Interestingly and in the coming weeks and may be before the Lord Justices go on Easter break having done Judicial double sieving especially in areas that escaped the Judicial notice under a porous or compromised system of Justice below is sure to be netted and thus magnified by the optical sinew of much calmer, more matured and dispassionate legal minds who are not bound by logic alone but by a sense of logic that is humbled by Judicial experience. What the above implies is that genuine democratic mandate of the people cannot be sacrificed on the altar of sentiments of some sore footed people who claim Nigeria as theirs. Instructively the totality of Araraume case has a lot to do the new thinking in Jurisprudence which states that pragmatism which connects the people to power when noted is the only way to ensure that the will of the people and not strict legalistic reasoning counts in cases similar to those of Araraume, Mimiko and Oshiomole.

Therefore if they Lord Justices in a few weeks time looks in the direction of a Senator I.G Araraume as the winner of the April 28 Election in Imo he would have joined the ranks of men who are political institutions, yes for a man who contested two hot primaries, two elections, and passed through five judicial sittings including the cheap distraction by Chief Martins Agbaso, he in a strict sense deserves a chapter in the Guinness Book of records to say the least. But we need to restate here that the Lord Justices are not expected to look at Araraume direction because he suffered man made travails but because he satisfied the provisions of the 2006 electoral act as regards election of a Governor and these include the incontrovertible fact that his results are on Form EC8A or booth results again he obeyed the President of the Court of Appeal as regards front loading of all materials and witnesses, called required witnesses including INEC officials to show election never held in the nine controversial local government areas. What is more, the man had agents in all the booths where election held men who are in possession of results cast at the booth, besides he was also able to prove that indeed be won the election in question. On his part Araraume’s opponent, Dr Ikedi Ohakim embarrassed himself before the Justices of Appeal as he had no answer like Governor Timpre Sylva why his results were not on Form EC8A but on photocopies, and why he could not call one INEC staff to show that election held in the nine local government areas.. Besides it is a notorious act that Ohakim had no single agent, no document, no witness except street urchins who people his government reason why he refused to front load as required by law at the Tribunal setting in Owerri. The above therefore reinforces legal views which dictates that the Appeal Court Judges should ensure that popular democratic sentiments is upheld over an above compromised Justice as witnessed at lower Tribunal.

As Senator Araraume waits upon fate to be called to take his right of place on threshold of history, just like Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton and Barrack Obama before him, we the living are summoned to the words of Lord Denning, foremost British Jurist who said “when the law meets the expectation of the people, the law itself is happy”. We say it here that Lord Dennings position can only be achieved if the objects of democracy itself which is the will of the people, is made sacrosanct, inviolable and pragmatic, Imo people are watching and waiting, we need not say more.