Date Published: 06/17/09
Imo Gubernatorial Election: Strategy of Avoidance and Suppression
By Martin Ajaero
Winston Churchill once reminded all of us that “truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is”. This observation by the former British Prime Minister is totally in harmony with our own human values and understanding of the nature and meaning of truth. The average person and society at large recognizes truth when it is said. Truth may be covered up for a long time; but almost always, it does evolve, and when it does, it leaves in its wake, battered credibility, irreparable damages, and in many cases, lives destroyed.
When truth is uncovered, the damage to society is mitigated. The actions of those who chose to inhibit the course of human civilization is brought into the full glare of sunlight and attenuated; thereafter, progress is redirected and continued. Those responsible for undermining the public good and those responsible for covering it up are brought to ridicule and treated with ignominy. This chain of events must occur in society, and, for the people who wish to make progress and be taken seriously by others. Truth is an obvious fact that hardly needs to be stated.
It is against this back drop that the recent decision of the Supreme Court to move up the hearing date on a case brought before it by Governor Ikedi Ohakim of Imo State on whether or not the Abuja Court of Appeals erred in their decision to hear the case is greeted with great admiration. The Court’s initial decision to hear the case on September 29, 2009 was needless to say; nauseating. Their reversal of that decision and ramp up of the case to June 23, 2009 was uplifting and refreshing. The Court has wisely determined that justice delayed is justice denied.
Chief Agbaso’s election case has lingered on now for over two years and deserves the utmost urgency. We all agree that no one should profit from crime and this may be exactly what has happened in Imo State. The people of Imo State who are subject to the authority of Governor Ikedi Ohakim have every right to know if their governor is a crook. The governor’s effort should be aimed at proving otherwise. It should not be in stalling or preventing a hearing. This tactics of delaying or scuttling a hearing is a losing strategy and an affront to democracy and he knows it.
The reader is reminded that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) abbreviated the April 14, 2007 Imo gubernatorial election after polling was done and tabulated in 24 out of the 27 local government areas of the state. INEC’s explanation of their decision to cancel the election was tortuous, convoluted and implausible to say the least. INEC’s explanation reminds one of Churchill’s riddle that was wrapped in a mystery and placed inside an enigma. If it is up to INEC, we should not know the answer to what happened in Imo State on April 14, 2007. The Supreme Court and/or the Abuja Court of Appeals will now hopefully untangle the maze of debauchery, deceit, crapshoot, and lies perpetrated on the people of Imo State.
The electoral body claimed that violence and mayhem of the magnitude envisaged in Clause Part IV, section 27 (1) of the 2006 Electoral Act attended the election and yet, no one is able to verify their claim. The Act reads as follows: “Where a date has been appointed for the holding of an election, and there is reason to believe that a serious breach of the peace is likely to occur if the election is proceeded with on that date or it is impossible to conduct the elections as a result of natural disasters or other emergencies, the Commission may postpone the election and shall in respect of the area, or areas concerned, appoint another date for the holding of the postponed election”.
INEC has not claimed that violence attended all the polling places in the 27 local government areas of the state. The average person would ask why then was the governorship election result cancelled in the entire 27 local government areas of the state; and, not just in respect of the area, or areas concerned, as stipulated in the concluding sentence of Clause Part IV, section 27 (1). This conundrum is further exacerbated by the knowledge that under the same set of circumstances, i.e., date, time, place, space, staff, ballot boxes, ballot papers, and, other resources; the Imo state house of assembly election results were approved and released by INEC; but, not the governorship election result. This was too important to be given away to the wrong person; albeit, it was the product of the same election and the wrong person may have won it.
In INEC’s world and monopoly of election knowledge, imaginary violence and mayhem marred the Imo gubernatorial election but the same violence and mayhem was not sufficient to mare the state house of assembly elections; an argument that is stupid and incongruous with the facts. INEC’s behavior is a stain on the conscience of Nigeria and on civilized norms of behavior. We must each in our own intellectual way determine if an average person regardless of their country of origin, creed, background or ideological bent; operating under a veil of ignorance, can accept INEC’s reason or logic for the cancellation of the Imo gubernatorial election of April 14, 2007.
Finding the answer is the essence of intellectual life to which we must be irrevocably bound and committed. It will be the end of intellectual life however, if we choose not to find the answer to INEC’s poser. Esoteric legal arguments are simply that, esoteric, but the people of Nigeria have the most important thing and that is commonsense – lots of it.
Governor Ohakim’s strategy of avoiding a trial at all costs and suppressing evidence is nauseating and antithetical to democratic values, and he knows it. The more he makes effort at circumventing a hearing, the more citizens wonder if he really won the gubernatorial election. At issue is his legitimacy in office and nothing else can be more important than proving it.
Of the three branches of our government, the judiciary has shown the greatest promise and they have the gratitude of a grateful nation. I am not surprised however, because, thus far, they have the most intellectual minds. The work of the judiciary has the most meaning to the citizens of Nigeria because we can see and evaluate it more readily unlike the work of the presidency or the legislature, which are cloaked in secrecy and deal-making and does nothing to improve the lives of the governed. It is important that the judiciary continues to shine the light and uphold the principle of equal justice under the law, for without it, this nation has nothing; really nothing.
