Date Published: 09/22/09
ORJI KALU, ORANEZI AND THE ANAMBRA POLLS By Emmanuel Onwubiko
In philosophy, a self-evident fact is simply defined as a knowledge that has become so notorious that the seeker or searcher does not need to engage in hair-splitting and time consuming academic enterprise to apprehend it. In the same vein, one self-evident fact that has become so universally notorious especially in most democracies around the global community is that any election which is not free, fair and transparent and does not pass the test of international best practice and does not respect the choice of the majority of the electorate is doomed and the beneficiaries will inevitably suffer from acute illegitimacy and total lack of credibility in the eyes of the citizens of that particular nation and citizens of the civilized global community.
More than two years since the 2007 election that historically ushered in the first civilian-to-civilian transition of political power ever in Nigeria, questions are still being asked regarding the rationale behind the unprecedented levels of electoral malpractices and frauds that characterized that exercise conducted by the Professor Maurice Iwu-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which in any case has become an institution that is known for anything but independence and credibility. It is no longer news that the members of the organized civil society from within and also the foreign observers that monitored that 2007 election that suffered deficiency of credibility and integrity have also returned the verdict that the 2007 polls were transparently fraudulent.
Godson Dinneya, a political economist wrote in his scholarly book titled; “political economy of democratization in Nigeria” that; “with varying levels and ways of social development, it is not surprising that the meaning of democracy has continued to remain subject of debate. In this unsettled debate regarding the precise meaning of democracy, three basic dimensions seem, however, to have survived the dynamism of democracy as a concept. As can be seen below, they are competition [for the capture and control of power], participation [in the exercise of power], and civil and political liberties [enjoyed as political dividend]. Dinneya reminded his readers that one of the earliest definitions of modern democracy was provided by Seymor Martins in which he emphasized the guarantee of majority rule and minority rights. Martins saw democracy rightly as; “a political system which supplies regular constitutional opportunities for changing the government officials…a social mechanism which permits the largest possible part of the population to influence major decision by choosing among contenders for political offices”.
Fortunately, the 1999 constitution provides in the earliest provisions that sovereignty belongs to the people from whom the political office holders derive their power and legitimacy. But the fact is that the results of the 2007 elections substantially violated the statutes and laws that were supposed to guide the free, transparent and fair elections in Nigeria and the largest percentage of the judgments turned in by most of the election petitions’ tribunals that were convoked to adjudicate the outcomes of the 2007 polls gave the definitive verdicts that most of the elections of that year at every level were substantially flawed and fraudulent. These are self evident facts.
We are however not going to talk much about that charade called 2007 elections but to dwell on the coming 2010 Anambra State gubernatorial election and the 2011 general polls all across Nigeria and to call for the creation of the enabling environment for a free and fair, transparent and credible elections to be conducted in Nigeria because if we don’t get the elections right, the stability of the Fatherland may be threatened because if those who continue to exercise political power captures power through hook-or-crook, then the legitimacy question that may linger may snowball into general instability since most citizens will then believe that impunity is elevated to the unprecedented height of a national ethos…God forbid.
There are ominous signs that if the current leadership in the Independent National Electoral Commission that misconducted [pardon my use of word here] the 2007 elections are again left intact to oversee the conduct of the forthcoming elections in Anambra State and all across Nigeria, then we are preparing ground for anarchy, unless and except the Maurice Iwu-led INEC has decided to become better converts for the interest of corporate Nigeria or rather for the interest of Nigeria’s public good. What I am saying is that if Maurice Iwu is allowed to preside over the coming elections even when it is a notorious and self evident fact that he failed spectacularly to conduct a free, fair and transparent elections in 2007, then we are doomed as a nation unless and except Maurice Iwu has passed through the baptism of repentance in compliance with the established belief by philosophers that the only thing permanent in human nature is change.
Orji Uzor Kalu, the former Governor of God’s own state-Abia has hit the nail on the head when he told Leadership Newspaper that election irregularities are worst crimes than coup plotting or rather to put it exactly how the Leadership reported Orji Kalu that “rigging, not coup, is the danger ahead”. I cannot but agree more with this man of great foresight and erudition who in spite of the politically motivated adversities that he has faced over the years has remained consistent in the crusade for what is just and right for the greatest majority of Nigerians because from my interactions with him, and from very dispassionate observations, I came out with the conclusion that Orji Uzor Kalu is eternally concerned about how the greatest happiness of the greatest population of Nigerians can be achieved using the tools of good governance and transparent democratic processes.
This irrepressible politician who was forced out of the ruling party- the people’s Democratic Party (PDP) to organize and register the Progressives People’s Alliance (PPA) told the Leadership Newspaper thus; “But we now have professional Armed Forces and they are protecting democracy…the danger I see is rigging elections in 2011, because if they rig election in 2011, it might endanger the unity of the country and the fourth republic”. This is a self evident fact.
The Anambra gubernatorial poll is expected to be free and fair because the two dominant parties-People’s Democratic Party and People’s Progressive Alliance parade credible aspirants. In PDP there are good aspirants like Dr. Harry Oranezi and Professor Charles Soludo among others and in PPA great numbers of credible politicians are stampeding to join the rank of gubernatorial aspirants to fly the flag of the party in Anambra state.
+Onwubiko heads the Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria.
