PRESS STATEMENT 15TH MARCH 2009
CHIEF ANTHONY ANENIH AND GOSPEL OF NO VACANCY
‘God should please grant President Yaradua good health to complete his six remaining years’
---------Chief Anthony Anenih @ 10 th Memorial Lecture of Late Shehu Musa Yaradua.
Conference of Nigeria Political Parties {CNPP}, could not have bothered to comment on Chief Anthony Anenih’s prayer for President Umaru Musa Yaradua’s good health during the 10 th Memorial Lecture of late Shehu Musa Yaradua; but for the grave danger posed by an elder like Chief Anenih awarding four more years, from no where to the tenure of the president. Secondly, we cannot forget easily when in 2002, while we were preparing for 2003 elections, the same Chief Anenih threw caution to the winds and declared that as far he is concerned, there is no vacancy in Aso Villa, that ex-president Chief Obasanjo’s victory is fait accompli, with or without elections.
As an African proverb goes, the witch cried in the night and the child died in the morning; which means that Chief Anenih was aware when he made this mischievous statement on 7 th March that by 11 th March, the Federal Executive Council meeting will mutilate and reject the core ingredients of the Electoral Reform Committee {ERC} Report, to pave way for tenure elongation or another round of sham elections, hence the award of extra four years to his new boss.
We are at a loss how President Yaradua will page with Chief Anenih , on an issue that breaches the rule of law, which is the only pillar of his regime. How can President Yaradua belief that if the president as a contender in the race, is insulated from appointing the Chairman, National and Resident Electoral Commissioners, 774 local government Electoral Officers and 120,000 Polling Officers, as the Electoral Reform Committee {ERC} recommended; that his party, the Peoples Democratic Party {PDP} will loose the 2011 general elections?
When President Yaradua in his inaugural address said, ‘I will set up a panel to examine the entire Electoral Process, with a view to ensuring that we raise the quality and standard of our general elections and thereby deepen our democracy’; we thought a savior has come to abolish Do-or-Die political culture and One Party State.
Chief Anenih like Chief Micheal Aondoakaa and Alhaji Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, who crushed the bequeathing legacy President Yaradua could have left in the sands of time, by not only consigning the core ingredient and the sticky point of ERC Report- appointment of key officials of the Electoral Commission by NJC to the dust-bin, but the original White Paper presented by Dr Shettima Mustapha, Hon Minister of Defence’s Committee; are musketeers of Hidden Agenda.
The Aondoakaa Committee in an effort to actualize Chief Anenih’s prayer of six more years reasoned paradoxically that the insulation of the president from appointment of Chairman and the top echelon of the Electoral Commission will impinge on the doctrine of separation of powers; while adopting the provision for merging of both national and state Electoral Commissions, which deals a great blow to the doctrine of true federalism.
To spice their Trojan Horse, they argued against post-election adjudication within six months before swearing-in of declared winner saying,’ Federal Executive Council did not accept this recommendation because the current system in which judgments sometimes come after six months presents a better dispensation of justice to the aggrieved.’ How on earth can these Aondokaa and Baba-Ahmed proviso serve the agitation of Nigerians for genuine and credible Electoral Reform?
Whereas, we join Chief Anthony Anenih, newly recruited Mr Fix It, in praying for the good health of President Yaradua; however we take exception to the falsehood of the caveat of remaining six years of President Yaradua, coming from a man who is supposed to be a statesman. Is it not a paradox that Chief Anenih, slotted in this gospel of falsehood in a prayer to God?
Chief Anenih instead of talking of remaining two years and two months in a four year tenure, provided by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria; is either flying a kite of tenure elongation or watering ground for electoral confusion in the land.What is not in doubt is that they are bent on Do-or-Die political culture inherited from their leader, ex-president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo.
CNPP is highly concerned for the future of our democracy, when anti-democratic hawks like Chiefs Anthony Anenih, Michael Aondoakaa and Hakeem Baba-Ahmed are now the powers behind the throne. Can there be free, fair and transparent elections in 2011, when Chiefs Anenih, Aondoakaa and Baba-Ahmed are on the driving seat?
Consequently, we call on President Yaradua to as a matter of urgent national importance to dismiss, Chiefs Anthony Anenih, Micheal Aondoakaa and Baba-Ahmed; for the protection of our fledgling democracy and national security.
Osita Okechukwu
National Publicity Secretary
CNPP
