Apart from the tragic ending and the fumbles that marked the Kogi
gubernatorial election last week, there are numerous lessons that spewed
from that election that are compliant with the much-cherished change we
have in Nigeria today. Prince Abubakar Audu, the undisputed winner of the
stymied election, dropped dead just after the election was curiously
declared inconclusive by a fumbling INEC that misinterpreted certain
portions of the electoral act to cull a needless supplementary election
that will not affect the certain victory of the APC candidate. By the
results of the election, Alhaji Audu proved that he was a consummate and
well loved politician whose sure grips of the politics of Kogi State was
merely interjected by PDP’s cloak-and-dagger politics that excels in
manipulating elections in favor of its choice candidates.
Prince Audu Abubakar couldn’t have died at a more critical time n his
cheque red but eventful political history. He was standing on the very
cusps of momentous history. Here was a man that still holds a record of
performance in Kogi governance no one had equaled. Here was a grassroots
man that was callously prevented from a second term by the bizarre
predilection of PDP to pull every vile stop to reward itself. Here was a
man that spurned all overtures to remain in opposition and fight in every
election, to get back his mandate and take Kogi further from where he left
it in 2003. Here was a man who never had an opportunity to prove his real
mass followership because PDP prevented free and fair election in Kogi,
and elsewhere, as its cosmetic flavor lasted. Here was a man, who,
presented, with the first instance of credible election since he was
schemed out of power, dusted a sitting incumbent so much so that he won
16 out of the 21 local councils in Kogi State and was riding sure-footedly
on the roller coaster of history when INEC and death struck. The rest, as
they say is history for one of the most colorful politicians that trod the
sands of Nigeria.
But, did we notice something else, something more far-reaching, more
fundamental and pointing to the kind of change that has swept over the
polity since May 29, in the conduct of the Kogi election? Did we see
platoons of ready-to-kill soldiers, battalions of dubiously masked state
security apparatchiks, armed mobile policemen, different cadres of
paramilitary forces littered generously in Kogi for the purpose of State
governorship election? Did we see politicians of the opposing camp
hounded and hunted as if they were war criminals by the ruling party? Did
we see fear and dread nakedly launched on the streets as if the country is
fighting a civil war? Did we notice all manners of armed goons unleashed
to track and hunt down the opposition while the ruling party had a field
day, writing results to favour its candidate? Did we notice top decks of
the military and police being choreographed into a plot to rig election
for the party that controls the security forces? Did you notice INEC
playing the enforcer to the sordid plots of the government at the center?
Did we see power drunk exuberant ministers and other officials of state,
running riot all over the place and enforcing their nuances and
idiosyncrasies to favour their part’s candidates? Did we see roads and air
spaces barricaded against the opposition to prevent them from freely
campaigning in Kogi? So what gave? Did we see the Kogi governor being
upbraided by lowly security goons commissioned from Abuja for such hatchet
roles? It’s all about change for the better.
Now, let us juxtapose the above enquiries to what we saw happened in all
the elections conducted so far by the PDP especially those in Ondo,
Anambra, Ekiti, Osun and even Edo. Let us dilate through all the deadly
Gestapo means the immediate past government adopted to muscle states to
favour the PDP in every election it supervised. Is it not possible that in
refusing to molest or hunt the opposition so as to manipulate the system,
President Buhaei’s government is living the change it propounds and which
saw it ride majestically to power on its crest last March? Can we, as
citizens of a country with long history of farcical elections, quantify
what it means for citizens to vote for their political choices
unencumbered in every election? If this is not a critical component of
change, pray what is? Oh yes, a new Sheriff is town. Old order passeth
way; yielding place to a new. Change is here!
If we remember the cacophony of puerile endless noises and allegations the
PDP dished out en route that election, there is every need to ask our
newly-hewn opposition what becomes of the array of countless plots it said
it discovered about APC, President Buhari, security agencies, INEC, the
federal government and nearly everybody bandying together to rig the Kogi
election for APC. Do we remember the disoriented wolf-crying what remains
if PDP made its primary business as the election approached? Is it not
just and proper to find out from the party how its doomsday ‘findings’
were met on Election Day? It is not just enough to dismiss the unending
tales of woes, inchoate allegations, mischief and lies the PDP has
adopted as a style of walking out of a very deep self-dug political
quagmire but I think the party must be made to substantiate the large
volume of tendentious vomits it continues to spew out everyday in the name
of opposition politics and the Kogi election is a good ground to
interrogate the tactics of Nigeria’s new opposition as it claws vainly on
thin air to tackle possible extinction. In raising all the hoaxes it did
on the Kogi polls, PDP was desperately leveraging on its vile means to
anticipate that the APC federal government will visit its damned measures
on it but thank God for change!
Let us remember that on Election Day, the PDP Deputy Governorship
candidate, Prince Awoniyi, was so effusive with praises for INEC’s conduct
of the election. Let us equally recall that, apparently sensing electoral
defeat, the incumbent Governor Wada was to launch into a frenzy of
uncoordinated salvo reminiscent of the PDP that there were plots to rig
the election just because he failed biometric data test even when he voted
after being captured on the incidence form, like all the others that
failed biometric test. Wada neither spoke further nor named those he
alleged planed to manipulate the election. Since after the election, the
PDP has neither advanced charge nor proof of election rigging contrary to
its heightened self-induced paranoia before the election. The PDP has
neither raised nor sustained any allegation that any of its members was
harassed, intimidated, arrested or hunted prior to and during the election
by security forces, as we had been used to before change came. Is this not
enough to cleanse the deadly war field the PDP reduced Nigeria’s politics
as it violently prosecuted is nihilistic ambitions for sixteen years?
Pray, is the free and unhindered conduct of the Kogi election; the first
by the Buhari government, not proof that we have departed from the much
abuses past, to a promising present, marching to a fulfilling future?
Irrespective of the INEC mistake and the temporary glitches thrown in by
the unfortunate demise of the lovable Prince Abubakar Audu, the Kogi
election shows the way on what to expect with a change that targets
negative attitudinal conducts for reform. The election marks a radical
departure from the sordid ways of conducting elections, which has gone to
soil our politics and drive decent people far into cynicism. By refusing
to employ government agencies for partisan self help, as had been the case
before now, the Buhari government has demonstrated a very critical roadmap
that will certainly purify the nation’s politics and extend an expansive
multiplier effect that will positively affect governance and delivery as
those in power learn to trust in their performance in office to earn
reelection and not the long hands of the federal government. This remains
a very critical component of the change we voted for in March. Kogi
remains a pointer to more refreshing developments that will follow not
only our electoral conducts but the conduct of businesses in a new Nigeria
that is emerging on the wings of change.
Peter Claver Oparah
Ikeja, Lagos.
E-mail: peterclaver2000@yahoo.com