By Femi Aribisala<\/p>\n
If Nigeria is a nation of laws and of the rule of law, the presidential
\ncandidacy of Muhammadu Buhari should end this week. The reason is
\nwell-known to all. Buhari swore an oath on his INEC application that his
\ncre\u00e5dentials are with the military. This turned out to be a lie.<\/p>\n
The military has come out to deny that it has Buhari\u2019s credentials. That
\nmeans Buhari committed perjury instead of fulfilling INEC requirements.
\nFor this reason, he must be disqualified from contesting the presidential
\nelection.<\/p>\n
The matter has been taken to court and the courts should decide the matter
\nthis week. I am not a lawyer, but from my layman\u2019s perspective, this is an
\nopen and shut case. Buhari lied willfully. As a former military secretary
\nof the Nigerian Army, he knew that the military does not keep any
\ncredentials of its service-men. Nevertheless, he lied on oath that his
\ncredentials are with the military. He must face the penalty for this
\nperjury. There can be debate about whether, and for how long, he should go
\nto jail. However, there can be no question about his resultant
\nineligibility to contest: he must be disqualified.<\/p>\n
To overlook this infraction is to succumb to Buhari\u2019s appraisal that
\nNigeria is corrupt. If we are going to deal with corruption, we must not
\nfail to deal with the likes of Buhari, who are contemptuous of the laws of
\nthe land. Buhari\u2019s false affidavit is corruption. The disqualification of
\nBuhari by the courts will be a testament to the determination of the
\njudiciary to show zero tolerance for corruption in the coming new
\ndispensation.<\/p>\n
Some of us have watched APC make a song and dance about the possibility of
\npostponing the 2015 elections. The party brought out all its big guns to
\ntell us that the election cannot be postponed. They insisted that if it is
\npostponed all hell would break lose. Well, the election has been postponed
\nand nothing has happened. It has been postponed and the APC can do nothing
\nabout it. It was postponed according to the law.<\/p>\n
Similarly, the heavens will not fall with the lawful disqualification of
\nBuhari. Of all those APC could present as its presidential candidate, it
\nchose a man without the appropriate credentials. APC has nobody to blame
\nbut itself for this fiasco. It has forfeited its chance of presenting a
\ncandidate for the 2015 presidential election. The contest should now be
\nbetween the remaining 13 presidential candidates. Shikenan!<\/p>\n
JEGA MUST GO IMMEDIATELY<\/p>\n
The excuse used to force Attahiru Jega to postpone the elections is the
\ninability to provide effective security given the insurgency in the
\nNorth-East. However, there is little likelihood that the security
\nsituation will improve within the next six weeks of the postponement. So,
\nstrictly-speaking, security has nothing to do with the postponement. One
\nmajor reason for the postponement was to prevent INEC from compromising
\nthe election.<\/p>\n
INEC has long ceased to be a disinterested umpire in this election. The
\nevidence is now overwhelming that INEC is determined to bias the election
\nin favour of Muhammadu Buhari and the APC. This is evident in INEC\u2019s
\ndetermination to go ahead with the election in spite of the fact that out
\nof 68 million registered voters, over 20 million have yet to receive their
\npermanent voter\u2019s cards (PVCs).<\/p>\n
It is remarkable that, in announcing the postponement, Jega conveniently
\nforgot to mention the nagging issue of the inadequacies of INEC in
\nproviding voters with their PVCs. It is also remarkable that Jega briefed
\nthe Council of State that INEC was ready to conduct the elections. This
\nwas one big lie. You cannot be ready to conduct elections when there is a
\ncacophony of complaints, especially in the South, that people are unable
\nto claim their PVCs. Given the time it took INEC to distribute 40 million
\nPVCs, it could not have realistically expected to be able to distribute
\nthe outstanding 20 million in just one week?<\/p>\n
INEC rigmarole<\/p>\n
What is even more sinister is INEC\u2019s willful determination to
\ndisenfranchise select geopolitical regions which represent areas of
\nstrength for Goodluck Jonathan. Credible Alternative Alliance, an
\nindependent political interest organization led by former Kaduna State
\ngovernor, Balarabe Musa, observed in INEC activities: \u201ca criminal gross
\ndisparity of voter spread designed to tilt the election to a
\npre-determined outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said: \u201cVoters in the zones that tend to support President Goodluck
\nJonathan are massively disenfranchised by the application of the so-called
\nPVCs debacle, 40% to 50% of voters in these regions who are lawfully and
\nduly registered to vote will be denied their right to vote by INEC. That
\nis nearly half of the support base of the President, simply nullified by
\nadministrative failure prior to the election. By comparison, the zones
\nthat tend to support Buhari are handed a massive voter advantage, nearly
\n80% of his support base will be allowed to cast their votes by INEC.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn an election, which many say will be won or lost by a slim margin, to
\nnow disenfranchise 20 million voters through a questionable and unlawful
\nrule by INEC is not acceptable by any measure. CAA condemns in its
\nentirety this attempt by INEC to undermine our nascent democracy through
\nthis criminal enterprise to determine the outcome of this election before
\nthe ballot is cast.\u201d<\/p>\n
This position is corroborated by different observers in the field. INEC
\nneeds to explain how more people in the war-torn North-East have collected
\ntheir PVCs than in the South-West, South-South and South-East. In the APC
\nstrongholds of the North-West and the North-East, 80.18% and 81.09%
\ncollection rates were recorded respectively. In the North-Central, the
\nfigure was 69.89%. However, the figures in the South were significantly
\nlower than these. In the South-East, it was 59.22%. South-South: 66.66%;
\nand South-West 43.15%.<\/p>\n
Since INEC under Jega is no longer an independent umpire but is now
\nclearly working for the opposition, Jega should be sent on compulsory
\nleave and a temporary chairman should be nominated to handle the
\nelections. Jega can no longer be trusted.<\/p>\n
THE MISCHIEF OF FORMER CBN GOVERNOR, LAMIDO SANUSI<\/p>\n
Former Central Bank governor, Lamido Sanusi, caused uproar when he
\ndeclared that $49.8 billion of Nigeria\u2019s oil money was missing, allegedly
\ndiverted by the NNPC. For a Central Bank governor, the statement was not
\nonly irresponsible, it was downright mischievous. If it were not that
\nNigeria is an innumerate society where we have little or no understanding
\nof figures, it would have been obvious that, for the size of the Nigerian
\neconomy, it was impossible for such a large sum to be missing.<\/p>\n
However, the allegation fell into the narrative of the opposition APC
\nparty which was determined to portray the Jonathan Administration as the
\nmost corrupt in the history of Nigeria. There was a lot of hue and cry in
\nthe press about the missing money; after all, the claim was made by the
\nCentral Bank governor no less. However, the governor seemed to have
\nplucked the missing figure out of thin air.<\/p>\n
Soon, it was not $49.8 billion at all, but $10.8 billion. Then again, it
\nwas no longer $10.8 billion but $20 billion. It should have been clear
\nfrom all this that the CBN governor was just fibbing. But in Nigeria, we
\nare socialissed to believe the worst.<\/p>\n
School-certificate economics<\/p>\n
General Buhari, the APC presidential candidate, has used this fictitious
\n$20 billion dollars to preach his own school-certificate economics on the
\ncampaign stump. He said: \u201c$20 Billion at N210 to $1.00 is equal to N4.2
\ntrillion- nearly a year\u2019s federal budget.\u201d<\/p>\n
If so, how can Buhari believe an amount nearly equal to Nigeria\u2019s annual
\nfederal budget could possibly be missing? No matter how corrupt a nation
\ncan be, it is ridiculous to presume that public officers would go ahead
\nand steal the entire annual federal budget? Haba! Buhari then used this
\nmalarkey to formulate his own voodoo economics.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIf it is true that this sum cannot be accounted for, this is
\ngrossest form of corruption. Just think at N5 million per vehicle, this
\nmoney would have bought 840,000 patrol vehicles; (this would have improved
\nsecurity in every town and village in the country). At N13.5 million for a
\nhigh capacity bus this money would have bought 311,000 buses; (this would
\nhave revolutionised the transport and production side of the economy).\u201d<\/p>\n
It is this kind of rudimentary economics that Buhari has been presenting
\nas an excuse for an economic policy to Nigerians in this election season.
\nJust listen to this vain platitude from our eminent retired general. He
\nsays: \u201cThe monies we realised from anti-corruption campaign will be
\nadequately used to improve education in the country.\u201d Now that is an
\neconomic policy that is practically meaningless.<\/p>\n
Forensic audit<\/p>\n
Because of the nuisance value of men like Buhari, the Finance Minister,
\nNgozi Okonjo-Iweala was constrained to ask for a forensic audit of NNPC
\naccounts in order to put the matter to rest. She chose
\nPricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC); one of the big four auditors in the world,
\nalong with Deloitte, EY and KPMG.<\/p>\n
PwC has now provided a conclusive report that shows Sanusi\u2019s allegation of
\na missing $20 billion is one big fabrication. This matter needs to be
\nemphasized now that the report is out. Lamido Sanusi lied. The Central
\nBank governor deliberately cried wolf when he jolly well knew there was no
\nwolf. He was just determined to malign and discredit the government; and
\nhe was playing a script to the benefit of the opposition APC.<\/p>\n
This then lends credence to the PDP allegation that Sanusi was an APC mole
\nin the government. Indeed, the PDP claims Sanusi gave the APC 1 billion
\nnaira of Central Bank money to open its offices nationwide. It also
\nmaintains that a fraudulent N48 billion contract was awarded by Sanusi\u2019s
\nCBN to a leader of the APC, while a further N5 billion was paid to another
\nAPC member as consultancy fee. So much for APC\u2019s anti-corruption hogwash!<\/p>\n
Femi Aribisala is a scholar and international affairs expert. He is
\ncurrently an iconoclastic church pastor in Lagos. He is also a syndicated
\nessayist for a handful publications in Nigeria.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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