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THE NIGERIAN JUDICIARY AND ELECTION RIGGING IN NIGERIA

December 13, 2008
We have done it again, in the land of the giants. Giant of Africa! For me as a Nigerian living in Europe, it is a sad day. Sad day that the people of Nigeria’s voice have finally been declared irrelevant. Considering the malpractices that attended the 2007 elections, it is hard for me to say who won the election, just like most people with sane mind and as observed by the international community. At worst the election should have be nullified and redone again. Have we been let down by that organ of the society that is supposed to be the last bastion of hope for the common man? One of the contestants’ disappointments could not be more emphasized as shown in the quote below: “We shall never compromise with their oppressors. We shall never sell out to their oppressors. We shall never compromise with those who steal their money; deny them education, deny them healthcare, deny them adequate drinking water, deny them good roads, leave them unprotected and steal their votes. I am not in this for myself alone or for the glory of office. I am in it to serve them and to help protect their interests.” – Mohammad Buhari (ANPP Presidential candidate 2007 election). The “them” in the quote are the downtrodden Nigerian masses. Since becoming an adult, I have been wondering if Nigerians really knew, that by rigging elections all of the factors mentioned by Buhari are truly being denied them? In life we all have choices either as individuals or collectively as a nation. Unfortunately, in my own opinion the choices we have made collectively as a people of Nigeria is to sit on the fence, leave the fights for octogenarians like Gani Fawehinmi and others, like Femi Falana, and Wole Soyinkas etc, without any shred of supports from us the masses. I fervently believe that if the masses had lent their massive supports to the fights of the people mentioned above, election rigging, treasury looting, deprivations, poverty would have been a thing of the past. Perhaps, may be people like those human rights activists and myself do not really understand the Nigerian masses. May be the current status quo is what the Nigerian masses prefer? The chaos and the jungle justice? May be this is what the people of Nigeria really like, hence they choose or prefer not to rise up and fight for their rights. May be the current state of penury, misery, and general poverty of health, food, security and infrastructure suits our people? Could it be that those of us who see the current state of events in Nigeria as oppression do not understand the meaning of oppression in the Nigerian context? Questions, intrigues and all. One thing I do know however is that there are lots of things in Nigeria that defy any known logic. Are the people of Nigeria satisfied with their lots? I somehow reluctantly want to believe that they do, that is, they are satisfied with all the pillages, miscarriages of justice, police oppression and every other thing evil. If they do not like the current status quo, by now they would or should have come out in droves, in millions to challenge the injustices, oppression and deprivation they suffer on daily basis. It would also not be the first time that people who do not like oppression and injustice would fight for their rights. Some of us witnessed such uprising by the Greek students in the 1970s to rescue their country from military dictatorship, and turn their country in the right direction. What about the South Korea experience, students versus military? South Korea is all the better for it now. Shamefully, we import their LG electronics, Cars, Human Resources, when we also should be manufacturing and exporting similar gadgets to other parts of the world. For an average myopic Nigerian who misunderstands sentimentalism as patriotism would tell you, we have the resources and we can do it too, just that our leaders do not encourage us. Yes, he might have a point, but the bottom line is that we have not so far managed it, not as Nigerians and not in Nigeria by a foreign manufacturer either. And it is obvious that the so called leaders would not support such schemes because they either got to power in the first place either through the butt of the guns or election rigging, supported by the docile attitudes of the complaining masses. The “leaders will not support such scheme because that is not their aim, which is to embezzle, impoverish and stem growth of developments. Going back to people who knew oppression and rejected the farce, some of us would also remember the Philippines’ experience with Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, chased out by people’s power in 1986. Ceausescu of Romania oppressed his people for so long, he was removed by the same people who finally rejected the aberrations. What about the Berlin wall brought down by people’s power? The people of Thailand used people’s power to topple an illegitimate government rigged into power. There are so many examples around the world, mentioning of all would warrant writing volumes of books on it. So with all the examples mentioned above, does that mean that Nigerians did not know those events took place? To add a little bit of humor, you need to have light in the first place to be able to watch TV. Having a TV in itself does not guarantee access to CNN, as someone who has not even fed well cannot even subscribe to cable TV. On the other hand, where there is access to cable TV, what do most watch? Soaps from Mexico, MTV and the European Premier league, as the Nigerian league is dead, and extinct like the dinosaur or the dodo. So what happened in those places as far as Nigerians are concerned were things that could never happen in Nigeria. How pathetic? Yet, this entity called Nigeria is a place where any Nigerian’s life could be snuffed out at any moment for factors that are avoidable, with due care and attention. Factors like bad roads which have claimed so many lives in the country. I guess if Nigerians would be honest with themselves, I guess almost every household or family must have at one time or the other experienced the grief that road accidents caused in the country. Reasons, not farfetched. We all seem to know where the money meant to make sure the kinds of deaths unfix roads cause end up. A road and transport minister and his cohorts’ pockets, and the people pay for it by grieving for loved ones, who have either being maimed, or lost to accidents as a result of vehicle accidents, triggered by unfix roads and corruption of the criminals in charge of making sure the infrastructure is in top shape. So far I do not think anyone or organizations in Nigeria have tried to quantify the devastating effects deaths by road accidents have brought on families in the country as a result of mindless looting of funds meant for making sure those roads are meant to be plied by human beings and not animals. When the bread winner of a family dies carelessly like this, the family is destroyed. It could mean the end of the education for most members of that family; some female member may resort into prostitution so the family can survive. This is just one example of what mindless nation looting brought about by election rigging can cause. IMPLICIT DEVASTATING GENOCIDE????? The odds stacked against an average Nigerian are so numerous like inadequate or none existent health care facilities, armed robberies, careless death in the hands of the security agents, i.e. the police who are meant to protect the people in the first place. It is called accidental discharge. The accidental discharge has happened so many times that nothing has been done about it. Talking about people’s power and the ability of the masses to register their disapproval of illegalities, to those of us who have access to world media, the Greeks (teenagers mainly) are currently letting the government of their country know that there is no place for accidental discharge a la Nigeria, in their country, it was supposed to be the first time it has happened, and the Greeks are determined it never happened again. To those who are reading this and did not know, the Greek police claimed he killed a Greek teenager accidentally, but the Greek youth didn’t think so, rather they thought it was deliberate, someone has to pay for this. The way it is going, it would be a surprise if the Greek government is not forced to resign over this and other matters for which the masses have not been happy with overtime. Yet, and Okada rider was asked to open his mouth by a naval officer so that he could pump some bullets into it for scratching his “beloved car”, yes in Nigeria. Nothing happened, female get horse whipped for not clearing of the roads because “security agents/navy or whatever wanted to pass. Wetin Happen? Noise and noise only. Just because the victim is the daughter of a highly connected person. (Vagabonds in Power). I bet it won’t be the last time it will happen in Nigeria in as much as the masses have decided to play the ostrich. With all the odds and factors stacked against an average Nigerian mentioned in this document, someone still want them to believe they are the happiest people on earth, which have been taken out of context in Nigeria. How can you be the happiest people on earth when your life can be snuffed out any minute, by lack of security, bad roads, bad or no health care systems, hunger and malnutrition, as a result of unemployment? Worst of all, Nigerians votes amount to nothing. I wonder why people even bother to vote at times, in the knowledge that the result would be written out for them anyway. Where there is a protest, the judiciary or the tribunal would be compromised or out rightly bought. The square peg would eventually be put in a round hole, and the vicious cycle would continue. The happiest people on earth would recoil in the shells, sit on the fence, leave the rest to God and get on with their miserable lives of penury, deprivation, poverty and bleak future.

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