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Olusegun Adeniyi’s “Between Ekiti Re-Run Election and Electoral Reform”: A rejoinder

May 3, 2009

The Ekiti election rerun (avoidable) debacle triggered a discourse that spanned Nigeria’s borders. With comments and counter-comments on this nonsensical development fighting for attention in the various news media outlets, it shouldn’t be surprising that Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi rose to the occasion in defence of his Principal. Now, if you are an agent for a president who has been dubbed as ‘Baba go slow’ in some circles, then you had better be good at doing your job. After almost two years in office, there shouldn’t be any doubt as to how very busy doing nothing Mr. Umaru Yar’adua has been. And I don’t mean this as a stinging criticism; all we need do is compare his two years in office so far with Obama’s hundred days. Before, I get annihilated for drawing a comparison between Obama and Yar’adua, I beg for patience. And I draw precedence from Mr. Adeniyi’s comparison of the Ekiti issue with the yet unresolved Minnesota senate race between the incumbent, Norm Coleman and erstwhile radio talk show host, Al Franken. This is perhaps the crux of this rejoinder and I would come back to it shortly.


Seeing that this administration has been plagued by inertia, I do not hesitate to infer that the task of picking up behind Mr. Umaru Yar’adua must be an arduous one. The job of the special adviser on media and publicity must be tough and the Ekiti issue and its pointers at Aso Rock: its politics and posturing toward 2011 must make the job require a very good agent. Having read Mr. Adeniyi’s press release (or whatever it is they call those things) and several other pieces written by him in the past, I know and I am sure that he is good. Although, I doubt that I possess the qualification to conduct an appraisal on his performance in the villa so far, I am willing to stick out my neck and proclaim that he has been an exemplary journalist in the Nigerian sphere for the most part of his career. He did a good job making a case for his principal. In fact, he almost succeeded at dulling our senses and having us beat a retreat from calling out these rulers for not showing any seriousness toward resolving our endemic problems. Like I said, he almost succeeded.

Mr. Adeniyi was correct in asserting that Mr. Yar’adua chose out of his volition, to initiate electoral reforms but need we remind him that he (Mr. Adeniyi), as an editor with ‘This Day’ newspapers, also commented on the shameful conduct of the 2007 elections. If I remember correctly, he got invited to conduct an interview with Mr. Yar’adua sometime before or after the election. Some of us still remember all that talk from the excerpts of the interview about the candidate/president-elect receiving a gift in his dream many years previously, etc. By a stroke of INEC’s subterranean genius, Mr. Yar’adua of the PDP supposedly won the 2007 presidential election by 70% of the votes cast. So he did get a gift beyond what he dreamed of. But on waking up, he must have realized that only in dream land could the April 2007 injustice have happened. There was clearly a disconnection between INEC’s gauge of his popularity as expressed in their votes tally and the pulse of the nation. His electoral mandate was put to question and the legitimacy of his ascendancy was in doubt and I dare say, has remained so in spite of the daredevil antics of the Supreme Court. So, yes he called for electoral reforms as common sense would have any legitimacy craving politician do.

What we have seen in two years of this administration concerning electoral reforms is a far cry from that servant leader posture presented on that Eagle Square podium on May 29, 2007. Curiously, Mr. Adeniyi has compared the Ekiti issue with the Minnesota senate race in an attempt to justify what is at best an absurdity and at worst a criminal violation of the people’s will. What Mr. Adeniyi did not mention is that Norm Coleman, one of the  incumbent senators from that state has not been seated and would not be until all the issues surrounding the election are resolved. Under the Nigerian context, a candidate would have been declared winner by INEC and issued a certificate of return pending a resolution of all litigation matters concerning the election, where they arise. He also would not mention that President Obama has not called a meeting of the Democratic National Committee or other party cohorts to the White House to deliberate on the senate seat issue. Neither has the Director of the FBI, nor the Secretary of the Interior interfered with the ongoing process. The signs that came out of the seat of power in the wake of Mrs. Adebayo’s resignation and subsequent disappearance were very dangerous. Such developments explain some parts as to why contestants view elections as do or die affairs in emerging democracies like ours. Why was it necessary for the President to confer with party leaders if as they say, it was an issue for the INEC and the REC, in this case, Mrs. Adebayo to deal with? Why was it necessary for the Inspector-General of Police, the Minister of Information and the Chairman of INEC to hold a joint press conference on an ‘out-of-the-way’ election in Ekiti? I should mention that in our own system of democracy all these offices are direct reports of the office of the President. We can argue about the position of INEC regarding this but I make haste to point out that the Chairman’s first port of call after the break of this issue was Aso Rock and not the Three Arms zone (the National Assembly). Why would the Inspector General of Police issue a ‘wanted’ call on the head of an electoral officer who had tendered her resignation letter prior?

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It is important to make this very clear: the Ekiti election rerun problem does not in the slightest manner compare with the Minnesota senate election matter. The president’s agents do not do him any service when they concoct positions that eminently reduce the level of the debate in a bid to “cool the polity”. The truth of the matter is that the ruling PDP has so far gotten away with their rape of the people and the flawed system. As constituted, they are also not willing and or courageous enough to champion the cause for the renewal and repositioning of our nation. By next year, it would have been 50years since we attained sovereignty but the road to nationhood is presently non-existent. Electoral reform is perhaps one of the most fundamental anchors upon which the sustenance of anything left of our sovereignty lies. It is not wrong timing for us to demand that Mr. Yar’adua adopts the Justice Uwais report in its entirety. There are several bodies or organs in our system that can coordinate the appointment of members and Chairpersons into INEC without the President having to do it. It is unfair to allow individuals with unresolved election mandates to assume seats that are under contest. These are big issues and they need to be resolved but we must stop accepting short cut routes and begin to face up to big challenges with big attitudes.

By the time this piece passes through the press cycle, the rerun elections in the remaining two (or more) wards in Ekiti would have been conducted. For all intents and purposes, the PDP may by that time have run away again with another extended tenure for a PDP Governor in their bid to conquer at all cost. All of this not minding those mothers and grandmothers who bared there mammary glands for whoever cared to look on the streets of Ekiti. The party in power reserves the responsibility to demonstrate humility and tolerance and typify their behavior such that it would be worthy of emulation by those on the fringes. Mr. Yar’adua and the PDP must see these as the call of the times and show some leadership. Frankly, they should be aware that as demonstrated by the irate mobs in Ekiti, the people are tired of ‘rulership’.


Robert B. Toulouse Fellow
University of North Texas, Texas, USA
[email protected]
 

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