I just finished reading Engr. Ernest Ndukwe’s piece captioned “Enough of divisive presidential election petitioning” carried on the back page of the Sunday edition of the Daily Sun [28th May, 2011] and could not resist the urge to respond to the said article.
I just finished reading Engr. Ernest Ndukwe’s piece captioned “Enough of divisive presidential election petitioning” carried on the back page of the Sunday edition of the Daily Sun [28th May, 2011] and could not resist the urge to respond to the said article.
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In the said essay, Ndukwe who is the immediate past Executive Vice Chairman of NCC made a feeble attempt at discouraging the Presidential candidate of the CPC in the last election, Gen. Muhamadu Buhari from continuing with his challenge of the outcome of the said election in the appropriate election tribunal. I am not a Buhari apologist but I am compelled by the feeble logic presented by Ndukwe to pull to pieces his argument.
To the best of my knowledge, Engr. Ndukwe is a gentleman that discharged his duties while at the helm of affairs of the Nigerian Communication Commission with a rare brand of professionalism. I cannot remember anyone challenging his professional competency while in that office, but he completely lost it when he penned that advice suggesting to General Buhari to ditch his case at the Tribunal. The Laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria provides for an aggrieved person to go to court to challenge any perceived electoral injustice, no matter how flimsy the case might appear to others. Ndukwe chose to ignore this fact when he took it upon himself to advice the General to forgo his case. This is wrong and should be condemned.
Another disturbing fallacy contained in Engr. Ndukwe’s argument is the foggy recourse to the realms of the Spirits; he presented a wacky proposition that since President Goodluck Jonathan rose from a humble background to become the president of Nigeria, there certainly could be seen the hands of the Supernatural powers and some spiritual forces in his ascendency to that high position. This is nonsense. For a highly educated applied-scientist to argue thus makes mockery of our zeal to tackle our man-made problems with rationality and pure reason. Ndukwe’s picture of the wishes and prayers of Mr. President’s grandmother and that of former Zambiam president, Kenneth Kaunda as representing a verification of the pre-arranged spiritual forces propelling Goodluck Jonathan to stardom is pure crap.
This is absolute nonsense; I feel strongly ashamed that a man of Engr. Ndukwe’s intellectual standing would try to use an allegory that is both bland and puerile to support his case for the perpetuation of ignorance and misinformation. I could accept that Mr. President’s grandmother named him Azikiwe and prayed for him to become successful and famous, it is safe to concede that Mr. Kaunda, a known politician wished for and believed that Mr. president [then a state Governor] would later become the president of Nigeria- but to argue on those premise that his becoming the president eventually is as a result of such beautiful goodwill is to me extremely unsettling. This is recourse to that archaic but still useful hypocrisy adopted by our leaders when they fly the kite of “it is the will of God’! This is a sinful lie being sold to Nigerians by those that call the shots in our nation and should be rightly repudiated and condemned by well-meaning fellow citizens.
Engr. Ndukwe took the lie a step further when he used the name of God in supporting his case for the celebration of President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency; “if it’s God’s will that Jonathan be president, who are we mortals to contest it”. Why then do we have Election Tribunals in our country if it could be argued that whoever was declared winner in the first instance should be allowed to go unchallenged? We are practicing a democracy that amongst other things, maintains that dissidents voices be heard, we are living in a civilized world where human beings choose who to lead them and not God, and we are citizens of a country that is run based on the provisions of the Rule of Law. General Buhari should not be condemned as an enemy of progress for the mere fact that he feels aggrieved due to the outcome of the last Presidential election. It is my considered view that Engr. Ndukwe and similar voices that cherishes the progress of our nation should be magnanimous enough to allow General Buhari to pursue his fight to a logical conclusion; if actually Mr. President won the election freely, if there is really a Divine machination positively propelling Goodluck, his supporters should let that Force see him through rather than mount pressure on the opposition to sheath their swords.
One could go on and on. But it is with a sense of humility and profound respect that I wish to state categorically that Engr. Ernest Ndukwe got it all wrong here-hence, my “NO SIR”.
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