“What happened in Ekiti yesterday was an ominous sign for democracy and our country….It is very sad indeed.”- Prof. Pat Utomi
“I don’t have confidence in INEC and the electoral process. Both the election and the process have been discredited….The PDP has murdered sleep and they will sleep no more.”- Chief Niyi Akintola, SAN
“What we witnessed in Ekiti is very sad for democracy and the country.”- Ricky Tarfa, SAN
“I wish PDP luck. Now that they have rigged the election, let them carry the shame on their heads. The whole world is watching Nigeria.”- Fred Agbaje, Constitutional Lawyer
“We did not rig the poll. Everybody was part of the process and the collation of results was transparent.”- Prof. Rufai Alkali, PDP Spokesman
It is in the nature of being human to live within bursts of optimism and the depth of despair. I have lived in that troubling interface in the past few weeks, ever since the Ekiti State electoral re-run became a reality of our country’s political landscape. As an incurable optimist, I felt that the Ekiti people would have the opportunity to express their preference, given the place of INEC, the PDP government, and Nigeria’s incredibly partisan police, as gold fishes in a bowl of national and international scrutiny. I was also sure that Kayode Fayemi had won previously and was going to definitively get a mandate which demystifies the PDP and gives hope for an alternative political development in our country. But I was also not naïve about the nature of the PDP and its regime as well as the police and INEC. Far too much was at stake for the trio that they would give all to STEAL Ekiti State. That was why I had that feeling of despair that I spoke about. Well, on Tuesday night, the drama played out in a most bizarre manner, as the PDP in cahoots with INEC STOLE Ekiti State, on the basis of a fraudulent declaration of votes!
It is not so much that the elections were stolen in broad day light that is the issue here, and the fraudulent numbers given to the PDP in Ido Osi, which totaled 15,939, flew in the face of the trend and clearly was designed to tilt the election for the PDP candidate. But what was much more fundamental is the mindset behind the regime of impunity which the PDP has instituted in Nigeria. It goes to the effect that they know that they have been a disaster in the way that they have governed Nigeria in the past decade, but they have also resolved that they will do whatever it takes to remain in the seat of government, no matter what!
The PDP is scared of a free and fair election as we have repeatedly argued on this page, because it is an absolutely incompetent contraption of governance; it has to continue to use the INEC and the security forces to impose itself on the Nigerian people. It was precisely the reason why an election which has a turnout of 2,070 voters in the Oye local government area of Ekiti state, had to be manned by 15,000 policemen! It was not so much because the people were violent or unruly, but because there was the need to make a statement that nothing must be allowed to go any other than the PDP way. They killed the electoral route as the avenue for the expression of popular will in Nigeria since they massively rigged elections in 2003 and 2007; but with what they perpetrated in Ekiti State, they have also buried the hope of Nigerians for peaceful change.
By choosing to be the party of undertakers, a party that swapped the umbrella for a casket, the PDP, has finally drawn a line in the sand between itself and the Nigerian people. They scored a hollow victory which deep down in their hearts must worry them despite the brave face that they have put on their electoral robbery. Umar Yar’adua has come out in public as a ruthless operative, despite the posturing and the spin by Segun Adeniyi at the weekend. What seems clear to me is that they are going to rue the decision to go ahead with plans to rig the Ekiti election into the future. The reason is that they have deepened anger in Nigeria and have also eroded confidence in the possibility of change through peaceful political processes. By the time the chickens of their irresponsibility return home to roost, it will be too late to find remedies. This is the frightening pass that the PDP, INEC and the security forces are leading our country into.
The media has reported the effusive exchange of congratulations by leading members of the PDP. Rufai Alkali, the PDP’s megaphone, said they were “vindicated”. It was “proven beyond doubt that Ekiti is a PDP state”, said Alkali. Osun State governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, who was at the heart of some controversies in the lead to the re-run, declared that “the victory of Oni…showed that with God on one’s side, no enemy…can vanquish one (so God provided ‘covering fire’ for the PDP’s rigging machine!). He also congratulated (fellow beneficiaries of rigged elections!!) President Yar’adua, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, Senate President David Mark, PDP leadership…”; according to THISDAY newspaper of Wednesday, May 6, 2009.
Assured of the effectiveness of a time-tested tactic of vote-rigging with a complicit INEC and the security forces, the PDP and its regime, actually sees itself invincible on the nation’s political scene. Afterall, who can deny that the tactic has scored another victory, this time, in the politically volatile Southwest region of the country?! The PDP will be emboldened by the fact that it successfully steamrolled its way through the Ekiti cauldron, with the delusion that it has stolen the thunder of resistance from the Nigerian people. But it has merely deepened anger and frustration as well as hatred for its methods. When an eruption eventually reaches the surface of politics, its seismic intensity might blow away the entire infrastructure of fraud which the PDP people are rejoicing over; then it will be too late for them to find remedy. That is why it was really foolish for the PDP to have stolen Ekiti State. Believe me, but you have foreclosed the space of democratic change in Nigeria! The portents are very worrisome!
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