Since I started following the developments in Nigerian politics, I have always wondered whether the people that bestrode our political terrain are normal human beings or just beings that have accident of putting on human skin. I say this because a comparison of Nigeria’s political space with other countries even in Africa will bring to the fore, the anomaly that has been the patrimony of Nigerian political heritage. From independence till today, Nigeria has been so unfortunate that the ship of her destiny has been in the hands of amateurs rather than captains. But my wonder turns to anger when I pause on Obasanjo’s inglorious reign that produced the likes of his former domestic aide; Andy Ubah. This is because of the temerity with which Andy has taken the whole people of Anambra State for fools. Thinking that he will manipulate them by the snap of his finger, trusting in the unlimited pecuniary power of billions at his disposal. I have always been tempted to write this piece but consider it not worth spending my time on. But the more I struggle with my inner desire for restraint, the more my psyche is assaulted by the never-ending news of his suspicious romance with the Supreme Court.
When I read from the news some days ago that he has decided to withdraw from the ridicule he has been subjecting the Supreme Court of Nigeria to, I heaved a sigh of relief that reason has finally found an abode in his head. But when I read again in the online news of Guardian and Vanguard Newspaper that he has gone back to the Supreme Court with a fresh version of his foolish case “seeking the setting aside of both the June 14, 2007 judgment which granted Obi a four year tenure and the January 29, 2008 judgment, which struck out his appeal” as Vanguard reported, I decided to give free vent to my ball pen. This is not because I want to cast aspersion on his person or because of his case at the Supreme Court which for me is much ado about nothing, but because of the havoc the miscarriage of justice in that case will cause Nigeria and Anambra State in particular.
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I cannot stand to think again of watching Mr. Andy Ubah mount the Sacred Rostrum at Ekwueme Square in Awka to be sworn in as the governor of Anambra State. My misgivings of Andy being my governor is not premised on any personal quarrel since we have never had one, but on the fact of what his government will mean for me and the generations of youths in Anambra State. I would not have taken this direction of writing this piece if not for the fact that my destiny as a citizen of Anambra State is tied to the case at the Supreme Court. This is because, if the direction of the case goes in favour of Andy, I will be bound to be his subject no matter how bad I feel about it. As someone who has something at stake, I am then bound to write and express my unreserved nausea for the shenanigan going on in the country’s Apex Court in the name of legal litigation right. Andy is free to subject himself to the electoral choice of Anambrarians and if he wins, good luck to him, but he cannot through the back door usurp the strangest electoral mandate in the history of world politics.
In the first place, it will be the highest betrayal of Justice for the Supreme Court to toil with the destiny of Anambra people under any guise, for the purported inexistent electoral mandate of Andy Ubah. And my reason for this is premised on both moral and legal grounds. From the legal perspective, Andy Ubah never won the governorship of Anambra State as evidences abound everywhere of how INEC before, during and after the so-called election, despised the collective will of Anambra people in choosing who is to govern them. The illegal exclusions of Mr. Peter Obi, Christi Ngige and others by INEC in order to pave way for the Obasanjo’s toasted bride are still fresh in our hearts. And the INEC’s manipulation of the so-called election result in cahoots with the Resident electoral commissioner that resulted to Mr. Maurice Iwu’s announcement of two different versions of electoral result for Anambra is there for everybody to see.
But the gravity of INEC’s electoral robbery in Anambra will pelt into insignificance in comparison, if the Supreme Court is to hand over the government of Anambra State to Andy Ubah. This for me will be the worst electoral robbery. If the Supreme Court under any guise will sell the government of Anambra State to Mr. Ubah, I wonder what will happen to the electoral cases against Andy that were not given fair hearing based on merit since their continuance would have been an academic event for the mere fact the Supreme Court judgment of June 14, 2007 had made the purported election lack fundamentum in re. Shall the governorship electoral tribunal for the sake of justice be reconstituted to revisit the unprecedented electoral malfeasance perpetrated by PDP and INEC on Anambrarians? This issue for me is very serious since most election in other States were cancelled based on the illegal exclusion of qualified candidates and that of Anambra State would have been cancelled also based on that.
Another hypothetical question begging for answer at this point will be, suppose Andy Ubah, is said by the Supreme Court to win the case, what happens to Peter Obi’s 4 years that has been running on the strength of electoral mandate given to him by Anambrarians as was spelt out by section 180 of the constitution and merely ratified by Supreme Court Judgment of June 14, 2007. If the new judgment upturns the judgment of June 14, will it also nullify the people’s mandate to Peter in fact? Given that it was not the judgment that created the mandate but only ratified it. Or, shall it be said that Anambra State had two governors at the same time, one substantive and the other in-waiting? If Peter is substantive governor and Andy becomes governor in abeyance, how do we interpret section 178 subsection 2 of the constitution that states thus, “An election to the office of Governor of a State shall be held on a date not earlier than sixty days and not later than thirty days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of that office.” Shall we then say that Anambra State election was held 3 years before the expiration of the present one?
Apart from this legal logjam, a more disturbing fact is what the reign of Andy Ubah will portray for Anambrarians especially youths. Anambra is a state whose youth-orientation is heavily influenced by cash and carry mentality that emanates from so many money-bags from her, no thanks to business without ethics and without conscience. It will be a moral suicide to subject her to another money-bag as chief executive. What the people of Anambra need now is a moral crusader who will inspire people with his uncompromising moral rectitude and not one with cash and carry mentality. At least, my fears for Anambra are not born out of unfounded figment of imagination but from the little encounter Anambrarians had with Andy within the 14 days he held sway for a never existed Andy-Ubah-government.
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From on the spot assessment perspective, an index into what his government will look like came from the incontrovertible factual evidences that emanated from the brief 14 days he had with Anambra destiny. His difficulty to read with coherency his prepared inauguration text is a pointer to how he will develop the falling standard of education in Anambra State. And a never-witnessed-before long convoy of State-of-the-art fleet of cars that were almost forming a kilometer entourage whenever he was travelling shows how he will impart values of honesty and hard work on the people. And a platoon of fierce-dark-goggled mobile Police men that reminded one of the Gestapo era of Nazi, who surrounded him giving impression of someone drunken with power are the assets he will be coming to the state with. Enough of this nonsense!
A State that in the past produced the likes of Zik, Emeka Anyaoku, Chinua Achebe and Chika Obi today needs a technocrat and an academic who will inspire her youths on the values of education and not someone whose only qualification may be the ability to make a distinction between 500 and 1000 naira bills. This is of utmost importance to Anambra State because of the fact that so many of her youths today do not see education as anything since one can without any date within any four walls of a school be in control of millions of naira. Is this where Andy Ubah with his educational baggage is going to be the governor? The State needs someone who will inspire her with his or moral probity and not one whose life’s principle is anchored on Niccole Machiavellian’s expediency principle of “end justifying the means.” She needs someone who will show an incontestable link between wealth and hard work and through that demonstrate the necessity of hard work and not one whose source of wealth has defied all the known economic laws and have entered the Guinness book of record as the 8th wonder of the world.
Finally, I want to bring this write-up to a conclusion by quoting the time tested Latin adage which says “Nemo dat quod non habet” which means no one gives what he does not have. Andy Ubah when measured against the aforementioned values and moral ideals is running a monumental deficit. Hence, he has neither the legal nor the moral right to claim a non existing mandate. With the above situation, I will request Andy to honorably take a bow and stop assaulting our collective psyche. And to our Supreme Court, should they go against the dictate of reason to impose him on us come 2010 just know that you have opened the floodgate of legal litigations because we will do everything within our constitutional means to reclaim our God given right. And we will also embark on civil disobedience, for the stake is so high that posterity will never forgive us for trusting the future of our children into the hand of someone we are not sure of. We want someone who is guided by “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold.” (Proverbs 22 :1 )
God save Anambra State. God save Nigeria.
Azike Gerald. Rome. [email protected] 00393881620546
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