Despite the wishes and actions of the Nigerian people and the international community for a free and fair gubernatorial election in Anambra State on February 6, 2010, the signals are foreboding enough.
There are strong indications that the election could be worse than the 2007 general polls which have been condemned worldwide as arguably the worst election ever in African history. In the 2007 gubernatorial vote which should not have held at all in Anambra State because the office of the state Governor was not vacant, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) went out of its way to favour a particular candidate, Chief Andy Nnamdi Uba, erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo’s Senior Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs, the equivalent of Chief Butler in the United Kingdom.
INEC insisted on the illegal disqualification of all three leading opponents of Chief Uba, that is to say, Governor Peter Obi of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), former Governor Chris Ngige of the Action Congress (AC) and Prince Nicholas Ukachukwu of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). In spite of the Court’s decision that INEC’s action was unconstitutional and illegal, the electora; body bluntly refused to have Dr Ngige’s name and his party’s symbol on the ballot paper. Prince Ukachukwu suffered a similar fate.
So committed to Chief Uba’s victory was INEC that it announced Chief Uba scored more votes than were registered for the election, only to change the figure later in the day when the absurdity of its vote allocation was highlighted by media like the Africa Independent Television (AIT). INEC reduced the number of votes allocated Chief Uba by shifting the decimal to the left by two places.
It does seem that history is about to repeat itself in Anambra State . With Andy Uba now entering the gubernatorial race, the INEC leadership has secretly been influencing and sponsoring articles in the media to the effect that two of the leading candidates in the forthcoming election, Professor Chukwuma Soludo and Gov Obi, would not be allowed to contest on grounds of so-called internal squabbles in their parties. The truth is that the squabbles are engineered and encouraged by INEC. And the sponsored publications are designed to test the waters. Believing that though Gov Obi's APGA has been in power since the past four years it is not strong on the ground because the governor has not built it up for whatever reason, INEC decided to include Mr Obi's name at the last minute in the list of candidates contesting the election. This was after it had worked hand in hand with the APGA faction led by Chief Chekwas Okorie to replace Obi with one Chief Ozodinobi. In other words, the INEC leadership does not any more consider APGA an awful threat to Chief Uba's ambitions, the political ambitions which have seen the former presidential butler engage in all manner of games in the courts in recent times.
INEC’s conduct goes a long way to confirm reports that it is determined to give Chief Uba’s leading opponents what INEC officers themselves privately call the “Atiku treatment”. Former Vice President was disqualified by INEC and frustrated so much until the Supreme Court declared its conduct illegal and consequently restored his candidature in the 2007 election. But this was just a few days to the election. Atiku, therefore, had no time to organize him campaign machinery or even go round the country. He took part in the election all right, but he was like a fighter in the ring with his two hands tied at the back.
There are credible reports that the INEC leadership is also considering recreating in Anambra State the scenario in Imo, the home state of the INEC Chairman, when two yearsago the PDP could not field candidates for internal reasons, and so asked its supporters to vote for the candidate of a rival party on the understanding that he would join to the PDP after assuming office as governor. In appreciation of INEC's preeminent role in the controversial emergence of the present government in Imo, Prof Iwu's daughter named Mrs Ijeoma Nwafor is now the Special Assistant to the State Governor on Administration and Prof Iwu's first cousin, Chief Cosmas Iwu, is the Secretary to the State Government. INEC this time wants a crisis situation which could make PDP supporters, who are an overwhelming majority of the electorate in Anambra State, cast their lot with Chief Uba of the Labour Part who recommended Professor Maurice Iwu to Obasanjo for appointment as the INEC Chairman.
Were Prof Iwu a more sensitive person, he would have voluntarily thrown in the towel long ago. Both local and international observers like the European Union desrcibed the 2007 general elections as failing the minimum electoral standards anywhere.There is no election in Nigerian history which has suffered in any way as many judicial reversals as the 2007 election. More and more elections are still being annulled almost routinely. Keen observers of Nigerian politics and history are, admittedly, not surprised that Prof Iwu should insist on remaining in power.
On March 16, 2006, the Court of Appeal panel on the April 19, 2003, gubernatorial election in Anambra State ended Dr Chris Ngige's governorship by awarding victory in the vote to Mr Obi of APGA. In the lead judgment read by the Honorable Mrs Amina Augie, the Court excoriated INEC for, among others, engaging in unprecedented legal somersaults in Nigerian judial history. INEC had argued at the Election Petitions Tribunal that Dr Ngige won the April 19, 2003, election. Prof Iwu had not been appointed the INEC Chairman then. But at the Appeal Court INEC canvassed a different position because Iwu had become the chairman; many observers thought he was very eager to please President Obasanjo who was then in a serious open fight with Dr Ngige. Iwu really appeared devoted to the Obasanjo cause. For instance, when the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bayo Ojo, SAN, asked the electoral body to give a certificate of return to Dr Chris Okeke as the winner of the 2003 election in the Idemmili Federal Constituency, INEC stubbornly refused on the ground that the matter was before the ECOWAS Court! Dr Jerry Ugokwe, Obasanjo's preferred person for the office of the Anambra State Governor, had rather hilariously gone to the ECOWAS Court to see if he could be asked to remain in the House of Representatives.
It is a great pity that despite the calamity brought upon Nigeria by the 2007 election, INEC looks more determined to rig the forthcoming Anambra vote in a more brazen and unconscionable manner. The prognosis is that the 2011 general election in Nigeria will be the greatest electoral charade ever.
The Nigeria Renewal Group hereby calls on all Nigerian people, political associations, human rights groups, the Nigerian government and the international community to quickly rise against INEC’s perfidy and crime against Nigerian voters. It is inconceivable that we would throw out the almighty British imperialism, only to capitulate to the imperialism of a handful of vicious local elements.
Umenyi is Chairman, Anambra State Chapter, Nigeria Renewal Group.
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