That rigging may finally end
But what do we have? We have a new governor in Osun State in the name of Rauf Aregbesola. It is the testimony (perhaps the last) of the solidity of the house of sputum that Olusegun Obasanjo and Maurice Iwu built in the name of democracy. Rather than cover their heads in shame, the duo […]
But what do we have? We have a new governor in Osun State in the name of Rauf Aregbesola. It is the testimony (perhaps the last) of the solidity of the house of sputum that Olusegun Obasanjo and Maurice Iwu built in the name of democracy. Rather than cover their heads in shame, the duo of Obasanjo and his quondam deputy, Atiku Abubakar are engaged in a naked dance in the political square.
A unique opportunity to chastise the duo and to reassure Nigerians that this kind of arrangement would never reoccur in future elections is wasted as usual by our ambitious president-by-chance for political expediency. Goodluck Jonathan is unhappy that his party is losing states. States obviously needed in the political calculus of his party and his quest. He is not unhappy that this unprecedented fraud is being exposed. His sadness does not arise from the fact that our laws makes no provisions for the hanging of those who conduct shambolic elections; he is not sad that impostors installed by his party hijacked power from the people and lorded it over the people for periods of almost four years. He is not irked that during that period, they have squandered the resources of the people in ways and manners different from what the people want. Our aspirant seeks to make political mileage out of the furore. It shows the level of moral turpitude of the PDP household.
The crime of electoral manipulation is nothing to perpetrators. It is nothing to our laws that over 80 per cent of those currently in public office stole their mandates. With the people’s purse in their pockets, that is brigandage at its prodigious. That should be a source of concern to anybody interested in moving our nation forward. But correcting this shame is not on the agenda of the man who sits over the nation. It is not on the order paper of those who parade themselves as legislators. A discerning and concerned president ought to be sending an urgent bill to the National Assembly with strong provisions to stop riggers from usurping people’s power and using every available fora to mobilise Nigerians to prevail on their representatives to pass that bill before the expiration of their current term.
Our country is sliding dangerously towards the precipice. Hitherto, despotic nations, from Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta and Arap Moi’s era even to Mugabe’s Zimbabwe are seeking the formulae to sharing power for the benefit of the people to whom it belongs. Nigerian politicians are digging in their heels even as ethnocentric forces are waiting to plunge the nation into another civil war. The only recipe against disaster is for the rulers to commit hara-kiri. That way, they buy for themselves a pride of place in future history.
If we are committed to free and fair elections, any of the resident electoral commissioner who presides over questionable elections must resign as soon as his returned votes are validated. They must face criminal charges. The cesspit of corruption that transforms INEC messengers into millionaires must be disbanded. To compliment this, our laws must specify strict penalties for elected officials who benefit from manipulated elections. Once they are declared usurpers by the courts it must mean that they are financially and morally bankrupt. We must take immediate steps to prosecute them, penalise them and ban them from participating actively in politics overtly or covertly for at least ten years.
It is time to also erect a monument of shame conspicuously in federal, state and council headquarters where we prominently display the names of such people for all to see. In other words, we must tell our children that cheating does not pay. It should not end there, the tenure of such people must be probed and all assets acquired during their tenure forfeited because they could not have been legitimately earned. Any personal asset linked to that tenure must also be forfeited.
This nation must begin to show that the phrase ‘not business as usual’ rings true. The road to change is usually not paved. It is the responsibility of those who care to do what is necessary to make our future count. We can still do it, we must do it and now is the time to do it.
AKUNYILI & NAIJA
It appears Dora has languished for too long in media obscurity that she just want to talk. Her latest beef – Nigeria being called Naija. Why does she not change from Dora to her full name Dorothy? Americans refer to their government as Uncle Sam, Londoners call theirs Queensland etc what is wrong with Naija? Methinks its cool and shows the youth buy into her rebranding project. In fact, what’s wrong with renaming this conundrum Naija rather than answer a name chosen for us by a colonialist’s girlfriend in the same way we changed our national anthem and modified our logo? Madam, if you have nothing to say, please don’t say it here!