Notes from Kogi/Bayelsa Polls
What do you think will happen in Bayelsa and Kogi States this coming Saturday? The question was posed to me last week Monday by a prominent citizen who considered my political opinion to be of some value.
“Let’s start with Kogi,” I replied. “If performance in office dictates incumbent election results, Yahaya Bello should lose badly. But we all know this is not the case in Nigeria. Therefore, if I were a betting man, I would put my money on him. The governor has left no one in doubt that he is a politician for whom only the end justifies the means. So, I expect Yahaya Bello to deploy the entire arsenal at his disposal to rig himself back to power. I don’t think anybody or anything can stop him.”
While the body bags are still being counted in Kogi State, and fresh killings even after the results have been declared, Yahaya Bello is back as I predicted. I watched him on television yesterday and he couldn’t even spare a word to condole the families of those the elections. They include “the hijack of who died. So to the people of Kogi who electoral materials by thugs, the kidnap of will have to endure another four years of INEC ad hoc staff, vote buying, attacks on purposeless government, please accept my observers, intimidation of voters, under-aged commiserations. voting, widespread stuffing of ballot boxes,
“What about Bayelsa?”, asked the man who ballot snatching and multiple voting.” Urging appeared unsurprised by my take on Kogi. Nigerians to reclaim our electoral system from
Here, I hesitated a bit before I made my the grip of partisan outlaws, CDD alleged call. “Bayelsa is a bit tricky for me. All the “a direct complicity of security services in big shots I have spoken to in recent weeks giving leeway to hoodlums to disrupt the from the state would love to see Governor elections.” Since both signatories to the report, Seriake Dickson humiliated. The election is Ms. Idayat Hassan and Professor Adele Jinadu not going to be about PDP or APC. Rather, are respected citizens who have for decades it is more a referendum on the outgoing been involved in monitoring elections in our governor who is bent on installing a successor country, this is a weighty allegation that must of his choice, regardless of who his party be taken very seriously. men want. Dickson, who was railroaded Sadly, in the aftermath of elections like this, to power in 2011 by President Goodluck no serious interrogation is ever done by critical Jonathan, now sees himself as the ultimate stakeholders since the usual retort is for the godfather in Bayelsa and has practically told loser to put all blame on the Independent the man who provided him the ladder and National Electoral Commission (INEC). But other PDP leaders to go to hell. While many while officials of the commission may be of them are secretly working against their complicit in some of the malpractices, the party’s candidate in favour of the APC, I am reality is that INEC itself is often a victim. I not sure how that will eventually go. But I have read several reports of how commission will not be surprised if PDP loses the state officials were brutalised in Kogi last Saturday on account of Dickson’s hubris.” while two national electoral commissioners
In the end, Dickson, who was plotting to were caught in the violence at Ganaja, Ajaokuta install a governor and then go to the Senate as local government area of the state. Forced to the icing on his political cake, ended up with take refuge at the campus of Salem University, 100 percent of Nothing last Saturday. To the it took several hours before they were later people of Bayelsa State, I say congratulations! rescued by the police.
Following conclusion of the gubernatorial Conducting credible elections in Nigeria has elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States, the battle always been a challenge. In my book, ’Power has now shifted to the courts, but there are Politics and Death’, I recalled the attempt important lessons we should draw. Last to deal with the problem by my late boss, Saturday, especially in Kogi, all the ugly things following a meeting held on 16th January, 2008 that make politics such a dirty enterprise in with state governors, leadership of political Nigeria were on full display: Systematically parties that won elections in one or more orchestrated violence with the connivance of states in the 2007 elections, leadership of the those responsible for enforcing the law; open National Assembly and heads of various purchase of votes and a complete hijack of the security agencies. The summation of the electoral process by a desperate incumbent. late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was The situation was different in Bayelsa only that no matter the legislation, nothing would to the extent that the eventual outcome change until political actors were ready for approximated popular sentiment. genuine reform.
In its post-election analysis appropriately More than eleven years after that session, titled, ‘Gunpoint Democracy’, the Centre nothing seems to have changed. While we for Democracy and Development (CDD) will come back another day to deal with the which put the number of deaths in Kogi issue of electoral violence and associated at 10, highlighted malpractices that marred malpractices, of considerable concern to the
THISDAY Newspapers Limited. future of our democracy is the bad behavior of the political class, made worse by our judicial environment. Instead of advancing electoral jurisprudence, many court judgments confuse even matters long settled by case law (in many cases by the Supreme Court). Increasingly, our elections are no longer determined through votes cast by citizens at polling units but by decision of Judges, often on the basis of technicality. Some rulings are also bizarre.
We have been told over the years by many judges in Nigeria that because a court cannot play Father Christmas, it can’t give what applicants never seek. Last week, despite the closed borders with Nigeria, Santa Claus still managed to arrive at a Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. Former Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri, was handed a gift he never sought: the primaries of his party were declared cancelled by Justice Jane Inyang! And with that she restrained INEC from “accepting, recognising, dealing with or putting the name” of the man who is now governor-elect.
The situation in Kogi State was no better. A suit filed by the Young Progressive Party (YPP) against the validity of the nomination of its candidate for the governorship election with attempt to substitute was dismissed with cost in favour of INEC. Ten days later, a similar case in every detail, filed by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in another Federal High Court went against INEC. Yet, these are courts of coordinate jurisdiction. As I wrote in January this year, our democracy is becoming increasingly imperiled because many of our prominent citizens are no longer content having as many SANs as their lawyers, they now opt for their own judges too, to our collective detriment as a nation.
At a consultative meeting he held with stakeholders in Lokoja last week Tuesday, 12th
November, INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu lamented: “…with four days to the governorship elections, two more cases challenging the decision of the commission on the validity of candidates’ nominations have been reserved for judgement in Bayelsa and Kogi States. In addition, there are twelve (12) cases of intra-party disputes filed by aspirants from different political parties challenging the conduct of their own primaries and nomination of candidates, some of which have been reserved for judgement in the next few days. I must admit that the plethora of court cases and conflicting judgements delivered on the eve of elections in Nigeria are stressful to the commission and costly to the nation.”
At the bottom of all the foregoing shenanigans is a regrettable failure to cultivate a truly democratic culture. Our political actors are a mixed bag of persons who have hardly succeeded in any other meaningful venture. This inchoate army of desperados will stop at nothing to win elections that have become virtual wars with political opponents seen as enemy forces that must be crushed. To worsen matters, official security agents are now rentable contractors at the disposal of the highest bidder. That then explains why the free deployment of violence has become the means to a despicable end. In turn, recourse to the judiciary for redress of electoral grievances transfers the decision that should have been made by the electorate to a handful of judges who feel entitled to earthly reward.
In the end, the transactional ethos of our corrupt society has been allowed to overrun the national political leadership selection process and the way we are governed. For the health of our democracy, there is an urgent need for reforms at the heart of which is a re-examination of the role of critical institutions, including the judiciary.