Ngige And The
Tribunal:
Whose
Victory?
By
Olu Obafemi
omoajon@yahoo.com
culled from THISDAY, August 18, 2005
There is a lot to reflect upon over
the recent judgement by Justice Garuba Nabaruma and his Tribunal, which
nullified the election of the embattled Chris Ngige as Executive Governor of
Anambra State and declared Mr. Peter Obi as the duly elected Governor of the
State.
The most critical food for chewing is whose victory is this, in the final
analysis? Do we roll out the drums for the Judiciary, which has recently
suffered some damaging knocks—what with the ‘assault’ on the Chief Justice of
the federation—an assault which has been happily ameliorated by EFCC? Is it
hurray for Mr. Obi or/ and his fragmented party, APGA for regaining the stool of
governance, which has been stolen from their homestead for over two years, since
the April 19, 2003 Gubernatorial election? Should we run into our holes in
trepidation and mortification for the Anambra’s awesome and dreaded godfather,
who went on the rooftops to proclaim that he manipulated INEC and rigged the
election for his godson, Chris Ngige and would soon return the mandate to the
rightful owner? Shall we rejoice or mourn with the people of Anambra—the actual
victims of the protracted power tussle of the political elephants in their
state—that the thunderstorm may be subsiding or new gales raging? What of the
PDP in the state and at the centre who have found Ngige a perennial pain in
their political ass and have thus flushed him out of the Party as the whirlwind
raged? Are power brokers in the PDP feeling vindicated at the sliding edge of
vindictiveness? How is Chris Ngige, the cat with nine lives fairing in all of
these?
Orphaned by his party, which expelled him and carpeted by the tribunal after a
tortuous battle, will he throw in the towel in stoic resignation to his fate or
will he soldier on till final victory or defeat?
There are certainly no easy answers here because, as saying goes, when you
anticipate the fall of a decayed tree, it is the fresh and lusty one that
collapses in the forest. In matters of this political magnitude, there are no
easy equations. For while it is not time for wholesome empathy with Ngige, who
has been at the receiving end of all manners of political razzmatazz and
bickering, which has led to his vilification, humiliation, abduction (some are
seeing this tribunal’s verdict on him as amounting to judicial abduction), it
would be the height of political naivety for any of the above parties to go
partying in triumph and vindication. For, beyond the appellate courts and
legalism, a number of issues have arisen which should worry the political class
in this country, arising from the travails of Chris Ngige, from the morbid hands
of a combination of adversarial forces enumerated above.
First, let us consider the Judiciary. Whichever way we look at this case--
beyond the usual problem of judicial vacillation and procrastination, which
would allow a case of electoral petitioning, of such political import, to tarry
for over two years—the tribunal has been consistent in handling the election
petitions in Anambra State. Many heads have ‘rolled’, metaphorically speaking,
from the verdicts that the tribunal has proclaimed regarding the 2003 elections.
Several National Assembly members-at both the House of Representative s and the
Senate have been compelled to vacate their seats as a direct result of
Tribunal/court ruling that they had not won elections. These men are of the PDP
stock. For instance, Dr. Jerry Sonny Ugokwe and Senator Peter Anosike lost their
seats at the House of Representatives and Senate respectively. Some other people
took over the seats, based on that verdict. In a sense, there is some
applaudable consistency from the verdict on Ngige. Nothing detracts from the
courage, which comes with such judgements that reverse election results and
return electoral mandate and victory to those who truly won them. But of course,
the Judiciary may not sing victory song on this matter, based on reports and
allegations that Chris Uba may have supplied the figures, which were used to
upturn the mandate of Chris Ngige in favour of Peter Obi. It is public knowledge
that Chris Uba confessed, before the President of this country, that he rigged
the election for Ngige—not stopping there, he is the custodian of the
certification for the stolen mandate. Though, Chris Ngige made motions at
protestations of the claim that he did not know how he won the gubernatorial
election, he could not convince even himself, not to talk of fooling the public.
Without attempting to take anything from the achievement of the tribunal, the
strong insinuation is that the figures enlisted to arrive at the verdict which
upturned the election—figures which showed that Peter Obi won one-quarter of the
votes in 15 Local Governments—as against 9 won by Ngige—were largely provided by
the master-mind, Chris Uba. Some would be uncharitable enough to suggest that it
is not entirely an act of courage by the tribunal, if it was confirmed that it
aptly read the barometer of the feeling of the top-notching politicians of the
PDP. All we establish here is that Justice Nabaruma and his members can escape
with a little pat at the back—with the benefit of the doubt—but it is not
halleluiah chorus nor ebullient salaam for a rounded victory.
Now this son-like godfather of a person—Chris Uba! Isn’t he a mouth full, with a
larger-than-life political frame? At a point, with the impressive work that
Ngige was doing in Anambra State, building infrastructure, dualizing roads and
constructing new ones all over the place, it would appear that Uba was beating a
boastful but cautious retreat. The popularity of Chris Ngige was rising by the
day—to the extent that he had been made the Chairman of the Committee of
governors of the South-East States (Until this bombshell, which Chris Uba, in
the manner suicide bombers or IRA, literally claims credit for.) Didn’t he boast
that he would soon show proof that he rigged the election for Chris Ngige, and
that he would waste no time at all returning the stolen mandate to APGA and
chase Ngige out of the Government House? Now, the witch cried the night before
and the child has died in the morning. But in another place, shouldn’t Uba be
behind bars, rather than rearing to produce the next Governor of Anambra State
from the Uba dynasty—which Ngige had under-estimated to his eternal discredit?
Unfortunately, the PDP does not appear to mind the loss of the State to APGA or
is it simply to Peter Obi? It should not be possible, even imaginable, for Chris
Uba to call out the Egwugwu or the Atilogwu to dance at his victory party. We
long for that day when such dream-wreckers will have no place in the political
chemistry of our democracy.
As for the largest party in Africa—the People’s Democratic Party—it would be
extremely shortsighted to regard what has happened, either to Chris Ngige or at
the tribunal as a vindication of its dexterity at power manipulation. It is
being widely put out that the PDP has merely sacrificed Ngige, either to take on
Peter Obi into its fold after he has been sworn in, to further balkanize APGA or
to raise a new candidate from the PDP to do fresh gubernatorial battle, next
time around. Both calculations lack either grace or decency in a nation
struggling to give teeth to the sovereignty of the electorate. What has
happened, in the final analysis, further defrays from whatever is left of the
image and credibility of the party. It should therefore provoke neither mirth
nor bliss. It should provoke sincere soberness among the party hierarchy.
As for Peter Obi—a man of known means and mind—he stands at the thresh-hold of
history. He waxes eloquent and politically correct. He says his declaration as
the true winner of the gubernatorial race is a victory for democracy. He talks
of integrity and core values of society, which should cure Anambra State of the
curse and its cause. These sound rather inspiring, if they are, or will be,
backed by political action. If he gets to Government House, he must remember
those clauses of his Manifesto—which should return the smiles to the faces of
Anambra people—which Ngige has begun to rekindle. Meanwhile, no raucous voice
should sing a baseless victory song.
