Posted by By Linus Obogo on
Like a candle in the wind, the second term of former governor Ibrahim Idris of Kogi State which flickered out Wednesday, following the Appeal Court's endorsement of the election tribunal's nullification of his election, may not have come as a surprise to keen watchers of Kogi politics.
Like a candle in the wind, the second term of former governor Ibrahim Idris of Kogi State which flickered out Wednesday, following the Appeal Court's endorsement of the election tribunal's nullification of his election, may not have come as a surprise to keen watchers of Kogi politics.
Fondly called Ibro, by friends and associates alike, the curtain on the do-or-die elections and the dance of shame begun last year which birthed former governor Idris was finally drawn by the appellate court, thus setting the stage for yet another journey by the Kogi electorate for a fresh poll in 90 days, commencing from the day of the pronouncement of the Appeal Court.
While the judgment, with more to come, which many have affirmed, is the judiciary's own commitment to deepening the country's tottering and infantile democracy may be cheering to many on the sidelines, it may have, however, come as the most unkind cut to the actors and gladiators of the electoral heist of April 14 2007.
The mood in Kogi
The mood, since the historic verdict, has remained upbeat with followers of former governor Abubakar Audu poised for what they described as vanquishing political onslaught against Idris. According to them, what has happened in the state is a good lesson to ousted governor Idris on how not to go to equity with soiled hands.
While lauding the decision of the Appeal Court in upholding the verdict of the election tribunal, they are quick to remind Audu and his fast vanishing clan of godfathers that the era of winning elections from either Aso Rock or Abuja is over.
They insist that like his fossilized benefactors, who have since lost their stripes, Idris is finished and should perish any hopes of a return to the government House, Lokoja.
But deflating the excitement of the Audu's camp, Idris' loyalist, though still smarting from the shocking, but expected death knell sounded by the court, boasted that with or without Ali, Iwu or Obasanjo, Idris is the man to beat any day in Kogi politics, adding that if elections were to be conducted a hundred times over, he will still emerge victorious. Audu, they scoffed, is long an expired political commodity who cannot even wrench victory in a ward election in Kogi State.
However, despite the boisterous optimism in both camps, the fear of Iwu's INEC still looms large and therefore, should serve as the beginning of wisdom, particularly to Audu and his supporters.
Verdict too much for Ali, PDP & Obasanjo
Buffeted on all sides by his reported rejection as ambassador-designate by almost all the European countries, where his name may have been forwarded, coupled with the combusting pressure from the G21, led by the former senate president, Ken Nnamani, urging him to vacate his office before the PDP convention in March, and the court of Appeal's electoral dirge for Abubakar Idris, Ahmadu Ali's home state, it is certainly no easy times for the PDP chairman.
For Ali and former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the acid test for the foundation for an enduring democracy they feverishly laboured upon to lay last year has, no doubt failed the stormy experiment of the judiciary, with Kogi State now proving the duo wrong that the democratic structure was after all erected on quick sand.
With the judicial coup pulled against ex-governor Idris, and vicariously Ali, no statement could be bolder that charity, indeed begins at home.
Even as sympathy is scanty in coming for Idris and by implication, Ali and Obasanjo, the grandmasters of do-or-die elections, the real test of their relevance in Kogi politics and elsewhere is how they weather the spectre of the interred poll by the Appeal Court and rise to the challenges thrown up by that verdict.
In what looked like the garrisoning of the country's political space by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on one hand and Obasanjo and Ahmadu Ali on the other, in their desperation, last year brazenly threw all known political norms overboard to implant both the party and their surrogates, through the selection and substitution process on the country. In their extreme anxiety to perpetuate their importance, key members of the party (PDP) deemed not worthy of their anointing were sacrificed for expediency.
What next?
Not minding the cost of Obasanjo and Ali's perfidy, the Appeal Court ruling, no doubt come as the end of a vaulting quest to cling tenaciously to power and relevance for Idris and his godfathers, but for the state and its citizens, it's a refreshing outcome and an opportunity, despite the slight discomfort, to test the actors and indeed, the nation's democratic resilience.
With the election billed to hold in 90 days, not many politicians in the state appear bullish that it will address the peculiar problems of violence and the paucity of ideas as well as the obduracy of the political class to work out ethnic inclusiveness to ensure some measure of political balance. This is where the issue of merger and alliances becomes imperative, if anything, to confront what might be regarded as a common enemy of the people of Kogi.
Voicing similar concern, a stakeholder in the politics of the state told Saturday Sun during the week that no matter the forces massed against Audu, there is certainly going to be a coalition of political parties to wrest power from Ahmadu Ali and his surrogates. According to the stakeholder, discussions are already ongoing with some political parties to form an alliance with Audu's ANPP to have a formidable front against Idris and his PDP cabal.
Idris already ahead
No matter the strength of the coalition against Idris, some political observers in the state reasoned that with the local government election already conducted in the state, the ousted governor is head and shoulder above Audu even before the election in 90 days.
According to them, with Idris' men planted in all the local councils, there is already a machinery in place for him to gain victory in the forthcoming governorship poll.
However, an agitation has begun since the sacking of Idris for cancellation of the council election held during his brief second term tenure. Those moving for the cancellation argue that since his tenure was adjudged illegitimate, any actions, including the council poll is illegal and null and void.
Fear of Iwu's INEC
But in the entire political theatre of the absurd in Kogi and elsewhere, the undertaker in the electoral funeral is the farcical character, called Maurice Iwu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), still fretting on the country's eletoral stage.
In dissonance with the independence from which its sobriquet is derived, the electoral body sometime last year proved its doubters right, that it indeed, was incapable of exercising any independent mindedness in the conduct of its assigned, but hijacked constitutional role of organizing any semblance of a free and fair elections in the country.
While the chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu continues to beat his chest in self-adulation, his credibility may require no further scrutiny than the outcome of the various elections tribunals today, with Kogi as a shamming verdict.
With the credibility question hanging on Iwu's neck, apprehensions from Adamawa, Kebbi, Delta, Enugu, Oyo, Edo States, among others, where similar verdicts are likely, many believe that the electoral umpire, who is still sitting pretty in office, is unfit for the completion of the yet unfinished business which has become a huge burden on the democratic credential of the nation.
In apparent faithlessness in Iwu and his electoral agency, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP), in its reaction through its general secretary, Chief Will Ezugwu, to the Appeal Court verdict on the Kogi poll and others to follow, said: 'CNPP would frustrate any attempt by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to re-enact the brazen rigging that characterised the elections last April on the basis of which the election was cancelled."
According to the group, 'At this junction we wish to state that Iwu is not fit to conduct the bye electionas a follow up to the sham he earlier conducted. Iwu is bereft of ideas and cannot give another idea more than what he did in the charade called April 2007 election. The world is watching us."