|
By ISAIAH ABRAHAM
Finally the score has been settled
between two arch rivals in the Kogi State politics, prince Abubakar
Audu of the All Nigeria Peoples Party, (ANPP), and Governor Ibrahim
Idris of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In that divide, the line was drawn between fame and popularity in
the battle of March 29, 2008 to conquer the Lugard House. And the
verdict was that while a famous man may not necessarily win an
election, a popular man may possibly win an election.
In the build up to the March 29th re-run governorship election it
was debatable which of the two combatants was famous or popular. But
that debate has been put to rest following the humiliating defeat of
Prince Abubakar Audu and his All Nigeria Peoples Party who won in
only two local government councils in the state and lost woefully in
18 councils where Governor Ibrahim Idris and his PDP swept the
polls.
While Governor Ibrahim Idris and his Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP),
rolled out the drums to sing and dance to victory Prince Abubakar
Audu has vowed to challenge the out come of the election at the
tribunal as he fights on.
Prince Abubakar Audu was once popular enough to win election on the
ticket of the National Republican Convention, (NRC) to become the
first democratically elected governor of the state in 1993.
His reign under that dispensation was rudely terminated following
the June 12 crisis that engulfed the politics of the time. At the
peak of his popularity he staged a come back in 1999 under the
platform of the All Peoples Party (APP) which later metamorphosed
into the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and won the election for a
second time.
But by the 2003 governorship election, his popularity waned and he
lost the election to Governor Ibrahim Idris, conscripted by the then
opposition Peoples Democratic Party in the state, to wrestle power
from the Prince. And he delivered in that task.
His delivery dazed the Prince who did not believe that he actually
lost the election convincingly. He headed for the election tribunal
and lost. What became of the Prince were the famous landmarks of his
administration.
But a dogged fighter and a committed and loyal member of his party
the ANPP, he was determined to reclaim his mandate and return the
state which was once a conquered territory of his party until it was
snatched away by the invasion of the rival PDP in 2003, back to the
ANPP.
At the 2007 governorship election in the state he did not give up
the fight. He obtained the ticket of his party to fly the ANPP flag
at the election but was unjustifiably excluded from the contest by
the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He challenged the intrusion of the INEC into the affairs of his
party which duly gave him the ticket at the election tribunal
leading to the annulment of the election won by Governor Ibrahim
Idris.
The legal fire works at the tribunal lasted about 10 months and the
verdict stripped Governor Ibrahim Idris of his 2007 mandate and a re
-run election was ordered.
At the re-run election , it was time to prove their political
superiority at the polls.
In that fresh election, many factors came to play. Prince Abubakar
Audu was famous for the various edifices put in place to give the
state form and shape, different from the failed administration of
the various military administrators posted to the state at its
take-off.
He was also famous for the flamboyance he brought into governance in
style.
But on the eve of that election, the people of Kogi state dreaded a
return to the pre 2003 days when there was a reign of terror in the
state. Civil servants dreaded a return to the days of constant
harassment, intimidation, unjust victimisation, indiscriminate
removal from offices or transfer, months of unpaid salaries and
allowances.
Pensioners feared drifting back to days of unpaid pension;
Contractors did not want a repeat of the bitter experiences of the
past when contracts were prosecuted without payments.
Parents and students of tertiary institutions who have since 2003
been enjoying bursary and scholarship awards from the state
government desired not to return to the days when the state
government was not bothered about their financial burden in school.
Senior and junior secondary school students whose examination fees
were being paid by the state government regardless of whether they
were indigenes of kogi state or not, since 2003, were also not
willing to go back to the days when some of them could not write the
West African School Certificate or NECO examinations because their
parents could not pay their examination fees.
And so it was that in the build up to the March 29, 2008, re-run
governorship election in Kogi state, an interest group sponsored a
campaign poster with an artist’s illustration of tyrannical
tendencies.
This poster which scrambled for space among other contending posters
stretched from Kabawa area, running through the streets of Lokoja to
the foot of the Lugard House, saying no to tyranny in Kogi state.
These posters were very conspicuous along the streets and major
roads of Lokoja, the state capital and captured an artist’s
illustration of a people in chains under a maximum ruler in a
democratic setting.
This poster played a spoiler for the Prince, for it created the
image of a dragon in the minds of many eligible voters.
And so, Saturday April 5,, 2008, when at the swearing in ceremony of
Governor Ibrahim Idris for the third time, the people sang and
danced to victory, pop champaign to a cheering toast, it was to
welcome good radiance and extinguish bad rubbish. It was also to
distinguish the brave political warrior who has fought a worthy
fight and conquered.
The most spectacular development at the swearing in ceremony was the
resurfacing the state chief Judge, Justice Umoru Eri to administer
the oath of office and the oath of allegiance to a newly elected
Governor Ibrahim Idris and his deputy Mr Philip Salawu.
For Justice Umoru Eri, was the chief judge of the state when the
election tribunal annulled the election of Governor Ibrahim Idris.
He was also the chief judge of the state when the tribunal annulled
the election of the Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Mr
Clemens Olafemi, who became the acting governor of the state and was
standing on shaky feet until he won back his mandate to the state
House of Assembly at the Appeal.
In what looked like a vengeful move against the state judiciary the
state House of Assembly passed a resolution directing the acting
governor to sack the state chief judge and the acting governor
complied with the directive by immediately removing Justice Umoru
Eri as the state chief judge.
This event brought back to memory Mario Puso in the ‘Godfather’
where he once stated that “society imposes insults that must be
borne comforted in the knowledge that in this world there comes a
time when the most humble of all men if he keeps his eyes open will
take his revenge on the most powerful…”
If the state House of Assembly and the acting governor were on a
mission of vengeance against the state judiciary, it was absolutely
Balderdash to Governor Ibrahim Idris, who himself is a graduate of
Law. What the governor needed was not rough edges that could be
inimical to the smooth take off of his fresh administration.
Ahead of his swearing in ceremony, he quickly intervened to avert
what was set to be a crisis between the Nigerian Bar Association and
the state government. The danger was that post election
reconciliation in the state may be unnecessarily delayed. Thus there
was a reversal of directive and Justice Eri returned to office as
the state chief judge.
In his humility and magnanimity in victory, Governor Ibrahim Idris
has also extended the olive branch to the opposition forces in the
state seeking their cooperation to move the state forward from the
point of doldrum following the annulment and re -run election saga.
Another spectacular thing was element of premeditated violence
designed to create fear and confusion that the electoral process may
be disrupted. People were killed, maimed and scared away from
polling centres leading to the disfranchisement of legitimate
voters.
Offenders were arrested with guns, axes, cutlasses and other
dangerous weapons by vigilant police and other security operatives.
Names have been mentioned in connection; some have been declared
wanted and as the police investigation continues the last may have
not been heard. The challenge remains how future elections would be
violent free, where no life is slaughtered and no blood is shed in
the quest for power in the state.
|
