“…he doth bestride the narrow world like a colossus, and we petty men walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves dishonourable graves’ – Cassius, In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar
William Shakespeare who wrote this memorable verse and put it in the mouth of the most powerful imaginary politician in the world, Cassius, had died long before the emergence of APC and Buhari in political space of Nigeria.
But his memorable verse which was a product of sheer envy which the wizardry Cassius used to convince Brutus to join in the conspiracy against Caesar has become a fitting description for APC and president Buhari whose arrogant display of power is now a source of concern to Nigerians.
Just-like Cassius alleges against Julius Caesar in the above quotes, President Buhari and his party, the APC now bestride the narrow space of Nigeria like colossus, using their huge legs to trample upon the rights of the citizenry.
The party’s naked display of power has become unbearable, making Nigerians to think that it had a secret pact with the president where it was decided it owns the country and could do whatever it wants with it.
If this was not so, how can it be explained that a governorship election which held in Osun State and which the Peoples Democratic Party PDP candidate, Ademola Adeleke won, was declared inconclusive and a re-run ordered. The re-run which was done a few days after, was a sham, orchestrated to bring Aboyega Oyetola of APC as governor, and true to that, after the re-run, the APC candidate was announced as winner. The original winner, Adeleke of the PDP was thus deprived of his clear victory.
In the first round of the election, Adeleke of the PDP polled 254,698 votes as against 254,345 votes garnered by Oyetola of the APC. Adeleke’s votes were higher than that of his APC counterpart with 343 votes, yet at the end of the re-run, the Osun State governorship returning officer, Prof. Joseph Fuwape declared Oyetola winner, and by so doing set Nigeria into confusion. Osun people who were not happy over the stolen mandate amassed in the streets in protest, barricading INEC headquarters and chanting war songs.
APC and INEC’s orchestration in Osun State was done in disregard of section 69 of the electoral Act 2010 (as amended) which stated that: “an election to the office of the governor or president whether or not contested and in any contested election to any other elective office, the result shall be ascertained by counting the votes for each candidate and subject to the provisions of sections 133,134 and 179 of the constitution, the candidate that receives the highest number of votes shall be declared elected by the appropriate returning officer.”
Earlier before the debacle in Osun State, the APC and INEC had brazenly rigged Ekiti governorship election which the PDP candidate was favoured to win.
The APC led federal government had deployed battalions of soldiers and police to the two States to intimidate the populace from coming out to vote for the PDP candidates who were popular, but they defied the security, which was why the party adopted a more brazen and open kind of rigging, declaring the election inconclusive and ordering a re-run in the case of Osun State and hijacking victory in Ekiti State which the PDP candidate won.
In the two open robberies, President Buhari, the avowed corruption fighter did not see anything wrong in the debauchery, but rather congratulated the winners for a job well done.
But, if they had used raw powers to dispossess victory of their opponents from other parties, why resort to the same tactics in dealing with their own members and aspirants?
The primaries, particularly, the governorship primaries the party held last week was a mere deceit as it was manipulated in favour of preferred candidates.
That of Imo State was a complete sham. It was held three times, because the first and second time it held it could not produce Okorocha’s candidate, Uche Nwosu.
Uche Nwosu is Okorocha’s son-in-law from the same Orlu zone and the governor had positioned him to take over from him, so he could cover his tracks when he leaves office.
Having failed to win in the first and second ballots, Okorocha purportedly went to Abuja and convinced President Buhari of the need to anoint Nwosu as the APC guber candidate. When the governor came back from his Abuja trip, their third primaries was held and pronto, Uche Nwosu emerged and is now standing as the APC governorship candidate in next year’s election. Again, it was raw powers that was used to put him there.
Senator Hope Uzodimma and Eze Madumere who were tipped to win the primaries were short changed, which was why the duo had gone to court to contest what they described as a charade.
In Lagos, everybody knew that in a free and fair contest, the incumbent governor, Akinwunmi Ambode won the APC guber primaries, but Ahmed Tinubu, the so called godfather of Lagos politics, used naked power to give it to Sanwo-Olu, his proxy.
Rivers State APC held parallel governorship primaries which produced two candidates, Senator Magnus Abe and Engr. Tonye Cole. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, the Transportation Minister who had mastered the use of power, having understudied his boss, Buhari single handledly propped up Cole and put him there as the candidate of APC. Nobody dares challenge him as his boss who sent him for the hachet job equipped him with enormous powers. However, Magnus Abe has refused to pipe down and is insisting that he will go ahead to contest next year’s governorship election.
This scenario played out in all the States APC conducted governorship primaries with preferred candidates returned as guber candidates for the party.
Aisha Buhari, the President’s wife has pilloried Adams Oshomohole, the APC national chairman on the outcome of the primaries, accusing him of collecting bribes and retuning his preferred candidates.
Compare this with the decency that trailed PDP primaries, especially the presidential primaries, in Port Harcourt where a former vice president, Atiku Abubakar emerged as candidate. Nigerians have described the PDP presidential primaries as very transparent and have called on INEC to borrow a leaf from them if it wish to conduct a successful general elections devoid of manipulation next year.
The electoral umpire had better heed this admonition as the citizens are ready to resist manipulation of electoral processes and trampling on their right in next year’s general elections.
