The ruling by the Supreme Court a few days ago regarding the election petition filed by the People’s Mandate Party (PMP) and its Presidential Candidate against the declaration by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as the elected president of Nigeria in the 2007 presidential election is both instructive and indicative. The ruling which ordered the retrial of the petition by a fresh panel indicates that somewhere in the seamy labyrinths of our judicial system there still exists some hope that the hallowed chambers of the legal profession may yet be reclaimed in this country. In ordering for a fresh retrial, the Supreme Court held that the lower court erred in law and did not take into consideration the hard facts adduced by the petitioner. That the Supreme Court would have the will and courage to make such pronouncement even in the twilight of an administration that its mandate has always been suspect is cheering news for a system that has become notorious for its judicial sommersaults.

However, it is very unfortunate that this judgement is coming three years after the charade that passed for a presidential election and also when the administration of Yar’Adua is almost coming to an end. The major problem with Nigeria, apart from its fractured federalist pretensions, is the snail speed of the judicial wheels. If it could take the PMP and its presidential candidate three years to convince the Supreme Court of the imperative for a fresh trial of the case, one wonders the fate of ordinary Nigerians who may not have the resources and patience to pursue their case. That the Appeal Court, with all due respect, could summarily dismiss PMP’s case with a wave of the hand without even bothering to look into the merits of the case is indeed regrettable. The judiciary is regarded as the last hope of the common man and the bastion of justice. It is the third realm of the governmental tripod and regarded as the moderator of the political and social system. In societies where the judiciary is worthy of its name, the deepening of democratic ethos; maintenance of social stability, and quick dispensation of justice is anchored on the judiciary. Regrettably, we cannot in all honesty say this of Nigeria.

Our problem really is that we are always willing to compromise the truth for some political expediency or even outright gratification. It is not only in the judiciary that we experience this evil of corruption. In truth, corruption today pervades every aspect of our society so much so that Nigeria is regarded, and correctly so, as the world’s capital of kleptocracy.

The presidential election in question was generally dismissed as a sham. The PMP has been emphatic that the said election was fraught with a lot of irregularities as confirmed by both domestic and international monitors and observers. The European Union Monitoring Team for example wrote off the election as falling below all the standards of a credible election. Members of the judiciary are no strangers in Nigeria and would not claim ignorance of the many electoral crimes committed during that elections. Umaru Musa Yar’Adua even admitted that the election that brought him into office was greatly flawed for which reason he promised to reform the electoral system. PMP’s resort to court action against the declaration of Yar’Adua as President was in furtherance of our belief that the judiciary is the last hope of the people for getting redress for an injured party. Unfortunately, the Appeal Court thought otherwise and, at the altar of expediency, threw away our case without a second thought. We have always believed that recourse to the rule of law is the best way to consolidate our democracy and deepen the pillars of our unity and solidarity as a people. But when the judiciary acts in ways alien to its nature and purpose, then society is at risk of extinction and a relapse into the Hobbesian state of nature where life is brutish, nasty and short.

Why has it become so difficult for us to conduct a credible election in this country? Our route to sustainable democracy lies in abiding to the spirit and letters of the Electoral Act, which we adopted as an article of faith through an Act of the National Assembly and also the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. When these laws and constitution are not followed, we do a lot of damage not only to the judiciary but also to the entire Nigerian State. How do we expect the international community to perceive us when judgement for fresh trial in an election petition is coming three years after the election; when the life span of the administration is remaining only fourteen months; when the Appeal Court, with neither cause their action nor reason their guide, literally threw away our petition and dared us to go to hell; and to hell we have gone to get judgement.

There is no doubt that Nigeria is perching precariously at the edge of the precipice. That President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua became president through criminal manipulation of the electoral system is an obvious fact and no matter how we try to wish away this hard fact through nebulous judicial interpretations, the fact remains that the Yar’Adua presidency has become Nigeria’s albatross. The administration has been lack-lustre in performance- the fragile amnesty granted the Niger-Delta militants has virtually collapsed and the militants have gone back to their trenches. Insecurity to lives and property in Nigeria has become a sing-song while unemployment, social crimes and the virtual collapse of our infrastructure has become the sign posts of a failing state. Nigeria is a country that Mother Nature has richly endowed but we have frittered away every opportunity of salvaging the country and reclaiming her high destiny. This is a country with enormous possibilities but has almost been destroyed by ethnic pariahs and mind-boggling tendency for primitive accumulation. This is a country with so much potential for industrialization but wasted through inept leadership, lack of vision and mission in governance and an enfooled political elite noted more for its double-speak and empty rhetoric than meaningful leadership. This is a country that cannot boast of regular power supply; where millions and billions of money develop wings and vanish over night and nothing happens; a country where governance is of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. Nigeria is indeed a country of the absurd and this absurdity seems to have come full cycle with the present state of health of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and the secrecy and diabolic power games that have attended the President’s regrettable condition.

Since the alleged sudden return to Nigeria by the ailing President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in an air ambulance recently, Nigeria has become a theatre of the absurd, callous and unprecedented power game by a predatory cabal intent on ruining the Nigerian project. President Yar’Adua has become a hostage to this thieving cabal and Nigeria’s foundation is gradually and seriously being fractured beyond redemption. This cabal has embarked on a looting spree beyond the profligacy and thievery of the Abacha clan and they are using this ill-gotten wealth to lubricate the wheels of anarchy and chaos in the country. Curiously, Turai Yar’Adua, Musa Yar’Adua’s wife and this thieving cabal have decided to run the country aground rather than have a functional machinery of governance that would deprive her of the sobriquet “first lady”.

It is only in Nigeria that this kind of foolery, deceit and bare-faced disregard for the constitution and constituted authorities can take place and people are still pretending that all is well.  It is only in this country that the second-in-command has no right to see his ailing boss, not for lack of trying, whom he has not seen for over 80 days; it is only in Nigeria that the wife of an ailing president can, without due recourse to constituted authority, direct the Chief of Defence Staff to deploy soldiers in an airport and the CDS would do that without clearance from the Acting President; it is only in Nigeria that the wife of an ailing president, who does not have any constitutional role, would attempt to disrupt the meeting of the Federal Executive Council all in a bid to protect the presidency of her very sick husband that she has so cleverly and mischievously hidden from Nigerians. Which country in the world would tolerate such rabid display of abuse and lack of regard for decent conduct?  Must we sacrifice Nigeria at the altar of ambition? Does it not bother us that inspite of the enormous wealth that this country can boast of, majority of our people still live below the poverty line? Would anybody blame the masses of Nigeria if and when they risse to reclaim what is rightly theirs but have been deprived by a predatory cabal that does not care about the ominous implications of their actions? Does it not bother us that we have irredeemably lost the 20th century in pursuit of trivia rather than substance? Does it not bother us that our children would one day spit on our graves pronounce curses upon all those that have in one way or the denigrated the Nigerian possibility? Are we also bent on loosing the 21st century? God forbid.

While we await the constitution of a fresh electoral panel to hear our case, we are confident in stating that we shall not get tired of insisting that the right things be done the right way. The right thing to be done is to do away with bad leadership; restructure Nigeria along the lines of true federalism; condemn electoral malpractices when and wherever they occur in Nigeria and be bold and forthright in dealing with electoral matters in this country within the shortest possible time. That is our way forward. We neglect it to our own peril.

I am not unmindful of what will be the vicious and pedantic interpretations and permutations about this Supreme Court ruling especially by the notorious fifth columnists in this country. Already some are giving interpretations totally at variance with the patriotic ruling of the Court insinuating that the judgement was designed to scuttle the wheels of government, without as much realizing that even the Supreme Court, under the Supreme Court Rule Could have given us instant judgement but decided to pass the buck to a fresh panel. Much as such people have the liberty to feather their imaginations and dream dreams, I consider such foreboding interpretations as arrant nonsense and products of demented minds that have already been condemned by history and humanistic conscience. Ours is a struggle anchored on good conscience and devotion to the good of humanity; it is a struggle driven by vision and mission to serve; it is a struggle defined by our massive aversion to poor governance; it is a struggled fueled by our conviction that when the righteous is in power the people will rejoice but when evil people are in power the people will suffer. That is the meat of our struggle.

All through my life, I have dedicated my entire existence to the cause of the ordinary Nigerian people who have borne the brunt of poor leadership in this country; who have been unconscionably deprived in the midst of plenty; who have been subjected to the most degrading level of feeding from the garbage bins and to whom justice will always stand afar. I have always concerned myself with the strategies of how best we can build a prosperous and industrialized Nigeria- knowing that we have the potentials for achieving such standards. In pre-occupying myself with these plans, I am mindful of the fact that time is not on our side neither is history patiently waiting for us; that the enormous wealth such as Nigeria is endowed has wings and that with its wings it can do one of two things- it can bring in more wealth or with its wings it can fly away never to return. In this struggle for the good of the common man in Nigeria, I have had to endure official harassments, intimidations, blackmails, imprisonment, threats to my personal security, abuse of my fundamental human rights and exile. In all this I have remained and will always remain unmoved and hopeful that one day we will realize our folly and toe the path of reason. In this landmark judgement by the Supreme Court, we see an opportunity to salvage the Nigerian system and hope available to all Nigerians irrespective of gender, class, religion and ethnicity. But as I live, I am committed to prosecuting this legal battle to its logical conclusion representing as it were the conscience and aspirations of millions of Nigerians who have been criminally disenfranchised.    

Signed:

Dr. Arthur Agwuncha Nwankwo

Leader & Presidential Candidate, People’s Mandate Party (PMP)

Chancellor, Eastern Mandate Union (EMU)

Chairman, Fourth Dimension Publishers