Still on the Ondo State tribunal judgment

By Akintayo Akin-Deko

I am a Nigerian politician and I make no apology for it. I took my cue from my late father, who, despite a somewhat diminutive frame, was very much a larger than life figure, and a hard act to follow, Ex-this and ex-that, late papa was first and foremost a founding member of the famed Action Group (AG) of the 50s and 60s, and the party’s leader in Ondo Division (now Ondo and Ekiti States). Yet, despite a close friendship with the late and great Chief Awolowo, papa eventually parted ways with his friend and joined a host of other dignitaries of Ondo Division origin to agitate for the creation of Ondo State, a dream that came to fruition in 1976.

Papa was so determined to see his beloved Ondo State align with the majority of Nigeria that he gave up a sure shot at the governorship of the state, when in 1978, he defied all expectations and pitched camp with the NPN rather than with the UPN. I followed suit and thus started my career as papa’s political assistant. Essentially a Yoruba party, the UPN had inherited the formidable political machinery of the defunct AG, which was a sure platform for electoral victory in the region, Papa thus left the road clear for Chief Adekunle Ajasin, who did join the UPN and in 1979 went on to become the best governor Ondo State has ever known.

Thus, blessed with a political silver spoon, I have usually managed to be in the thick of things. In the NPN, I was the first to shake Alhaji Shagari’s hand in 1979 at our Jibowu Road, Lagos headquartes when he won the final round of the 12 2/3 battle, I was in the 80s a member of the “little-to-the-right” NRC, where I worked directly under Alhaji Ali Baba at the Kaduna headquarters of Mallam Adamu Ciroma’s presidential campaign team, and in the 90s, I attended General Abacha’s All Politicians Summit at the Lagos Eko Meridien on the ticket of the ANC. I was a foundation member of the PDP in Idanre LGA of Ondo State and, an associate of the party in my mother’s native Owo LGA in Ondo North and also in my grandmother’s Ese-Odo LGA in Ondo South.

Thus, although I have never held any significant political office, as an apprentice to various Nigerian masters of the game, I have been honoured to witness political tactics at its most sublime and, regrettably , heared reports of chicanery at its worst. The tribunal court judgment of July 24, 2008, which disenfranchised almost 50 per cent of Ondo State voters, who cast their votes on that memorable day and who originate mostly from the PDP stronghold of Ondo South, was one such case of political chicanery at its tragic worst. The ruling “awarded” victory to the Labour Party and now threatens to isolate the state politically from other Nigerians and thus roll back the gains of our nascent state and ridicule the sacrifice of past heroes.

I do not intend to hold brief for Dr Agagu who though happens to be in the same party with me was like many other Yoruba PDP leaders in the state, a frontline coordinator for General Obasanjo’s presidential campaign in Ondo State during the 1998 and 2003 PDP primaries. I performed the same role for Dr Alex Ekwueme. We are therefore children of the same PDP father, but by different mothers. I am also not against Dr. Olusegun Mimiko who after all, was also in the same PDP political party with us, and was to boot, neck deep in Dr Agagu’s government until the 11 th hour when he resigned from his ministerial post and ditched all of us in the PDP to get into bed with Labour.

I am simply holding forte for those voters who in the privacy of their homes, are pouring invectives on the Ondo State Electoral Tribunal members for turning their backs on history and especially on justice. For, by canceling all the votes in places where there were some alleged cases of rigging, our learned justices took turns to (so to say) repeatedly rape the rights of those extraordinary Ondo State voters, who braved the thugs and the mayhem, to go out and cast their votes during the election of July 14, 2007, only to now have their votes thrown out by the Ondo State Electoral Tribunal. Why? Because Dr. Mimiko’s agents said there was rigging in some PDP strongholds.

Dr. Mimiko is neither from Okitipupa; nor is he from my grandmother’s Apoi tribe in Ese Odo. He is neither Ijaw nor lIaje. In fact, he does not belong to Ondo South senatorial district. Yet, he has the temerity to hail the election tribunal that ruled that the votes of my senatorial district kinsmen should not be counted in deciding who should rule a state we all own equally. This from a learned man, who would be governor. Is this not just simply a case of the rest of Ondo State trying to colonise and oppress the Southern Senatorial district - the goose that presently lays the golden egg?

What the lawyers failed to tell the Tribunal in clear terms is that in politics the world over, there are two types of rigging: the “immoral”, which bends the law and the “illegal” breaks it. Even in the much vaunted democracy of the USA, with all its sophisticated security apparatus, politicians successfully bend electoral rules (e.g. on sourcing of campaign funds) and incumbent governments tamper with membership of the judiciary and with constituency delineation to suit their group interests. Political strategists call it “avoiding” rather than “evading” the electoral laws. One is immoral, the other is illegal; take your choice.

In Nigeria, political activists usually take advantage of the country’s poor communication network, high poverty among the electorate and poor security network to bend electoral laws often to breaking point. For example, it is not unlikely for Party A to have registered their most able canvassers ( thugs) in polling booths inside the stronghold of Party B. Come election day, Party A’s registered voter(s), who are in the extreme minority at the targeted booth, pick arguments with all and sundry such that Party B’s boisterous majority eventually start to beat them. The planted canvassers respond vigorously and in the process scatter voting paraphernalia and create such commotion that legitimate voters run for dear life.

Electoral law calls for voters to behave in an orderly manner and Party A’s registered voter is clearly bending the law by picking arguments and then breaks it when he starts to fight. Based on reports of its agent at the booth, INEC has the right to cancel such an election and Party B thus loses the potential votes in a booth that, being within its stronghold would have recorded a landslide victory for their candidate. Now, apply this to what might have happened in Ondo South Senatorial District, a PDP stronghold, and tell me which party had the most to gain from bending electoral laws on that fateful July 14, 2007, as adjudged by the tribunal.

As a layman in search of justice (rather than a lawyer manoeuvering to win his client’s case by all means), the questions uppermost on my mind from the array of evidence presented at the tribunal were many. If whole booths were infested by a single person voting repeatedly, where were the voters registered to vote in that booth? Were they chased away? Which of the other parties would have received their votes? Could such multiple voting have gone undetected in other wards in the state? Indeed, is the electoral system so fundamentally flawed as suggested by international observers that the integrity of any election in Nigeria is compromised ab initio?

Akin-Deko sent this article from Akure, Ondo State.