THERE is this grossly erroneous political mystique that once there is an electoral disputation between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the timid oppositional Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) contestants during polling, at the election petition tribunals or the various Courts of Appeal, victory perforce must go to the APC with a few marginal exceptions like Taraba and Bayelsa states. In morbid pursuit of party loyalty and advocacy, propagandistic deployment has become a normative thing. Indeed, taciturnity in the circumstance is taken for weakness and the electorate may be left to wonder if their expression of preferences was not a fiasco after all. The proponents of the dysfunctional information know the deleterious potentialities of such a mind-game and sustain it at all costs, especially in a milieu where there is abysmal ignorance about facts and realities. Unfortunately, too, decision makers appear to be swayed by such duplicitous warfare instrumentalities. This could easily explain the curious nature of some judgmental paradigms in election matters.
Because of the systemic erosion of values in our society, lack of integrity, democracy, justice and equity have all become footmats for most politicians in this part of the world. For virtually all aspirants to offices, there are no scruples about such core values as long as the end justifies the means, even when it is clear to them and everyone else that truth is being trampled upon. In most cases, there is disregard for conscience and truth. People’s will is dispensed with as long as the goal of selfishness is achieved. There are no qualms about such mass deception!
On April 11, 2015, when the governorship election took place, a majority of Akwa Ibomites cast their votes for the man they can trust to deliver the dividends of democracy to them and actualise global developmental goals in their state. The incomparable mandate fell on Mr. Udom Emmanuel who today is the Governor of Akwa Ibom State. The expression of choice and summit confidence in Udom by the body of electors in the state were so astounding that all his opponents have called it quits with the exception of one who is still doing needless mind reading and hoping that some extraneous interventionistic strategies would subvert the people’s will and mandate bursting at the seams since that glorious day of freedom, April 11, 2015.
The uniqueness of the divine emergence of Udom, prior to this time is the element of universalism in his choice arising from consensual sessions ahead of the poll by the entire 10 federal constituencies which in unanimity of their advocacy for the well-deserved enthronement of any candidate from Eket Senatorial District, a zone that had not produced a governor since the creation of the state 28 years ago.
If not that democracy calls for voting, the peculiar case of Eket and its significance in state and national economies over the years, it would have been natural to just give anyone from that largest axis in the state the mandate to govern the state for the first time in 28 years! This is what exactly the electorate have done by massively identifying with Udom. It is amazing that over the years a territory that has the highest number of local governments in the state (12 precisely) amid overflowing reservoir of oil for local and national utility. If it were not the peculiar nature of civil governance, the significant and ordained governorship mandate of Udom in all its divinity and mass appeal should not be a subject of controversy and unnecessary legal pugilism. I am sure his opponents and other stakeholders are aware of this fact, too. It should equally not be lost on our Lordships, going forward. Law is more about fact and logic—and less of mechanistic polling instrumentalities. This was expressly stated in Akinwunmi Ambode vs. Olu Agbaje by the Supreme Court (more on this presently).
I blame Ibomites from Eket District, with the highest number of local governments in the state and the goose for the state and by extrapolation the country, for not dealing with the problem directly in the past 28 years that the state was created. It had to wait for the PDP to zone it just last year to them! Even with the belated awakening, indigenes from other zones that had been reaping what Eket should have had the lion’s share over time are still battling to wrest power from them! God cannot allow this excellent opportunity to slip away on grounds of insensitive legal rigmarole. It will be inequitable, callous, unjustifiable and unfair for the Eket as represented by Udom not to be the governor of Akwa Ibom after the judicial acrobatics.
Inasmuch as I do not begrudge anyone participating in democratic processes by seeking votes or challenging the person’s inalienable right, it would have made sense if the person came from the long-marginalised constituency. This explains why 20 out of the 24 aspirants of the PDP came from Eket senatorial district for the November 2014 primaries, which culminated in the emergence of Mr. Udom Emmanuel as the party’s governorship candidate. He superfluously defeated the APC candidate and representatives of other political parties by hauling 996, 071 votes while his opponents, including the APC’s Umana Umana who polled 89,865 votes, were left floundering in disbelief, utter disappointment and ultimate resort to the judiciary for the last futility. By the way, the four aspirants who breached the PDP zoning principle should have been expelled from the party even before the prim-aries.
The disparity in the number of votes garnered by Udom and those of others is so humongously wide that there should not have been any situation where we are now in the state. The statistical differential is so much as to silence any critic, candidate, party or stakeholder. It was a resounding victory for Udom and for fellow Ibomites. The overwhelming success of Udom calls for sober reflection and frenzied celebration—not dissipation of energy on litigation.
It is an irony that the same Court of Appeal that upheld the election of 21 out of 26 House of Assembly members held on April 11 contemporaneously with the governorship poll conducted by the same electoral officials conveniently quashed the governorship election. How can anyone rationalise these manifestations? If the Court of Appeal had nullified all the parliamentary results, one would not be surprised if the same treatment were meted out to the governorship exercise. It is impossible to declare one these same elections clean and the other unclean simply because the stakes are higher in the nullified governorship, probably. A diseased tree cannot produce good fruits and bad ones simultaneously—it has to be either way. Similarly, if the tree is godsend, He is already for Udom. This is the point the Lordships at the apex court should dispassionately take judicial notice of this in their dispensation of justice in this matter.
Circulation of falsehoods, lies, cock-and-bull stories, ludicrous yarns and moonlight tales by those inexplicably opposed to Udom cannot undermine the Divine Mandate on which platform he confidently straddles. Since the Appeal Court cancelled his election, some unscrupulous elements have been disseminating vicious rumours and deploying their massive machinery of propaganda—a development that will not change anything for sure. I have the conviction that Udom will overcome all these oppositional pranks and distractive challenges. As they say, nothing good comes easy. Your Excellency, you must take this in your stride as an overcomer.
It should interest the APC and its supporters to know that issuing inciting and combustible statements can only lead to a conflagration that will first consume those who mindlessly, irresponsibly and suicidally stoke it before any other victim, if at all. The God of Emmanuel will not allow evil to befall His own on grounds of Udom’s sonship with His creator.
There is no doubt that if the Supreme Court calls for a rerun in Akwa Ibom, Udom will do better than he did in the election that took him to Government House, Uyo. I say this because there would be additional votes arising from the unwarranted threats to the state, plots of mayhem, harassment, embarrassments, intimidation and other forms of lawlessness by those who think they have access to Abuja and national security agencies which they dream of unleashing on the peaceful state and the PDP leadership here at the opportune time that will never, never come!
At this point, it has become apposite to implore President Muhammadu Buhari to warn members of his party who may be under the illusion that they have it all and can, therefore, behave as if they are above the law. Nobody has exclusive monopoly of violence and recklessness—it is just that all of us cannot be insane at the same time. Uncouth and intemperate language is antithetical to democratic ideals. It is even a blot on the President’s party and disrespectful of his office. This reality must be sunk into a few APC numbskulls in Akwa Ibom State hatching all manner of deviancies. With the level of political consciousness nationwide, “federal might” for criminalities can no longer work because of its potentiality for inflammability. There is a definitive limit to propaganda.
It is heart-warming that despite the distractions occasioned by litigation, Udom is still going ahead with projects and programmes that will catalyse transformation in the state now and in the future. That is the essence of good governance, which explains the divine nature and mandate of his administration by virtue of the import of his name and testimonious achievements as governor so far. The testament of a good and popular leader begins in the morning and thrives even in the midst of legalistic thorns.
Finally from Udom: “We are ready to defend this mandate. But, let me allow Akwa Ibom people know that we have full confidence in the Supreme Court of this country because the Supreme Court is equal to justice. That is why we are not afraid because we know justice will be done again and again.”
Udom Emmanuel, God (and the majority, not the totality, of Akwa Ibomites) are with you. Fear not for your victory is certain, provided it remains the wish of God, who does not equivocate or vaccilate on anything. And so shall it be! Nobody can take Udom’s Divine Mandate. On it I solidly stand, of course!
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