By Ejike Anyaduba
Dear Professor Mahmood Yakubu,
I admit of no better time than now
to write you this letter. With the November 18 governorship election in
Anambra State within days of taking place it behoves us in the state to
ask a few questions. I assume - even without being admitted in knowledge - that
you have taken effective care to ensure that Anambra State witnesses a free and
fair election. Nothing will be more gratifying than this realization.
It is my hope that your coming to
the state as an unbiased umpire is to change the perception that
election results do not always reflect the wishes of the electorate. I pray the
Anambra election will not be a confirmation of this perception. This is because
you and I know how diminished a people can be each time their collective
aspiration is made of no importance. It vacuums them of hope, and can set them
on a path of destruction. To this end, I pray you don’t indulge or pander to
any interest that will bring about this situation. This election offers you a
chance to write your name in gold - an opportunity to undo the wrongs of the
past. Professor Humphrey Nwosu, you remember him, the erstwhile boss of INEC,
is remembered today with fondness by majority of Nigerians not because he plied
his pedagogy in political science of many a Nigerian university. Not at all! He
is remembered because he dared to be different and conducted what has come to
be known as the freest and fairest election in Nigeria. The opportunity is here
with you. I urge you to seize it, act in good conscience and allow Heaven to
take care of the devil in the detail.
May the good Lord speed you!
However, there is this rumour that a
plan has been hatched to derail the process which I feel you should know. But
for constant dropping of the name of your organization, the purveyors of the
cheap gossip would merit no consideration at all. But because every society is
surfeited with imps enough to cause distractions, including my dear Anambra, I
suggest that you take proactive measures to forestall possible derailment. The
threat should not be dismissed with the wave of the hand as these fellows seem
determined to stultify genuine effort to have an equitable election. I haven’t
the slightest reason to doubt your good office or to ever imagine it could be
in cahoots with any plan to compromise the people. Not at all! Yet their boast
of connections in high places is enough to arouse concern. They speak with
definiteness that the result must pan out in their favour. Where otherwise -
they boasted - the election will be postponed as was the case in Edo.
Ordinarily, no one should pay any
heed to such swank as our people can distinguish between the command of God and
the threat of man. They can also tell a psychological war when they are up
against one. But I got worried when reference was made to the Edo governorship
election. You must agree with me that that election did not commend itself
highly of INEC. If anything, it reduced public confidence in the electoral
body. The postponement of that election from September 10, 2016 to September
28, 2016 was seen rightly or otherwise as unnecessary except as an opportunity
for the eventual winner to deal with the odds against his chances. Till date, a
lot of people are not enamoured of the conduct and will be loath to have it
repeated elsewhere. It may be argued that the election was equitable at least
to the extent that the Supreme Court affirmed it and the good people of Edo did
not protest the travesty. Neither argument captured the damage done to the
psyche of Nigerians who had thought the new leadership of INEC was different from
what it has been.
It is our prayer that Anambra State
should be spared that sham of an election. Not because the people have the
capacity to compel a different officiation if the Edo option has been slated.
It has to be different for the following reasons. One, because it is the only
election within the period, it is less encumbered by pressure. Both the
workforce and material deployment of INEC have enough room to deliver a good
job. Two, the state is currently under threat of a shut-down by elements of the
Independent Peoples of Biafra (IPOB). That in itself is enough trouble however
abated it may seem since the Python Dance 11. It will be stretching our luck
too far by provoking mass hysteria through avoidable partisanship. Two and
perhaps the greater of the two reasons is possible provocation of the fractious
youth of the Omamballa region. You may not be aware of this, but the Omamballa
area is the flashpoint of violence in the state. Because of the rotation
arrangement two of the frontline contenders in the race are from the area. This
area is a veritable ground for recruitment of “militants”, and till date bears
the record as having fought the longest fratricidal war in the history of the
state. Without sounding an alarmist another kind of job would be created for
the security agents should INEC mismanage the election.
As a rule, Anambra is a pleasant
state to govern. The people have no great expectations from government. They
are sufficient onto themselves and can, on occasion, stand in for government.
The state occupies a foremost position in Igbo land because of her unique
potentials. It is not without reason that elections in the state are treated
with great care. Anambra electorate are sophisticated and do not need
encouragement to accept or reject a leader as they deem wise. However, if
deprived the right of choice they can prove most intractable. The state can
make noise enough to get the nation worried. We are not unaware how important a
peaceful Anambra State is to Nigeria and vice versa. It will be wrong to task
the peace by doing anything untoward during the election. A challenged
governorship election in Anambra State may worsen the volatile peace
in the country. For this reason, our dear INEC, I decided to write you
in the hope that you will resist every attempt to exact your office for
the success of any candidate in this election.
It will be a disservice to our
people if their effort on November 18 is made of no effect just to
satisfy a few interests.
Our people appreciate the rat race
involved in this election and cannot pretend to be unmindful of
efforts by those who boast of their contact in high places in Abuja to subvert
the will of the people. But to achieve that through any connivance with the
refeering authority will spell a lot of trouble for everybody. You owe
the state a duty to resist any temptation and or intimidation by those
determined to lead the state against the dictates of her conscience. What
happens from November 19, whether there will be a peaceful Anambra, nay Nigeria
or not, derives from how fair you choose to conduct the election. I shall be
content to bother you less with an unnecessarily long letter for I know you
must be busy.
Again, may the good Lord speed you!
Ejike Anyaduba writes from
Abatete
