3-DAYS TO GOVERNORSHIP ELECTIONS: WHY NIGERIANS MUST VOTE OUT THE PDP AND APC GOVERNORSHIP CANDIDATES
By Nnamdi Onochie
The date March 11, 2023, Saturday, will be another historical day in NIGERIA. When those who do not believe in fairness, equity and justice, jettisoned Zoning and Rotation of the 2023 Presidency, used money to buy their Candidacy, little did they imagine that their actions would be visited with repercussions: it was not youths alone, all Nigerians began to HATE their political parties. So, in spite of their money and arrogance, they were VOTED out, on February 25, 2023: they know now that in rigging the Presidential election of Saturday, February 25, 2023, they know also that they will be visited again with harsher repercussions and consequences; punishment for subverting the will and conscience of ORDINARY Nigerian citizens, their political parties, minions and frontmen will be VOTED out again, at the Governorship and State Assembly elections. The shock waves this time will be worse and deeper, and the sanctions will be shame, public shame and opprobrium that will stop their arrogance, and divinely extinguish the sirens that insult Nigerians, when they use our roads, ride government cars purchased with public funds, when the citizens hustle and struggle daily to feed themselves and their families.
The tragedy of NIGERIA in which even the rich and comfortable know that their elected government officials are parasites without conscience, is the one that was bequeathed to the country in 2015, when President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB), took over the reins of the Federal Government. In the nearly 8-years of that government, it has been several hardships galore, one gory tale after another. From Boko Haram for whom PMB was an erstwhile patron, Bandits, Fulani herdsmen, to kidnappers on interstate highways, and railways, into Universities, Secondary schools, Colleges, to bombing of Christian-Moslem worshippers, to Unknown Gunmen who terrify communities and lockdown towns and regions over long periods of time: spiraling inflation and cost of living hikes that has so embittered Nigerians, turning NIGERIA to the 149th poorest country in the world where prices of products change hourly, daily or weekly, and no one in government is held accountable (compared to the UK in 2022, where 3-Prime Ministers and governments were changed due to rising cost of living upwards of merely 14-16%).
In NIGERIA, from 2015-2023, some essential products/commodities have had spiraling rising costs of more than 1,000% increase eg rice, garri, eggs, fish, chicken, housing accommodation, transport etc: Nigeria which in spite of Billions of US Dollars spent on electricity generation, in the same period, the total daily average generated/supplied electricity is still below 2,000 Megawatts; public universities nationwide were shut for 8-months in 2022, thus from the 8-year inception of the PMB Government, no one has been called to answer to the populace why their jobs and own emoluments have been guaranteed through the Nigerian public Treasury; indeed these failed politicians and senior government Officials have persisted kleptocratically to superimpose themselves on the electorate by new rigging formulas and the undermining of electronic voting systems, and getting declared as high election winners, when they know that they rigged the elections. But the hand writing on the walls are crystal clear for all to see: these political denizens, whose words cannot be trusted and their gimmicks are all too well known, have been begging and pleading to be forgiven and be elected again, so that our national estate will be far worse than the very last time they bribed their way through and into government. There are things in life that money cannot buy: trust, integrity, kindness, fairness and honesty. When one is deficient in them, after a good while, your estate will be shamefully rejected and be removed and it will disappear. That will be the fate of more than 70% of the Governorship Candidates of the APC and PDP: Nigerians should only vote trustworthy, humble Candidates, while those who have been sponsored, selected and been funded by political overlords, emperors, untrustworthy and deceitful betrayers and carpet-baggers, MUST be disgraced from public offices and leadership positions: those who allocate all major contracts to their minions, who concentrate solid tarred roads, drainages, solar electrification projects, universities, institutions, new Banks, very cheap loans, sales public facilities and amenities to themselves, Family members, cronies and associates, while neglecting other peoples, communities, pensioners etc including those near to them; they should ALL be PAID back in their own inconsiderate, insensitive and wicked coins. It is not only pay back time, it is the time of due season and reckoning: if by their seeds we know them, then let us pay them back in their coins of deceit, duplicity, betrayal of their ethnic brethren and wickedness, as a future lesson for all those who misjudge or mislead the populace.
INEC AS GOVERNORSHIP AND STATE ASSEMBLY UMPIRE
Since the government of PMB, whose constitutional responsibility it was, rejected my early call to indefinitely suspend INEC Chairman, Mahmoud Yakubu, and others who willfully rigged the Presidential Election of February 25, 2023, more information, evidence and sagas have been exposed since that historic eventful period and day. Nigerians confident about their demand and expectations for progressive change and voting for honest clear-headed leaders, do not trust or believe in the capacity of the current INEC high officials to conclude the Governorship and State Assembly elections of March 11, 2023. My counsel on Mahmoud Yakubu was that his indefinite suspension and leave of absence was inevitable, from which two trusted incorruptible Judges will be immediately assigned to conclude the final elections, with minor adjustments; it has become imminently dreadful that failure again by INEC will ignite combustible situations that will further aggravate our national cohesion and progress, after these elections. Since Saturday February 25, 2023, in spite of several proven cases of high electoral crimes and misdemeanors, few of these officials, INEC and political Parties, have been held to account for their crimes, as deterrence to others, to preserve the sanctity and integrity of this upcoming final important election. There have been numerous reported cases and instances of voter threats, intimidation of ethnic groups, sections and sectors of populations and units, all over and around Nigeria: the last flashpoints of Rivers State, Lagos, Imo, Sokoto, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Ekiti States, are still being gas lighted as we approach Saturday, March 11, 2023: no new evident eliminative measures are being introduced by INEC or the Security agencies. Even threats of looting, arson and massacres and displacements have been issued and reported. Since the first acts of electoral crimes have been condoned by those in Federal authority, like a pat in the back and encouragement to secure more or new Government Houses/rubber-stamp State Assemblies for their party: with the stakes steep high, crimes, violence, clashes and electoral brouhaha will be very high. Can the tranquility and calmness of February 25, 2023, be sustained? The count down has begun, the dice is cast, and only the future will tell our true national history.
ETHNIC BLOCK VOTING OR HATRED AGAINST DOCILE POLITICAL PARTIES?
It may seem from cursory insights that voting patterns in the Presidential election of February 25, 2023, were mainly on ethnic block basis. The cross boundaries and patterns of voting became more discernible and evident as the electronic rigging crimes of INEC were exposed; that Nigerians voted more for ObiDatti because they believe that the APC and PDP Presidential Candidates could least be trusted. But the disrepute of dishonest reputations and prior allegations of malfeasance against them, were the major factors that influenced the new massive voting dispositions of the Nigerian electorate. Delegates-buying, outright greed, political insensitivity and arrogance, deliberate acts of ethnic and religious DOMINATION, (eg the attempted installation of Emir of Aba, and the planned creation of Aba Emirate Council in Abia State), of which they had been tainted and tagged, brought public dislike, political hatred and disinterest against them. Lack of a sense of political fairness, equity and justice, from which poured their greed, callousness, and corruption, accusations and allegations publicly declared against them by their former associates, cronies, bosses and superiors, even the members of the public, counted massively against them. Rather than defer to others, their belief that others must make way for them
has made the Governorship and State Assembly Elections, another referendum on the major political party leaders, nationally and at State levels, and the electoral umpire. It should therefore not be entirely shocking when the predictable election defeats are greeted by public cheers and rejoicing, in the cities, towns and communities of Nigeria. Any fortuitous attempts to rig these last elections will read tragic for our polity.
HAZARDING NIGERIA AFTER # 2023 GENERAL ELECTIONS
Unless the expressed voting acts and will of the citizens in Nigeria is respected, the medium term prognosis will be more tragic for the country. Social hardships, continuing religious and ethnic insecurity, random crimes, economic deprivations and hopelessness will pervade the country: induced by the Naira cash crunch and petrol scarcity of January-February-March 2023, Nigeria will relapse into an avoidable economic recession, and essential commodities prices, fuel scarcity, and general dislocations will usher in forgotten separatist agitations. That is why the penultimate lapses of INEC ought to have been nipped up urgently to save Nigeria the insensitivities of the highly comfortable elite. Even a Presidential transition plan devoid of rancor
but steeped in social, ethnic and group mistrust will worsen matters. It is in that light that I urge INEC and the Federal Government to stop any new, covert or revealed plans to rig and subvert the electoral process of March 11, 2023: INEC informed Nigerians that it was fully ready for the elections and it cannot now be asking to be permitted by a law Court, to reconfigure the BVAS or IREV voting accreditation and transmission devices. This General Election of 2023 has been an epoch of learning, lessons, conscience and progress for Nigeria. Let that pace be sustained, based on a a ZERO CORRUPTION program; the future holds greater glory for the younger generations: we must hold each accountable and according to their known civil or political standing. This last Governorship and State Assembly Elections, in 3-days, must hold successfully.
LONG LIVE THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA!
Signed:
Dr. Orefo Nnamdi Onochie
Convener/Chairman
NACOPPIN
