Yinka Olujimi
The people of Nigeria – all seven of them! – have voted; and today, Hope Uzodinma is the Governor of Imo State.
Anybody who is not satisfied with the development can go hug a nearby electric transformer. Apologies, the nearby transformer is most likely just a relic, a sad reminder of the distant past when electricity passed through it. There is boundless joy in our hearts, and on the streets of Imo State, that the Supreme Court graciously added all votes earlier cancelled in 388 polling units to the tally of Uzodinma, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Assuming, without conceding that INEC overreached itself by cancelling the results of those polling units, should all the votes cast there by awarded to only one political party, a distraught friend asked me on Tuesday. He also wondered how Uzodinma who came fourth in the Governorship election result became the beneficiary of what he regarded as judicial abracadabra to emerge as Governor over and above those of the two parties that came second and third. I simply shook my head and hissed at my friend. Is anybody still in doubt that we are not only in government but also in power? Power is sweet, we know how to wield it.
Apparently, my friend is not aware, or has chosen not to be, that in this Next Level dispensation, nothing can stop the moving train that the imperial presidency has become. Since Ifeanyi Araraume of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) who came third never showed interest in challenging the victory that was awarded Ihedioha, it was easy convincing Uche Nwosu of the Action Alliance (AA), who came second to drop his claim.
It was Quite Easily Done, as my Ghanaian Mathematics teacher chose to interpret Quod Erat Demonstrandum (QED) to our class of awed, starry-eyed students those years in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Now, our party has got a foothold in that previously impregnable fortress called Eastern Nigeria. That is a rare feat that can only be achieved by the leader of our integrity clan, Major General Buhari (rtd).
One by one, by fire by force, all of Nigeria will be brought under the canopy of One Nation, One Nigeria. That was the simple task that Alhaji Shehu Shagari failed to achieve – remove the head of the judiciary, appoint a pliant leader for them and cow the rest into submission. The votes of the people do not count. What counts is the will of the apex court, which we now have at the press of a button.
Wailers may be wondering why it is the party of progressives that has now executed the agenda of the then ultra-right National Party of Nigeria (NPN). That is why they are wailers. We must allow them practise their calling – which is to wail endlessly. For us, President Buhari has once again done the unthinkable – plant in Eastern Nigeria, a representative of the NPN – apologies, of One Nigeria – the One Nigeria mantra that serves only the interest of the North.
For us, we hail.
The three wise monkeys
Forty eight hours after the Attorney General of Northern Nigeria (apologies, of the Federation (AGF), Mallam Abubakar Malami pronounced newly birthed Southwest security outfit Amotekun dead on arrival, the leader of the hailing clan, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has once again adopted the counsel of the three wise monkeys: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil! Asiwaju, by the way, means “the leader.” No wonder, he loves the title “national leader” of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).
As observed on this page last week, the selfsame Tinubu who kept sealed lips on the Malami position that directly poses a threat to the lives of everybody in the Southwest, on Wednesday sprang to life to shower effusive praises on the Supreme Court for removing Emeka Ihedioha with Hope Uzordinma as governor of Imo State.
It no longer matters that as Lagos State Governor, Tinubu fought the then presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo to the bitter end over the splintering of constitutionally-backed local government councils to form local council development areas, mouthing the need to enforce federalism in the country. As rampaging herdsmen wipe out whole villages, especially in the Middle Belt and the North East, kidnappers made life unsafe for both the young and the old, in their homes and on the streets in the Southwest, the governors of the states decided to jointly form a vigilance group called Amotekun.
Malami, who has never been known to oppose the creation of Hisbah Police in the North, and the formation of the Civilian Joint Task Force for the Northeast to battle Boko Haram, on Tuesday declared Amotekun illegal. The chief law officer of the country conveniently forgot Section 33(2)(a) of the 1999 Constitution which permits killing in defence of property, while insisting that the people of the Southwest must not defend their lives and property because security is in the exclusive of the Police and federal agencies.
Malami also forgot, or is blissfully unaware of the Minutemen of the United States of America – the home of federalism – who as civilians banded together, weapons in hand during a time of great national turmoil that finds a parallel in the Hobbessian state that Nigeria is currently in.
There is no Asiwaju to call Malami to order, or steer the Federal Government towards the path of reason. All that matters to the national leader is conquests, and more conquests of territories in any manner, fair or foul.
Nigerians are watching. And waiting. 2023 is by the corner.