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A rather funny absurdity is snowballing somewhere in the South South. Bad people who went to every length to initiate a good man but failed are now busy crying wolf when and where not even a cat was in sight -or better put, when and where they were themselves the wolves. Just why are we like this in this country? Just why are the guilty always the most afraid and the first to bandy accusations?
Unfortunately, this evil over good osmosis has remained the bane of Africa’s so-called giant for too long. Someone said that evil thrives because good people say or do nothing to oppose it per time. Nigerians must understand that the fastest, surest way to rescue, reclaim and redirect our fatherland is to publicly resist and shame these Janus-faced purveyors of daredevil evil and mischief. If we keep saying nothing or looking away when others are targeted, no one would defend us when they come for us as they most certainly would.
The foregoing is the reason Nigerians must rise against the witchy gathering against Mr. Mike Igini who, whether they like it or yes, has been the undisputed Electoral Standard Champion of Africa, since 2010/2011 when Nigeria signed him on. Nigerians discourage nationalism and thereby slow the eldoradolisation of Nigeria when we allow political mercenaries and barbarians to have a free reign against nationalists. Nigerians must eschew and condemn parochial partisanship engendered by ethnicity or religion or money or politics, or all. Doing otherwise is tantamount to simultaneously pushing and pulling Nigeria which is what we do when we pray for change but turn around to match that faith with no works.
Those who have hitherto not been able to add two and two to decode the foregoing encoding need not worry. As Uyo Club 1934 teaches, I am here because you are there. Can we break it down in order to get together on the same page? And, can we do that by fielding the poser: Why all the ruckus over the anti-election-virus human injection called mikeiginimycin?
See, Nigeria has suffered physically, economically, socially, politically and educationally from sham elections. No one can debate that the country has, in its old and new testaments, been battered by electoral stupidities (namely ritual killings, fraud, rigging, thuggery, vote-buying, etc.) and may well continue to be in the future testament. There is been a near-unanimous outcry for help by the citizens, who are clearly exasperated by the untold comeuppances that the country suffers, because of this malfeasance which always emerges before, during and immediately after every ballot. President Goodluck Jonathan, as he then was, gratified that yearning in 2010 when he readied to appoint the chairman as well as some national and resident electoral commissioners (REC’s) of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
That was how Prof. Attahiru Jega, a former Chairman of Academic Staff Union of Universities, became INEC Chairman. That was how Prof. Lai Olurode, a civil society academic, also came on board as national commissioner. That was how we heard about an Edo-born lawyer, a known INEC critic and a civil society personality, who was a leading student activist during the military heyday. There were whispers of he dilly-dallying over accepting a presidential offer of REC.
In Nigeria where so-called big men accept comedown political appointments just so they belong, Mr. Mike Igini -by taking his time before the job- communicated a twin message wordlessly: one, that he is a special Nigerian and two, that it wasn’t going to be business as usual. Nine years on, whether in Cross River state, or Imo or Anambra or Edo or now in Akwa Ibom, there’s not a doubt in the hearts of all good people that this REC has remained different, clean and even-handed. Prof. Jega who knew about this REC’s stupendous discipline, character and proven integrity always deployed him to areas challenged by trust and confidence or the lack of them. Mr. Igini always delivered!
It is only God who ensured this electoral field marshal was posted in 2017 to Akwa Ibom where he stayed on to oversee the 2019 general elections. The state may never have recovered from the violence that would have ensued had the collective will of the people been tested by any tampering with the result. This is why the Akwa Ibom electorate would eternally be grateful to REC Igini for garbaging out exactly what we had garbaged in on 23rd February and 9th March. This is why the barrister must see the faint murmur of voices currently seeking to tarnish his image as the small price he must pay for doing great good; after all, doesn’t the bible curse anyone who enjoys only the singularity of praise rather than a salad of praise and criticism?
The Akwa Ibom state REC should be happy that an alarming majority of Akwa Ibomights appreciate his role to no end. However, he should also be happier about the tiny minority attacking or sponsoring attacks against him since he knows their grouse. He should be the happiest for it knowing he didn’t travel abroad to strike the deal that would have forced him ‘to count money instead of ballot papers’ and subsequently subvert the will of a people who desperately wanted to break a stranglehold. Surely, there can be no greater joy than a clear conscience and the reassurance that, in the years to come, Nigerians shall permanently tick his name as an electoral patriot.
In fact, and thankfully, we are already seeing signs and hearing echoes of this sweet future. The Obong of Calabar and other respected voices recently put themselves on record, pouring encomia on the five-star Resident Electoral Commissioner for his anti-corruption disposition, consistency and qualification for higher national assignments. Which reminds me: the day Nigeria cures her professorial addiction, Mr. Mike Igini may well become the first non-professor Chairman of INEC. Until that end-of-discussion thankyou happens, Mr. Igini and all other Nigerians who have no price tags should be consoled that serial empty allegations against them are only a face-saving, straw-catching, pre-drowning frustration by those who always thought that if money failed, more money should do the magic!
God bless Nigeria!
