By Uchem Obi
IT started like a very bad joke powered by the twin engines of vaulting ambition and wild imagination. First, it was that the Supreme Court had sacked all Anambra (PDP) members in the National Assembly (NASS). Second, someone’s imagination became so adventurous to cause letters to be written, frstly to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), demanding the withdrawal of Certificates of Return issued to Anambra PDP members in the National Assembly and secondly to the National Assembly, demanding the immediate swearing in of certain people as replacement for Anambra PDP NASS members.
However, on Wednesday February 24, 2016, the Supreme Court re-ordered ambitions and imaginations when it affirmed the nomination of Senators Andy Uba, Stella Oduah and Anambra PDP members in the House of Representatives, as duly nominated to contest the March 28, 2015 National Assembly election.
The ruling of the apex court finally laid to rest every controversy about whether Sen. Andy Uba and other Anambra PDP members in the National Assembly were properly nominated to contest the 2015 National Assembly Elections. The ruling did not only confirm their proper nomination but also their eligibility to continue to represent their constituencies in the National Assembly.
Controversy, albeit, unnecessary, had begun after the Supreme Court ruling of January 29, 2016 had confirmed the Ejike Oguebego-led Executive as the legitimate leadership of PDP in Anambra State. This unambiguous ruling was mischievously exploited to circulate false stories in the social media that the Supreme Court had sacked Anambra PDP members in the National Assembly and replaced them withthose who purportedly emerged as National Assembly candidates from primaries conducted by the Oguebego-led executive.
As attractive and persuasive as this fiction was made to look, I warned the public of the deceit and falsehood embedded in the fallacy, which seems to have become the Hallmark of the group promoting the fiction. In The Sun newspaper publication of February 18, 2016 with the title: ANAMBRA PDP Members and the Supreme Court judgement; I reminded the public that the positions of Anambra PDP members in the NASS were not issues before the Apex Court and that the only matter before the Supreme Court on that day was the chairmanship of PDP in Anambra State.
I also reminded the public that the Supreme Court had long ago held that the Exco of Anambra PDP has no power whatsoever to conduct National Assembly primaries. That such powers were imbued on the National Executive Council of the PDP. But trust some Nigerian politicians, anything to remain in the news, including outright mischief, is still a game -plan.
This was why, despite the clarity of the Supreme Court judgment, a group of politicians who had wrongfully participated in the illegal National Assembly primaries conducted by the Oguebego-led Executive petitioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificates of Return issued to Anambra PDP members in the NASS and re-issue same to them.
The group led by Chief Chris Uba also petitioned the National Assembly asking for the members of their group to be sworn into the Senate and House of Representatives as replacement for Senators Andy Uba, Stella Oduah and other Anambra PDP members in the House of Representatives.
This warped interpretation of an unambiguous Supreme Court ruling emboldened foolery and took good reasoning captive. The public was rattled and unnecessary debates were ignited across the divide.
The National Assembly chose to tread with cautious while INEC relied heavily on its sense of cautious judgment. It was a battle of wits between dogs of war and concrete facts of history.
In order to properly understand the facts of the ruling and address the controversy appropriately, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) went back to the Supreme Court for an interpretation of the judgment that had sparked off the controversy. On February 24, 2016, the apex court dutifully interpreted the judgment.
The Supreme Court expressed surprise at the controversy because its ruling of January 29, 2016 was about the chairmanship of PDP in Anambra State and not about which organ of the party has power to organize National Assembly primaries as the apex court had earlier decided that the Exco of Anambra PDP does not have the power to conduct National Assembly primaries because it is only the National Executive Council (NEC) of the party that has such powers.The Supreme Court said that it couldn’t have sacked Anambra PDP members in the National Assembly because the matter before it was the disobedience of PDP in setting up a Caretaker Committee for Anambra PDP during the pendency of a subsisting order of Court recognizing the Oguebego Exco as the legitimate Leadership of the party in the State.
The Supreme Court further held that the recognition of the Oguebego Exco until the setting aside of the subsisting order does not translate to any form of power for the Oguebego Exco to conduct National Assembly primaries and forward its list to INEC. My personal opinion is that this amounted to usurpation of the duties and powers of the National Executive Council of the party. It is also tantamount to the exercise of non-existent powers and therefore, whatever duty or duties are purportedly carried out pursuant to the exercise of such non-existent powers are null, void and of no effect whatsoever.
It is, indeed, an enduring victory for Anambra PDP members in the National Assembly and a timely nipping in the bud of a determined effort to rebuild in Anambra State the broken altars of the dead gods of impunity and brigandage.
.Obi writes from Abuja.
OPINION
Apex Court on Abia & allied issues
EBERE WABARA
[email protected] 08055001948
IT would be juvenilistic for anyone to think bovinely that the justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria are infallible or shorn of extraneous/emotional/sentimental feelings. The rationale in their justificatory avowals on their verdict on the recent Abia State governorship tussle is simply confounding—both to the educated and most of their (learned) colleagues. If their Lordships had said, they took into consideration the social and political milieu in which the case originated I would have taken off my hat to them.
The moment the Apex Court upturned the Appeal Court’s ruling on the Rivers State governorship battle, it just struck me that other lower courts’ decisions in similar matters would also be annulled. As someone said, this is the first time in the country’s judicial history that all appellate courts’ rulings would be discarded. The only question I have: why did the Supreme Court not take judicial cognisance of the precedents in the governorship cases in Osun State where results of 10 LGs were cancelled before Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola was declared winner and three LGs’ results also quashed before the emergence of Dr. Olusegun Mimiko in Ondo State, among others—all of which had the same issues like Abia. Perhaps, those places are too volatile and highly inflammable to be toyed with unlike spineless Abia! Weep not for the dupes, but for the electoral and judicial fatalisms and systemic contradictions that have corrupted Nigeria and eroded institutional credibility. Anyway, why cry over spilt milk? As they say, I rest my case.
The most critical consequence of the Ukwa-Ngwa associational deceit is that the Ukwa people cannot aspire to govern the state until after 32 years from now! This is quite easy done: if, hypothetically, Dr. Ikpeazu does two terms and the other three major divisions of the state take their own turns, it is then that an Ukwa man can aspire to occupy the Government House, Umuahia. Even at that, there is no guarantee of such a candidacy because the Ngwa clan could perpetuate their dominance of politics in the state as if it was their birthright! The only twist would be if the Ukwa-Ngwa or other clannish considerations that birth mediocrity and surrogacy are jettisoned before the state becomes a failed state.
Despite the commotion by the Ngwa that the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate in the controversial governorship race, Dr. Alex Otti, was not, strictly, from Ngwaland despite elements that made him more of an Ngwa person than most Ngwa, he still gave a good account of himself in the 2015-governorship election. This was even as the state government machinery was unleashed on him to ensure that he did not succeed. The oppositional forces against him knew that if he came to power, they would be forensically probed. Therefore, every spanner was thrown into the governorship trajectory of Dr. Otti.
I do not see anyone from my Ukwa land having the kind of resilience and triumphal spirit of Dr. Otti. What we have now are sell-outs who do not understand the implications of the fleeting lolly they think they are enjoying. Instead of our self-ascribed elders calling the Ngwa to order and righting things, they are busy jesting about over governmental handouts! Their peers elsewhere have gone beyond local politics to national reckoning and global stardom. Political leaders look ahead of selfish interests and project into the future by empowering their people and creating external enablements for them to actualize their dreams without the microcosm of the state.
In the last governorship election in the state, there were more phantom and illegal votes than lawful ones. The ultimate winners and their thuggish supporters, if they have conscience, know this actually—it is not expected that they should publicly acknowledge this reality. The point to underscore now that the earthly battle for the soul of Abia seems over transiently is that there is a greater life after here. Without sounding eschatological, what we think we are savouring today by denying or robbing others of their inalienable mandate/right will end up being our karmic nemesis.
As I pointed out in the prefatory article to this vindication, the figures thrown up by the Ngwa in the last governorship election were outlandishly exaggerated and allowed to stand, more or less, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). From the electoral criminalities going on in Abia State, I declare that the INEC is the most corrupt government agency in Nigeria today. It will be interesting if the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) could look into the notorious activities of this body in Abia State. I do not know why the leadership of the INEC should allow a few of its staff so much autonomy and latitude to mess up its organisational integrity and name. The official INEC bandits in the state have carried these electoral robberies recurringly since 2011. Successive experiences embolden them to get even more scandalously fiscal in their electoral entrepreneurship!
…Ukwa-Ngwa: My vindication (2)
THE next local government is Ugwunagbo. This is where Ala-Oji is situated. From Port Harcourt Road, after Ariaria, the famous spare parts market is situated there. Local or native population is less than 20 per cent and comprises a mix of Ngwa and Ukwa people.
Indeed, it is only in Ukwa East and West Local Government Areas that you will see up to 70 per cent native population. Yet, these people are marginalised by the Ngwas. They do not have any cultural lineage with the Ngwas. The Ngwa people have never supported them.
All political positions coming to these areas are usually grabbed by the Ngwas, especially people from Obingwa. Obingwa has produced almost all the deputy governors in the state. Why did Ukwa not produce any? No minister has come from Ukwa, yet when they talk about marginalisation, they forget Ngwa marginalisation of Ukwa people. Yet, Senator Wabara is an Ukwa man.
The domination of the Obingwa people over the other Ukwa/Ngwa people can be seen from the fact that Enyinnaya Abaribe who hails from Obingwa has gone to the Senate two times. The same Obingwa produced Okezie Ikpeazu. They share the same senatorial district with Ukwa people. They could not concede the senate seat to Chris Nkwonta from Ukwa. These are the people talking of marginalisation. All previous deputy governors in Abia State, from inception to date, come from Ngwaland, a majority are from Obingwa. Senator Abaribe is from Obingwa. Okezie Ikpeazu, the governor, is from Obingwa. The Speaker of the House of Assembly is also an Ngwa man. Yet, Adolphus Wabara is talking of equity. What have Ngwa people left for the Ukwa clan? The LGs in question, therefore, cannot be called stronghold of Okezie.
History of Ngwaland: what Elder Adaelu has not told people is that the people called Ngwa people originally came from Mbaise in Imo State (check the Internet for confirmation). The migration to the present Ngwaland from ancestral home in Mbaise was not even too long ago. The place called Ngwaland is, therefore, populated by migrants from Mbaise, Arochukwu and Ibibio in Akwa Ibom State. Like America, Ngwa people are migrants that settled in the areas they occupy. This fact is not in doubt and not in dispute. Most Ngwa people can trace their roots to outside the state. Just like we all migrants where we settled, as all can trace our roots back to the Garden of Eden.
Concluded