posted
qoute: "We are on the road to Kigali, to anarchy." - Mike Okoye, Constitutional Lawyer and civil rioghts advocate.
A Vangaurd Cover page report.
We’re heading for anarchy —Okoye
Saturday 6th April, 2002 By Celestine Okafor
CONSTITUTIONAL lawyer and civil rights activist, Chief Mike Okoye, in this chat sees this week’s endorsement of President Olusegun Obasanjo by 19 governors of the federation and other chieftains of the parties to run for 2003 presidential election as an invitation to anarchy. Okoye who accused the president and the governors of conspiracy to ruin the nation’s young democracy, maintains that it is only the Nigerian voters that will guarantee Mr President’s return to power.
The Supreme Court ruled last week that elected local government officials should quit office this month (April) as stipulated by the constitution. INEC has said it is not ready for council election in May because the logistics are not there and that voters register has not been revised. The governors and conference of Speakers of state Assemblies are bent on conducting a council poll next month. There is a kind of stalemate. What is the way out?
The way out is very simple: go ahead with the local government elections immediately. The Supreme Court of the land has provided us with a basis, a platform for that election, so what are we waiting for? The claim by INEC that it has not revised the voters register is not tenable at all in this circumstance.
The verdict last Thursday by the Supreme Court was victory for the governors that decided to seek legal interpretation to the constitutional logjam that we had earlier. And that judgement must be commended by all lovers of democracy and rule of law. As a constitutional lawyer, I was particularly happy by that verdict. So the issue of saying whether the election should hold or not is immaterial. The important thing is that the spirit of the law regarding that tenure of the local government chairmen and councillors has been resolved once and for all by the Supreme Court. So, the next thing is the election.
I will then advise that we must proceed with the local council elections without delay. If INEC says that voters register has not yet been revised, let us use the old register and conduct the polls because that one is still subsisting.
We have used the same old voters register to conduct several bye-elections between May 29, 1999 and March this year. So, if we have done that, why can’t we use it to organise the polls next month? The only problem with using the old or prevailing voters register is that some people would be disenfranchised. There are some people who have matured to the voting age between 1999 and now who will be deprived of their right to vote if you use the old register.
But rather than violate the constitution and cause problems and delays in the elections, we have to do with what we have. So, I support an immediate conduct of council elections by INEC or SIEC (State Independent Electoral Commission).
You once argued that the President has completed his constitutional two term opportunities having been both a military and civilian president of this country at various times. Now that he has been endorsed for 2003 presidency by 19 governors and ministers in Ota on Tuesday, what have you to say?
The whole thing was a big charade. It is obvious from that Ota incident that Mr President and the governors and the ministers are involved in a grand conspiracy to ruin this country. We are on the road to Kigali, to anarchy. That total endorsement of Mr President by the governors in the face of apparent failure by the president to provide the citizens of this nation with the dividends of democracy portends serious danger to this democracy and to the political class in general. They have tried all the tricks in their books to ensure that both the president, the governors, the ministers and the National Assembly members are returned to office in 2003. So, that so-called endorsement should be disregarded by both Nigerians and the Peoples Democracy Party.
In the face of this, is the Igbo presidency project realisable in this circumstance?
Politically speaking, Ndigbo deserve to have a Nigerian president of Igbo origin in 2003. But the question is: Will this Igbo president have the gut to protect the Igbo interest the way he should? Because the problem with the Igbo presidency as I see it is a glorified one where the North will pick who they like and this fellow may be thinking along the line of his people. And if that is what will happen, then the project is doomed from beginning, because the person will not serve the interest of his marginalised people in the South East.
So, I think that it may be a better option for the South East to bargain with the North so that they (North) can have the presidency and then certain key offices will be left for Ndigbo so that development of the South East will be accelerated in 2003. Because if you don’t get power as of right you may get it as a privilege. The example of the point I am making is what we have in the Senate today. There is a Senate president of Igbo origin whose power is not really derived from his people to enhance his position.
The loyalty of a man is more to the man that created him and not to your people that you represent. For me, I will prefer a Northern president in that kind of situation to the Igbo man president whose loyalty is somewhere else. That is the problem with the Igbo presidency we are clamouring for.
Are you suggesting that this project will take the Igbos a longer time to realise on their own terms?
I will rather prefer that we get a president from Igboland who will give Ndigbo a dedicated service and who will ensure that what is due to the Igbos gets to them than to hurriedly get a president because we think it is own turn but the loyalty of that president is elsewhere. This is what I want Ndigbo to avoid.
___________________ ON Posts: 136 | From: London | Registered: Mar 2002
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