In ‘Kongi’s harvest’, Wole Soyinka’s epic drama, the lead actor, Kongi, demands a significant gesture of submission from the man he deposed, Oba Danlola. At the end of the day, he receives a human head as sacrifice. It is an evergreen play of tradition and modernity in Africa. This epochal drama foreshadows what is occurring today in the intriguing politics of Kogi State that I have christened ‘Kogi’s harvest’. What is unfolding today in Kogi is a play of dwarfs, not giants. It is confounding. It is astounding. It is one of the most astonishing exhibitions of impunity in this dispensation of purported change. It is simply too baffling to comprehend.
The late Abubakar Audu and James Faleke contested on the joint ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the governorship of Kogi State. The pair won the largest number of votes and had the required spread in terms of number of local governments in the state in the election. Then the unexpected happened. Prince Audu died before the formal announcement of the results. All of a sudden, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) began to play games. It no longer mattered to the commission that all parties in the contest presented a joint ticket as constitutionally required just to pre-empt such eventualities as untimely death or any other unforeseen occurrences. INEC inexplicably declared the election inconclusive. Is INEC bound to operate according to law? Does the commission have the powers to annul the outcome of a validly held election, which is what it has done in Kogi State? Your guess is as good as mine.
The patently dishonest and arrogant handling of the elections in Kogi State marks one of the most dangerous moments in the evolution of democracy in this dispensation. If a state governorship election can be treated with such a degree of impetuousness, then what guarantee do we have that the next general election will be free and fair? One of the harvests of the Kogi impunity is the unfortunate diminution of the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation. The Attorney General in his partisan meddling in the Kogi election reduced himself to the status of Attorney General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) rather than that of the federation. Beyond that, he diminished his office to that of a legal adviser to INEC while the commission has a statutory adviser on legal matters. In any case, it will be interesting to know what the opinion of the APC’s s legal adviser is on the Kogi imbroglio.
Another unfortunate harvest of the Kogi impunity is the devaluation of the office of the chairman and the entire institution of INEC. In the first place, the declaration of the Kogi election inconclusive against all logical evidence to the contrary suggests that the leadership of INEC is compromised. Again, the INEC leadership made a grave error in sublimating itself to the dictates of the Attorney General of the Federation. Even then, the admonitions of the AGF cannot with all respects stand legal and logical strictures.
For instance, the AGF recommended that the person who came second in the APC’s primaries be nominated to succeed the late Audu. To the best of my knowledge, no law has been given to back this bizarre and lawless position. Audu was the product of a lawful and credible primary. He picked a running mate constitutionally in case of death or any other eventuality. As candidate of the APC, Audu represented the party. However, as candidate of the party, the votes that Audu/Faleke ticket won transcended party boundaries,
Those who voted for the Audu / Faleke ticket were across party lines. They included citizens who are not necessarily in any party. It thus makes no sense to seek to ascribe the legitimacy of party members to that of the general electorate. This is why the purported election of Alhaji Yahya Bello as Governor elect of Kogi State is so patently laughable. The party members had surrendered their mandate to the party in voting for an aspirant. But once an aspirant emerges like Prince Audu did, he becomes a candidate of the party. Once a person becomes candidate of the party and he contests general elections on a joint ticket, the ticket transcends the party. The support base of the ticket goes beyond the party and there can be no going back to the party primaries.
Some commentators have tried to justify the APC’s impunity in Kogi in the name of party supremacy. They reason that Honourable James Faleke should bow to the decision of the party irrespective of the law and his rights. The classic case cited to support this view is that of Rotimi Amaechi when the Supreme Court pronounced him governor of Rivers State even though he did not participate in the governorship election. The apex court’s reasoning was that he was the rightful and valid candidate of the party. What this position overlooks is that the Supreme Court decision was as a result of Amaechi protesting against the injustice he suffered within the PDP. In other words, party supremacy is not the equivalent of party impunity. The dictatorship of the party leadership cannot substitute for intra party democracy. In the case of the National Assembly leadership, Senator Bukola Saraki and Honourable Dogara rebelled against the will of the majority within the APC in intra-party elections. It was not a case of party imposition. The APC’s impunity in Kogi is without parallel in this dispensation. It is a demonstration of the highest level imaginable of irresponsibility and lawlessness.
In all of this, it appears to me that the National Chairman of the APC, Mr John Oyegun, shoulders much of the blame. He assumed office with so much promise. As a distinguished retired Permanent Secretary of no mean repute, so much was expected of him. Unfortunately, he has been severely lacking in leadership and charisma. He has failed to stamp his authority on the party. He has at critical moments, failed to demonstrate the courage and conviction to act in support of what is right, decent and lawful. That was largely responsible for the National Assembly leadership debacle and the utterly rudderless state of the APC today. We can only hope that it is not too late for Oyegun to redeem himself and begin to offer effective leadership to the APC.
Credit: The Nation
