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“Are you not an Ibo?”

I sat in one of
those red LTC buses on the way from Ikeja to my job at the Central Bank
in Tinubu Square, Lagos, in April 1967. At Ojora, armed soldiers had
sauntered into the vehicle at a checkpoint. A dozen men and women
earlier bagged at the checkpoint lay face down in a shallow pool of
water percolating from an early Lagos rainy season. This form of
water-boarding, supervised by soldiers, was meant to humiliate them in
the eyes of others and send a message to the secessionists. My reply to
the soldier was that I came from Ghana, and if he wished we could go to
“my high commission” on Moloney Street for authentication.

There is the
anecdote of an Igbo during the Biafran War who faced the same question,
but claimed he was from Benin City and therefore Edo. It was, of
course, untrue. A federal soldier, according to the story, asked him to
prove it by saying something in Edo. The Igbo man started singing
Victor Uwaifo’s popular hit, ‘Joromi’. The soldier buckled over with
laughter. Unfortunate incidents are sometimes funny.

It was not the
last time I’d had to lie about my ethnic origins to save my life or
avoid extortion by uniformed and civilian gangs in what is supposed to
be my country. Forty-five years on and I am once more thinking and
strategising, mapping out how to escape if push comes to shove; keeping
indoors, watching the conflicts in Egypt, Libya and the Ivory Coast
while my non-Igbo friends roam and play golf.

The Yoruba man
sitting next to me on the bus that fateful morning in 1967 had sighed
before exclaiming quietly, “If only Ojukwu will stop this thing, eh?”
The elections of 2011 and their outcomes have little to do with Ojukwu
and the Igbo. Notwithstanding, losers are sporadically hunting for
scapegoats and appear to have found them where slaughter and spilling
of blood from other tribes is a recurrent ritual.

If the opposition
to the PDP had been serious, why did we not see a subordination of egos
and agreement on a grand coalition? Any intelligent individual should
have realised that once the PDP introduced geopolitics as a deeper
manifestation of “federal character,” the results of presidential
elections were always going to be defined by intra-party primaries,
deals and manipulations. Paradoxically, what was designed to unite
Nigerians and offer equal political opportunities does prove to be
divisive, and in the main has achieved the opposite.

The historical
polarisation along ethnic and religious lines which existed since 1914
worsened with the advent of democratic governance. As a result,
Nigerians now feel constantly piloted by unconstitutional governance
mechanisms and less by the country’s constitution.The young, jobless,
poor and uneducated easily lose control at the slightest provocation or
instigation.

People have
screamed in condemnation of zoning political power in this country, or
questioned the role of traditional rulers in what is supposed to be a
republic. Others call for a sovereign national conference to avert a
final solution, a bloody showdown. But these voices remain small fish
in the massive Nigerian ocean in which sharks are not listening.

Chinua Achebe had said he would like to return as a Nigerian to the
‘next world’. Most of us would welcome re-incarnation if it was
possible. I’d certainly wish to come back, via my parents as an Igbo,
but not within a Federal Republic of Nigeria. In their darkest hour,
the Jews of Europe fled to Israel and other places of refuge. The Igbo
have nowhere to run!

Senator-elect, Danladi Sankara has faulted the
allegation of rigging levelled against him by his opponent, Ibrahim
Saminu Turaki, of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

Mr Sankara, who was the immediate past national
vice-chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party for the North-West zone
described the allegation as not only frivolous, but lacking any
justifiable basis. He noted that his victory was a reflection of the
wishes and aspirations of the people of his senatorial district.

“You could remember that I told you that I am in
the race to win, and by the special grace of God through the power of
the people, that has come to be, as I won the election convincingly
clearly without any ambiguity. Personally, I see my victory as a
challenge, an enormous one for that matter, bearing in mind that I have
to start all over again to provide credible and rewarding
representation for the people of the 12 local government areas that
constitute the Jigawa North-West senatorial constituency in the
National Assembly. This is because in the past 12 years since the
inception of this democratic dispensation, my constituency has nothing
to show in terms of quality representation.”

Continuing, he noted: “My mission is to change the
trend for the better, so that my people can get a credible voice in the
National Assembly to attract meaningful development to the entire
constituency. Those who occupied the Senate seat in the past only ended
up representing their personal interests without any consideration for
the people they were supposed to represent. The situation was so bad
that they do not even visit the areas as soon as they got people
mandate, talk less of addressing the issues affecting them. That is
exactly what I have come to change. I believe that majority of the
electorate voted for me because they were convinced by my track record.
I will provide the much desired credible representation on their behalf.

Baseless allegations

Mr Sankara said “The allegation of rigging made by
Ibrahim Saminu Turaki and his group is frivolous, unfounded and it
lacked basis in truth and reality. In fact, if there was any incident
of rigging, it was the Saminu Turaki group who attempted to perpetrate
such evil, but the people, the voters were very vigilant and refused to
allow them to manipulate the process. That is why they lost the
election and are now shedding crocodile tears.

On the allegation that he rigged at last two
local government areas of his district whose results came last, he
said: “That again has proved that Saminu Turaki and his groups of
opposition allies have no case. We have 12 local government areas in
Jigawa North-west Senatorial constituency. I won clearly in 10 local
government areas with half of the total votes cast in the remaining two
local government areas. Then how come votes of only two local
governments can supersede those of 10 other local governments. In fact,
there is no sense in the allegation. My understanding of this issue is
that they have no case and have, therefore, chosen to resort to
frivolities and unnecessary confusion to deceive themselves and their
followers.

On the threats by Mr. Turaki to challenge his
victory at the court, he said: “The truth is that you cannot beat
somebody up, hands down, and then turn round to stop him from crying.
They are free to go to court; let us meet at the temple of justice,
which is the court, even though it is clear that their action if ever
taken would end up as a waste of time and an abuse of judicial process.
If you think you can deceive yourself, you cannot stampede the
honourable judges to join in the deceit by presenting a frivolous
case.”

Shehu Sani is a
leader of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in Kaduna State. He
speaks on the way forward for Kaduna after the recent political
violence in the state.

Kaduna state was
last week embroiled in a post-election crisis that claimed many lives
and property. What is your reaction to this unfortunate incident?

First of all, I
think we need to understand it clearly. People have the right to
protest; they have the right to say that an election is rigged; they
have the right to also condemn an election and they have the right to
openly demonstrate their displeasure with the outcome of the result.
But what they do not have the right to do is to burn churches and
mosques and kill people. We need to understand clearly that just
because international observers say an election is free and fair does
not make it free and fair. We must ensure at this critical time that
all hands are on deck to see to it that there is some form of return to
normalcy. What has led to this violence is not a people standing up
against a president that comes from the southern part of Nigeria.

After all,
Olusegun Obasanjo was a president of Nigeria for eight years. Never was
a time people in this part of the country rose up against him and say
he should go. The people are disenchanted with the system.

Is your party
doubting the sincerity of your members in the South-East and
South-South zones who were on ground during the elections and who have
said the elections were free and fair?

Just because a
section of the party has said they have endorsed that the election was
free and fair does not make it free and fair. The point raised by the
national leadership of the party is that there was massive
thumb-printing of ballot papers in the South-East and South-South and
they are going to bring in their forensic experts. So if you are
intelligent enough, and you choose to be mindful of the need to have a
solution to this problem, it is to come out and say okay, we will give
you a chance and then you do your forensic examination and see where we
are going to end. An allegation has been raised by the party that
contested the election, and it is the leadership of the party, and it
should be disproved that there was indeed massive thumb-printing in
those parts of the country.

Are you alleging that the South East zone of your party has sold out?

What I don’t
understand is their grievances; was it with the fact that a statement
has been issued by the party leadership without consulting them or is
it that they are saying there was no thumb-printing and Jonathan has
won in a free and fair election?

Since they were on
ground to monitor the election in the zone, they said that it was free
and fair. So why the allegation by your party leadership?

Well, they are now
speaking for both the CPC and People’s Democratic Party (PDP), from all
indications. But that doesn’t invalidate the claim of the opposition.
The opposition has made it clear that they are bringing in forensic
experts. So, if the forensic experts have made it very clearly known
from the scientific point of view that the election was free and fair
and there was no massive thumb-printing, then nobody should raise such
an issue again. But not until forensic experts make a statement on this
kind of thing can we have a solution.

During the
campaigns of the CPC across the country, pockets of troubles were
recorded and this has made some people to see the party as being prone
to violence. Do you agree with this perception?

I think there is
the violence of the CPC and violence of the PDP. The violence of the
PDP is the one that we have suffered for 12 years, and they have denied
us food and water and electricity and have made our lives unbearable.
And thousands of lives have been lost as a result of insecurity,
kidnapping, bombings and death as a result of the dis-empowerment of
the people. The violence of the CPC perhaps is the fact that they are
the most popular in this part of the country and they have ardent
supporters even though some (take things) to the point of fanaticism.

I do not believe
that a leadership of a party can instigate people to come out to
protest, but they could help the situation by calling on their
supporters and those who voted for them to give them enough time to
pursue their case in a court of law and in a manner that is in tune
with our constitution.

This is not the
first time that we are having this kind of crisis; it has happened in
Zimbabwe and Kenya. I’m making reference to violence as a reminder of
the Nigerian civil war; it is also not the solution to the problem. We
should take a cue from what happened in Zimbabwe and Kenya. And then,
President Jonathan should extend a hand of friendship and understanding
to Buhari and both of them can work together towards restoring peace in
the country. Nigeria is far greater than Jonathan and Buhari.

But assuming Buhari refuses to make room for reconciliation with Jonathan?

Well, he
understands that by doing so, now he has the moral upper hand by saying
that he has demonstrated that he is a man of peace and reconciliation.
But by not doing so and simply saying these are the people that should
be blamed and should be crushed, that would not be too good.

Nigeria should move
beyond General Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan. We are a nation
of 150 million people; we can produce 150 million leaders to lead
Nigeria. And the point of it is that we should understand that those
who are fighting for Goodluck should know that this is the same party
that has been in power since 1999, and those who are fighting on the
side of Buhari should also know it very well that it is the poor that
would continue to be killed and not those who are rich. And that before
you kill, before you burn, you should first of all ask yourself of what
benefit is such kind of act to you and your family.

Do you
subscribe to the school of thought that feels this kind of unrest could
lead to the imposition of a state of emergency in Kaduna State?

I don’t subscribe
to such. I subscribe to dialogue between members of the opposition
party and also the government. Within the next 24 hours they can sit
down, discuss this issue and iron it out. Let everyone be committed to
an election that would be free and fair. It is most likely that if an
election is rigged and the ruling party continues in power, then they
are going to rule with the military on the streets for the whole four
years. And I don’t think that would be in the interest of the ruling
party.

If you apply
pressure on the people, they will apply pressure on your own party. And
members of your party must live with people. So you can see there is a
collateral damage here. The way we are in Kaduna now is like the people
are on par with the government. The government has the police and the
army to send against the people and the people can also go against
members of the ruling party. That I believe is not in the best interest
of the state.

Most of CPC supporters are not educated and enlightened politically. How can you reach out to them to sheathe their swords?

I think the party
has a role to play; they really need to do a lot and I don’t see the
party and the government talking with each other for now, and that is
not in the best interest of peace. And, since all these happened, I
never heard the governor reaching out to members of the opposition and
it is almost a state of stalemate. In the election on Tuesday, I don’t
think anyone will wear a tag in a Muslim area and say he is a PDP
agent, and I don’t think anyone will wear a tag in the southern part
(of the state) and say he is a CPC agent. Where you have the battle
line drawn between Christians and Muslims, between CPC and PDP, between
Hausas and the minorities from southern Kaduna, that means we are
almost stuck with nowhere to go.

The Akure Township Stadium was established before
the creation of old Ondo State in 1976 by the then administrator of the
old Western region, Oluwole Rotimi, (a retired colonel) to boost
sporting activities in the state. Then, it was just an ordinary
training pitch before it was upgraded to stadium status by successive
governments.

For years, due to poor facilities in the stadium,
the state did not host any competition of international magnitude.
Unlike Oyo and Ogun States which had hosted sporting events like the
FIFA Women World Cup and Under-20 World Cup respectively, this could
not be said of Ondo State, even though it is an oil producing state.

In realisation of the need to establish a stadium
of international standard, the immediate past government of Olusegun
Agagu embarked on the construction of a befitting stadium for the state
in 2008. The contract was awarded at a cost of N3.7 billion to CCC
Construction Nigeria Limited. At the flag-off of the project, the
former governor promised the people of the state that the project would
be completed by April, 2010.

The contractor, Mr Agagu stated, was selected from
among 17 other contractors who expressed interest in the project,
adding that government was hopeful that the eventual winner would live
up to its internationally recognised reputation in the handling of the
project. At the function, a cheque of N1.8 billion was handed over to
the contractor as mobilisation fees. The fee represents 50 per cent of
the entire contract.

The main bowl of the stadium, when completed, was
expected to occupy a 15,000 capacity sitting terrace, other ancillary
provisions, which would include car park, training pitch, shopping
arena, medical centre, press gallery, and an ICT centre for easy
communication.

The project would also have tartan tracks of 10
lanes, flood lights, electronic score board, a befitting state box
(including VIP extensions), modern office accommodation, and a host of
ancillary facilities.

Below international standard

But five months after the contract was awarded,
there was a change of government. The law court judgement brought to an
abrupt end the rule of Mr Agagu in the state. The contractor had
already begun work on the site before the change of power.

Therefore, the contract was inherited by the new
administration of Olusegun Mimiko, which introduced additional changes
because of the capacity of the people the stadium could accommodate
during international sporting event. However, the contract has since
been abandoned, despite the fact that work had started on the site.

Explaining the rationale behind the termination of
the contract, the state commissioner for information, Ranti Akerele,
said the stadium was not well designed to meet international standard.

According to him, it was wrong for the Agagu-led government to propose a stadium of 15,000 capacity at this jet age.

“When people are planning big stadium that will
accommodate 40,000 people at a time, the then Mr. Agagu government
proposed a 15,000 seater capacity.

“The idea is not only crude but not fashionable.
Our government has begun the repair of the old stadium to make it more
attractive and befitting,” Mr Akerele said.

But John Ola Mafo, the commissioner who was in
charge of the sports ministry when the contract was awarded, described
Mr Akerele’s excuse as flimsy.

Mr Mafo, who had earlier handled the information
ministry under Mr Agagu, explained that the Mimiko-led government had
no good reason to stop the project when the previous administration had
paid 50 per cent mobilisation to the contractor handling the project.

“The excuse being given by the Mr Mimiko is not
genuine. Mr Agagu, while flagging off the project, said the contract
would be completed in 2010 after paying the mobilisation fees. It is
laughable that after the exit of Mr Agagu the project has been
abandoned.

“All over the world, stadium is upgraded at any
given point, so why is Mimiko’s government complaining? The stadium
project is just one of the few projects embarked upon by the
administration of former governor Agagu that have been abandoned by Mr
Mimiko,” Mr Mafo further said.

Five people were
arrested by the police in Masaka and Maraba area of Nasarawa State in a
vehicle with thumbprinted ballot papers.

A woman called
Godiya Sunday was also arrested in Akwanga with a thumb-printed ballot
paper. 252 ballot papers were for state house of assembly, 406 were for
governorship, and 140 were for the Labour Party repectively.

Briefing
journalists at the Independent Electoral Commission headquarters in
Lafia, the state police commissioner, Emmanuel Obiko, said the suspects
were arrested at about 10:30am by his men who were stationed at a check
point mounted to restrict movement of people.

He said the matter
is still under investigation and that nobody would be charged to court
until the police concludes its findings.

“If anybody is found guilty, that person would be charged to court for prosecution,” Mr Obiko said.

Although the whole exercise in parts of the state was peaceful and orderly, the scenario in some areas was entirely different.

There was a case of
ballot snatching by four men suspected to be PDP members in Angwan
Mangu polling unit in Ciroma ward of Lafia. Although 1289 were
registered in the unit, only 421 were accredited according to the
presiding officer, Friday Dirikumo. The arrival of security agents at
the polling unit prevented the situation from degenerating into crisis.

There was low
turnout of voters across the state. Some of the electorate blamed their
apathy on the post election violence that took place across the nation.
This made some of them to relocate from where they were staying to
their villages.

“We have been disfranchised during the last presidential election,” a resident says.

An INEC official,
Amina Zekeri, however, said the commission could not say there is low
turnout until the exercise comes to an end.

Also reacting to
the low turnout, the Senate elect for Nasarawa south, Suleiman Adokwe,
said this could be as a result of the bomb blast in the previous
elections across the country.

The Independent
National Electoral Commission said yesterday that its attention is
focused on verifying and authenticating the results of the state
governorship elections.

Opposition parties
who rejected the outcome of the presidential poll cited rigging and
other electoral fraud, criticising the commission’s oversight of result
collation during a protest that turned into riots in Kaduna, Bauchi,
Katsina, Kano, Gombe and Adamawa states.

The parties said,
in many states, their agents were shut off from collation points where
the results were allegedly doctored in favour of the ruling People’s
Democratic Party.

Since the
governorship and state assembly elections concluded yesterday, the
commission said, while results of the elections are expected, it has
placed greater attention on the collation of results in the 24 states
where the elections were held.

“The only thing
which we have done for today’s election differently,” said Solomon
Soyebi, INEC’s national commissioner in charge of information and
publicity, “is that we have shifted our attention more to the collation
centers. We are trying to make sure that whatever is done at the
collation centre is more transparent.”

An imperfect process

Election monitors
have also picked at holes in the commission’s multi-tiered election
collation process, which sends results from polling units to the state
collation centers through the wards and local government area collation
centers.

In its report after
the presidential election, the National Democratic Institute said this
approach created a tendency for “malfeasance and human error.” Speaking
yesterday on behalf of the chairman of the commission, Attahiru Jega,
Mr Soyebi said the electoral body has improved the way it monitors the
processing of results for the governorship polls.

“If there is any
party agent denied access to the collation center, he or she has our
hotline to call and that will be remedied,” he said.

Damage control

The commission also
acknowledged, for the first time, the challenge it faces with a large
number of its ad hoc staff – the corps members – withdrawing their
services in Kaduna and Bauchi where elections were moved to Thursday
due to the large-scale violence that hit the two states.

Mr Soyebi said that
while the fear about personnel shortage may not be so real in Kaduna
state, the situation in Bauchi was serious enough that the commission
planned to deploy its permanent staff for the exercise.

He said full-time staff in Bauchi and neighboring states and the
headquarters, as well as other trained ad hoc staff, are to be drafted
for the election if the youth corps members stay away on Thursday.

Fears over the
violence that followed the presidential elections led to a record low
turnout in most parts of the country during yesterday’s polls. The
gubernatorial/house of assembly elections, which formed the last in the
series of national elections that began April 9, ended in most states
on a peaceful note, but turnout was quite dismal. Although the
pervasive apathy was more notable in the northern states where youth
went on a rampage after the April 16 elections, even states where there
were no riots saw more voters staying home. The violence that
accompanied yesterday’s elections was minimal. A bomb blast in
Maiduguri, the third in the area since elections began, mercifully left
no casualties. Another exploded in Ogbe-Ijo, Delta state, injuring no
one, while police successfully defused another one in the same area.

A wary north

In Kano State, the
fear of violence saw middle-aged and elderly voters abandoning their
polling units and the youth were mainly the ones to be seen around.
Areas like Kawaji Jigirya ward, Fagge A and B Brigade, which had
recorded unusually high voter participation in the two previous
elections, saw low voter turnout for the gubernatorial elections. Kano
State governor and ANPP presidential candidate, Ibrahim Shekarau, who
voted at his Giginya ward, blamed the recent crisis.

“The low turnout
may not be totally disconnected from last week’s crisis that has
affected the turnout of women and the aged. But the security agents are
doing everything possible to ensure the peaceful conduct of the
election,” he said.

Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who was the People’s Democratic Party governorship candidate in the state, agreed.

“We have been
receiving reports of low turnout probably because people are scared
because of last week’s violent protest,” he said.

In Adamawa,
Nasarawa and Katsina states, the story was the same. In Katsina, a
presiding officer at polling unit 13, Modoji Primary School, said that
of the unit’s 831 registered voters, only 384 were accredited and even
less came out to vote. He also said that the majority of youth corps
members who officiated the earlier polls shunned yesterday’s exercise.
The spokesperson for INEC in the state, Mohammed Musa, said turnout was
very low, “but the reason, I don’t know why”. In Lagos State, turnout
was so low in some areas that officials had to go door to door to urge
people to come out to vote.

Sore spots

In many states,
however, the elections were peaceful. Ondo state governor, Segun
Mimiko, who cast his vote with his wife, Olukemi, at unit 020 Lodosa,
said: “This shows that beyond permutation, speculations, we have a
reasonably satisfactory process.”

Still, there were a
few issues. In Oyo State, the senator representing Oyo South,
Kamorudeen Adedibu, was among 54 people arrested in the state for
various offences. Security operatives in Ondo State arrested 120 people
during the house of assembly elections there. The arrests were mostly
for disobeying the movement restriction order. However, at Akpala
polling unit, Uparama ward, hoodlums snatched a ballot box and shot
into the air. Calm was restored when Naval officers from Forward Base
recovered the box and arrested two of the miscreants.

In Nasarawa, five
people were caught with thumbprinted ballot papers — 252 of which were
for the state assembly elections while 406 ballot papers were for the
governorship election. The state’s electoral commissioner, Emmanuel
Obiko, said the suspects were arrested by his officers at about 10.30pm
and would be prosecuted soon. A corps member who served as presiding
officer in Obokun Local Council in Osun state was also arrested for
being found in possession of 50 thumbprinted ballot papers.

Violence is idiotic

A former head of state, Abdulsalami Abubakar, however condemned the recent violence.

“From what I have
seen, the turnout is less than what I saw in the previous elections,”
he said. “I believe people are very apprehensive and don’t want to be
caught up in any violence.”

Mr Abubakar who voted with his wife, Fati, along with former head of
state, Ibrahim Babangida and his family, said the violence following
the presidential election, “is the most idiotic thing to happen”.