Nigeria Content Online

A week long sifting
of thousands of names and records in large stacks of files, is likely
to come to an end today for officials of the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC), with the formal publication of the list of
candidates for the April general elections.

Clumped in a hall
at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja, the staff of the commission
have since Monday been going through documents trying to fish out areas
that could lead to disqualification of the candidates.

But the declaration
that will end what INEC officials have repeatedly termed “speculative
list” is expected to usher in a fresh wave of glory for some and also
some controversy, with expected upsets as well as corresponding legal
tussles.

Already, some
federal lawmakers who lost out of the primary elections of their
political parties have announced their intentions to press legal
actions against their parties and may be, the commission if the names
of their opponents, declared as winners by their parties, are listed
for the general elections by INEC today.

In Bayelsa State,
serving Senator, Nimi Barigha, has already secured a court injunction
restraining the listing of the name of Clever Ikisikpo, a serving
member of the House of Representatives, declared by the People’s
Democratic Party as the senatorial candidate for Bayelsa East
Senatorial District.

In the suit filed
at an Abuja High Court, Mr Amange also asked the court to bar Mr
Ikisikpo as the candidate for the seat in a classic model of the legal
intrigues that may come after the release of the list from the
electoral commission.

Mr Ikisikpo’s
colleague in the House, from Akwa Ibom State, Eseme Eyiboh, who lost at
the primaries and a rerun, has also warned of a tougher action if the
name of his opponent, Dan Abia, is announced by the same party for a
seat in the House.

In the first
election, Mr Eyiboh, the chairman, House committee on Media polled 179
votes, against Dan Abia’s 586. At the rerun, he polled only five votes
against Mr Abia’s 772. In a petition to the party leadership, Mr Eyiboh
said a purported relocation of the election venue, had violated
electoral laws.

Most of last week,
INEC, faced with the controversy of the replacements of some earlier
submitted names, said it is law-abiding and would strive to hold on to
court positions on any of the cases. “We will always obey the law. That
is our position,” said Emmanuel Umenger, the commission’s Director of
Public Affairs.

For most of last
week, as anxiety mounted about who will, or will not make the final
list, the commission staff, acting in unison, stayed away from formally
discussing the names of those affected across the parties. The
officials said they will wait until the formal release which by the
law, is supposed to come within seven days of receipt of the names from
the political parties.

Intense lobby

However, informed
sources have given hints that the list may be out today. All the
presidential candidates across different political parties, including
President Goodluck Jonathan are to make the list. Our sources also say
all governors on the platform of the PDP who have not completed their
second term are to be part of the list. It is not clear what will
become of the petition filed by former vice- president Atiku Abubakar
asking INEC to declare the PDP primaries null and void.

The one exception
here may be the Oyo State governor, Adebayo Alao Akala. The electoral
body had reportedly said his name was not dropped, but then told
reporters his case his being reviewed. Mr Alao-Akala’s bid has been
tempered by a string of court decisions and overturns, in which at
least one more ruling is expected February 10, 2011. Complaints
emanating from the conduct of the primaries-where parallel primaries
were held-have led to his being restrained by the Federal High Court in
Ibadan.

For PDP in Gombe
State where the governor is rounding a second term, former Accountant
General of the Federation, Ibrahim Dankwambo is expected to be listed
as the PDP candidate.

Some of the notable
names from the other parties could include the former governor of Kano
State and former Minister of Defence, Rabiu Kwankwaso. Mr Kwankwaso’s
submission was earlier contested against and is expected to stir
further controversies if announced by INEC.

From the other
parties, Yakubu Lado Danmarke is expected to be announced as the
gubernatorial candidate for the Congress for Progressive Change
gubernatorial candidate for Katsina State, the hot bed of the new party
championed by presidential aspirant, Muhammadu Buhari.

Besides several
states and federal lawmakers whose listings may spur further debates,
the most contentious nominations may be those from Ogun State currently
torn in two by a fight between the opposing political atmosphere
championed by former president Olusegun Obasanjo on the one hand and
governor, Gbenga Daniel on the other.

In the final twist
last week, Tunji Olurin and Iyabo Obasanjo (daughter of the former
president) replaced Adeleke Isiaka and Lola-Edewor Abiola -from the
governor’s camp- as the gubernatorial and senatorial candidates
respectively.

While INEC last
week confirmed it accepted the names submitted by the faction
sympathetic to Mr Obasanjo as replacements to those submitted by Mr
Daniel, it has firmly refused to comment on whether or not, the name of
Dimeji Bankole, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, who was
part of the governor’s list, is now on the new register.

The judgement list

“Let us all wait
for the final list to be released,” Kayode Idowu, media aide to
chairman, Attahiru Jega, replied NEXT when asked for a response on Mr
Bankole’s fate. The Speaker’s aide, Idowu Bakare, when asked by
correspondents about the position of his boss, was coy at first but
later through a text message, insisted that Mr Bankole’s name was never
part of the contradictions between Mr Obasanjo’s camp and Mr Daniel’s
faction of the PDP.

“There is no
dispute over the Abeokuta South Federal constituency, it was only one
primary election and the winner of that primary election was Dimeji
Bankole,” Mr Bakare asserted.

But in a
conversation with NEXT, prominent member from Mr Obasanjo’s camp,
insists the speaker can only be part of the list if some high wire
manoeuvring took place. According to our source, the former president’s
camp is well aware of what could happen and may not protest against it.

“I have the names on our list off hand and Mr Bankole’s name is not there,” the sources said. After Mr

Bankole’s opponent
stepped down at a parallel primaries by Mr Daniel’s camp, this person
who refused to be named said, one of the contestants, Fasiu Bakane, was
invited to take up the Abeokuta South seat on Mr Obasanjo’s camp.

Mr Bakane, himself
said to have believed he might be substituted refused to commit his
finances to the course. It was his name that was reportedly submitted
to INEC by the Obasanjo camp in place of Mr Bankole.