Amaechi, a product of voodoo ballot process – Mimiko

•Says NGF crisis most unfortunate

The outcome of the disputed Nigeria Governors Forum election held penultimate Friday, where Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, was re-elected as chairman has polarised the 36 states governors in the country into two camps: the pro-Amaechi and the pro-Jonathan/ Jang factions.

At an interactive session with newsmen in Abuja last Friday, Ondo State Governor and deputy chairman of the Jonah Jang faction, Dr. Olusegun Mimmiko, restated his submission that the election that returned Amaechi to office as chairman of the Forum was a charade.

The concern of Nigerians is that, if you cannot hold a free and fair election among 36 people, what assurance do we have that 2015 election will be transparent?  Secondly, there have been video clips of the election. We want you to shed light on this:  Was voting actually conducted?

Well, you have asked what our crisis portends for peace in our polity, as we approach 2015. I must say that not one governor will say that he is very proud of what has happened. We don’t feel proud that it happened but some of us believe that it is necessary that we ensure that things are done right in the interest of our country.

Let me just say that a few of us have also received a lot of bashing but we believe that we must stand for what is true and just. The fundamental question that will never go away, no matter how you look at the event of last Friday is the fact that the governors forum is a voluntary association, so to speak – association of equals who have voluntarily decided to come together,  to be able to leverage on synergy of that unity to pursue what is there collective interest so perceived and also to embark and engage in some peer review. So, it is a voluntary organization, absolutely voluntary.

Anybody is there by volition, anybody can pull out without consequences to his status as governor. So, you must know that from the beginning. Number two, and this is one point that is very fundamental. No matter the amount of propaganda that goes on in the media, it is one issue that keeps coming up that we cannot run away from.

A situation, where a chairman of a forum of equals decides to contest again, but the issue of whether that’s in tandem with the spirit and the letters of our constitution is another issue that another governor can talk about.

But when he decides to run for election; this isn’t just another election there has been a lot of controversy out there in the press, there have been a lot of posturing, some of them real, some of them fake.

But below all of these, we know that there is a lot of politics in it, unless we want to deceive ourselves. So, if anything that election to a very large extent must reflect the standard of election in the polity.

I keep saying this and I must say it, because I am in the position to know this. Whatever anybody says 2011 election was much better than its predecessor. No matter what anybody says, the election that brought me back and brought Oshiomhole back were probably the best we have had in this country.

So, for me the irreducible minimum for ensuring that 2015 comes to be is to ensure that electoral process, that we are very finicky about this process. I am one of those who believe that the biggest challenge of Nigeria as a nation is the quality of our election.

Once we can have credible election, I believe that with time, credible election will throw up real leaders of the people, who will work for the people, who will ensure that  the very critical issues of development are addressed, knowing fully well that they are absolutely without equivocation responsible to the people.

Amaechi presided over his election. So, from the perspective of this fundamental, I will analyse what happened on Friday. Some of us have argued, Mr. chairman, you are there as chairman, by volition, by consensus. If willy-nilly, you say you want to contest election, the minimum for you to do it, in line with accepted international standard for such a process and immediately the chairman indicated his interest and I specifically said at the meeting – and that’s why I challenge that the full video should be out.

I specifically said, even in a village meeting, even old boys association meeting, once we say a tenure has elapsed and the presiding officer in this case the chairman, indicated interest we must first of all dissolve the house then we elect a temporary man who will preside over affairs until a new chairman emerges and we must also agree on the process of that election, especially in a voluntary organization, especially if what we claim as constitution doesn’t spell out clearly how it should be done.

That Friday, immediately the chairman indicated that he was going to run, willy-nilly—and I say willy-nilly deliberately, because there has been a practice in governors forum, it has always been by consensus and in this case, the practice has always been also that the party with the majority among the governors will produce the chairman.

We know as of fact that the PDP Governors’ Forum had endorsed governor David Jang. But be that as it may, immediately governor Amaechi insisted that he was going to run, we insisted also that he had to vacate the seat as chairman, so that we can bring in somebody who would now conduct the affairs of the house and the affairs of the house on the table was the conduct of election. For me, that was fundamental.

But the truth is – which is why I tell you that you  insist that you must see the full video – our meetings are quasi, informal meetings, if somebody out of disrespect for his own colleagues, or because of some predetermined whatever decides to plant video, you should ask him for the whole video.

But we insisted that, Mr. Chairman, if you are insisting you want to run, convention, common sense, the morality of the situation dictates that you vacate that seat. In fact, governor Peter Obi who was the vice chairman indicated that he wasn’t going to run.

The worst case scenario was for Peter Obi to be there and conduct the election and we must first of all agree on the mode of this election: is it going to be by raise of hands? If it is going to be secret ballot, is it going to be by ticking or thumb printing? But a situation where on Friday, governor Amaechi didn’t only indicate interest that he was going to run he also insisted that he wouldn’t vacate that seat and there was a lot of commotion in the house. At a stage, one of the governors said, those of us that ran the second term didn’t have to vacate our seat before election, but we pointed out the difference.

Yes, I ran for a re-run but I wasn’t the INEC; I wasn’t the one that printed the ballot papers. You cannot be a candidate and at the same time be your own INEC, and at the same time not only INEC, you also had the privilege as the one who produced the ballot papers! You know the number you produced, there are no serial number on them, we don’t know the number of ballot papers and you are also the one who brought the ballot box.

So, for me that was the point of departure and I felt personally and quite a number of us kept saying at that juncture that it would be immoral for us to go on.

We were tempted to fight Even at a stage, we then argued that in the interest of this Forum, let us give you the opportunity to seat there, but if you are sitting there, to preside over this election, we would not use your ballot papers.

We then said, ok if you insist that you are going to preside over your own election, it must be by show of hands. We were still arguing when he said Okauru should start distributing ballot papers!

There were two options open to us:  a situation where a man decided to preside over his own election, printed the ballot papers and ballot boxes and went ahead, willy-nilly to do it – either we worked out. You know what would have happened, even if we had worked out. There is also a viral input in that constitution which also says that quorum is 12.

So, if we had worked out there is no guarantee that certain people wouldn’t have sat down there and call the press to witness ‘free and fair election’ and we said, that would still not be representative of opinion of NGF. Of course, the other option is the Nigerian way: take the ballot and smash it, let there be crisis.

But you also know that that behavior is below a governor. I must tell you that some governors were almost tempted to do that, but we kept saying we should not do it, in the interest of Nigeria. It was better for them to come out and say we participated and keep defending it and we know that time will bear us out.

I remember that I kept saying it that this process is immoral, the outcome would be disputed, if we don’t have court to go to, we can say we don’t want to be part of this. I cannot say that some governors didn’t vote, but I am sure that what they counted didn’t represent the opinion of governors there that day.

Jang fully in charge

Victory in this case for Amaechi would have been, if everybody has endorsed the outcome of that election. Apart from that and this is absolutely important.

The following day, gentlemen, the day after the election—forget the fact that governor Amaechi has succeeded in playing the underdog as a victim in the press and you know you journalists you like the victim and underdogs.

But at times, if an aggressor is smart he can translate himself to be victim. But the following day, governor Jang called a meeting of governors, 18 were present, reiterating their support for him. Now, 18 the following day, standing to be counted physically as opposed to 19 in some dubious ballot papers which was designed by a contestant.

It was the evidence of video-clips and ballot papers without serial numbers versus elected governors standing to be counted physically and putting their signatures. I would expect you pressmen to say, any governor whose signature has been forged here should own up.

So, if a disputed election was held, the following day, 18 governors who represent their own people physically stood up and said, ‘look I support this man, I don’t believe in that outcome of the floored election.’’

Now, the question I ask is, why have some people decided to believe in a voodoo ballot process rather than the physical people, who were there to be counted? But I am saying that we are ready to take whatever bashing that comes, knowing that what we are doing, if we don’t appreciate now, history will bear us out, because we would have established once and for all, that you cannot be a judge in your own case.

For me, that’s the point of departure. I have benefitted from free and fair election, even from an opposition President who probably going by Nigeria standard could have influenced the outcome of my election but allowed it to be free and fair.

So, for me the irreducible minimum for 2015 you are talking about is the extent to which we can defend free and fair election. And for me, irrespective of the avalanche of political propaganda in the press, the principles must be followed.

At times, it is very, very inconvenient to follow principles but for us, it was morally wrong, conventionally wrong and legally wrong for governor Amaechi as a candidate to sit beside the ballot papers, brought the ballot box and was the presiding officer.

So, moving to 2015, this is the principle we defend and make no mistake about it; if you want to subsume principles under propaganda, we will all pay a price for it in 2015.

Culled from daily sun