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01 November 2010 By Saka Raji Audu
The Presidential election
scheduled for April next year is fast approaching and
every one is talking about the need to have free, fair
and credible election in the country. But it appears
that people do not know that for any election to be
seen as credible, the contestants should also be
credible by cleaning themselves off the moral stains
on their body.
Recently, the Economic and
Financial Crime Commission, EFCC was
said to have made advisory list of people it perceived
as not credible enough to be fielded as candidates by
the political parties. The basis upon which the EFCC
made its advisory list was the past records of the
affected politicians in the advisory list of EFCC.
While no one wishes to undermine the perceived role of
EFCC in its attempt to discharge its statutory
obligation, it is axiomatic to add that the best
advisory role EFCC would have taken without injuring
personal feelings of being political was to have
strongly advised that any indicted politician who
wants to contest in the 2011 elections should show
evidence from competent court of jurisdiction that
such indictment has been challenged in the court and
it has been proved beyond
reasonable doubt
that the indicted politician is not guilty of the
indictment. It is then that such politician can be
fielded or stand for election.
This type of advisory role
would have stood the test of time before the EFCC and
nobody would have seen the economic and financial
crime commission as having personal axe to grind
against anybody. By allowing people to show evidence
of credibility from the court, a chunk number of
indicted politicians who are heating the polity by
gunning for 2011 election would have quietly withdrawn
from the race without much ado about any thing,
knowing full well that the court would have certainly
convicted him or her of the indictment. It is through
this advisory role by the EFCC that our polity would
have been sanitized.
We however noted with
dismay how the general public has been treated with
various indictments of prominent presidential
aspirants who are willing to contest the 2011
presidential election. For instance, it is not quite
long ago when we are told that Mr. President Goodluck
Ebele Jonathan who is aspiring to contest in the 2011
presidential election was accused or indicted of
attempting to bribe delegates of N2 million each to
enable him secure PDP presidential ticket. See front
page of the Daily trust of
October 29,
2010. We are informed by this paper that "the
acrimonious
presidential statement
signed by presidential spokesman Ima Niboro, was in
reaction to a report, published by the rightwing
American Website World Tribune, which alleged that
""major payments are now being made to each of the
delegates of the political parties, particularly the
overwhelming large ruling
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who
decide the
primary elections for the presidential
elections in 2011." The report said "the incumbent
President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, is bring PDP
delegates out of the Federal Government funds, making
most of the party delegates wealthy enough to buy a
new home with the bribery funds." "The report also
claimed that United States military strategists had
said Jonathan gave $13,000 (about N2million) to each
PDP delegate ahead of the party's primaries."
Indeed, the mere denial of
this substantial corrupt allegation by the
presidential spokesman is not enough to convince the
readers that
Mr. President Goodluck
Jonathan is not guilty of the
allegation. Therefore, before he should be allowed to
contest, even his party primary election, he should be
advised to take the medium of allegation "rightwing
American Website World Tribune" to court and prove
beyond reasonable doubt that the allegation was false.
It was not long time ago that another presidential
aspirant in PDP, Alhaji
Atiku
Abubakar threatened to sue his defamers
to court for damages. We expect that all these should
happen before the election else, both Jonathan, Atiku
and any presidential aspirant who are alleged to have
engaged in one form of shoddy deal and the other
should either be disqualified from the 2011
presidential election or show evidence from competent
court of jurisdiction that the allegation against them
are not true, leading to award of damages. This also
applies to IBB and others who have been variously
lampooned with allegation of corruption.
Obtaining court judgment
and claiming damages against the fundamental
allegations will strip off the moral burden hanging as
cloth on the body stains of some presidential
aspirants. It will enable them to enter the election
contest as free as air and in the event any one of
them is elected, the country will be free of corrupt
leaders that have been the bane of our nation
building. A good example was the case between Governor
Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano state Vs Business Eye. On 11th
October 2010, a High Court sitting in Kano awarded
Governor Ibrahim Shekarau, Sardauna
of Kano the sum of
In December 2008, the
Business Eye published unfounded, damaging and
libelous publication against the humble Malam (Dr)
Ibrahim Shekarau, Sardauna Kano. It
alleged that the governor had eight foreign accounts
through which he corruptly enriched himself by
engaging in money laundering and inflation of
contracts. The magazine further alleged that the
governor had bank account at the National Commercial
Bank, Saudi Arabia, several houses in choice places in
France by the name Ibrahim A. Shekarau. The governor
took the matter to court and the defendants failed to
provide evidence to support their claims. The court,
in addition to the award of damages and the cost of
litigation, also ordered the defendants to write a
public apology to the plaintiff on the Business Eye's
website, Economy International Magazine, the
Guardian and This Day newspapers. It also
restrained the defendants, their servants or privy
from further use of the same or similar libelous words
against the plaintiff. By this court judgment, Malam
(Dr) Ibrahim Shekarau has now cleaned himself of the
corrupt allegations.
This is what we expect from
other presidential aspirants who are now suffering
from moral burden. At the eve of the 2007 general
election, Malam (Dr) Ibrahim Shekarau was politically
and mischievously included in the misguided list of
Ribadu's so called corrupt politicians. An
administrative enquiry was hurriedly set up by the
Obasanjo led federal government in order
to officially stamped Ribadu's list so that they could
not stand for election. But we were duly informed
through the Daily Trust of 20th
March 2007 that a
Federal High Court
in Kaduna quashed the report of the Ignatius Ayu
Administrative panel of inquiry and
Federal Government subsequent white paper. It was
based on this that Shekarau was able to contest in his
second term election, which he won, putting to shame
those behind the unfortunate incidence.
Mallam
Nuhu
Ribadu, the then EFCC Boss and one of
the presidential aspirants under
Action Congress of
Nigeria has once been accused of buying
houses in Dubai, Leeds, Chelsea and Abuja. Mr.
President Jonathan was recently accused of attempting
to bribe delegates with Federal Government Funds.
General Ibrahim Babangida was accused of
diverting millions of naira oil windfall during the
1991 gulp crisis. We are aware that during the crisis
between Obasanjo and 2ic, Obasanjo revealed some funny
things concerning about his 2ic, which require some
clarification. We are recently told in an advertorial
by the embattled former Managing Director of
Intercontinental Bank, Mr. Akingbola how Alhaji
Bukola Saraki, Governor of Kwara State
and a presidential aspirant under PDP bought over the
bank. These various allegations need court
clarifications before the 2011 election if credibility
is any thing to go by in our next general election.
The characters involved in
the article written by one Naiwu Osahon, renowned
author, philosopher of science, mystique, leader of
the world Pan-African Movement in the Sun newspaper
Nigeria
weekly column of
May 26, 2003 and also updated in an online website of
2/5/2010 for emphasis should also consider the option
of redeeming some fundamental allegations by the
author. It is only when the presidential aspirants
mentioned show the public court judgment exonerating
them of the various allegations that they could be
admitted into the 2011
presidential poll.
In absence of this, we
should note that the only credible candidate qualified
to stand for the 2011 presidential election is the
Governor of
Kano
State, Malam (Dr) Ibrahim Shekarau,
Sardaunan Kano. He is the only aspirant that deserves
the mandates of
Nigerians
when the election comes. We should therefore strongly
advise the rest presidential aspirants to save the
money they are now wasting for campaign to channel
such fund in redeeming their image from the court. If
they fail to initiate such step and any of them
bulldozes his ways to get elected, such election
should be considered as fraudulent and cannot stand
the test of time. It. should be declared null and
void. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
Saka Raji Audu writes
from Kano and can be reached on his email:
sakaraj@yahoo.com |
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