Lawan, Akpabio, INEC and Senatorial Tickets

Eddy Odivwri

Somebody had said the courts are part of the problem in the growth and development of our democracy.  Until recently, I had believed that the courts had been helpful in determining electoral cases and dishing out justice to those squeezed out of the electoral process by mightier and craftier politicians. Looking back, I can recall dozens of electoral cases that had been tumbled by the courts, and many politicians are actually in office, courtesy of the courts, not the electorate.

But my belief in the courts has been verily shaken with the recent contra-judgements from the courts over the senatorial tickets for the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan and a former Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio.

While the one wanted the senatorial ticket for Yobe north, the other wanted the senatorial ticket for Akwa-Ibom North-west.

The duo had been in government at various levels. While Lawan had been circulating in the National Assembly, first as a member of House of Representatives and later, the Senate, all for 24 years running, Akpabio had literally survived on government almost all his working career, first as Commissioner in his Akwa-Ibom State, then as governor, then he became a senator and in 2019, he lost his bid to return to the senate, after he had dumped his former political party, the PDP, wherein he was a minority leader in the Upper legislative Chamber.

He had attempted to challenge the outcome of the 2019 senatorial election, but suddenly chickened out and was rehabilitated with the ministerial appointment, by President Muhammadu Buhari. 

As a minister of the Niger Delta ministry, the most remarkable thing we can remember is the setting up of a forensic audit exercise on the NDDC, which till today, has not yielded any meaningful result, despite the boast of Mr President that every stolen Kobo from the commission will be recovered. Mr President has just about eight months to go. 

By April this year, Akpabio and much later, Lawan, each bought the N100 million form to contest the presidential election under the All Progressives Congress (APC).

When on June 8, the APC organized its presidential primary, Akpabio was the first to step down in honour of his “elder brother”, Bola Tinubu. 

Ahmad Lawan, who had been earlier rumoured by the national party chairman, Adamu Abduallahi, as Buhari’s preferred aspirant, went ahead to contest the primaries and polled 152 votes. 

Weeks later, we got suffused with a new lexicon called “Place holder”. 

Amongst several others, a certain Bashir Machina was said to have been elected as the senatorial candidate of the APC in Yobe north, merely as a place holder candidate. In other words, Machina is expected to step down when the “real owner” of the ticket shows up. As it happened, Machina was not on the same page with Lawan, on the plan. So when Lawan, having lost the presidential primary came back to claim the ticket, Machina refused to step down saying he was well and fit to contest the election, arguing that it was he and not Lawan that was voted for by the delegates. That matter had gone back and forth to court, with the court recently ruling that Machina indeed is the validly elected owner of the senatorial ticket. Swarmed by the facts and reality of the case, Lawan recently accepted the verdict of the Damaturu High court and said he would not appeal the judgement. But surprisingly, in what looks like wanting to be more Catholic than the Pope, the Yobe chapter of the APC has vowed to appeal the court judgement. As it stands, Bashir Machina, remains the senatorial candidate of the APC in Yobe North senatorial district.

But in a foggy twist of events, the  Akpabio case in Akwa-Ibom which has the same background and format with that of Lawan has had a different outcome. By the time Akpabio was done with his presidential pursuit, the senatorial contest had been conducted in his Akwa-Ibom North West senatorial district. A former DIG, Mr 

Mr Udom Ekpoudom (retd) had emerged as the candidate for the APC. But Akpabio, determined to remain politically relevant, began to manipulate the process and claimed to have organized another primary that was neither supervised by INEC nor witnessed by relevant authorities. Akpabio declared to have been the one that emerged as the candidate from that unrecognised parallel primary, just as the former Resident Electoral Commissioner in the State, Mr Mike Igini, who has now retired, protested endlessly that the emergence of Akpabio was unknown to the electoral process and organ.

But in a clear case of desperation, and in breach of Section 33 of the New Electoral Act, Akpabio headed to the courts and recently got a judgement ordering the INEC to recognize him as the candidate for the Akwa-Ibom North west senatorial contest under the platform of the APC.

Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja gave the order, arguing that the INEC cannot impose a candidate on the party, stressing that since it was the APC that forwarded the name of Akpabio, the electoral umpire was duty bound to accept it. Really?

Why did the Judge brush aside the fact that the INEC has a statutory duty to monitor primaries conducted by political parties and that anyone not monitored by the INEC is deemed illegal? Why did the learned judge brush aside the outcome of the primaries conducted earlier and monitored by INEC? And more importantly, why did this learned judge brush aside the provisions of the revised Electoral Act which forbids an aspirant from contesting two different elections within the same election season? Is Justice Nwite not aware that Akpabio contested for the presidency? How could he have bought form for the presidential primary election and also bought form for senatorial election in the same election season/year? What if he won the presidential primaries? Would he have also come to contest the senatorial primaries?  Mr learned Judge, does that fact not count in law? Why did the Judge choose to believe Akpabio and his “special centre” primary and disbelieve INEC? It is judicial fogs like this that thicken the label that politics is a dirty game. And many are wondering if democracy has been reduced to a war-chest contest and not popularity contest.

But beside the shenanigans of the courts, something is also wrong with the APC to have knowingly sold two nomination forms to the same aspirant: one for the presidential primaries and another for the senatorial contest. Was it just the unbridled quest for money that the APC sold these two forms to the same person in the same election cycle? 

Already, many chieftains of the party in Akwa-Ibom State, led by Chief Don Etiebet, former minister of Petroleum Resources, who saw through the judicial shenanigans orchestrated by Akpabio, has called on him to step down and allow Mr Ekpoudom, the rightful candidate, to contest the election, since he, Akpabio, had been a senator before. They have threatened to vote another party, if  Akpabio refuses to allow justice prevail.

The INEC, on its part, almost like a zombie, has accepted the judicial order and has published the name of Akpabio as the candidate of the party, albeit grudgingly.

Omehia: Shame on Gov Wike, Rivers  Lawmakers 

Eddy Odivwri

The news broke late last week that the Rivers State House of Assembly suddenly realized that it had made a grievous mistake in defying the letter and spirit of the Supreme Court ruling in 2007 which said Sir Celestine Omehia, in the eye of the law,  is not known to have ever ruled as a governor in Rivers State. 

The state’s lawmakers, in the eight Assembly, apparently on the prodding of the state governor, Nyesom Wike, had upturned the ruling of the Supreme Court and declared that Omehia will be recognized as a former governor in the state. 

No doubt, Wike decided to embrace Omehia for two reasons: he wanted to spite his predecessor in office, Rt Hon Rotimi Amaechi with whom he had been (and still) having a prolonged political duel; and two, he was cadging for validation, just from any and everywhere at the time.

Recognising Omehia as a former governor, and restoring his status as such must have won Wike a few more fans at the time. And the lawmakers were available and ready to lap up that move by the governor.

Omehia, for the record, who had governed the state for five months (between May and October 2007) was removed from office by the Supreme Court of Nigeria, following the suit filed by Amaechi challenging his substitution as the then governorship candidate of the PDP in the state. In removing Omehia, the Supreme court remarked that given the manner in which Omehia was imposed on the party, the law does not recognize that he ever governed the state. The ruling was delivered in unambiguous English Language.

Both Omehia and Gov Wike are lawyers. There is nothing they couldn’t have clearly understood in the ruling by the Supreme Court justices.

Omehia was then accorded all the privileges due a former governor, including receiving huge allowances, which have now been put at over N697 million in benefits and pension.

So, why and how did the Rivers State House of Assembly suddenly realise that Omehia was wrongly recognized in June 2015? The lawmakers in shamefully reversing themselves claimed to have found “further and better particulars” (whatever that means) concerning Omehia and thus have come to the resolution of de-recognising him as a former governor in the state.

It is a nebulous claim. What is/are the content of the “further and better particulars”? What is the new information they now have about/on Omehia which they didn’t have in June 2015 when they knowingly overruled the Supreme Court in recognizing him as a former governor? What impudence! Were they now taught better and clearer English Language lessons?  

It is instructive that not only is it that many of the lawmakers are themselves lawyers, about ninety per cent of them in the present ninth assembly were also there in the anything-goes eight assembly of the Rivers State.

It is equally instructive that in less than 24 hours, the resolution of the state Assembly was speedily ratified and signed into law by Gov Wike. Normal Assembly resolutions seldom enjoy such speed of action. Video footages showed Gov Wike gleefully removing Omehia’s picture from the gallery of past governors, in his office.

A certain Chidi Llyod, also a lawyer, but a latter-day lackey of Gov Wike, in rationalizing the reversal of the recognition of Omehia, on a national television, likened the reversal to the remission and pardon granted King Hezekiah in the Bible. He forgot to add that God merely had mercy on King Hezekiah, the latter having pleaded and reminded God of some of his good deeds, unlike the case in point in the putrescent State Assembly.

The state’s lawmakers have proved to lack their own initiatives, convictions and understanding, and have submitted themselves to be helpless pawns being pushed about on a chess board by Gov Wike. How can such a potato assembly perform the important role of holding the governor accountable or even perform check-and-balance functions?

What Gov Wike and the lawmakers refused to openly declare is that Omehia was being de-recognised because he (Omehia) had aligned with the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to the chagrin and hurt of Wike, who had sworn not to have anything to do with the presidential campaign of the PDP in the 2023 election.  Thus de-recognising him is just one way of punishing him for perceived acts of “disloyalty“ to    the governor, his benefactor. Omehia was appointed into the presidential campaign council of the PDP.

Omehia is not the only victim of the brute punch of Gov Wike. Earlier, hotels, Lounges, filing stations and other business outfits of PDP members (or even their relations) in Rivers State who dared to associate with Atiku Abubakar, had been shut down for some inexplicable reason. If you doubt me, ask the likes of Senator Lee Maeba. No doubt, Gov Wike, regardless of his great works in infrastructure development in the state, is a hard-brew totalitarian governor. You either ship-in or get crushed.

Perhaps, the most ridiculous humiliation of the lawmakers was in the other leg of their resolution: that all the monies so paid to Omehia (over N697 million) be refunded to the state’s coffers within seven days. Really? It’s over seven days now. What will they do Omehia?  Pray, why should Omehia be made to pay for the silly mistake of the lawmakers? Did he apply to be recognized by them? They willfully invited him and re-instated him and started paying him all the said monies, all at their own behest. So, why should he now be punished for the mistake of the lawmakers?

But Gov Wike is determined to keep playing the Game theory of political survival. Were it not so, a governor with about seven months to leave office, would not be appointing, in one fell swoop, 28,359 aides some of whom are advisers, liaison officers etc., all to the endorsement of the zombie House of Assembly.