Friday, November 28, 2014

RANDOM MUSINGS: THE SHOW-DOWN BETWEEN DR. EMMANUEL EWETA UDUAGHAN AND SENATOR JAMES MANAGER WILL BE THE TRUE LITMUS TEST OF NIGERIA’S DEMOCRACY


Francis Akenami - 11/28/14 8:52 AM

Why don’t Nigerian politicians believe in the instrument that brings them to power: the right to vote and be voted for, the most popular candidate wins, which we simply refer to as democracy? When the military was in power, many people fought them almost to a standstill. Many lost their lives. Today we remember people like MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola, Chief Rewane of Warri, Wole Soyinka, Gani Fawehinmi, Ogaga Ifowodo just to mention the few I remember. The military never believed in democracy. The military believed in the power that blazed forth from the blood drenching barrels of their guns. At last, we got democracy; but at what price? What are we doing now?


Itsekiri (sorry, I actually mean, HE. Dr. Uduaghan) is in charge of Delta State and by extension DSIEC. DSIEC does not believe in free-and-fair elections. Every position must be won by PDP, whether elections we conducted or not.
This was put very bluntly by our brother Chief Amori who actually described the phenomenon as abracadabra, stating that the elections are actually conducted at night and results are declared in the day time. Was Dr. Uduaghan happy about the lopsided elections that were recently conducted in Delta State in which PDP won almost every seat? That is left for others to confirm.

Ijaw (sorry, I actually mean, HE. Dr. Jonathan) is in charge of Nigeria and by extension INEC. INEC does a better job than DSIEC in the conduct of elections. After Gen. Obasanjo who almost turned INEC to Ota farm left office, President Yaradua and now President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan transformed INEC to its currently more reliable State.

The Senatorial seat currently being keenly contested by James Manager and Emmanuel Uduaghan has power intrigues written all over it. It will be the most keenly contested election in the Delta South Senatorial District. Both contestants are very well-connected and very experienced in the nitty-gritties of Delta politics. Finally, they both have hundreds of millions of naira in their war chests to expend in this election. Born 1960, James Manager is a Nigerian senator who represents the People's Democratic Party in the Delta South Senatorial District of Delta State. He became a Senator in 2007. Born 1954, Emmanuel Dr. Eweta Uduaghan is the governor of Delta State. He assumed office on May 29, 2007.

If power play comes into it, will President Jonathan allow Governor Uduaghan to walk away with the Senate seat? If Jonathan who has some influence over INEC decides to conduct the election in the same way DSIEC conducted Delta State elections recently, will Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan have reason to complain?


The stage is set. Let the battle between Okonkwo and Amalinze the Cat start. This contest, will indeed be the true litmus test of Nigeria’s democracy!
 

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