When the German Philosopher, Arthur Schopenhaur made this famous quote, “All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; Third, it is accepted as self evident”, he probably had Andy Uba in mind. Today, Senator Andy Uba, through courage and determination, garnished with the unflinching support the people of Anambra State in particular and Nigerians in general are freely giving to him, has confirmed Arthur Schopenhaur’s quotation.

It will be recalled that in 2007, Senator Andy Uba contested the governorship election of Anambra state and won landslide. Seventeen days later, the Supreme Court in defiance of the Constitution of Nigeria, told us that a term that started in 2003 had not ended in 2007, and returned Peter Obi to office, who they said, had not completed his term. Following Schopenhauer’s quote, intellectual illiterates in legal profession, haters of truth, and all sort of negative thinkers sought to ridicule Andy Uba. In their puerile ecstasy, they revealed their actual intention; pure fixation arising from political maladjustment. This tiny set of people probably forgot that their noise could not stop a courageous and determined Andy Uba, whose current event-effective representation at the Senate, has shown, was seeking to better the lives of Anamberians.

Seeing that the ruling of the Apex Court against the mandate given to him by the good people of Anambra state will have a negative implication on Nigeria democracy if not reversed; Andy Uba headed for the Supreme Court for the reversal. This time around these tiny minds violently opposed his move. Reasons have emerged that Andy Uba and majority of Nigerians who rightly supported his move to get the Apex court to reverse itself on that decision, were right in that endeavourer. The current Justice Ayo Salami vs NJC crisis could have been avoided if the issue of Oath taking was not misinterpreted by the Apex Court in the first place. It is on record that despite the violent reaction from his tiny political haters, Senator Andy Uba approached the court four times to re-claim his mandate.

Today, posterity has rightly aligned itself to Senator Andy Uba’s foresighted legal struggle to restore his mandate in 2007. It is on record that after the conclusion of Uba’s case, Supreme Court induced staggered election took off. At the moment, Governorship elections in ten states take place outside election date, with the attendant economic and political implication. The staggering of elections may just continue till there is no election date again. The amendment of the Constitution of Nigeria to conform to the ruling of the Apex Court has not solved the problem of Oath Taking. President Goodluck Jonathan’s alleged second term ambition is already generating “Constitutional” controversy, no thanks to the injustice done to Senator Andy Uba in 2007. Now the provision of the Constitution is such that nobody can take Oath of office three times and if President Jonathan contests and wins in 2015, he would have taken Oath of office three times, this is against the spirit of the Constitution. Is it not because Andy Uba was involved that OATH TAKING was assigned four year term by the Supreme Court? What has four year term is MANDATE; it however, expires by 12 noon after four years, from the date a Nation elects to start its political inauguration. In case of Nigeria, it is on May 29. Once term of office has been established, it starts running irrespective of who occupies it -see Carleton v. People, 10 Mich. 259. Because of error of the Court in 2007 in Anambra State, the Oath President Goodluck Jonathan took as President to finish a term that started in 2007 will surely become an issue in 2015. The current legal tussle in Kogi State is one of the fall outs of the injustice against Uba.

SENATOR ANDY UBA POLITICAL PHENOMINOM IN ANAMBRA STATE IS NOW ACCEPTED AS SELF EVIDENT.

There is a lot of similarity between the political courage of Andy Uba and Abraham Lincoln of United States of America. Both have the belief that no matter the obstacle, the well being of the people should be paramount in the mind of politicians with conscience. The only difference is that Andy Uba has never lost a real election since 2007 when he first appeared in the political scene. He won nomination as the PDP gubernatorial candidate in 2007 election. He went ahead and won the election proper. The leadership of PDP under Vincent Ogbulafor elected to shift the goal post in the middle of the game by denying Andy Uba the his right to fly the flag of PDP as custodian of the party’s mandate, in line with the convention of the party. Uba fought the apparent injustice from Ogbulafor led PDP to which they stood their ground. Just two weeks to the governorship election, Uba decided to join Labour Party [LP] that has no single structure in Anambra State, to prove a point.

Though he took fourth position eventually, but the political statement he made by contesting against all odds left his political enemies jittery in the State because the difference in votes score between APGA, ACN, PDP and LP was too close to call. Considering that Andy Uba took fourth position despite his late entry to the political ring, under an unknown party in the State, it became obvious that in a real contest, he will get the support of the good people of Anambra State, no matter the party he pitches his tent with.

Knowing full well that the good people of Anambra State prefer him to any other candidate in any election, in the State, in 2011, he offered himself for election to represent Anambra South Senatorial zone as a senator. The people of the zone did not hesitate in giving him their mandate. He won the election effortlessly. Surprisingly, seven months into his effective representation, the Appeal court sitting in Enugu annulled his election. The reasons given by the court for the annulment belatedly came after the 60 days constitutionally allotted for that had elapsed. His challenger, Chuma Nzeribe had gone to court on the ground that there was irregularities in some wards that make up Anambra South Senatorial Zone. The court instead of restricting its judgment to what Chuma requested elected to act as Father Christmas by awarding Chuma Nzeribe what he did not ask for- the annulment of the whole election.

In line with his belief in the rule of law and due process, Andy Uba sought the Certified True Copy [CTC] of the judgment from the court to establish his position, they refused him. When his appeal for the release of the document was not heeded in view of the time constraint, he petitioned National Judicial Council [NJC] over the issue and delay. Fearing that bureaucracy could affect the petition, he went back to the court on January 29, 2012, to seek the reversal of the judgment in line with the practice of the court. These are sound legal authorities Senator Andy Uba cited in an attempt to reverse the Father Christmas ruling: The Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Akinbobola v PillsonFisko Ltd (1992), where the Hon Justice Kawu held “If a court makes an order which it has no jurisdiction to make, it has jurisdiction to set it aside.” Senator Andy Uba further reinforced his claim with Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Akpo v Hakeem-Habeeb [1992], wherein Justice Karibi White held “the court has no jurisdiction to consider a relief not claimed by either party and therefore can’t make any valid order in respect of such relief”. He went further to cite JIWUL v Dimlog 9 NWLR (part824) 145 at178, where justice of the Appeal Court, justice Nzeakor held “it is my respectful view that a court of justice can only grant relief sought or incident to relief….it has no jurisdiction to consider, not to mention, to grant a relief not sought for”.

Funnily, on the February 25, 2012, a five justice panel of the Court of Appeal, Enugu Division, re-affirmed its order nullifying Mr. Uba’s election’ as senator and order that a fresh election be held within 90days. The court belatedly advanced reasons for its earlier ruling of December 22, 2011 nullifying Mr. Uba’s election as senator in the April 2011 elections. Just when the appeal court thought it has put its Father Christmas judgment to rest, Senator Uba came up with a joker- he put forward a petition to the fact that the reason given by the court for nullifying his election was given outside the Constitutionally stipulated period, that is 60 days, the tribunal judgment affirming his election should be sustained instead. Uba’s petition was in deference to earlier Supreme Court ruling on the same issue in Ikedi Ohakim vs Rochas Okorocha and Emmanuel Uduaghan vs Great Ogboru respectively.

Here is the report of Supreme Court ruling in Uduaghan case; Justice Tanko Mohammed gave the same reasons for upholding the election of Uduaghan. He said the Appeal Court was wrong for giving judgment and delaying its reasons beyond the 60 days stipulated in the Constitution. He said: “It is important for court to give reasons for judgment. It has no power to defer reason for judgment to a later date as judgment and reasons must be given at the same time. “There is no valid judgment worthy of appeal. I declare that the judgment of the Court of Appeal given without reasons is null and void. It amounts to a nullity. I sustain the objection of the third Respondent, the appeal is accordingly struck out.” Having nullified the Appeal Court judgment, the apex court affirmed the subsisting judgments of the State Governorship Election Tribunal which upheld the victory of the governors. Section 285(7) of the 1999 Constitution as amended states that: “An appeal from a decision of an election tribunal or Court of Appeal in an election matter shall be heard and disposed of within 60 days from the date of the delivery of judgment of the tribunal or Court of Appeal.

On March 14 2012, Justice Abdulkadir Jega ruled that the 60 days stipulated for the disposal of election petition matters in Section 285 Sub section 7 of the Constitution has elapsed. Jega said Sundays, public holidays and court vacations are included in the 60 days and no court has the power to extend the allotted time. Here is the grouse of Falana against a clear attempt by the Acting President of Court of Appeal to keep the integrity of the Appeal court intact by doing the right thing — “Last December, the Court of Appeal holden at Enugu, annulled Dr. Andy Uba’s election to the Senate and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a rerun election within 90 days. At the instance of one of the parties, the Acting President of the Court of Appeal set up another panel of the court to rehear the case. Even though the 60- day mandatory period had expired at the material time, the panel sat, suspended the order on INEC to conduct the rerun election and adjourned sine die for “judgment”. —. The question here is, has Abdulkadir Jega led Appeal Court Pyrrhic victory against Senator Andy Uba’s just quest to right the wrong, not brought it in conflict with the ruling of the Apex Court as contained above? By winning the re-run election, Uba has proved to all that he is a political asset in Anambra State.

Senator Andy Uba all along knew that the good people of Anambra South will queue behind him in the re-run election, but he elected to deepen democracy through his legal option. Before the re-run election however, the government of Anambra State, had started campaign to oust Uba in the election. They deploy both the State owned Television and Radio Stations to maximum effect. Since it is APGA State, Senator Andy Uba was denied access to campaign in these media. Because of the grass-root support Andy enjoys in the Senatorial zone, the people of the zone defied APGA led government in the State to vote Senator Andy Uba back to office. In-fact, for three months, Peter Obi virtually moved government house to Anambra South just to defeat Uba who the people of the zone had elected to cast their vote for.

As 2014 governorship approaches, only Senator Andy Uba can defeat himself by not contesting the election. If he decides to vie for the governorship election, the good people of Anambra State will surely queue behind him. In-fact, he will win the 2014 governorship election landslide should he run. The people of the State love him; they showed it in 2007, April 9, 2011 and March 21, 2012. They will repeat it in 2014.

Emeka Oraetoka

Information/Media Management Consultant & Political Researcher

Wrote in from Garki-Abuja

P.O.Box 18928

e-mail:oramekllis@lycos.com

By Muhammad Ajah

Is it right to claim that corruption, massive looting of public funds, armed robbery, youth banditry and gangsterism as well as militancy are queer attitudes that have crept into our lives? I remember my old mother used to tell me that the worst crime a family feared for its members was stealing peoples’ property which was likened to armed robbery.

So any family whose member was identified as a thief was cursed by the whole village and no one would marry from or be married to the family. Such thieving family would never be trusted or entrusted in the society until they repented and displayed otherwise openly for a long time. Because of the gravity of similar social vices, culprits were buried alive in big mould of sand or forced to drown in the river by tying heavy stones to them. This was in the good olden days.

“You be thief. I no be thief…”the famous Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, inferring the political characteristics of Nigerian leadership at a time not any better than the recent.

But now some Nigerians openly parade themselves as corruption agents, militants and bandits massively looting public funds and causing mayhem to the society that they are supposed to assist in building. They easily forget that some people genuinely put in their lives for the victory they claim in elections. What have the governments made up of these politicians at the three levels done for the families of those who died while ensuring that the politicians won their elections or relections, or putting it rightly, in defence of the nation’s democracy?

It is not new the statement accredited to former president of Nigeria, Chief Matthew Olusegun Obasanjo, popularly called Baba where he described the National Assembly as being made up of rogues. Obasanjo is such a leader that can be seen to possess faceless, fearless and considerably unassuming costume when corruption is talked about in Nigeria. At least, even if the other four of his fingers may be pointing towards his direction, he could be sure of what he says.

Whether it is accepted or not, Obasanjo is the pioneer in the making of NIGERIA TODAY. He is, and even while gradually losing grip of the rope hanging down from the Aso Rock, the godfather of many of those in power today. So, it is to be doubted that he may have put up a total falsehood for mere relevance – such relevance that he has maintained since Nigeria returned to democratic governance in 1999. After all, he can claim untouchability!

Obasanjo cannot be unaware of all the probes conducted and being conducted by the assemblymen. He cannot be unaware of the executive bills which are often imposed on the people through the national chambers and the financial efforts it takes to make such bills sail through the chambers. He had practically experienced and successfully enforced such in the past. Obasanjo cannot be unaware of the current bribery allegation of N44 million involving an assemblyman and the director general of Security and Exchange Commission (SEC). Obasanjo, having been too long in government at that highest level, remains an insider in government and therefore cannot just open his mouth to make frivolous accusations. After all, he also accused the judiciary and the police. He even acknowledged that some justices were sacked on bribery and corruption related matters during the hard democratic experiment of his tenures.

For the national chambers to find a soft landing for themselves and for Obasanjo is an attempt to cover the fawning ass of the foul. It is either they accept what Obasanjo has said and then swallow the shame or challenge the relevance Obasanjo is searching for and vindicate themselves.

What does the House Committee on Information, Hon. Zakari Mohammed imply by proclaiming not to join issues with former President Obasanjo who accused them of being rogues? Accused of being rogues! Is this accusation not enough – even if it is believed to be mere allegation – to sue the accuser to court for character assassination of the distinguished and honourable assemblymen? A whole assembly accused!

Zakari, in playing down this great accusation, could only find such words as, “…I think it is wrong for an elder to stand outside and pee into the house”. There are two sided revelations from this. It is either that the elder has become mentally weak that he can no more differentiate his position of being outside the house or he is sure that it makes no difference peeing into the house because the house has the similitude of a urinary. It is really a confusing scenario. The assemblymen should go further to clarify and reclaim their dignity within this context and challenge Obasanjo on this.

One startling revelation from Zakari’s defence was, “Since I came here as a legislator, I have not heard stories of Ghana-must-go bags but when former President Obasanjo was in charge, nocturnal visits of Ghana-must-go bags were a routine in an attempt to buy over the legislature and having failed especially with the last one over his third term agenda during which several MILLIONS OF DOLLARS were involved, I don’t think it is right for anybody to have headache over whatever he says”.

For the avoidance of doubt, it has been established by the assemblymen themselves that Obasanjo squandered public funds (millions of dollars) in pursuit of his then pet project codenamed ‘tenure elongation’. Has any action been taken by the assemblymen to unveil and punish the originators, proponents, distributors and collectors of the acknowledged millions of dollars? Obasanjo surely knows those who collected the money in full but refused to deliver their promises to him. Are there no more nocturnal visits within the political sphere?

Can Hon. Zakari patriotically and religiously authenticate his claim that since 2007 when Obasanjo left office as the President of Nigeria or at least from May 2011, that Ghana-must-go bags have ceased to come the ways of politicians, including the assemblymen? Why has Obasanjo not been investigated despite all the glaring indices that his regime was believed to be administratively corrupt? A regime of unequalled squandermania, power-throttling force, socio-economic vandalization and religio-political victimization!!

In the same vein, the Deputy Minority leader of the House, Hon. Suleiman Kawu postulates, “Obasanjo does not have credibility in Nigeria. Remember he was dragged to court by his own son accusing him of sleeping with his wife”

The Senate also swiftly responded to Obasanjo’s claims, however, urging Obasanjo to move a step further and name the “rogues and robbers” that are members of the National Assembly.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Information, Media and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, while at a press conference in Abuja challenged Obasanjo, “in the new spirit of transparency and openness Obasanjo should assist the National Assembly by naming those that he knows in the National Assembly as either rogues or criminals. That would help us to be able to sanitize the polity and we sincerely thank him for his role in Nigeria, someone who cares very deeply about the Nigerian State and how it is at the moment”, adding, “the National Assembly can never engage in any talk back to the president.”

Is Obasanjo a Rock that he cannot be summoned to the National Assembly for interrogations? Remember that harmless Muhammadu Buhari has severally been verbally drilled over his misquoted statement on the 2015 elections. Buhari has been subjected to merciless tongue-lashings by Nigerians most of whom he is capable of fathering even in the political sphere. Poor Buhari!

Nonetheless, we should not forget that Obasanjo started behaving like a born-again Christian after leaving office as the president of Nigeria. Those who watch African Independent Television (AIT) may have seen when he appears to sing a gospel song saying, “I have decided to follow Jesus…” To this, one of my nieghbours burst into a wild laughter saying, “Is it our Lord Jesus whom we Christians worship that Obasanjo means?”

Recently addressing a group of Christian youths in Lagos at an event themed “The Building Blocks of Effective Leadership”, Professor Pat Utomi revealed some dysfunctions he had witnessed in the Nigerian system and x-rayed the difficulties of changing the system. Speaking under a topic, “Towards Creating a Network of Corruption-Intolerant Youth Leaders”, he narrated several instances of corruption involving government officials and the aftermath of underdevelopment and disclosed that a man who once duped him was now a senator.

He said, “A man who had 419ed [duped] me in the past is now in the Senate. And I called the attention of a senior senator who is from the same state with the dupe, and who also knew about my dupe story with the man before, that this man is a thief and he was aware. The senior senator wanted me to keep quiet, and he said that is the problem with me, and that after all, seventy percent of government people are 419ers”. Unbelievable!!

In somewhat affirmation of Obasanjo’s claims, Leadership Newspapers of Monday, May 28 2012 reported Sani Shu’aibu Teidi, one of the suspects standing trial before the Federal High Court, Abuja, for massively looting the pension treasury to have alleged that he and his accomplices paid Senator Aloysius Etuk-led Senate Committee a 3 billion Naira bribe in dollars. Akwu achaa n’ike mbe!!

According to Teidi, the huge bribe was to stall the prosecution of the accused persons. He alleged that the Senator Aloysius Etuk-led committee failed to fulfill an earlier promise of helping to stall their prosecution after collecting the 3 billion Naira contributory bribes. Trouble burst out over the sharing of the bribe. Teidi said Senator Etuk attempted to outsmart his colleagues by declaring 500 million Naira only i.e. a one-sixth of the actual bribe.

Feeling betrayed by the Senate committee leadership’s greed and inability to properly handle the corruption matter, Teidi resolved to make public all information on the botched agreement. “In fact, the N3bn bribe offered the senate committee was contributed by all the accused persons, each with the amount of 500 million Naira. The committee made us believe that when we give the money being demanded, it will give us a safe landing, thereby escaping prosecution, but, to our greatest dismay, they only succeeded in cutting their own share,” Teidi claimed.

All in all, this is a case that should not be ignored. It is either Obasanjo is right or he is openly summoned to explain if he spoke in rhetoric or was misquoted. This theory of allegation and denial in Nigeria should stop henceforth. On the other hand, what joy and results have the several probes carried out by the assemblymen brought us? Are these exposures just a tip in the iceberg?

Muhammad Ajah is a writer, author, advocate of humanity and good governance based in Abuja. E-mail mobahawwah@yahoo.co.uk