Enugu Elections Tribunal: Waiting for Sunrise

By Kachifoo Nwobodo

In Enugu State today, the people are waiting for sunrise. But in the neighbouring Abia State, the sun has since risen. It rose with the swearing in of Alex Otti as governor on May 29, 2023. In one whimsical stroke, Otti has dispelled the crushing darkness that had overwhelmed Abia for 24 years. Today, Abia has shrugged off that overcast to emerge the largest construction site in Nigeria. But Enugu is swaddled in darkness; weighed down by the Peter Mbah incubus; the weight of living under the shadow of a lie. Peter Mbah is a lie!

Indeed, after almost 100 days in office, Ndi Enugu have finally confirmed that Mbah is a tragedy they did their utmost best to avoid. In almost 100 days, Mbah has shrunk under the burden of his office, looking gaunt, frazzled and terrified. His rapid loss of grip on the affairs of Enugu State has made people ask “who is in charge in Enugu?” Some say he has abdicated responsibility to his power-mongering Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia. Others say that Mbah is struggling under the moral baggage he has painfully dragged into public office. Whatever the case may be, it can no longer be gainsaid that Mbah is an impostor in the Enugu government house. And Ndi Enugu are fervently lifting up their eyes to the hills from whence cometh their help! They are patiently waiting for Hon. Chijioke Edeoga to regain the mandate they had overwhelmingly handed to him on March 18, 2023.

Therefore, to many informed observers in Enugu, the Elections Petitions Tribunal has its work cut out for it. The case against Peter Mbah is simple and straightforward. Mr. Mbah had lied on oath…a serious offence for a public office holder. He had submitted a forged discharge certificate as proof of having satisfied the minimum requirements for the position he fraudulently occupies. If that were the only crime Mbah had committed, it would have been less painful to bear. But Mbah had chosen to blindfold Nigerians by attempting to browbeat the NYSC to submission with a defamation charge for exposing his crime. Mbah’s temerity is confounding. He evidently enjoys the thrills of floating in the hot-air balloon of his own lies. If Mbah has not made a bad habit of hiding behind his own finger, what reputation did he hope to protect? Everyone, including the tribunal judges know that Mbah was just being clever by half. Instituting a defamation charge was a poorly digested move.

Nevertheless, it is intriguing to note how Mbah has swiftly turned himself into a master of poorly digested moves in so short a time.  For instance, his childish manipulation of the electoral process in his Nkanu East constituency to create the electoral miracle that produced 30,350 votes from 15,000 accredited voters is a monument to Mbah’s tomfoolery. It’s a phantasmagorical creation which even INEC could not substantiate with BVAS evidence. It ran counter to Section 51(2) of the electoral act 2022 which states that where there is over voting, the results of the affected polling units should be cancelled. But INEC in its trademark disregard for electoral laws failed to enforce outright cancellation of that voodoo result. And by so doing, INEC had passed the buck to the elections petitions tribunal. Now, all eyes are on the tribunal to right the wrongs of the Nkanu East electoral heist.   

And this is why Ndi Enugu are lifting up their eyes to the hill from whence their help shall come. Since a congenitally compromised INEC had chosen to turn a blind eye to the brazen subversion of the people’s electoral will, they count on divine justice to redress the situation because in the words of Martin Luther King Jnr. “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it still bends towards justice.”

Indeed, Ndi Enugu are patiently waiting for justice. Across the country, justice is being served. The other day, the Tarauni Federal Constituency in Kano was served justice when Umar Yerima of the NNPP who was representing them in the House of Representative was thrown out for certificate forgery. Last Friday, it was the turn of the people of Okpokwu, Ado and Ogbadibo Federal Constituency of Benue State when a petition by a certain Christian Abba challenging the winner of the federal constituency election was thrown out because Mr. Abba had sullied his hands in a proven certificate forgery. Delivering what had looked like a pivotal judgement, Justice Sidi Dauda Badeh of the Supreme Court had observed that “the murky water will remain contaminated in our body polity until the reckless issue of certificate forgery with impunity is thoroughly addressed and put to a final end in our own interest.”

Following the precedent set by these cases of certificate forgery at the Supreme Court, Ndi Enugu are already counting down to sunrise.     

Nwobodo writes from Nara, Unateze.