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This is by no means an endorsement of the illegal maneuvers
and acts that culminated in the wrong person or persons being chosen as the governor of Anambra State. However,
the country should proceed with extreme caution in the attempt to correct the alleged ills of the 2003 gubernatorial
election.
May I ask which of the 2003 election result is to be annulled, is the presidential or is the state level elections?
The state of Anambra should not be used as an escape goat. There were allegations of fraud and counter claims of
irregularities by each party in almost all races and at levels of that year's election. A case in point is Abia
State, in Aba local government, to be exact, the story is told of how a candidate who resided in the United States
worn an election in absentia to the local government chairmanship position. Similarly, at the Federal level, Sir
Alex Ekwueme accused the president, Mr.Obasanjo of perpetrating illegal maneuvers and acts that culminated in his
reelection as the president of the country.
Also, the legislative chamber races, at all levels, were not fraud or
irregularity free. Therefore, it could be said that there were wide spread incidence of claims and counter claims
of election irregularities, to put it mild. The question arises as to where is the investigative process of substantiating
these claims of election irregularities going to begin, at the Federal or State level? Moreso, who is going to
sit in judgment of these infraction? For sure, Anambra State is not the logical starting point for correcting these
election malpractice. And the elected officials and the politicians are not the right type of personalities that
need to sit in council of determining what went wrong in the 2003 elections.
It is very sad that a thief is being asked to catch a thief, considering the
recent call by certain precious entities that Mr.Obasanjo should begin the process of removing the current governor
of Anambra State. As a rebuttal to this call, I submit that, " he that is without sin should cast the first
stone." The Anambra State government saga is a subset of a bigger problem, I am sure that all interested parties
are aware of this fact. Furthermore, an analysis of the move by the president to remove a sitting governor of a
state, makes one to wonder what kind of government is Nigeria presently practising, definitely it is not presidential
sytem of government, American model.
The constitutionality of this move is that it will undermine state rights and grant enormous power to the president.
This means that someday that governors will hold office at the pleasure of the president. I am sure that this is
not the intent of the drafters of the present constitution, therefore Nigeria needs to proceed with extreme caution
in the desire to resolve the Anambra State governor's issue before it runs into a constitutional problem. As a
means of resolving the present stalemate in Anambra State, constitutional scholars and Federalist, like persons
of late Dr. Ukpabi Asika should be called to assist the state to resolve this problem in a manner that there is
neither a winner nor a looser using the provisions of the present constitution of Nigeria.
Sir Peter Ejirika, CPA
Amaoba, Obor, Umuahia, Abia State
Ex-Pilot Officer, Biafran Airforce
Currently Resides in Austin, Texas
He that is without Sin should cast the First
Stone
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