ANAMBRA State governor, Dr Chris Ngige is central to the verbal war between Obasanjo and Audu Ogbeh, national chairman of the PDP. While the latter wrote to the President to intervene more decisively in the Anambra crisis, Obasanjo accused his party’s boss of shirking his responsibility to instil discipline. Beyond that, the President revealed of a meeting with the governor and his estranged godfather, Chris Uba in which Ngige admitted to not winning the April 19, 2003 governorship polls.
The embattled governor told Saturday Vanguard, Tuesday, that he was satisfied with the fact that his opponents who felt strongly about his victory have taken their case to the appropriate authority which is the state’s election petition tribunal. He wonders why "some people" would be in a hurry to get him removed illegally when the constitutional process of removing a governor is clearly spelt out by the law.
He maintains that he would not succumb to any blackmail. Rather, he would allow the tribunal and the people of the state to decide his fate.
Well, I have been following developments regarding the exchange of letters between our party’s national chairman (Ogbeh) and His Excellency, Mr President (Obasanjo). I first saw the chairman’s letter last Saturday (December 11, 2004) and then the reply by the President today (Tuesday 14, 2004).
Personally, I felt that those were internal matters of the PDP. The chairman has been communicating with the President just like the rest of us who are members of the party occupying elective offices. The President himself has been doing the same thing. But it seems that what people are not happy about was the fact that these letters were made public when they were not intended to be. To me, that was very unfortunate.
But it is not beyond what the PDP as a party can internally resolve. We have the appropriate organs within the party through which any misunderstanding between party members and between any member and the party could be amicably resolved and I have no doubt that that will happen in this very case (indeed, the matter was said to have resolved after Ogbeh apologised, Thursday).
It is a pity that I was mentioned in the whole thing (exchange of letters) but to me, that is immaterial. The most important thing is that the problem in Anambra State has affected everybody, both the people of Anambra State, the government in the state, those who are behind the problems, our party, the PDP and other political parties that are in the picture. It is equally affecting our democracy and our country.
So, to me, the time for recrimination has passed because it is like all problems associated with politics and disagreement of views and methods. It is normal in politics everywhere. It is also normal in human and family affairs. Therefore, there is nothing so special about it. But like I said earlier, it is the effects of this problem that are giving everybody great concern.
The recent destruction of lives and property in the state was absolutely uncalled for. All what were destroyed in that mayhem were government and private properties. Now, it is going to take the state government, the people of Anambra State quite some time to rebuild and recover from the effects of that destruction. That is the aspect that gives me a lot of worry.
Whether an election was rigged or not is usually a subject of controversy in most electoral processes, not only in Nigeria but even in other democracies including the advanced ones like America. But the onus is usually on the accuser to come to the appropriate authority to prove his case. If these things were able to be proved beyond reasonable doubt, the status quo can change. I think the appropriate thing is to go through the law and that we have started in Anambra State through the intervention of the election petition tribunal currently sitting.
What I would not bother myself about was what anybody said or says but what the tribunal decides at the end. I have no doubt that it is only the election tribunal that can say whether or not I was properly or improperly elected. It is also left for the people of Anambra State to say whether they are pleased with our government or not because there is no doubt about it that our regime has affected the lives of the people of Anambra in many positive ways since we assumed office on May 29, 2003 inspite of all the distractions ever since.
When things like this are said, I try not to get provoked because inspite of anybody’s feelings, the legal thing has to be done. I am not desperate to be a governor. I am one today because destiny had designed it to happen at one time in my life. I was pressurised to run for the governorship by those who believed at the time that I have what it takes to govern Anambra State well and bring consolation to the people who had been denied and deprived.
It only happened that a disagreement arose midway on how the governance should be exercised. And since I favoured sincere, responsive and accountable governance to our people, others preferred a different type of governance which unfortunately was out of tune with the desires, aspirations and expectations of Anambra people. That is at the root of the problem we are having today in this state.
There is nothing so special about the way I, Chris Ngige, was elected from the way so many other functionaries were elected that warrants an issue being made out of it in the newspapers. My own election is today being challenged at the tribunal the way the election of so many others are being contested in the various courts and election tribunals. So, I have my highest regards for Mr President, for the national chairman of our great party, for the people of Anambra State and for the laws of the land. I believe sincerely that we must avoid violence and desperation and pursue our convictions in a most civilised manner approved and recognised by law.
We must learn to conduct our democratic affairs in a manner that does not hurt democracy and feelings of others. That is the only way we can strengthen democracy and unity of our country.
