1 May 2009

Abuja — Wole Soyinka, the Nobel Laureate, reiterated on Thursday that Nigerians are behind Ekiti Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Ayoka Adebayo, and cautioned that if anything happens to her, some people would be in trouble as Nigerians are waiting for the result of the ballot rerun.

Former House of Representatives Speaker, Ghali Na'Abba, said the crisis is part of the legacy of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

Both spoke in Lagos at the launch of "Reign of Evil," a book Eze Eluchie wrote on Obasanjo's tenure.

Na'Abba recalled his political differences with Obasanjo, and insisted that his legacy "is here with us. We feel it, we see it. What is currently happening in Ekiti State is part of that legacy.

"We had eight years under Obasanjo and because of the way we operated democracy, we have virtually lost it; we no longer have a political party, Obasanjo destroyed the parties; he destroyed the PDP and the AD (Alliance for Democracy), and bought over the ANPP (All Nigeria Peoples Party).

"Democracy is about choice, but what we are confronted with today is a situation in which there is democracy without choice; if we don't do something about it then we are doomed.

"I have been in the PDP, then the AC, and back to the PDP. My experience with these parties has been very bad; that is why I don't sympathise with anybody who claims to be rigged out of power.

"None of these parties was ever elected, whether the PDP, the ANPP, the AC; he who seeks justice must ensure he has upheld equity."

Soyinka said: "Take this message across: children, women, men, the aged are behind (Adebayo), if anything happens to her, some people are going to get into trouble, we are going to make sure anywhere in the world they go they would be pursued, the same way Omar Bashir is being pursued now, the same way other criminals against humanity like Charles Taylor have been forced to answer for their actions; the coming generation will not forgive or forget."

He reminded Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro, that "your job is to protect (Adebayo); a woman who said my life is in danger because I cannot take a position against my conscience."

Soyinka also questioned the actions of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Maurice Iwu.

"I just want to tell Iwu to be very careful. The other time he responded to what I said about his conduct of the last election, it was a shameless kind of response. I just decided to ignore it, but now he is proving everything I said about his execution of his mandate as head of that organisation.

"He should be the first to have the courage to say 'something is wrong, therefore I am going to re-do this;' anything different is a dereliction of duty.

"This attempt to keep the mandate of the people in Ekiti State is so explosive that only a conscienceless person can allow it, and so I am sending him a warning to be very careful."

Soyinka said the purpose of exhuming the past is to confront the present, and noted that the issues raised in the book are beyond an individual, because the nature of a leader is connected to the fortunes of the people.

In his view, the "Rein of Evil" is "an opening salvo in the process of opening the can of worms of 'the arrowhead of the reign of evil' as the author put it."

He criticised Obasanjo's desire to continue to influence events in the country after leaving power, and described him as "one Head of State who had not only rubbed salt on the wounds of the people but also insist on rubbing their faces in the filth he had brought about."

Still on the Ekiti gridlock, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) National Publicity Secretary, Rufai Alkali, demanded the immediate redeployment of Adebayo because "she has demonstrated a clear instability of character which has raised fundamental questions on her integrity and impartiality. Her decision to abandon her responsibility and her volt face 24 hours later clearly shows she cannot be trusted to be a fair umpire in the Ekiti State Governorship rerun election."

Alkali told a press conference in Abuja that Adebayo's action has eroded the credibility of the electoral process and that INEC must urgently start rebuilding the confidence of all political parties by redeploying Adebayo.

But Action Congress (AC) National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, countered that "we welcome (Adebayo's) decision to rescind her resignation.

"This is exactly what we had called for. But she must now go back and announce the results in accordance with her conscience, and on the basis of the rerun held on April 25, because the election has been concluded."

State PDP Chairman, Bola Olu-Ojo, asked that soldiers be sent in during the rerun ballot in Oye.

However, Director of Army Public Relations, Brig Gen. Chris Olukolade, explained that troops on the ground are to safeguard lives and government properties only, not for election monitoring or provision of security.

"I can't tell you specifically when they will leave Ekiti but I can say boldly that whenever the order instructing the deployment is vacated, they will leave as so instructed.

"We have a clear instruction, which is to protect government properties in the state and nothing more," he said.