By Essien Ndueso
Recently, aggrieved politicians converge(APC) in Akwa Ibom State threw caution to the wind and embarked on a smear campaign against President Muhammadu Buhari and the entire judiciary system in Nigeria, accusing the presidency of encouraging corruption in justice delivery system of the country.
Although throwing blame and pointing accusing fingers had always been a trademark of these politicians, no one ever imagined that they will transfer their unwarranted attack on the country’s leadership(at least not so soon), which incidentally, is occupied by their party, the All Progressives Congress, APC. Although APC had been founded on the basis of antagonising leaders, and fighting against the government of the day, it is quite ironical that after laying claims to the political leadership stool in the country, most of its members are unable to adapt to their new role. And for these ones, blaming the federal government for their misfortune or accusing the federal government of misapplying justice, has remained a norm.
When Dr Amadu Attai led other executive members of the APC in Akwa Ibom State to address a press conference, he took a swipe at the landmark judgement of Justice Goddy Anuhihu at the National Assembly Elections Petitions Tribunal in Abuja, which upheld the election of Senator Godswill Akpabio as the duly elected Senator for Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District
The indecency, foolishness and rascality in the tone of the press text, dumbfounds even a mere bystander, who finds it hard to comprehend that a group of people could throw such blind and dim-witted allegations against an institution that they are looking up to for allege reprieve. It could be argued that the APC renegades uttered the defamatory words hiding under the defence that the law gives a window of a sort for annoyance-induced utterances. Of course no one is faulting them for being annoyed, to be candid, APC in Akwa Ibom has every reason to be annoyed, after deceiving undiscerning minds in the state that President Buhari has agreed to automatically upturn the elections of all PDP winners in the State, in favour of the APC losers. In their numbers, few gullible members of the public who allowed Umana and his co-traveller’s lies to yield fruits in their brains, went about contributing their hard earned resources, and phantom appointments were shared at beer parlours for offices they believed were commensurate with their investments, or call it donations.
The only persons who knew they were going nowhere in the tribunal are the main actors. They knew that although there was virtually no element of truth in their submissions, perhaps a phone call from Mr. President, and/ or their connections inside Aso Rock, will be able to stir judgement in their favour, one way or the other which is why the nicknamed President Buhari the New Sheriff in Town. This confidence was boosted when the tribunals yielded to their initial request, and shifted base to Abuja the seat of authority. For days, echoes of ‘a new sheriff is in town’ reverberated across some palm wine joints, and the subjective tabloids carried screaming banners of how Buhari had completely transformed the judiciary within days of assuming office. This wild cry of joy in APC camps returned each day as the PDP repeatedly lost protests for the return of the tribunal to Uyo; even the successive loopholes noticed and pointed out in most of the petitions by APC candidates, that ordinarily should have caused their petitions to be thrown out over noncompliance with provisions of the law where tolerated by the tribunals, and to APC faithful, including Mr Amadu Attai and Mr Umana Umana , whao-it was the good working of the judiciary under a new sheriff.
Again while Governor Emmanuel was in the peak of his case, defending his mandate through the 19 witnesses he took to Abuja, the Directorate of State Service(DSS), undoubtedly using federal might, stormed the seat of government in Akwa Ibom State and cause a major scare in the state, to the applause of Mr Umana Umana and his team. APC chieftains took turns abusing Governor Udom, and accusing him of stock piling weapons of mass destruction and foreign currencies, although the DSS is yet to utter fib on its secret mission to Akwa Ibom State government house. To APC, the new Sheriff was working.
So what could have made Umana and his boys(most of them are actually grandpas) so angry, all of a sudden and under the good new Sheriff?
Recalled that before his assumption of office on May 29, 2015, President Buhari had succumbed to pressure, receiving the APC contingent from Akwa Ibom state, where a former governor Obong Victor Attah said, “we the stakeholders and elders in Akwa Ibom state are ready to follow you and work with you under the leadership of our ‘Governor’ Mr Umana Umana here.” Mr Umana thereafter declared himself as the authentic governor, who was robbed of victory by PDP, and submitted some names of so-called APC stalwarts for consideration by the then President – elect in the scheme of things. The president at that point had directed that they should channel their petitions to the election petition tribunal(s), and assured them that his government will not condone miscarriage of justice. No one can forget in a hurry, the noisy headlines and the threats that the Governor – Elect Mr Udom Emmanuel will not be sworn into office…etc. Maybe their interpretation of Buhari’s advice was that he was going to arm-twist the judges to accede to their demands, irrespective of their poor cases.
If the nomination of a PDP chieftain and former Senator from Eket Senatorial District, Mr Udoma Udoma did not anger Umana Umana and his boys, the fact that Senator Udoma’s last political outing was earlier this year in Lagos, where he and other professionals raised funds to support their friend, Mr Udom Emmanuel to ascend the hilltop mansion in Akwa Ibom State, could have been a straw too many. But the APC chieftains endured, believing that the tribunal decisions will received the influence of their new Sheriff.
But from Abuja, the bombs came in quick succession. Not from Boko Haram, this time, but from the national and state house of assemblies tribunal. One after the other, the flimsy petitions by the APC discontents, where shredded and discarded by the interpreters of law. In one week, over 27 different lousy complaints were trashed and PDP victory songs emanating from Kubwa and Dutse Alhaji had resonance in Uyo senatorial district, Eket Senatorial disctrict, Uyo federal constituency, Itu, Ikono, Abak, Ukanafun and Etinan federal constituencies. The same were obtained in the cases of the house of assembly seats were the PDP flags were raised higher than ever. And on Tuesday October 13, 2015, what was left of any grain of hope about the APC’s chances in the court was dashed as Justice Goddy Anuhihu did what any professional Judge in his position could have done, under the watch of the new Sheriff. He upheld the election of senate minority leader and senator of Akwa Ibom North West Senatorial District, Chief Godswill Akpabio(CON), knocking off all the arguments about name on the entry form of Godswill Akpabio, use or misuse of card reader, reports of violence on the election day and so-called disenfranchisement of voters- common sense showed clearly that Godswill Akpabio, or put it the other way, PDP won the election for that senate seat. Any other incorruptible judge in the world would have read the same judgement in a case as clear as daylight. If the anger, which confronted them, could be managed, the loss of confidence and massive dissonance by their agitated supporters was no longer bearable.
However, just as I had earlier said in a previous article titled Umana and the Burden of Managing Falsehood, the APC in the state has ran out of strategies and is fast falling flat because deceit and lies were the bases on which it was built and on which its supporters in the state were conned. The case involving Umana Umana vs Gov Udom Emmanuel at a crescendo, and with a likelihood that the decision of the three judges will not differ from the decision of over 4million Akwa Ibom people on whose votes Udom Emmanuel rode into authority, it is not surprising that the APC, or rightly put, the petition writers have become so uncontrollably angry that they have decided to go haywire, attacking Buhari’s judiciary, not minding that he is the new Sheriff in town. But what level of anger would warrant such a careless accusation against my lords and the new Sheriff? Is this level of psychosis excusable under the mass communication law? Definitely a no. I did say in my earlier cited article that Mr Umana’s case is aggravated by the poor handling of issues by his media managers. It is only an ill-advised person who assumes that falsely accusing a tribunal judge openly of selling judgement, might be a wild strategy of blackmailing another judge to curry favourable judgement; or tactics to restore glimmer of hope on the faces of blind supporters. But whatever the reason, the Justice Sadiq Umar that I saw severally at Court 8 of FCT High Court, Maitama, does not look like one who would give a damn to ‘rule in my favour or i report you to Sheriff’ kind of threat.
Back to the defamation against Justice Anuhihu, while it is true that words uttered in anger may be defended by the accused, words written in anger cannot be defended, because reasonable angers arising from temper do mellow before the a pen is fetched. In this case, either Akpabio or Anuhihu have full rights to sue the merchants of falsehood, who failed to provide a single document, to prove that bribe was either given or taken.
In the last few days, groups of APC apologists with sympathy to Mr Umana Umana have condemned President Buhari for not appointing a core APC chieftain from the state as minister, and for failing to show any concern to the dwindling fortune of their leader in the tribunal, while the attack on the judiciary is a direct indictment and affront on the President Buhari for operating a credible judiciary system. Is it not gratifying enough to them that EFCC invited Senator Godswill Akpabio to respond to a cock and bull tell tale by a certain relatively unknown Leo Ekpenyong, who is a member of Umana Umana’s legal team at the tribunal?
With these rave of discordant tunes, one may wonder how much longer Umana’s anger or angry outbursts, will be tolerated by the new Sheriff in Town. If I remember clearly, I suspect it was the late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, when confronted by journalists about freedom of speech, that retorted, “freedom of speech I say yes, but freedom after the speech, I cannot guarantee.”
*Essien Ndueso, a journalist writes from Uyo