PRESS STATEMENT
We are on notice of statement published in Thisday newspapers of Friday 19th February 2010, in which a group known as National Democratic Movement (NDM) through its Head of secretariat on Sule Hamma pooh-poohed the recently concluded gubernatorial elections in Anambra State.
PAN joins issues and vehemently disagrees with this position. We are on record as haven said that while the election were not perfect-as if there is any perfect election-it has passed the acid test for a credible election. The question, which is now trite is; does the result reflect the opinion or satisfy the wish of the people of Anambra State? The re-election of Governor Peter Obi by the results as announced, and taking into account the spread and the yawning gap between him and his closest challenger, is in our view truly reflective of the aspiration and wishes of the good people of Anambra State.
This is an election for the first time in Nigeria’s recent history we say losers conceding victory to the declared winner. The ex-poste factor tantrums by Dr. Chris Ngige and immoral volte-face by Professor Chukwuma Soludo does not in real terms diminish this pleasant surprise. Ngige is obviously engaged in a game of tit for tat, while Soludo is suffering from some sort of intellectual constipation.
On another note, Nigerians due to a tendency for national political amnesia may have forgotten that the said Sule Hamma is the same of Sani Abache era, where he served as political Adviser to the late maximum dictator. It an irony of our politics that erstwhile anti-democratic elements suddenly re-emerge in new garb, and are celebrated as pro-democracy activists. As a Leopard never changes its sports these later day democrats will remain at heart what they truly are.
No amount of press statements issued from cosy hotels in Abuja will make the ubiquitous PDP, which heavily dominates the national, and state assemblies give us the electoral reforms we need and want It is only by positive action as exemplified in recent electoral contests in Edo and Anambra States that we can wrestle power from the strangle hold of the PDP and usher in a peoples government
The consequential economic, political, including constitutional and electoral reforms would naturally follow.
Maxi Okwu
National Chair CPP
Cordinator PAN
21st February 2010 |