Pat Utomi drops a bombshell: Cancel Anambra Gubernatorial Election!

INEC has already declared the Anambra November 16th Gubernatorial Election Inconclusive. Also, three major candidates Chris Ngige (APC), Tony Nwoye  (PDP) and Ifeanyi Ubah (LP)  have called for the total cancellation of the election. However INEC chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega has said a re-run will only be a court decision. Former presidential candidate and Political Economist  Pat Utomi in his facebook page called for total cancellation of Anambra electoral exercise. 

Making fools of ourselves has become niche territory for our competitiveness as a country, it seems, sometimes. The mess called elections in Anambra State won the Gold medal in that department.
I was out of the country and had to depend on twitter, other social media and Nigerian newspapers. My worst nightmares came to pass. Should I have been surprised? Perhaps not. But you always hope wise counsel would prevail.

At the heart of the big mess is the tendency of power holders and welders in Nigeria to see the citizen as so stupid that they should not be trusted to make their own choices. The big man must therefore choose for him or guide him towards decisions in their own best interests.

Of course there can be many coatings on this fundamental view of patron – client politics were the population is perceived by the political patrons as children. One such coating by some angry activists is that it is the lust for power and continuing domination of the people that leads some politicians to so act to influence election outcomes no matter the real desires of the people. Another coating suggests, very patronizingly, that the people are so limited in their understanding because of poor education that a guardian leader should ensure the right kind of successor is found.

Other coatings which come from the military era, with frequent reference to the need for social engineering, leads to a view that a regime has a legitimate interest in who succeeds it.
I can sketch a few more typical coatings but it really does not matter. The bottom-line is that no matter the colour of the painting, bright positivist and optimistic or dull negative and finger – painting, the base of the logic is that the people are too stupid to know what is good for them.
It is this same logic that is responsible for election campaigns without serious discussion of the issues and town hall meetings in which citizens have direct access to question candidates in a structured rigorous manner on matters important to them. This logic comes in circle a thief and steals the very essence of democracy from the people. In Anambra elections it showed itself. I have seen elections deteriorate in value since 1999 and the Afrobarometer capture this declining legitimacy of our democracy.

We must not let it continue, for the sake of the next generation.

The case of Anambra marks new levels of grand political conspiracy to impose a will from outside on a people. Such was the shrew dress of the grand conspiracy that one of the parties literally sacrificed their candidate to facilitate the fortunes of another party. What was never made clear was in which specific ways these games advance the common good, beyond a sense that hand-picked nominees of incumbents should lead to continuity. Who says a candidate not handpicked can’t ensure continuity.

Even though experience from around the world suggest that hand-picked successors very often turn against their patrons, incumbents are often too tempted in Africa to seek to impose a successor ostensibly so that their legacies may be extended.

In Anambra this phenomenon almost reached fever pitch desperation. In moments of messianic conviction that our way is the only way forward we find insisting our will be done. If the truth be told incumbent Governor Peter Obi has done a great job of moving Anambra forward from Chris Ngige’s restoration job. The electors should not be viewed by his admirers as a review of his performance. It should be that the successor can move things further forward.

The real pain in all of this is that Anambra has never more needed a patriot connected to the spirit of the people and desirous of their best interest. The people should be given a chance to see the people behind the masks and decide themselves who they prefer.

If the role of politicians was aimed at distorting the will of the people the performance of INEC was a tragedy described by one of the new breed politicians in Anambra as a “betrayal of trust and mindless squandering of the fortune invested in equipping it to be and even handed umpire.

The voters register was flawed and there was mass disenfranchisement of voters. One election in one state and so much chaos. INEC had to accept some of their staff were compromised. Imagine Anambra being repeated in 14 states on Election Day in 2015? I do not want to imagine it. The helpless Nigerian people could find their voices, not through throats but by armed hands. Would that be anarchy foretold?

Anambra needs to be a starting point for getting it right and the thing to do is cancel the entire election. It was a farce and we should not get medals for making a fool of ourselves.