Former President Goodluck Jonathan made history when he conceded defeat in the March 2015 presidential election. With that singular act, he showed that politics in Nigeria can be premised on the rule of law, humility, honour and the spirit of sportsmanship, and that no political ambition should be advanced at the expense of any Nigerian life and/or the public good. That was a magnificent example that should be a pointer for every Nigerian politician. Unfortunately, many Nigerian politicians remain welded to retrograde and self-seeking politics that refuses to subordinate personal ambitions to the collective good. As such, losers in elections and primaries that were adjudicated fair, free and credible, instead of accepting defeat, take to defamation, falsehood and endless wrangling.
There have been unnecessary protests trailing the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) 2015 primaries (gubernatorial and senatorial) and general elections in Cross River State. In the gubernatorial primaries, Senator Ben Ayade won; his closest rival was Joe Agi. The primaries were transparent and credible. Not surprisingly, one of the candidates in the gubernatorial primaries, Tanko Ashang, attested to its credibility; he described it as “free, fair and all inclusive”. He said, “It was a thorough process, and a thorough process will always attract criticisms, especially in our clime, where people are used to quick fix. It was transparent, it was open. Ayade clearly won, and he deserves the victory. He won because he represents the best of the pack by virtue of his education, brilliance and political experience.”
In the state senatorial primaries, the most notorious and vocal of the sore-losers is Senator Ndoma Egba. He is a serving senator that lost the nomination for the Senate for the Cross River Central Senatorial District to Hon John Enoh. He rejected the result of the primaries because, according to him, “the exercise was fundamentally and fatally flawed as it fell short of the minimum integrity for an electoral process”. And he demanded new senatorial primaries in the zone. However, observers of the Senate primaries maintain it was transparent and credible. Ndoma Egba has been in the Senate since 2003. After 12 years of what can accurately be characterized as legislative mediocrity, if not obscurantism, the people of Cross River Central Senatorial District have had enough of Ndoma Egba. They needed change; they found the change in Owan Enoh, an ebullient, scholarly member of the House of Representatives, who is 10 years younger than Ndoma Egba.
In the gubernatorial and senatorial elections, the PDP candidates won. Ben Ayade, governor; Rose Oko, Cross River North; Gershom Bassey, Cross River South; and John Enoh, Cross River Central. The electoral outcome was understandable because Cross River State is a PDP state. In the early days of this democratic dispensation in 1999, PDP and the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) were the two dominant political parties in the state. PDP had 13 members and ANPP 12 members in the House of Assembly, and the governor was from PDP and the speaker of the House from ANPP. But over the years, the political lot of ANPP (which is now part of APC) in the state dwindled and PDP became the foremost party in the state.
Prior to the general elections, a number of disaffected PDP members (those aggrieved by the outcome of the primaries) decamped to the Labour Party. This increased the ranks of the Labour Party and deepened its pocket. However, the party still remained weak, and its candidates had no chance of winning in the governorship and senatorial races. Similarly, the other opposition political party, All Progressives Congress (APC), lacks political clout in the state and can neither win the governorship nor in any senatorial zone. Therefore, the allegations that Governor Liyel Imoke influenced the elections to ensure the victory of the PDP candidates are most groundless.
The 2015 elections have come and gone. As in every election, there were winners and losers – gracious and sore losers. In the final analysis, democracy is all about reverence for the will of the people and their right to elect their leaders – public servants. Despite the clamour of a relentlessly vociferous few, the generality of the people of Cross River are at ease with the outcome of the 2015 elections in the state. They are grateful to former Governor Liyel Imoke because he respected the desire of the people of the state that the new governor of the state should come from the North Senatorial District, and he encouraged the emergence of the best and brightest as the new public servants of the state. Above all, the people of Cross River State see Liyel Imoke as the one who laid the foundation upon which a stronger Cross River State is resting. Not greedy, not loud, a complete gentleman and a governor.
Lloyd Ukwu
