“Please Shut Up, No Governor Has The Moral Authority To Condemn Edo Polls” – APC Chieftain

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

State Governors who have joined other well meaning Nigerians to condemn the conduct and outcome of the Edo State off-circle gubernatorial election have been asked to shut up.

This is even as the Abia State Governor, Dr Alex Otti, has been charged to separate himself from his colleagues in other States by allowing the State Electoral Commission the free hand to conduct a free and fair local Council polls.

These were the views of an All Progressive Congress, APC,  Chieftain and four-time Executive Chairman of the Oil rich Ukwa West Local Government of Abia State, High Chief Sylvanus Uzoma Nwaji.

In an interview with The Source on Tuesday September 24, 2024, in Aba, the former House of Representative Candidate, insisted that none of the serving Governors of Nigeria has the moral standing to  condemn whatever perceived anomalies in the just concluded Edo state election.

According to him, the State Governors have inflicted more damage to democracy in the country than those at the national level.

He is of the conviction that if the Federal Government and its agencies are to toe the ignoble path charted by the Governors in their conducts of local Government elections, democracy would have long been dead in the country.

“Look, much as I don’t support the manipulation of our electoral process in any way, I’m also sorry to say that these our Governors have done more damage to the system.

“Now, look at the Local Council Elections being conducted under the supervision of the Governors. It has been following a predictable pattern.

“The Governor’s party don’t just win ,but clears everything 100%. They will win the entire Chairmanship and Councilorships. In fact, before the day of the election, the results would have been written in favour of the Governor’s party.

“From Adamawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kwara, Imo, Edo, to Enugu, it is the same sad  story. Yet the same Governors will be the first to be shouting oo. INEC, APC, President Tinubu, have rigged elections.

“It is only fair to go to equity with clean hands. As it is now, no PDP Governor should pontificate on the conduct and out come of the Edo State gubernatorial election.

“This is because they are not qualified to do so. Given the chance, they have shown they are even the worst enemies of our democratic experiment”

Hon Nwaji, therefore, called on the Abia State Governor to show a good example and steer clear from the dishonorable paths of his colleagues by ensuring that the forthcoming Local Council polls in the state comes with manifest degree of fairness.

“In the first place, Governor Otti is a product of a somewhat credible election in 2023. That he should be able to testify.

“He is there today because majority of Abians came out, voted for him, and the result was announced.

“He wouldn’t have been there if the system, like during his two previous attempts, were manipulated. So, part of the ways to show gratitude is for him to do an unusual thing – allow the Abia State Electoral Commission to conduct a credible exercise.

But anything short of a free and fair poll will come to hunt him later. That I can bet with my last blood” High Chief   Nwaji stated .

Further speaking, the APC chieftain, while appreciating the efforts of President Bola Tinubu in freeing Local Governments from the suffocating and over-bearing influence of Governors, called for an executive bill to insulate the conduct of local Council polls from the State Electoral Commission.

“I want to say without equivocation, as a former Council Chairman, that all efforts, including the recent Supreme Court judgment, to free the Councils from the Governors control will be a mirage, if the state electoral bodies continue to organize Council polls.

“The Executive should initiate a process through which the National Assembly could make a law mandating a central and neutral body to conduct local council elections.

“If what is on the ground  now is maintained, just forget about anything autonomy for the third tier of Government in the country” Nwaji insisted .