The Christian transparency in John Paul II

By Javier Echevarria

For many years, we have heard the testimonies of young people and people who are not so young, who have felt attracted to Christ thanks to the words, the example and closeness of John Paul II. With God’s help, some have embarked upon a path of the search for holiness without changing their state of life, in married life or in celibacy; others, in the priesthood or religious life. There are thousands of them, and sometimes they are referred to as “the generation of John Paul II”.

What was the secret of the evangelizing efficacy of this extraordinary Pontiff? It is evident that Karol Wojtyla was an untiring defender of human dignity, a solicitous shepherd, a credible communicator of the truth and a father, as much for believers as for unbelievers; but the Pope who has led us from the second into the third millennium has been, above all, a man in love with Jesus Christ and identified with Him.

“To know who John Paul II is one has to see him pray, especially in the intimacy of his private chapel”, wrote one of the biographers of this holy Pontiff. And effectively, it is just like that. One of the last photographs of his earthly sojourn, was taken in his private chapel as he followed, through the television screen, the praying of the Stations of the Cross which took place in the Coliseum. That Holy Friday of 2005, John Paul II could not preside over the ceremony with his physical presence, as he had done in previous years: he was no longer able to speak or walk. But in that image one can appreciate the intensity of the moment he was living. Holding on to a large wooden crucifix, the Pope embraces Jesus on the cross, he places his heart close to the Crucified and kisses Him. The image of John Paul II, old and sick, united to the Cross, is a speech just as eloquent as that of his vigorous words or his exhausting journeys.

The new blessed has carried out with heroic generosity the command of Christ to His disciples: “Go out to the whole world and preach the Gospel to all men” (Mk 16, 15). With his zeal to reach even the remotest corners of Africa, of America, of Asia, of Europe and Oceania, John Paul II did not think of himself: he was moved by the desire to spend his life in the service of others, his eagerness to make known the dignity of the human being – made in the image and likeness of God and redeemed by Christ – and to transmit the message of the Gospel.

On one occasion, late in the evening, I accompanied Bishop Alvaro del Portillo – then Prelate of Opus Dei – to the pontifical apartment. While we awaited the arrival of the Pope, we heard tired steps, as if someone were dragging his feet, as he drew near along the corridor: it was John Paul II, very fatigued. Bishop del Portillo exclaimed: “Holy Father, how tired you are!” The Pope looked at him and, in a kind voice, explained: “If I were not tired at this time of the day, it would be a sign that I had not fulfilled my duty”.

His zeal for souls moved him to travel as far as the last corner of the earth to spread the message of Christ. Is there anyone on earth who has shaken hands with so many people in his life or has crossed glances with so many persons? This effort, which was also human, was another way of embracing and uniting himself with the Crucified One.

The universality of the heart of John Paul II not only led him to an activity which we could call exterior: but also in his interior this spirit was like a heartbeat, by which he made his own the concerns of the whole world. Daily, from his private chapel in the Vatican, he went round the whole world. This is why his response to a journalist who wanted to know how the Pope prayed was natural: the prayer of the Pope – he responded – is a “pilgrimage throughout the whole world praying with the mind and with the heart”. In his prayer – he explained – emerges “the geography of the communities, of the Churches, of the societies and also of the problems which distress the contemporary world”; and, in this way, the Pope “presents to God the joys and the hopes and, at the same time, the sorrows and worries the Church shares with contemporary humanity”.

That universal heart and that missionary impulse lead him to dialogue with persons of every category. This was made particularly patent during the jubilee year 2000: he wanted to meet with children, the youth, adults, and old people; with sportsmen and women, artists, governors, politicians, the police and the military; farm workers, university students, the prisoners and the sick; with families, people in the world of entertainment, emigrants and travellers… The very biography of Karol Wojtyla can be “read” as a continuous taking of the Gospel to the most varied sector of the human society: to families, to the school and the factory, to the theater and the world of literature, to the cities of skyscrapers and to the neighborhoods of huts. His own history made him see with clarity that it is possible to make Christ present in all circumstances, also in the tragic moments of the world war and the totalitarian dominion that ruled in his native land. In the most diverse scenes of the modern period, John Paul II was a bearer of the light of Christ to the entire humanity. With his existence he taught us to discover God in the different circumstances which are our lot to live in.

In one of his writings, St Josemaría Escrivá de Balaguer, contemplates Jesus on the Cross as the Eternal High Priest, who “has his arms open to the whole of humanity”. I think that the earthly life of John Paul II has been an exemplary copy of this Lord who welcomes all men and women in his heart, pouring out his love and mercy on each one, with a special attention to the sick and the disabled.

The life of a Christian is nothing else but to try to configure oneself to Christ; and John Paul II has fulfilled this in an excellent way: with his heroic response to grace, with his joy of being a son of God, persons of all races and conditions have seen shine in him the face of the Risen One.

The photograph to which I referred at the beginning of these reflections seems to me to be a graphic synthesis of the life of John Paul II: a Pontiff fatigued by the prolonged time of service to souls, who directs the gaze of the world towards Jesus on the Cross, in order to make it easier for each one to find there the answers to his deepest questions. The life of the new blessed is, certainly, an example of Christian transparency: to make visible, through one’s own life, the face and merciful sentiments of Jesus. I think that is the reason and the secret of his evangelizing efficacy. I am convinced - and that is what I ask God for – that his elevation to the altars will promote in the world and in the Church a wave of faith and love, of desires of service to others, of thanksgiving to Our Lord.

May 1, 2011, in St. Peter’s Square, under the affectionate gaze of the Mother of the Church, we will be able to unite ourselves to Benedict XVI and to say once more: “We want to express our profound gratitude to the Lord for the gift of John Paul II and we want also to give thanks to this Pope for all he did and suffered” (General audience, May 18, 2005). Those of us who knew him during his life, now have the joyful duty of making him known to future generations.

Javier Echevarria is a bishop and Prelate of Opus Dei

Pastors, Jets And Modesty

By Jon Chikadibie Okafo

The Christian religion purportedly founded by Jesus the Christ aims to eternally encourage its adherents to be Christ-like; to live a life packed with humility, chastity and modesty. It calls its members to live a life of service that will impact positively on others while building a better society that celebrates the brotherhood of man; Christianity preaches love which Jesus allegedly demonstrated when He died on the cross to save His followers.

The Christian Jesus was a meek and gentle fellow who was famously portrayed as a regular traveler/wonderer that was not known to own any material property but depended and survived mainly on charity and other people’s goodwill.

Lately, it has become too glaring that we in Nigeria are into a brand of Christianity that appears to be at variance with what Jesus established-from all indications, the sore economic nature of Nigeria has thrown up a brand of Christianity that is solely capitalistic and a vicious capricious leech. This is clearly attributable to the upsurge in a radical form of this religion known as Pentecostalism. This is a brand of Christianity that believes that by engaging in amongst others a loud and persistent form of prayer, mountains will move and valleys flattened. To its credit, a once hopeless population that is daily feeling the strangulating grips of our bad economy appears to find solace and succor in prayers. Unfortunately, this is coming at an enormous price; pastors are enjoying here on earth while church members are advised to “wait on the Lord”.

I find it extremely distressing that pastors like Mr. E. O Adeboye, Mr. David Oyedepo and Mr. Sam Adeyemi and many more do not see anything wrong in acquiring private jets for private use while boasting of having millions of followers who are really very poor. I find it equally nauseating that intelligent Nigerians will come out to defend these men while admonishing people like me to “judge not so that thou will not be judged”. What nonsense! The great Fela captured this beautifully when he sang about Pastors having a swell time on earth while encouraging their wretched church members to pray for a blissful after life in some heaven. For all it stands for, the role of pastors of Pentecostal churches in Nigeria looks exactly like that of leaders of organized crime outfits; there is so much glamour and grandeur oozing from their quarters. One thing that is lacking in the lives of these pastors is exactly what early Christianity stood for-modesty and humility.

It smacks of stupidity of the worst order when otherwise intelligent Nigerians troop out to use the barbaric “touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm…” line to stop people like me from exposing the treachery of modern day pastors. This is pure hypocrisy! Pastors that owe their sustenance to the mites of hapless church members are boasting of owning private jets, some even gloating about having four whereas the level of poverty ravaging the lives of church members continue to spiral. This is immoral, wicked and an attempt to perpetuate the evil of exploiting believers who are enjoined to give, and give and give because “the lord will replenish abundantly...” Smart pastors are using all forms of strategies to promote their ministries like a merchandise and are reaping the fruits-abundantly. A situation whereby a pastor spends up to $30m [thirty million USD]to acquire one private jet while

ministering to millions of followers that are daily being hacked to death by the vicissitudes of life is simply too wicked and a mockery of the teachings attributed to Jesus. Where do these men draw the moral strength to engage in this type of treachery and deceit?

Though we sometimes find solace in heaping all blames on the discrepant leadership we have in Nigeria, I strongly believe that Pastors of Pentecostal churches and other religious leaders stand shoulder to shoulder with our leaders in sharing the blame. Take a cursory look across Nigeria and tell me what you see; a deceptive scenario of churches opening at every nook and cranny while businesses fold at an alarming rate, young men and women roaming about armed with a copy of the Bible threatening Armageddon, Apocalypse, Rapture and all that nonsense. There is nothing as profitable as preying on a peoples’ fear and exploiting them thus-this is exactly what modern Christianity stands for and clearly stands out to be recognized as.

We all are witness to the spurious claims of a deluded American preacher sinfully known as Harold Camping who caused so much heartache and chaos with his mad predictions that the Christian God would destroy the world on the 21st May, 2011. It is utterances like this that hold frightened Christians spell-bound and prod them to give out hard earned money to pastors to splurge on private jets and sundry toys.

In developed nations which we try to copy in many ways, churches are seen as charity organizations. In that spirit of charity, churches in these countries engage in lots of charity works- especially in developing nations; people donate money, clothes, computers and other materials to be sent to places around the globe that are known to be suffering from the negative effects of poverty, deprivation and want. Surprisingly, members of these churches donate to charity not because of any divine injunction and a promise of a place in some heaven, but because it appeals to their human nature to do so. But what do we have in Nigeria? A situation whereby rogue pastors and similar preachers use the threat of hell fire and eternal damnation to cajole members into parting with their hard-earned cash, a classic case where people donate money and materials to churches not because they want to but for the simple reason that heaven so commanded.

This is wrong and pastors that extort money from Nigerians using this method should be out-rightly exposed and condemned.

Private jet-flying Pastors are no different from the modern day capitalist that fixes his eyes eternally on making more profits and stashing same away for his sole amusement. Today, the Chris Oyakhilomes, Adeboyes, Oyedepos, Adeyemis, Lazarus Muokas etc are all owners of numerous business outfits that churn out millions in profits. These men and their organizations have investments in expensive status-symbol private schools, TV stations, estates and other business interests; the vexing part of the arrangement is that the millions of poor and wretched members of their churches cannot afford to send their wards to the schools run by the churches! Is it against any Biblical injunction for any pastor to build and equip a hospital and donate same to his community? Think of the difference the amount of money spent in purchasing one private jet would make if deployed towards charity in a Nigerian state, think of the kind of hospital $30m could build, think of the difference it will make if a pastor runs his private university as a charity school where students study for free!

It is rather too unfortunate the amount of damage done to the psyche of Nigerians by the antics of modern day charlatan pastors; this is why you see demented fellows coming up to argue that “...it is not

easy working in the Lord’s vineyard...And whoever so works should reap accordingly”. The Lord’s vineyard? What the heck is that? Is it any wonder that apart from Pastor Tunde Bakare, every other notable Nigerian pastor finds it exceptionally comfortable keeping mute while our leaders plunder our resources with a reckless abandon? Have you ever bothered to find out from Pastor Enoch Adeboye why he appears to find it convenient engaging in some sort of weird romance with notorious politicians whose atrocities are well known? Pastor Adeboye’s Redeemed Camp is now some kind of Mecca where our kwashiokored leaders and politicians go for “pilgrimage” and gets the much needed Divine Nod before embarking on a rigging spree that ensures they thwart our collective wish as a people for a credible leader? Are you not troubled that Erasmus Akingbola, that disgraced former MD of Intercontinental Bank Plc is a senior Pastor in Adeboye’s Redeemed Christian Church of God? This is man who stole billions of Naira belonging to depositors just to engage in his deluded affluent-amusement. One could go on and on, but the fact remains same; our pastors are not getting it right.

It has been the argument that Pastors continue to rip people off because of the alarming poverty rate in Nigeria-I agree. But I will make haste to add more; our pastors are able to feed their greed because ours is a society littered with so many human beings that are still clutching tightly at the expired belief system that spreads the wicked lie that it is better to suffer on earth and enjoy in heaven. It is wise to make ridicule of any fellow that comes to you with that warped “what shall it profit a man to enjoy the world and lose his soul?” Our pastors are the ones who should be suffering that indignation because they are the ones having a ball here on earth while preaching the evil sermon of a better life in an imaginary heaven.

johnteddyus@yahoo.com
https://jonchikadibie.wordpress.com

Goodluck Jonathan And The Expectations Of Nigerians

by

Festus Keyamo

Lecture delivered by Festus Keyamo on the occasion of the marking of Isaac Adaka Boro Day in Port-Harcourt on Sunday, May 15, 2011.

Permit me to wholeheartedly thank the organisers of this event for having considered me worthy enough to stand before you to say a few things to mark this day. It was only a few days ago that my friend and brother, Mujahid Dokubo-Asari informed me that I have been chosen to say some things on this occasion. He duly informed me that the topic would be “Goodluck Jonathan and the expectations of Nigerians”.

It is so apposite that today, being a day set aside to celebrate the life and times of Isaac Adaka Boro, we are discussing Goodluck Jonathan, the first person (whether military or civilian) from the South-South extraction to become President and Commander-In-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There is no gain-saying the fact that the central theme of the life and times of Isaac Adaka Boro was the struggle against the marginalisation and oppression of the minorities from the South-South region especially the Ijaw nation. He was prepared to live and die for that cause.

Coincidentally, it was the same time in history that Adaka Boro lived and died for his people that Martin Luther King also lived and died for his race in America . Curiously, it is now the same period in history that the dream of Martin Luther King to have one of his own (a black man) become the President of America on the principle of equality that he preached, that one of the dreams of Isaac Adaka Boro which is the emergence of an Ijaw man, (a minority) to become the President of Nigeria has also materialised.

It is because of this long wait for the presidency and long- suffering of the people of the South-South region that it has become almost impracticable for Jonathan to do any wrong in the eyes of some of our people from the South-South region. That is why it is so difficult to criticise your own brother or blood in public. People would normally expect you to make such matters a family affair. Hence, this topic given to me today is a difficult one from the point of sentiments, but an easy one from the stand point of truth and statistics. So my brothers here today must forgive me if I appear too hard on the side of truth and honesty in assessing Goodluck Jonathan.

The sentiments that preceded the emergence of Jonathan as President when a cabal that was beholden to the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua treated him so shabbily as Vice-president and tried to prevent him from wielding executive powers, coupled with his minority status that gives him the character of an underdog in a shark infested political environment, are the major twin reasons he has enjoyed some level of sympathetic support and consideration from political bystanders and even from normally critical sections of the country.

However, let me warn that this is where the danger lies, that is, if we treat the administration of Goodluck Jonathan with kid gloves because of these sentiments mentioned above and especially because he is one of us from the South-South region. I think it is enough of the holiday Jonathan has enjoyed from the critical section of the country. If we turn the blind eye and a deaf hear when we see evil and hear evil under the administration of Goodluck Jonathan, we shall have no moral basis to mount any crusade in future against bad governments if the heads of those governments happen to be from other parts of the country. There is also a danger of allowing a government rest on its oars if we do not put it on its toes. Therefore, this is a clarion call to all of us not to ethnicise corruption and bad government under the administration of Goodluck Jonathan. Because, really, shorn of these sentiments I mentioned earlier, Goodluck Jonathan is really not a breath of fresh air that he professes to be. He is same of the same. These are my reasons:

Goodluck Jonathan has been a top member of the PDP since the return to democracy in 1999. He was first Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State , and later Governor, then Vice-president, then Acting President and finally President. All these positions are some of the highest positions given to him by the ruling party since 1999. So Goodluck Jonathan cannot claim not to have been part of the rigging machine of the ruling party and mal-administration of the ruling party since 1999 till date. When it is convenient, they tell us that Goodluck Jonathan has a lot of experience that even that of Atiku Abubakar could not match his own, and when it is not convenient, he distances himself from other politicians and they tell us that he is a breath of fresh air. How fresh that air is, I don’t know. Yet, because he is one of us, we are told that we must accept him and tolerate him. We have no choice.

Two, if we are angry at Obasanjo for sending soldiers to kill hundreds of innocent lives in Odi and Benue State during his tenure under the guise of looking for some militants or miscreants, what can we say about Goodluck Jonathan who ordered soldiers to invade the Ijaw village of Ayakoromo in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State immediately he became President last year to kill, maim and burn the houses of innocent souls?. And even last week Thursday, May 12, 2011, Goodluck Jonathan again, ordered troops back to Ayakoromo village and in the guise of looking for John Togo, an acclaimed Militant, properties were again destroyed and innocent lives were lost. What a breath of fresh air indeed! Yet we are told that we must accept him and we must tolerate him because he is one of our own.

Three, if we accuse previous Government of condoning corruption, what has Goodluck Jonathan done about those high ranking public officers that have been accused and investigated for corruption and corrupt practices and yet Goodluck Jonathan have not done anything about them. For instance, I have openly accused the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Alhaji Abdullahi Dikko Inde, of forging all his Certificates to become the Comptroller-General of Customs, which accusations and claims have been confirmed by the Institutions concerned by their refusal to confirm that he attended them and obtained those degrees, yet Goodluck Jonathan has turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to this issue because the Comptroller-General of Customs is an in-law to the wife of his late boss, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. In fact, in order to appease Jonathan and to thank him for condoning him, the Comptroller-General of Customs recently commissioned a whole housing scheme in Abuja for Customs officers and named it after Goodluck Jonathan.

The present Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Dimeji Bankole, has also been investigated by various security agencies for corruption, yet the President has prevented his trial for corruption because of political consideration. That is why when Bankole accepted his woeful defeat in my mother’s State, Ogun State , I said that is not the end of the matter. He must still account for all his misdeeds whilst in office. In shielding him from prosecution, Goodluck Jonathan has shown us that he is a breath of fresh air, indeed! Yet, we are told that we must accept him and we must tolerate him because he is one of our own.

Four, let us not forget also that Goodluck Jonathan cannot claim to be a fresh of breath air because the election that produced him as Vice President (which placed him in the pole position he was to become President at the death of President Yar’Adua) is still adjudged till tomorrow to be one of the worst elections the world has ever seen. Therefore, Goodluck Jonathan cannot claim to find himself where he is today without mentioning one of the greatest frauds ever perpetrated against the masses of this country. Yet when he became President finally through that fraudulent process, we were told we had to accept and tolerate him because he is one of us.

Five, one of the greatest conspiracies of silence we have witnessed of recent and one of the greatest lie we have been told is that the 2011 election that has produced Goodluck Jonathan as President was totally free, fair and credible. Whilst it is true that there was a slight improvement to that election conducted by Prof. Maurice Iwu in 2007, if you look strictly at the statistics, you will discover that fundamentally the little improvement was not commensurate with the N87billion we spent trying to restart the electoral process and is not worth the innocent lives that were needlessly lost in the post election violence. Let us look at some of the statistics:

In the 2003 Presidential election, the registered voters were 60,823,022. The purported voters’ turnout was 42,018,735 which represented 69.1% of the total voters. Meanwhile, PDP scored 24,456,140 which is 61.94% of the total votes cast. However, the 2003 election was adjudged to be heavily flawed and was condemned by both local and international observers.

In the 2007 Presidential election, the number of registered voters were 61,567,036 whilst the purported voters’ turnout was 58%. PDP scored 24,638,063 which was 69.60% of the total votes cast. That was the election we said was the worst in the history of Nigeria .

Now, in the 2011 Presidential election, the total number of registered voters was 73,528,040 and the purported voters’ turnout was nearly 54% which is just 4% less than that of 2007. And Goodluck Jonathan of PDP this time scored (or was allocated) 22,495,187 which is just less than two million of the votes Yar’Adua was given in 2007.

It is also laughable to come to terms with the percentage of votes the PDP secured in the South-South and the South-Eastern States . These are the figures:

1. In Anambra State, PDP scored 1,145,169 which is 98.96% of the total votes cast.

2. In Enugu State, PDP scored 802,144 which is 98.54% of the total votes cast.

3. In Akwa Ibom State, PDP scored 1,165,629 which is 94.58% of the total votes cast.

4. In Imo State, PDP scored 1,381,357 which is 97.98% of the total votes cast.

5. In Ebonyi State, PDP scored 480,592 which is 95.57% of the total votes cast.

6. In Bayelsa State, PDP scored 504,811 which is 99.63% of the total votes cast.

7. In Abia State, PDP scored 1,175,984 which is 98.96% of the total votes cast.

8. In Delta State, PDP scored 1,378,851 which is 98.59% of the total votes cast.

9. In Rivers State, PDP scored 1,817,762 which is 98.04% of the total votes cast.

In 2007, this was the same trend of unjustifiable figures that did not match normal voting patterns that discredited the election. What, then, is the fundamental difference between both elections? Yet we are told one was the worst and the other the freest and fairest. This is nothing but a joke.

Unfortunately, the international observers in their various reports avoided commenting elaborately on the collation process which was where the fraud actually took place. Paradoxically, almost all the reports of the international observers consistently mentioned the issue of underage voting, especially in the North. Yet they painted their report with beautiful, flowery language and declared it free, fair and credible. Here are some of those reports:

The National Democratic Institute, in its report of April 18, 2011, made the following report:

“The delegates noted the complicated and multi-tiered collation process that is vulnerable both to human error and malfeasance as tabulation proceeds from the polling unit to INEC headquarters. Despite efforts in this election to fast-track election returns, this process created added work for INEC officials and observers”.

Yet, after this observation, the NDI said the election was free, fair and credible. Pray, what can be credible about a result that was not properly collated and cannot be a true reflection of what was actually cast at the polling units?

The International Republican Institute had this to say:

“Among the issues to be covered in those will be: 1) revising recommendations of the Electoral Reform Committee which were not adopted by the National Assembly; 2) improving the voter list to ensure people are properly registered; 3) strengthening civic education so all Nigerians fully understand the nature of the election process and their role; 4) ensuring that the political parties evolve into constructive actors in the process, respecting democratic values in their internal behaviour and commitment to transparent election; 5) addressing the problem of underage voting; and 6) ensuring polling stations have a manageable number of registered voters”.

Again, if under-aged persons voted massively, how come they concluded that the election was free, fair and credible?

The African Union in its own report said as follows:

“Voting by under-age was one of persistent problems observed in the recently held elections. To address this, the Mission suggests that INEC, in conjunction with other relevant authorities, should put in place measures for proper screening and registration of prospective voters, in strict compliance with constitutional and legal requirements”.

Once again, the African Union also concluded that the election was free, fair and credible.

The Commonwealth Observer Group in its statement signed by its Chairman, his Excellency, Festus Mogae had this to say:

“There remain shortcomings with the voter registration, based on the number of people with voter cards but missing from the voter register. This needs to be urgently addressed.

There’s need to be stricter safeguards against underage voting, a phenomenon witnessed in parts of the country.”

Once again, it concluded that the election was free, fair and credible.

The European Union Election Observation Mission was the most honest in its report. It first complained about those unjustifiable figures from South-South and South-East when it wrote the following:

“Nevertheless, during voting, inconsistent implementation of procedures and attempts to influence voters were noted. Moreover, the INEC results coming from the States in South-South and South-East show percentages close to 100 percent…”

“While the shift from accreditation to voting was smooth and carried out in a timely manner, shortcomings were noted during voting. In 17 percent of the sampled polling units, attempts to influence voters were observed; in 26 percent there were instances of interference by party agents in the process and in 47 percent the secrecy of vote was not respected. General lack of organisation was noticed in 19 percent. These figures indicate deterioration since the National Assembly elections. The share of underage voting remained constant in both elections at 12 percent, while in a few cases serious malpractices, such as double voting and ballot snatching were observed.

The observed polling units closed on average around 16:00 hours, leaving time for the counting to be conducted during daylight. In a sixth of the observed polling units, the unused ballots were not properly accounted for and their number was not recorded. The copies of the results were in general distributed to all party agents and the official results were posted outside the polling unit in 87 percent of the cases, which is a remarkable improvement over the National Assembly elections (when the procedure had been followed in only 54 percent). Nevertheless, the results forms were packed in tamper-proof envelopes only in two-thirds of the observed polling units. In spite of some procedural deficiencies, counting was overall evaluated positively in 91 percent.

Arithmetic errors were noted in 70 percent of the visited ward collation centres and in 87 percent of the observed LGA collation centres. This demonstrated insufficient training of the Collation Officers. The results were posted outside the ward collation centres only in 49 percent, which is still a tangible improvement compared to the 9 April elections. However, at the LGA level results were posted outside only in 35 percent of the cases. This had a clear negative impact on the transparency of the election process. It is commendable that the final stage of the collation of the Presidential results and its announcement was broadcast live on NTA and AIT”.

Funny enough, unlike other observers, the European Union refrained from specifically concluding that the election was free, fair and credible.

From all we have seen above, it is obvious that the malpractices were not the exclusive preserve of the ruling party. Because of massive underage voting and some malpractices, many of the figures in the northern states credited to the CPC were indefensible and unjustifiable, just like many of the figures in the South-South and South-East region of the country credited to the PDP.

So, the scenario was that whilst manipulation was going on in the far North through underage voting, manipulation was also going on in the far South through manipulation of figures. The result only shows that the far South out-rigged the far North. That is why General Buhari and his CPC have absolutely no moral leverage to lead a campaign of civil disobedience and bloodshed in the North because they also did not come to equity with clean hands. It is also obvious that General Buhari, cannot, in his true conscience, claim to have won the Presidential election, because if he was so confident, he would not have embarked on those last minute efforts he made to form an alliance with the ACN and some other parties.

On the other hand, it is quite obvious that Jonathan got more popular and evenly-spread votes than Buhari because of the structures of the PDP in all parts of the country, but whether he won with the margin that was credited to him and whether he won outright on a first ballot is highly debatable. But we must accept Jonathan because we have no choice in our continuous search for an acceptable democratic system. The only thing we must resist and my conscience cannot accept is to call black “white” and to call white “black” all because we want to support our brother at all cost.

The sad thing about our situation is that those who are supposed to speak up and tell the President these home truths so that he can make adjustments and we can all make progress, are busy chasing him and his wife all over the country for appointments in the new government. Even the President had to run away from Aso Rock to Obudu Ranch recently, yet, the lobbyists chased him all the way to the mountains of Obudu.

So, one of the expectations of Nigerians concerning Goodluck Jonathan is that he will shun these sickening sycophants, political jobbers, shameless praise singers and bootlickers in picking a team that would work with him for the next four years.

Sadly, I have not heard Goodluck Jonathan say he would strive to continue to improve on the electoral system since the last election. In other words, it would appear that the President is content with the process that produced his recent victory at the polls and that is the standard he would want to continue. That is most unfortunate. Like his late boss and predecessor, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, he must admit that there were fundamental flaws in the process that produced him and he must seek to partner with everyone to continue to improve the process.

Nigerians also expect that in the next four years Goodluck Jonathan would stop sending troops to kill innocent persons in Ijaw villages or any other village for that matter. Instead of massive troops deployment to the villages, we want to see massive deployment of construction equipments to the villages. He should not do this just because he is from the South-South region. He should do this as a matter of equity and justice because even previous President before him agreed that there was need to pay special attention to the Niger-Delta region, even though they paid only lip-service to this commitment.

The pattern of votes that were actually counted during the last election and the riot that greeted the victory of Jonathan in the far North reveal that this country is still a highly-fractured country and there is urgent need for him to extend a hand of love and fellowship to those areas where people were killed and maimed because of his victory at the polls. But he must bring the actual culprits to book. He must not deny the North of the massive development it urgently needs because of the post election violence and he must not deny tested and capable hands in the far North of key appointments into his government because of those incidents.

What Nigeria needs urgently is a total recreation and rebirth. Nigeria urgently needs one particular infrastructure that is inevitable when you are creating a new environment. In the book of Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 1-3, we read:

“(1) In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth

(2) And the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

(3) And God said: Let there be light; and there was light”

Like in the beginning, Nigeria is now without form and void and darkness is upon the face of the Nation. There is no power supply.

And so just like in the Bible since Nigerians expect a new Nigeria under Goodluck Jonathan, they expect Goodluck Jonathan to make the pronouncement, followed by action, “Let there be light”, and then, we should have light!

Thank you and God bless you.

FESTUS KEYAMO, ESQ.

Seeking To Establish The Truth Of The 2011 Presidential Election.

By ABUBAKAR MALAMI, SAN

Being a text of Press Conference Delivered by the National Legal Adviser of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) on Monday, 9th May 2011 to herald the party’s filing of its petition before the Presidential Election Tribunal Sitting in Abuja.

Good Afternoon, Gentlemen of the Press: As some of you may be aware, our great party, Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), filed its petition before the Presidential Elections Tribunal sitting at the Federal Court of Appeal Abuja, challenging the results of the Presidential elections as announced by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega. The election petition was filed yesterday, being the 9th day of April, 2011 and this Press Conference is called to explain the import of CPC’s action.

But first, let us again on behalf of all members and sympathizers of our great party, extend our heart-felt sympathy and condolences to the families of those who lost their lives or property as a result of the violence that occasioned the elections. This includes all those affected before, during and after the polls.

We would like to seize this opportunity to reiterate that our party is composed of responsible and discipline members who do not in any way subscribe to the perpetration of any evil much less of encouraging any.

Our national history has however taught us that the determination to win elections by incumbents by any means has always given birth to spontaneous reactions in the form of break down of law and order.

We recall the anger of the people of the Western Region in 1965 and the people of Ondo state in 1983 against the use of federal might to dislodge opposition governments in the South west in favour of the ruling parties at the federal level with concocted results. The people spontaneously rose against these barbaric actions of the government. Police stations and houses of prominent NNA and NPN supporters were burnt and many people killed. In the case of Ondo state, the judicial decision that ceded Ondo back to the UPN came within the context of citizens’ determined effort to protect their votes. We are all living witnesses that the nation’s democracy suffered irreparably as a result.

To us in the CPC, it is our belief that the break down of law and order that ensued after the declaration of President Goodluck Jonathan as the President-elect on the basis of concocted results was the bye product of the determination to win elections by incumbents by any means which has always characterized such actions by historical antecedence.

It is our contention that the declaration of false results assembled in places other than the polling Unit in the instant Presidential Election is another reminder that the political class ruling and ruining Nigeria is not ready to allow electoral reform work. Let us be reminded that already, this present PDP federal Government has rejected the recommendation from the Electoral Reform Committee it set up that the new Independent National Electoral Committee should be appointed through an independent process anchored in the National Judicial Council.

The Justice Uwais Committee had recommended that to transform INEC from a partisan, pro-president-of-the-day lackey to a professional and independent body, the President should lose the prerogative of appointing the Chairperson, National Commissioners and Resident State Electoral Commissioners of the Commission. The National Judicial Council was to take over that responsibility with citizens as nominations are to be made and considered by the public. But without any cogent justification at all, the government rejected it. In fact, at the end of the day, the entire process of the electoral reform was jettisoned by the same government. What the nation ended up with is the unilateral appointment of an INEC Chairman whose integrity was eulogized more on his past views than actions. I am sure patriotic Nigerians will agree with us that the final processes and outcome of the 2011 general elections are nothing any near to what our campaigns for true Electoral Reforms expected in enthroning for Nigeria

free, fair and credible elections.

We cannot therefore sit by and allow these electoral misdemeanours wreaking the very foundation of our country’s stability, prosperity and unity to continue unchecked forever. Since independence, the major political problem of our country has been that of elections. Transiting from one government to the other through the ballot box had always been the most difficult aspect of the nation’s democratic experiment. In fact, on the two occasions the military took over the reins of power from civilian regimes, in 1966 and 1983, election malpractices were sighted as justification. Yet, till date, we do not seem to have learned our lessons. With every election, including the last Presidential Election, the electorates continue to lose confidence in the ability of the ballot box to express their will. This is a dangerous trend that must not be allowed to continue, lest we find our country sleepwalking into a disaster that we may not come out of.

Please permit me to use the President’s own Polling Unit to illustrate the level of electoral fraud perpetrated in the election as we saw it. Osazi Playground Polling Unit has a total number of 908 registered voters. On the 16th of April election, only 424 voters turned out to cast their votes, with 413 voting for the President while 11 ballots were invalidated. This represents a total of 47% voter turnout in that unit. However, for the rest of Bayelsa state, the total voters’ turnout as recorded by INEC was 87% with a total of 96% voting the President. One would have expected that if there was going to be a massive voter turnout, no other place would have surpassed the President’s own unit. Because this unit comprises his close and distant relatives – his parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunties, cousins, nephews, childhood friends, etc. But surprisingly, not half of these came out to vote their own, yet the rest of Bayelsa and the South-south turned out over 90% to vote “their son”. The truth is that the President did not want anything to cause problem in his ballot box which would have embarrassed him politically. So that box was guarded against any malpractice and so what came out of the box was actually what transpired; but the rest of Bayelsa and others can do as they pleased. This is electoral fraud personified!

As lessons of history has taught us, in the life of a society or nation, there will come a time when a group of people must have to stand up and point out when the leadership is destroying the nation; explain why things are going wrongly; demonstrate how things can be done rightly; and work towards making a clear difference. The time is now and the people are you and us! It is for this reason that we in the CPC have decided to challenge these alleged concocted results of the Presidential Elections at the Tribunal.

Because of our experience in the processes of election cases in tribunals, we have learned that election petitions for the most part in the past failed to gain ground in our tribunals mainly because of paucity of evidence to proof cases. This, therefore, left us with no other option than to seek scientific ways, means and methods as the best and most effective platform to proof our case; hence our adoption and employment of Forensic/Biometric system of evidence.

The fact that there are no two people with the same fingerprint, every fingerprint can therefore be scientifically verified basically through the following preliminary basics of the technical Biometrics/Forensics methods which details will be made available by the experts:-

1. Since during the Voter-registration exercise, all the ten fingerprints of all voters were captured and stored in INEC’s Standard Data Bank, it is certain that every voter must have used a finger to vote in the election. This then makes it possible to authenticate and verify every print on every ballot. This is the importance and central reason for this novel registration exercise. This case will therefore depend mainly on the authentication and verification of the fingerprints on the disputed ballot papers cast;

2. An electromechanical optical scan device with automatic tabulation called a “mark-sensing” system will be used; in this case the mark is the fingerprint;

3. We expect INEC to produce the Ballot Papers voted upon with the fingerprint organized on the basis of their Polling Units, Wards, Local Govt. Area and State and delivered for processing. These will be processed on Polling Unit basis, which means that the scanners will take an image of each ballot paper, store the image in the appropriate location corresponding to its Polling Unit, Wards, LGA and State;

4. When all images of ballot papers for a Polling Unit are taken, a processing program containing the agreed upon sorting parameters will read the party name which has a fingerprint, then extract the fingerprint and store;

5. The following processes is then expected to take place within the records of each Polling Unit:-

a. Compare all fingerprints with each other to detect all repetitive fingerprints.

b. Count all repetitive fingerprints.

c. Deduct the repeated fingerprints from the count for that Polling Unit.

d. Present a table of results showing non-repeated and repeated votes.

e. Compare all fingerprints processed with the already registered and stored fingerprints of that Unit for any discrepancy, and

f. Count the total number of discrepancy, if any.

6. This process will be repeated for each Polling Unit.

Permit me to say that there are 2 key factors which will affect the time within which this work will be completed and they are:

a. The speed at which our legal team completes the process in the Tribunal

leading to the order of the release of the source data and documents (Voter

registration records, Stored fingerprints, Ballot Papers,etc.) by INEC.

b. The physical condition of the ballot papers. The condition in which the ballot papers are received will determine if they need preparation or they will go straight into the scanners. On this second score, we urge INEC and we will plead to the Tribunal to order the Commission to guarantee the safety and good condition of all the elections materials. In fact, we will prefer the materials to be safe-kept in the vaults of the Central Bank.

On the technical aspect of the process, we can confidently say that with the level of modern day technology, it won’t take long to conclude this procedure and establish the truth of the election. At the most, we can estimate between 50 – 65 days to be able to get all voters register authenticated, all disputed ballot papers examined, any other electoral document assessed, all findings compiled and submitted to the court, and return of all source data and documents to INEC. Our firm has participated in 300 electoral processes in 19 countries with more than 500 million voters tallied for government, private and multilateral organizations.

To the CPC, this use of Forensic/Biometric system based on INEC’s capturing of all the 10 fingers of every voter is a novel idea that can help solve forever the challenges of multiple voting and outright concoction of results; two critical issues in our electoral malpractices. Our present case in the tribunal is thus aimed at establishing the truth and preventing future elections malpractices in our country’s democratic experiment.

On this score, therefore, we call on each and every Nigerian to be supportive of our action; because this is NOT a case of trying to get for General Mohammadu Buhari the presidency of Nigeria, nor is it a case to deny same to President Goodluck Jonathan. Neither is it a case of fighting over the leadership of the country (as far as we are concerned whosoever is the leader does not matter so long as the processes creating the leadership is genuine). Rather this case, as we already said, is about establishing and ascertaining the truth for the country. It is on record that the nation expended at least N108 billion to conduct the elections. It is therefore worthwhile to establish the truth of the elections.

To this end, this is a case for the nation and should completely transcend party affiliation and regional considerations. The case should be taken by all Nigerians in the spirit of no victor no vanquished as propagated by the

President and as a responsive search for the truth for our country. Nigerians from all walks of life must not only be united but also must be seen united in establishing for our country this basic truth on an issue that has plagued and wrecked incalculable damage to our unity and development since independence. We, as Nigerians, must build a national consensus on this noble intention.

If at the end of this case, the truth is undeniably established and it is found out that the allegations of the said electoral frauds were true, then the blame of the post-elections violence should be squarely put on the perpetrators of the fraud – for they are the real cause of the violence, which will then be the natural principle of cause and effect. And if it is established that the PDP got its votes as announced authentically, then our Presidential Candidate will lead us to the Villa to formally congratulate the President and his deputy to the advancement of democracy, unity and stability of Nigeria. Truth is, however, sacrosanct and it must be allowed to prevail.

Thank you for your kind attention.

ABUBAKAR MALAMI, SAN.

National Legal Adviser