Edo’s governorship and nightmare of a cuckoo job

While reading the papers, I came across a story insinuating that Donald Trump may be working for the Chinese and not the Russians, as everyone seems to think. The report read: “The big story everyone is chasing at the international scene is whether President Donald Trump is a Russian stooge. Wrong. That is all a smoke screen. Trump is actually a Chinese agent. He is clearly out to make China great again”.

Then it occurred to me, just before the ruling of the election petition tribunal sitting in Edo State over the September 28th, 2016 governorship polls that the terminated voyage embarked upon by one of the known owners of the name Pastor Ize-Iyamu had the trappings of labour that may end up benefitting the labourer’s rival.

I call it the cuckoo job. The idea of the cuckoo job is born out of how Cuckoos go and plant their eggs in other birds’ (take a pigeon for instance) nests and let the other birds hatch the cuckoo eggs, which will eventually grow bigger than the other birds and kick them out.

It is a dirty job, but that is the law of the jungle. The smarter ones outwit the gullible ones and even when the unwise ones think they are working for themselves, the real big guns come out and brush them outside.

The cuckoo job may be playing out in Nigeria now, and the funny thing is that it should not have been a cuckoo job, but the pigeons here are the ones that, unasked, undertook this cuckoo job.

Ize-Iyamu is of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). Like Trump, he may not know, but he may have been working for his rival, Mr Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, the candidate of the National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff.

He is of a faction of the PDP that is losing the battle at the national level and if the PDP conflict is settled properly, it will turn out that Mr Iduoriyekemwen is the real PDP candidate for the Edo Election. There was even a crisis as to which faction should present the candidate for the party.

Ize-Iyamu, with his party, challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for declaring Godwin Obaseki of All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the governorship election but the challenge has been resolved in favour of APC and Governor Godwin Obaseki.

According to the tribunal, Obaseki emerged winner after he polled more than 319,483 votes to defeat Mr Ize-Iyamu, his closest rival, who scored over 250,000 votes, a result the questionable PDP candidate claimed was influenced by rigging and other things.

Getting some of the defendants before the Justice Ahmed Badamasi-led three-member tribunal sitting in Benin was not an easy task for the petitioners, as stories abound of how the tribunal summons had to be served by hanging them on gates and fences, as the known offices and homes of the defendants had been abandoned.

Ize-Iyamu and his party did not find it funny, as they no doubt expended resources, financial and otherwise, to prove their case. Many witnesses were called to testify, and truckloads of electoral materials were inspected. Still, they lost. After fighting another man’s battle.

According to Pastor Ize-Iyamu’s prayers, he was asking the tribunal to declare him winner of the election and expel Mr Obaseki from the seat of governance.

Therefore, if he slumbers at night and dreams, he should have it at the back of his mind that a potential nightmare he may have is that after this initial fumble, he would take his petition to the Court of Appeal, and then the PDP may just emerge the ruling party in Edo State. However, in this black dream, a victory for the party at the tribunal would not necessarily mean Dan Orbih and Ize-Iyamu have won the war.

In fact, their battles would have only just begun. The crisis in his party would throw up another round of contest to determine the real owner of the secured votes are.

It would be a fine conundrum for both Orbih and Ize-Iyamu, who, it was reported, were comically asked to stand up to mutually recognise each other at the court.

The faction of the party led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi nominated Ize-Iyamu. Another faction, led by national chairman of the party, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff nominated Matthew Iduoriyekwemwen. The latter faction seems to be the legitimately recognised faction, going by the internal battle raging in the PDP.

As things presently stand, Senator Sheriff is the authentic national chairman of the party. On February 17, 2017, The Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt ruled that Senator Sheriff is the legitimate chairman of the party. A three-man panel of justices delivered the judgment.

The lead Judge, B. A. Sanga, in his judgement, said that due process was not followed in the decision by the PDP convention to dissolve the Sherrif-led Chairmanship and should be disregarded.

Unsatisfied with the judgement, the Makarfi faction has appealed to the Supreme Court. The apex court is yet to fix a date to rule on the appeal. A number of organs in the party are earnestly waiting for that ruling to know the next step for the party.

So, how will Ize-Iyamu know peace in this nightmare if the apex court rules in favour of Sheriff and he decides to go to the Appeal Court? He may have to contend with Iduoriyekwemwen, who may come after him to claim the PDP votes in the September 28, 2016 governorship election in the state.

From previous petitions and judicial proclamations, the courts have previously ruled that the vote in any election belongs to the party, and not the individual per say, hence Iduoriyekwemwen may be tempted to claim the party’s vote.

However, since this is a nightmare, it may never play out. We should deduce therefore that if PDP and Pastor Ize-Iyamu pursue this matter any further, then they are fighting it on behalf of the Sheriff faction of the PDP.

Oviosun wrote from Benin.