Professor Pat Utomi
And
the elections were postponed. Ghosts of the predicted came alive. The
usual culprits were willing tools; elements in the military, political
leaders who abused the commonwealth and traditional apologists who
profit from abusive public authority. What was more ridiculous than the
lack of grace of bringing a people to ridicule in the eyes of the world
that will wonder how those Nigerians cannot organise something as
routine as an election, was the way people went about justifying the
shift in date.
I watched Sunrise Daily on Channels Television
the Monday after and found Lagos Peoples Democratic Party Chairman,
Tunde Shelle, struggling to stretch imagination in response to questions
relating to the postponement. He summed up the loss of a sense of shame
in Nigeria when he was asked what he would do if as Commander-in-Chief,
his officials in charge of security came to him barely hours before
elections and told him they could not guarantee security during
elections. Shelle concentrated on lampooning the Independent National
Electoral Commission, suggesting that for love of voters and ensuring no
one was denied the opportunity to vote he would move the elections for
six months and even much longer, if necessary.
