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PRESS STATEMENT ACTION CONGRESSUK CHAPTERNIGERIA’S MACABRE ELECTIONS – OUR POSITION What passed for elections in Nigeria on 14th April and 21st April 2007 will for ever be remembered as the most flagrant display of brigandage and electoral fraud in its crudest form in Nigeria’s electoral history. International and local observers have been unanimous in their condemnation of the so-called elections as the worst they have witnessed anywhere in the world. The atrocities have been well documented ranging from a blatantly biased so called “independent” umpire, the use of state apparatus by the ruling PDP government before and during the elections to intimidate opposition candidates, illegal disqualifications, stuffing of ballot boxes and outright falsification of results. We join with the other voices of democracy worldwide in condemning this charade and call on all Nigerians to unite in their rejection of an imposed illegal government. Historical examples abound worldwide where the people have successfully reclaimed a stolen electoral mandate as in Georgia and Ukraine in recent times. Having woefully failed to advance the cause of the Nigerian people after 8 relatively unproductive years in the face of unprecedented revenues, President Obasanjo has now rubbed salt in the wounded sensibilities of Nigerians by orchestrating the most disgraceful electoral fraud ever witnessed in Nigeria . This is the enduring legacy he bequeaths to our beleaguered nation. The scale of the fraud is so breathtakingly widespread that the election tribunals could still be considering election disputes long after the questionable tenures would have expired. What kind of injustice would that be? Once again we are confronted by the weasel words of the apologists as we heard them before. In 1999, they said that for the sake of our nascent democracy we should overlook the irregularities in the process so the soldiers could go back to the barracks. We did. In 2003 the irregularities were more brazen but the same apologists said that for the sake of moving the country forward, we should let it pass. The country has not moved forward and now, we are confronted by an even bigger catastrophe, the wanton disenfranchisement of a substantial majority of the people. Yet they are saying that we should move forward. How can we move forward on our knees when our inalienable rights continue to be trampled upon with such brazen impunity? How can we ever have an accountable government, when the people presiding over our affairs hold mandates stolen from the people? Nigeria will never progress as long as we allow such criminal behaviour in our governance to subsist. History has shown that the impunity grows exponentially. We must take a stand now! To let this electoral fraud pass will pose a major credibility problem for Nigeria. It is a recipe for a crisis of legitimacy and was clearly designed by this President as a payback to Nigeria for rejecting his third term ambition. He has done this on purpose and Nigerians must never forgive him for this unconscionable and irresponsible affront. The only path of honour for President Obasanjo is for him to resign from office forthwith or be sanctioned by the people of Nigeria. Any Nigerian or foreign government that recognizes the outcome of the charade that has just passed for an election as legitimate is an enemy of the people of Nigeria. This travesty must not stand. Nigeria will never be at peace with itself in the face of such stark injustice. There can be no corruption greater than electoral malfeasance and what we have just witnessed diminishes all of us. The irreducible minimum is for this sham of an election to be cancelled and the re-run must never again be midwifed by this President Obasanjo or his disreputable side kick Maurice Iwu. The Nigerian constitution does not deserve this kind of disreputable stewardship. No people deserve such a brazen disregard for its constitution. Anyone who thinks that Obasanjo goes on May 29, 2007 should think again. The products of the sham elections that he has planted in the various Government Houses, Houses of Assembly, National Assembly and ultimately the Presidency, are nothing but his stooges in the PDP and he presides over them all as the Life Leader of the modern PDP. You have elected none of them! We must not allow these people to take our dreams of a better tomorrow from Nigeria’s children. In closing, we call on all Nigerians at home to turn out en-masse at the May Day Poll Protest as directed in the statement read by Senator Ben Obi on behalf of the opposition parties. On our part in the United Kingdom, a demonstration is being organised at the Nigerian High Commission on Thursday 10th May 2007 to protest this ugly rape on our democracy. For further details, please contact infodesk@actioncongressuk.org. Join us to say “No” to tyranny! Long Live the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Democracy Forever! Signed:
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