ELECTION PETITION ONE TOO MANY

ELECTION PETITION ONE TOO MANY.

Mimiko, Oshiomole, Obi and some many others make the list of politicians that recovered their stolen mandate from the usurpers that had stolen them. It is no longer a tell-tale that there are some politicians who are currently occupying positions that do not belong to them.

The most shameful thing is that these bandits turned politicians know that they did not win the election but yet they keep appealing the judgments until they can appeal no more. The ready question is why do they do this? As complicated as the question seems, the answer is very simple and not far fetched. They do this to buy time, steal money and consolidate on their ill-gotten wealth.

This idea of reclaiming snatched mandate had and is still giving Nigeria a bad name, disrupting the political calendar of the nation and making the electoral commission very inefficient.

Elections are conducted every 4 years but this is disrupted by someone reclaiming a stolen mandate after 3 years and the new winner is sworn in to spend another 4 years which is his own tenure. This was a problem that showed up in Anambra during the 2007 general elections. Chief Andy Uba ran under the platform of the PDP and won the election but the incumbent Peter Obi went to the Supreme Court for succour, the apex court upheld the fact that Peter Obi had not yet expended his own 4 years and thus it was sheer stupidity on the part of INEC to have conducted a gubernatorial election in the state. This simply means that the Anambra gubernatorial election will never align with the timing of the Nigerian general election. This also goes for the other states that have the same political pattern.

This unholy political pattern will continue until some severe deterrent is put in place to check the vote robbers we call politicians. I will suggest a few punishments, they may seem too harsh but what else do you think can stop an armed robber if not the fear of being sent to face the firing squad.

My suggested punishments go thus:

That every politician that steals the electoral mandate should be sent to jail for twice the number of years spent occupying the stolen office.

A life sentence for every politician convicted of stealing the votes of the electorate to occupy an office.

In addition to either of the above sentences, they should refund all the salaries and emoluments received while occupying the office they never won.

I do not have the power to enforce this things but I hope someone that does will read this helpful article. Thank you.