Obasanjo extends State of Emergency in Ekiti State

President Obasanjo has extended the State of Emergency in Ekiti State. I heard and saw this on AIT a few minutes ago. There sat Obasanjo in his Adire Agbada and Cap to match, bespectacled, reading the latest riot act. After the usual long winding speech outlining the gravity of the current situation in Ekiti State, he ended with the sentences many nigerians had heard one time too many.

Therefore, by virtue of Section 305 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I hereby declare a State of Emergency in Ekiti State. This declaration has been published in a Federal Gazette as of today.

He then went on to say (I'm paraphrasing here, can't remember the actual words) "Brigadier General Tunji Olurin (rtd) shall remain the administrator and shall be in charge of all activities in the state. This state of emergency will remain in effect until May 29 (the date of swearing in of the new governors)".

Now everyone knows the real reasons behind the violence and political unrest in Ekiti state. The PDP had just been announced as the winner of the Gubernatorial elections. This was a very unpopular announcement. The main opposition party (Action Congress - AC) had already won majority of the house of representative positions (Out of 23 House of Assembly seats declared, the AC won 14 seats, ANPP won six while PDP won three), so it was practically impossible for the PDP to win the governorships. In addition the PDP was still struggling to redeem their image due to a corruption scandal that ousted the incumbent governor from power sometime last year, so the people of Ekiti were already tired of the PDP. Suddenly INEC announces the results, and the PDP wins by a wide margin.

INEC's declaration drew immediate protest. The main opposition candidate (Kayode Fayemi) declared "They have stolen the Ekiti mandate, I am disappointed, but I am not surprised. We predicted this would happen. It was preordained that the ruling party should win".The wrath of AC faithfuls was invoked and violence started, continued and prevailed. There were road blockages, barricades, bon fires and all "what not" associated with political unrest. Police and Soldiers were deployed to instill discipline and a dusk-dawn curfew was put into effect. Notwithstanding, discipline refused to be instilled. The people wanted their candidate in, Period! - and Democracy is the Government of the People. Now Obasanjo has taken what he sees as a drastic action to bring sanity into the state. He has declared a State of Emergency. Why do I sense traces of dictatorship and autocracism in his actions? Which way is Nigeria going? Are we puppets? Children who don't know anything? The situation is pathetic and I hope things don't get worse after the presidential elections. May God bless and keep Nigeria. AMEN.