By Donu Kogbara
THE Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, has just failed in its bid to nullify the results of last April’s presidential poll because the Election Petition Tribunal dismissed the CPC’s case on the grounds that it lacks merit.

I expressed the same opinion when this legal action was first launched about six months ago. And I wish that the people who run the CPC would now graciously accept the fact that Jonathan and Sambo actually beat Buhari and Bakare.

Yes, there were irregularities in areas where the PDP had a competitive advantage. But there were also irregularities in areas that were dominated by CPC loyalists. If anything, the CPC’s malpractices were more blatant.

A couple of foreign journalists I know travelled all over the country to report on the elections and have told me that while they did not witness any evidence of rigging in areas where Jonathan was eventually declared the winner, they came across several obviously under-age voters (who proudly claimed to be pro-CPC) when they got to places where Buhari was eventually declared the winner.

And please note that these foreign journalists had no axe to grind and no personal stake in the outcome. They didn’t hate Buhari or adore Jonathan. They had nothing to gain or lose. They just told me what they saw and didn’t see. I have often been accused of being a fanatical Jonathan supporter and Niger Deltan activist who will say absolutely anything to bolster Jonathan’s legitimacy because he’s from my zone. But nothing could be further from the truth.

I pride myself on my capacity for intellectual honesty. I have criticised Jonathan in the past and don’t have anything against Buhari. As a matter of fact, I like Buhari’s abstemious reputation. I admire Big Men who are not interested in women or material things; and if I honestly believed that Buhari had been cruelly cheated of a victory he deserved, I would say so loud and clear.

Furthermore, I am not saying that the CPC engaged in more malpractices than the PDP. I am just pointing out that the CPC’s malpractices were easier to spot. If you give a bunch of kids voting cards and ask them to queue up at polling booths in broad daylight, your simplistically overt wuru-wuru is definitely going to attract more attention than the cunningly covert wuru-wuru that is being simultaneously inflicted on the democratic process by politicians who specialise in tampering with ballot boxes at collation centres in the dead of night!

But my views are not purely based on a belief that the CPC has no right to complain because the CPC and its fans also misbehaved. My views are based on a genuine belief that Jonathan really DID secure the largest percentage of the popular vote…and would have won ANYWAY, despite PDP irregularities. Tony Momoh, the CPC’s National Chairman, has announced that his Party will challenge the Election Petition Tribunal’s decision at the Supreme Court. And I’m told that Nasir El Rufai, a former Minister, has said that the CPC was denied access to crucial evidence that would have strengthened its case.

Government’s performance

God forgive me if I am wrong because I loathe injustice. But I continue to be sceptical about the CPC’s position and to feel that its stalwarts should forget about appeals and concentrate on monitoring the government’s performance. Many Nigerians are extremely fed up with the PDP and Jonathan’s administration at the moment; and this disillusionment will not fade unless drastic improvements take place; and it is possible that my pessimism is unfair. But it is not currently looking as if drastic improvements are in the pipeline.

The CPC contains some serious citizens and can become a highly effective opposition party – and make itself more popular with the general public between now and 2015 – by robustly and responsibly querying the ruling party whenever it does bad things…or if it simply marks time and doesn’t move us forward.

Readers’ responses

LAST week, I wondered why Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein allowed themselves to be captured alive when it became obvious that their regimes had been toppled.

My puzzlement was based on the fact that I would have expected such arrogant men who had killed so many people to prefer suicide to the humiliation they would inevitably endure if their enemies cornered them like desert rats.

Several Vanguard readers have contacted me to explain, a) that suicide bombers are bad Muslims because Islam explicitly forbids suicide…and, b) that Saddam and Gaddafi, being Muslims, would have regarded suicide as a terrible sin.

Given that Islam also regards murder of innocents as a sin, I find it interesting that homicidal tyrants who break religious rules by taking other peoples’ lives suddenly decide to become good Muslims when it comes to taking their own lives!

Ben’s tribute

BEN Udechukwu, a regular reader of this column, sent me a tribute he had written to a man he greatly admires. I’ve decided to publish some excerpts:

Dear Donu, I have read your commendations to spirited Nigerians whose charitable works makes them stand out from the crowd. You have actively encouraged many to give back to the society what they acquired, not because they were necessarily the most deserving but through God’s lavish favours.

Dr. Cosmos Ndukwe, a businessman and politician, is someone who cares deeply. He believes that he can only derive real happiness from helping others.

A few weeks ago, in September, he gave out keys to a bungalow he built and furnished for a widow who had long been a victim of obnoxious practices that ensure widows remain eternally marginalised. He has promised to deliver five houses to five widows in Abia State before the end of the year.

He has also empowered many young men and women from poor homes to further their studies through the Cosmos Ndukwe Foundation, which has given out cash grants, scholarships and educational materials. In selected cases, some of his protégées have been sponsored 100 percent to pursue courses abroad.

As a further demonstration of care giving, the Foundation leads an awareness campaign against HIV/AIDS, while also providing drugs to victims.

The Foundation also enables youths to establish small businesses, in the hope of encouraging them to shun crime and be useful to themselves and society. I hope you will join me in congratulating this exemplary role model.