Anambra state election 'gravely flawed

An election for governor of Anambra state in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta region has been condemned amid reports of vote-buying and ballot-box theft.

Peter Obi was re-elected but just 300,000 people cast their ballots from an electorate of 1.8 million.

Gangs of youths intimidated and harassed voters and snatched three ballot boxes from polling stations.

The chaos has dampened hopes of improvements to Nigeria's voting system ahead of national elections in 2011.

President Umaru Yar'Adua had promised to sort out Nigeria's notoriously corrupt elections after he was elected in a widely-criticised poll in 2007.

But even the winning candidate in Anambra conceded that the vote had been subject to "age-old inadequacies" such as poor preparation.

Mr Obi had initially refused to vote because he discovered he was the only member of his family whose name appeared on the electoral roll. He later changed his mind.

Chukwuma Soludo, who came third in the poll, complained of "brazen manipulation".

"Let me use this opportunity to congratulate my friend Mr Peter Obi," said Mr Soludo.

"In spite of the grave flaws, INEC [Independent National Electoral Commission] has declared you winner of the election."

The BBC's Fidelis Mbah in Anambra says he witnessed three ballot boxes being stolen by gangs of youths - at least one of whom was armed and dressed in police uniform.

He says one polling station had 500 registered voters but just three people could find their names on the list.

Although the manipulation appeared to be politically motivated, our correspondent says it is not clear who was responsible.

Many polling stations opened hours late and there were confrontations as voters discovered their names were not on the electoral register.

State Of The Nation: Is President Yar’adua Actually Alive Afterall?

Last week, the spin doctors of President Yar’Adua made Nigerians believe that he has substantially recovered and in good and stable condition to return to the country. But this turned out to be another hoax. Rather, there are fresh speculations and another spin that he will return this week. And this again has raised the question of the actual where about and state of health of the President. If to be alive means to be living, breathing, active, lively and energetic, then it is not out of place for concerned Nigerians to ask: Is President Yar’adua actually alive?

When a highly respected national newspaper authouritatively reported that President Yar’Adua has become an invalid as a result of a catastrophic chemically-induced brain damage he suffered from treatments he received at the Saudi hospital and that he continually goes in and out of coma, the President’s handlers merely described the report as an expression of the opposition mindset.

However, the newspaper report coupled with the Abuja protest march, and the Abuja High Court 14-day ultimatum forced the President’s handlers to stage the acting of that Saudiwood “Umooru Are Dead Part II” produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

And ever since, who else, maybe apart from his wife Turai Yar’adua, has spoken to the President? Not even his deputy, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan. Is it not curious that the President has refused to talk with anybody even his close aides? How can the President’s handlers explain this awkward situation? It has been said that if the President is actually alive and still breathing, he may likely be in a state where he cannot talk, eat and interact not to talk of coming back to govern the country. And we have to believe it since there is no alternative explanation.

Let’s look at an extract of the comments on the internet by a Nigerian US-based medical expert who actually is well informed on the gravity of the President’s ailment: “Yar’adua is now probably a shadow of himself and if by a miracle, he is able to make any decision, such decision cannot be trusted because it would be from a drug induced mind as he is most likely under chemically induced coma.

“Under chemically induced coma, he is sedated. As a result, he is not capable of making any decision. With heavy sedation, he will not be alert, oriented to time, place or person. Even if the sedation is stopped, it will take sometime for him to speak. His decision should be questioned because he will be making them under the influence of mind-altering drugs.”

So it is laughable for the Eminent Elders Group, the leadership of the National Assembly, and the wide spectrum of aggrieved opposition to continue to insist that “the only way to solve the problem of the current power vacuum at the Presidency is for the President to make his vacation formal and for the National Assembly to insist that there is a penalty for refusal to submit a letter. Which President is going to make his vacation formal- Umaru Yar’adua or who?

Yar’adua’s health status: The lies, cover up and manipulation continue

Rumors that Umaru Yar’adua, Nigeria’s sickly “president", had died swept through Nigeria and among Nigerians abroad after a hitherto little known website, “American Chronicles,” claimed in a report that the Nigerian “leader” had passed on December 10 2009 at the King Faisal Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The report, which turned to be false, quickly spread amongst Nigerians through the Internet and phone calls. Saharareporters received numerous telephone and email inquiries as to whether we could confirm the report.

The speculation about Yar’adua’s demise came on the heels of another news report carried by Lagos-based newspaper, Next, reports from sources that told the publication that Yar’adua was “brain-dead”.

A source in government in Abuja told Saharareporters that members of Yar’adua’s cabinet could not scramble to come up with a response to the Next story yesterday because Yar’adua’s absence had paralyzed governmental operations, and many ministers had skipped out of town, some of them abroad.

Segun Adeniyi, Yar’adua’s spokesperson, had traveled to watch the African Cup of Nations in Luanda while Information Minister, Dora Akunyili, had gone to Germany “to meet with her doctors and beauticians,” according to a presidency source. Foreign Minister Ojo Maduekwe was away in Ghana.

Last week, Ahmed Yayale, Secretary to the Federal Government, made what a source described as a “futile trip to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to assess Yar’adua’s condition.” This source said Yayale spent five days in Jeddah, but was not allowed to see Yar’adua. Our source said that, on his return three nights ago, Yayale voiced private fears to a few confidants that he feared Yar’adua was comatose.

Yayale’s failure to see Yar’adua also further exposed the lies orchestrated by Yar’adua’s handlers that the bed-bound “president” made phone calls to numerous officials, including VP Goodluck Jonathan, House Speaker Dimeji Bankole, and Senate President David Mark. Accounts of the alleged calls were leaked to the Nigerian press by Yar’adua’s Chief Economic adviser, Tanimu Yakubu Kurfi. The hoax was part of Mr. Kurfi’s effort to convince Nigerians that “Yar’adua was now recuperating well and well on his way to work and.”

In Defence of Kegiri, Dangote’s Amputee

Writing about the prevailing pains, trauma and frustration of Celestine Vigale.Kegiri, the 34-year-old skilled carpenter and wood specialist reminds me of two seminal books I read with passion as a secondary school student: God’s Bits of Wood (1960) and A walk in the Night and other stories (1962). The former was written by Sembene Ousmane (January 1, 1923 – June 9, 2007), my departed friend, a celebrated Senegalese writer, Marxist and film director. The book is a fictional work set in colonial Senegal, the French speaking West African country. The theme of workers strike permeates the book. Workers strikes’ in the book is triggered by the poor working conditions of the railway workers. The latter was authored by Alex La Guma (1925 - 1985), the famous South African journalist, author and anti-apartheid activist. In the above novella, he fictionalized the suffering of workers in Apartheid South Africa. Ousmane and La Guma are deeply concerned about the predicament of the working peoples be they in Senegal, Mali or South Africa. Whether workers at the railway stations, mining pits or cement factories, working class peoples always bear the blow of injustice, greed and manipulation by those who control the means of production.