By Igbotako Nowinta
In cracking the personality wall of Senator Dino Melaye, his political enemies displayed and employed atavistic animosity; they hid under the canopy of electoral process of November 30th, 2019 in Kogi West Senatorial Supplementary Elections to unleash horrible devices and unparalleled schemes to knock him out of the Nigerian Senate. The recent defeat of Melaye in the hands of Senator Smart Adeyemi was one of the glaring evidences of electoral decay in Nigeria; everything was orchestrated to punish and ridicule him. His crime was dumping the APC for the PDP, being bold, outspoken and confrontational. His case should be a measuring instrument to determine if Nigeria is truly practicing genuine electoral democracy. One of the saddest chapters in our political history, that a passionate member of the Army that insist that due process should be magnified; that the democratic space should be sanitized has been sacrificed by those who hate his gust.
Thomas (Tom) Paine was unarguably a controversial, dynamic and cerebral character that activated himself during the bitter struggle for the independence of the United States of America.
Paine, a self-made man who originally sojourned in England but migrated to the United States to eke a living, became one of the greatest cum fearless patriots of the American war of independence.
Tom Paine’s first ever work ‘Common Sense’ published on January 10th, 1776, became a stunning success as it dramatically drove the ordinary people to a state of frenzy in supporting the revolutionary call for freedom from the then monarchical English system.
Paine’s gigantic contributions led to the declaration of American ‘independence’ on July 4th 1776, and subsequently made him a critical stakeholder in the then emerging ‘American State.’
His characteristic trait, extreme success and radical views became his ordeal when he fell out with some of the leading nationalistic voices in United States.
Paine ended up standing at the heap of interpersonal quarrels with George Washington (First President of United the States), John Adams (equally ex-President of America), John Jay, Gouverneur Morris etc., because of his uncompromising and fiery stance about practical application of institutional due process, rule of law and democratic ethos then.
Today, the exploits and adventures of Tom Paine remind me of the present ordeal of Senator Dino Melaye in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who is equally a critical and strident voice in the democratic space here.
Senator Daniel (Dino) Melaye, to me is one of the controversial characters that have fabricated themselves into reckoning in our nascent democracy in Nigeria since 2015, when he became Senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District.
Melaye did not waste time before he singled himself out as a political firebrand, fearless, patriotic and an orator per excellence. As a fire eater in the political jungle of Nigeria, Senator Dino Melaye did not know when to drop the ‘hot charcoal’ in his mouth!
He made a fatal mistake when he chose to bring down the political stair case that brought him to the limelight. His greatest undoing was in 2018, when he dropped the membership card of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
In about four years, Senator Dino Melaye built a solid political wall within his constituency in Kogi West Senatorial District, speaking the minds of the people, so that the rule of law could not be trampled upon; of rolling out salacious details about dictatorial tendencies within the executive and security organs; of entertaining the public with thematic oratoral postulations.
He is a patriot of the highest level, despite his nauseating habits for primitive accumulation of capital, of flaunting his magnificent luxuries and properties in the midst of fellow Nigerians swimming in the dirty pool of pervasive poverty.
In cracking the personality wall of Senator Dino Melaye, his political enemies displayed and employed atavistic animosity; they hid under the canopy of electoral process of November 30th, 2019 in Kogi West Senatorial Supplementary Elections to unleash horrible devices and unparalleled schemes to knock him out of the Nigerian Senate.
The recent defeat of Melaye in the hands of Senator Smart Adeyemi was one of the glaring evidences of electoral decay in Nigeria; everything was orchestrated to punish and ridicule him. His crime was dumping the APC for the PDP, being bold, outspoken and confrontational.
His case should be a measuring instrument to determine if Nigeria is truly practicing genuine electoral democracy. One of the saddest chapters in our political history, that a passionate member of the Army that insist that due process should be magnified; that the democratic space should be sanitized has been sacrificed by those who hate his gust.
It is a story that melts the heart and causes deep anger. After winning the Kogi West Senatorial Election on February 23rd, 2019, using the ticket of the PDP, for a return to the Senate, his fiercest political rival, Senator Smart Adeyemi who had earlier crossed to the APC approached the Tribunal that nullified his election.
Matters got to a critical point when Senator Melaye’s appeal was thrown away, paving the way for a rerun between him and Senator Adeyemi on November 16th, 2019, which became inconclusive due to premeditated electoral violence and murders.
No doubt Senator Melaye must have felt betrayed by the misdirection of the democratic fervor that swept the country in 2015, now he has been swept into the abyss of political defeat by the wind of democratic terror of November 30th.
No patriotic mind will say all is well with our electoral process fraught with stark vote buying, mindless rigging and ballot box snatching. In the face of this top level deception and extreme manipulations of our voting system, an urgent revisit of the Electoral Act by the National Assembly, to include digitalization of our electoral process is absolutely imperative.
Really, it is excruciating to note that the mighty gains achieved during the Chairmanship of Professor Atahiru Jega’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2015, have been eroded as a result of recent tragic and unfortunate realities.
Nowinta Igbotako wrote: Where we are – A call for democratic revolution in Nigeria.
