Film One/ Groit Studios/ Amateurheads Creative Film & Television Production present Kate Henshaw (Mabel King), Linda Ejiofor (Bukky), Lawyer Afolabi (Kayode Aiyebusi, Enyinna Nwigwe (Ike), Bimbo Manuel (St James), Sani Mu’azu (Governor Idris Sani), Yakubu Mohamed (Danladi), Saratu Ibrahim (Amina), Sifon Okoi (Lucky). DOP, John N. Demps; 2nd Unit DOP, Unlimited LA. © 2019
Governor Idris Sani (Sani Mu’azu), the incumbent governor of Confluence State, is declared the winner in the recent gubernatorial elections against the first female, ordinary citizen, Mabel King (Kate Henshaw). The election has been rife with riggings, attacks on human lives, and legitimate ballot papers, swapped for fake ones, especially in the most populous voting precinct, in Ikonu. She’s a mule-headed politician, who calls the governor’s bluff. Mabel King can’t accept the result, so she petitions the election outcome in court, then asks the case be transferred to Abuja. Here, the real election and the crude politics play out during the tribunal, and in court right before our eyes.
Since Mabel King, flagbearer for the Democratic Congress, petitions the election result, the burden of proof falls on her. She hires a not-too-good lawyer, Afolabi (Kayode Aiyebusi), for the Tribunal, counting on her meager budget, which was not so good either. Mabel adds the services of a young female lawyer, Bukky (Linda Ejiofor), whose father gets shot by the Governor’s thugs during the Ikonu attack on the precinct and her campaign manager, Ike (Enyinne Nwigwe), to the staff. To fight a political giant like Governor Sani with such a political weight and money to throw around could be herculean for the novice politician, and especially she adamantly refuses to bribe. Do you mean in African politics, are you crazy? When suggested to her by party brass, “We are not bribing anyone,” she blurted the adamant statement from a scratchy throat that needed quenching. To clinch the case, she needs a witness; not the hearsay type but a live eye witness, and credible, too.
Governor Sani instructs Danladi (Yakubu Mohammed), a young lawyer who had worked on the Governor’s campaign team and happened to be a law schoolmate of Bukky to infiltrate Mabel King’s defense. That is easy; to him, “politics is where the power is (sic) as long as you don’t get slapped and bloodied.” The mole meets with both Bukky, and Ike, and all have a drink at a local bar, but in sincerity, Ike didn’t take to this new friendship, having noticed Danladi from the Governor’s camp. The security officers aren’t bringing forth the list of polling agents who were assigned at the Ikonu polling station; they needed a bribe but Mabel won’t give it to them. Later, we see them presenting it to Danladi. And he passes them a brown envelope. “You see, that’s how better people do.” The security chief tells the partner.
The race for witnesses and other evidence starts. Danladi now has the list, and he goes to Ikonu to find the missing people, while Ike and Bukky make a trip there too, knocking at doors; some friendly and some not so friendly people they come across. Ike and Bukky discover a principal witness, Amina Tukur (Saratu Ibrahim), who witnesses the incident live, yet, her mother won’t let her testify. Danladi finds Lucky (Sifon Okoi), but St James (Bimbo Manuel) and his thugs kill him and his mother and take his phone and the duplicate recording.
Knowing what influence Governor Sani has in Confluence State, Mabel King had asked the court to move the Tribunal to Abuja, away from the influence of local politicians. And when Amina heard of the death of Lucky and comes to see his mangled body, she runs to Bukky and Ike and volunteers to testify, while Danladi and two thugs visit her home. Once the court permits Mabel King to present Amina as a witness, it turns out to be a done deal for the Democratic Congress petition of the election. Not quite, though.
The movie opens in the court, with Amina, in the witness box for the petitioner. She’s a first-hand witness who barely escapes the gruesome incident at the Ikono polling station that night that leaves nineteen people dead, the schoolhouse burnt, and grazed to the ground. When asked if she has any recording, “No, Lucky has it, but he’s dead.”
Lawyer Afolabi, “What did you do after this incident, did you go to the police?”
Amina, “Yes. I made a report to police officer Haroun.”
Lawyer Afolabi, “Is there anyone here today, you recognize at the scene of the attack?”
Amina, “Yes, Mr. St. James.”
The respondent’s lawyer slightly badgers Amina and her testimony, and there is still a need for tangible evidence to back her claims. Danladi didn’t like the mishandling of Lucky and his mother and had duplicated the recording. For the slap, St James had given Danladi and the ungodly treatments and murders of Lucky and his mother, he hands over the disk to Bukky. She says ‘thanks’ to him by ramming him the second slap after St. James. Mabel King’s lawyer presents the evidence in court, a big tv screen brought in, and the tape played in court. Justice Asafa states insufficient evidence against Governor Sani; Justices Maigungu and Ekanem voted in favor of Mabel King, so the tribunal declares her victorious.
The title of this movie got me brushed up on my world history. I taught world history in high school, you know, but I found no such parallel, no such characteristics to match history and art here, like Moses Eskor and Winifred Rosa’s 1929, Aba Women’ Riot. I don’t want you to hold my feet to the fire on this issue, with my age and all, some history knowledge must have decayed with time. I could have hit close if Nollywood was a French Colony for me to associate both history and art. The French Fourth Republic was ushered in after the Franco-Prussian War to the end of the 2nd world War. The title of the 4th Republic isn’t out of this world, though. Nollywood is taking a mischievous bite at our political campaigns in Africa. We slaughter and cause heartaches for our fellow men in the name of party politics.
All promises politicians make a stop at the door of the campaigns. Listen to what Governor Sani says to the family of a man killed by his thugs at the election precinct in Ikonu: “Accept my sincere condolences for the loss. I want to assure you that you and your children will not want anything. My government will be a husband to you and a father to your children.” 4th Republic is a somber story of our third-world election experience. It seems all political parties and elections in Africa are fraught with riggings. The winner is the one who rigs best. I am greatly disappointed in Mabel King’s confession that she also did engage in election fraud.
Ike, ” Did you rig the election in Ikonu? Mama Afor told me, did you rig it?”
Mabel King, “It’s not as simple as you think, Ike. It isn’t. It wasn’t my intention, in the beginning, I tried to do things the right way, but then…I looked around, and it’s the only way.”
The denouement of this story didn’t accomplish the writer’s goal. I don’t appreciate the writer’s structure of the 4th Republic. All along I rooted for Mabel King as in good versus evil. The underdog. But I found out we are left with no choice but to choose the lesser evil of the two. Governor Sani killed nineteen people and stuff ballot boxes with his votes and claims victory. Mabel too did some election fraud, though, she cries foul. Story structure like this is poor. Mabel impresses me just as she did impress the top brass of the party, that she wants to do the ‘right thing.’ That in essence is noble, and we acclaimed her for that, but come to find out, she looks in our faces and tells a lie. Disappointing! I see why Ike resigns from her staff. I’ll do the same. Better yet the script didn’t do us justice. Mabel King, knowing she lied, places her hand on the Holy Bible and promises some more lies to the constitution. Who is then the lesser evil of the two?