So sad we didn’t have a good election

LOCAL and International Election Observation Teams and stakeholders to the February 23 presidential and National Assembly election in Nigeria agreed that the 2015 election remained the benchmark. They somewhat agreed that the standard set in 2015 is what the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must not go below in the 2019 polls.

All appeared to be going smoothly until the sudden postponement of the polls in the early morning of February 17. INEC chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakubu had assured all that the February 16 date was sacrosanct. He also gave indications that the Commission had got its logistics right and that polls would open in the morning hours of that day.  But since that sudden twist that pushed the elections to February 23, nothing remained the same again.

Despite the daily briefings by INEC through the one-week elections were postponed, where assurances were made that the commission was good to go, the outcome of that election has, however, only confirmed that the commission was perhaps only ready to be a passenger in its own game.

In many locations, it appeared that INEC was just standing by to be handed a fait accompli according to the wishes of the political actors.  The outcome of the polls in several locations cannot but leave mouths ajar for days. If you watched some of the videos that emanated from the field on Election Day, you cannot but marvel at how Nigeria’s election has descended once again into the abyss.

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Check these out: A lone policeman was at the Ago Palace Pay Polling Station, trying to fence off three thugs who had shot into the air and scared away voters. The policeman and the thugs engaged in some sort of struggle. Three thugs would go after the ballot boxes, the policeman would run after one of them, he would collect the box but as he was doing that the two other thugs had collected two more boxes and were about smashing them. He would replace the box he seized from the thug and run after the two other ones taken by the thugs. As he was doing that another of the thugs would go behind him to carry other boxes and smash them. The drama continued until the thugs destroyed all the boxes and set them ablaze. And that location is said to be two minutes away from a police station. That drama is fit for the comedy scenes of Nollywood movies.

Shortly after that, you saw some pictures of “ECOMOG” activities of some voters in different parts of the country thumb-printing parcels of ballot papers.  You saw a Deputy Commissioner of police being molested by thugs and on top of all that, no fewer than 32 persons lost their lives on Election Day.

In one instance in Gwagwalada, security men confronted a man who claimed to be in charge of the polling station and wore an observer badge. Upon interrogation by security men, he changed his story and said, ‘my sister, I was only assisting here o.’ That was when he had earlier threatened to make calls to the authorities.

The video has also gone viral of the professor, who served as Returning Officer in Orlu senatorial zone in Imo and announced that he made declaration of results under duress. And you also saw a number of returning officers appear at the Rivers State collation Centre to announce that soldiers stormed their collation centre and seized all materials, thereby making collation impossible.

The scenes were several and practically uncountable.  But we wanted an election which is to serve as referendum on performance in office or lack of it. We wanted an election and not an NURTW kind of king-making exercise, which usually involves bottle breaking, knifing and gun booms.  We wanted an election that would draw us closer to the civilised world; not a selection exercise where the military would determine who casts the ballot or which figures are to be collated.

Perhaps, we saw it coming when the Electoral Act Amendment Bill was rejected on four different occasions. Perhaps those who were far-sighted enough had calculated that the only way to avoid the jury of the ballot box is to get the military, the police and every coercive arm of the state involved in a way in other ensure a peaceful exercise free of interference.

Certainly, the happenings in different spots had blighted the elections. But we cannot say with certaitly whether it tells on the results or not unless a forensic audit of the process is undertaken.

That is why I agree with the position taken by the presidential candidate of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to drag the election issue before the courts. I am firmly of the view that if certain issues around the 2015 election had been interrogated, they would not have been repeated in the 2019 exercise.

In 2015, we did not interrogate how 1.9 million votes came out of Kano without a single void vote. We did not interrogate the death of the Resident Electoral Commissioner shortly after the election magic and we did not call to question how huge figures came out of Boko Haram-war ravaged Borno and Yobe and even Bauchi in the fringes of that war. But in 2019, Atiku should press INEC for details, how the same feat was repeated in Yobe and Borno, especially following Boko Haram attacks early on Election Day.

Let me say, therefore, that without prejudice to the peace efforts being undertaken by the National Peace Committee, let us encourage Atiku to test his case at the tribunal and the Supreme Court. We would be doing our electoral process a world of good.