Most Nigerians are not convinced that the National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Yakubu Mahmoud is going to deliver free, fair and transparent election in 2023, what with infraction allegedly committed by the officials of the commission towards the conduct of the election
By Chiemerie Chibuike
Nigeria’s way of conducting general elections has for a very long time in the election firmament followed a painful predictable pattern. Whoever had conducted election before in the country had always promised conducting free, fair and transparent election but was never free and fair. It is agonizing that weeks before the elections, the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, had been alleged to have been involved in infractions that is capable of derailing the credibility of the commission, and no arrests have been made in that regard.
Information at the disposal of this medium suggests utterance of the officials of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and its presidential candidate infer that INEC might be compromised in the forthcoming election. At one of the campaigns of APC held in the Northern part of the country, a serving Minister in President Muhammadu Buhari’s adminstration, Alhaji Hadi Serika, Minister of Aviation swore by the name of the Allah in the campaign that his party has saved enough money to win the general election hook or crook, adding that winning election is faith accompli for the ruling APC. Serika is not alone in the boast of winning election, Bola Ahmed Tinubu after his shambolic appearance at the Chatham House told his supporters that victory is obtained by force, they should go after the ballot boxes, grab it and run away with it. Some officials of the National Assembly from the extraction of the ruling party had in many fora threatened to deal with anybody who fails to vote for the ruling party, insisting that they are sure of winning the election no matter the perception of the electorate on the presidential candidate of APC.
The electoral umpire is facing a daunting task of delivering a credible presidential election in 2023 as repeatedly being promised by President Buhari at many fora. However, substantial percentage of Nigerians have expressed doubt about the practical impartiality of the electoral umpire in walking the talk of President Buhari delivering a credible election, or is it another failed promises that have become the signature of President Buhari administration since its inception eight years ago. Historic abound about past electoral umpires who promised free, fair and transparent election but delivered the opposite. The lists are endless, from Professor Maurice Iwu’s colossal electoral fraud to the Attahiru Jega’s tactics of rigging that defied political scientist solution on how he did the manipulation. Now, Yakubu’s promise of using BVAS, would it translate to walking the talk on the part of the INEC National Chairman as he has promised recently at Chatham House discussion.
The fear of most electorate in the country stems from the fact that despite the repeated assurances of President Buhari that he is not going to interfere in who succeeds him, there is palpable fear that the goons of the ruling party, APC are gallivanting around with the promise of winning the election with hook or crook, and nothing has been done to stem the threat of winning the elect at all costs. In spite of the promise of President Buhari that he is not going to interfere, the presidential candidate of his party, Tinubu has established a private army called Jagaban Army with the intention of using it to force voters to vote for him in the forthcoming presidential election, and the security operatives are looking the other way. It was in full glare of the public that youth wing of the ruling APC established an army with uniform with the aim of rigging the election by any means possible , and the security operatives have not made any arrest as at the time of this report.
It was gathered that INEC allegedly removed all the Igbo speaking staff from the INEC sever Unit, replacing them with other ethnic group on the premise that they are trying to sanitizing the systems because allegation has it the Igbo speaking staff has been fingered to be the one leaking information of the commission. Apart from the ethnic cleansing in the most sensitive sections of the commission, the alleged skewed voter registration as well as the skewed deregistration of the electorate on the premise of irregular registration is another source of worry. Another disturbing situation, according to reports monitored by Tentacle is the child registration and issuance of PVC to children under 18 especially in the Northern part of the country. The electoral umpire has not done anything in this regard to assure Nigerians that children would not be used to rig election for the ruling APC as Jega allegedly did in 2015 even when goat and fowl were allegedly accredited in the Northern axis of the country to vote as a way of helping President Buhari, his Fulani brother to win election. The same pattern has been dictated in INEC in the build up towards the 2023 presidential election, and no arrest has been made in this regard.
Beyond the mantra as orchestrated by the electoral umpire that the collection of the PVC would be seamless across the nation, reports at the disposal of this medium revealed that the collection of the PVC is 100 per cent seamless in almost all the northern parts of the country but in the Southern part of the country potential voters are going through hell to get their PVCs for the purpose of voting, especially in the South East where collection of PVCs is hellish. The officials of the electoral umpire have not been able to explain to the teeming electorate why there is dichotomy in the collection of the PVCs even when some part of the country has been declared as having highest number of registered voters. It was gathered that vote buyers are on the prowl, and the government of the day never deemed it imperative to begin to interrogate the political parties that have been fingered as weaponising poverty in the nation as majority of the voters are living below abject poverty. The security operatives have not upped the ante in making sure that those fingered in vote buying are brought to book instead they are looking elsewhere while politicians are on bazaar.
Since the two major political parties, APC and PDP engaged in wooing voters with monetary and gifts inducement, the anti-corruption agencies have not deemed it necessary to invoke the law as provided in the Electoral Act passed in 2022. The bewildered electorate is at loss as to why the security operatives have not been able to make any arrest especially those who are issuing threats to their non-supporters. Information at the disposal of this medium revealed that some security operatives are even being used to disburse the money meant to induce voters on or before the elections day. An informed source told Tentacle that most security operatives lobby to be dispatched to the campaign venues of the APC and PDP as well as being the security details of the political gladiators in APC and PDP. The continued attack of the INEC facilities in the Southern part of the country has continued to arouse the feelings of most electorate that there is deliberate attempt by a cabal that has allegedly hijacked the operations of the electoral umpire to disenfranchise many electorate in the Southern part of the country. For instance, reports monitored in Lagos suggested that there is suppression of Igbos in the collection of the PVCs as they are subjected to all sorts of humiliation and even threats in the collection of their PVCs, an exercise that is a potential tools for rigging election in favour of the ruling APC.
It was gathered that the northern politicians are brazenly threatening no indigenes who would not support their political parties in the forthcoming general election, and have vowed to make their abode unbearable should their political party fail at the polls. According the information made available to this medium, the threat is more rampant in the Northern states controlled by the ruling APC, and the security operatives have not made any arrest in this regard or prosecuted anybody since these threats started.
However, the security operatives have assured that they are going to ensure free and fair election in the 2023 general election, but facts on ground revealed the opposite. Recently, the Chief of Defence Staff, Major General Lucky Irabor said that democracy has come to stay, insisting that the Army is going to work with the police to make sure that there is peaceful election in 2023. But the Army has not been proactive in stemming the insecurity that is a major threat to the smooth conduct of the election in matter of weeks. Till date the security operatives have not made any arrest as it affects the destruction of INEC facilities especially in the Southern part of the country. The concentration of the destruction of INEC facilities in the South East speaks volume on the plot by the cabal to enforce voter suppression on the strongholds of the political party that is a threat to the ruling APC. Statistics made available to Tentacle suggest that most of the INEC facilities destroyed are predominately located in the South especially in the South East.
Whatever is the case, the body language of the electoral umpire, despite its assurances of delivering credible election in matter weeks, suggest that it is going to be a toothless bulldog at the end of the day because the commission has not been seen to be assertive in punishing electoral offenders as provided in the 2022 Electoral Act.
