By Michael Owhoko
Real losers of the 2023 Nigerian general elections are not the electorate who were deprived of their rights to freely choose candidates of their choice nor the first-timer youth who were disappointed by the Nigerian state nor the candidates who lost or won as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
*Yakubu and BuhariThe biggest losers are President Muhammadu Buhari; INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu; President-elect, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu; and Nigeria as a political entity. Except for Bola Tinubu who carries the burden of legitimacy arising from what is perceived as a flawed process and total miniature votes garnered, the others will live with the scar and collective guilt slammed on the country by ethical deficit in the delivery process of the elections.
With general disenchantment over the conduct
of the 2023 general elections by over 145,000 national and foreign observers
deployed across the country, INEC failed to leave a split opinion on its
capacity to conduct free, fair and credible elections, a development that will
haunt Yakubu, Buhari and Nigeria for a long time to come. The exercise was not
only a horrendous phenomenon on the psyche of Nigerians but a fleeting
nightmare.
A
consensus negative opinion on the flawed elections by the European Union, the
African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS; the
Commonwealth; the International Republican Institute, IRI; the National
Democratic Institute, NDI; Joint Election Observation Mission, JEOM; four
former African presidents, and Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), is an
affirmation of global skepticism about Nigeria’s reputation. They all
concluded that the electoral process lacked transparency, which encouraged
manipulations and undermined voters’ confidence.
This trust deficit was also highlighted by
Chatham House when it declared that INEC had learnt nothing from its past
failures. Specifically, it said, “The INEC’s performance and
controversies over these results mean that the electoral reforms and lessons
declared to have been learned were not fully applied and, as an electoral body,
it was significantly less prepared than it claimed.”
As a consequence of these opinions, President
Buhari might have missed the opportunity to etch his name in gold over his
failure to provide a secured and enabling environment for free, fair and
credible elections. As Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, he failed
to optimally use his offices, including effective deployment of the police,
army, DSS, and other security agencies to protect voters during the
elections.
Nigerians were mortified by horrendous images of election violations, and no rationalisation could justify such criminal acts. An election where about 27 persons were killed nationwide over violence, ballot snatching, thuggery, voters’ suppression, ethnic bigotry, use of tribal gods and deities, even in the presence of security operatives in some instances, can only be a national shame.
Besides, whatever is left of Buhari’s legacy
might have been further weakened by the naira redesign and currency swap policy
which brought untold hardship to citizens during the elections. Perhaps, the
intention of the policy was to eliminate monetary inducement and vote-buying,
unfortunately, Buhari and the Central Bank of Nigeria were outwitted by
politicians through the use of extra-constitutional and procedural means to
contrive and achieve sinister objectives.
For the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu, there
might be no second opportunity to redeem his character. With a budget of over
N305 billion and other sundry support, he had no reasons to have failed. Yakubu
gave assurances during both local and international events, including Chatham
House, of his Commission’s preparedness, pledging that with use of technology,
including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, results would be
transmitted in real-time to INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV.
These assertions receded into irrelevance when
INEC failed to comply with the Electoral Act and its own guidelines. The
Electoral Act 2022, requires INEC to upload the elections of polling units in
its portal as stipulated in Section 60 (5) and Clause 38 of the INEC
Regulations and Guidelines.
Specifically, Clause 38 of the INEC
Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Elections, 2022 states: “Upon
completion of all the Polling Unit voting and results, procedures, the
Presiding Officer shall :-(i) Electronically transmit or transfer the result of
the Polling Unit direct to the collation system as prescribed by the
commission. (ii) Use BVAS to upload a scan of ES8A to INEC Result Viewing
Portal, IReV, as prescribed by the commission. (iii) Take the BVAS and the
original copy of each of the forms in tamper-evident envelope to the
Registration Area/Ward Collation Officer, in the company of security agents.
The polling agents may accompany the Presiding Officer to the RA/Ward Collation
Centre.”
With non-compliance and deviation from these
regulatory provisions, INEC opened the electoral process to manipulations,
resulting in a lack of justice and fulfillment for voters.
These violations have exposed existential gaps
in the capacity of INEC under Prof. Yakubu to deliver on a significant national
assignment. This might cast aspersion on his reputation and capabilities.
Indeed, this election is a minus for his profile, as no government or any
serious organisation may want to entrust him with such responsibilities in
future.
Unfortunately, the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, is a product of INEC’s flawed process, and this has triggered a legitimacy challenge that is further fuelled by the lean number of votes secured at the election relative to total votes cast.
Tinubu polled 8.87
million (the least by any presidential candidate since 1999), representing
36.61 per cent of total votes, and 10.08 per cent of all eligible voters. Out
of approximately 93 million registered voters, only about 25 million,
representing 28.63 percent, actually turned out to vote.
*Owhoko is a commentator on public issues
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