The Real Threat To Nigeria’s Democracy

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad,” says an ancient proverb. I agree completely. If you are in doubt, reflect on the bizarre actions of the suspended Adamawa Resident Electoral Commissioner, Hudu Yunusa-Ari.

It will only take a mad man, destined for destruction by the gods, to pull off a stunt, so foolish and dangerous, as Yunusa-Ari did on Sunday, April 16, when he usurped the powers of the Returning Officer to declare Senator Aishatu ‘Binani’ Dahiru, candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, winner of the Adamawa governorship election even when the results of the supplementary election held the previous day were yet to be fully collated.

That declaration was declared null and void almost immediately by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, but the ripples of the false call will be enduring. Result declared after the March 18 governorship election gave an edge to Ahmadu Fintiri, incumbent governor and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who was leading Binani with over 30,000 votes. 

So, last Saturday’s supplementary election which held in 69 polling units in 20 local governments, with less than 40,000 eligible voters, was to decide the actual winner between Binani and Fintiri. Binani needed almost 100 per cent voter turnout to stand any chance. Not only that, she also needed to win over 90 per cent of the votes cast in the supplementary election to win to upstage Fintiri. 

As at the time the collation was suspended on Saturday night by the Returning Officer, Professor Mele Lamido, after results from 10 local governments were announced, that had not happened. Instead, Fintiri was widening his lead. The Returning Officer had announced that collation of the remaining results would resume at 11am on Sunday. Surprisingly, at about 9.00 a.m, Yunusa-Ari, surrounded by security chiefs, including a Commissioner of Police, declared Binani governor-elect, a duty not within the remit of his office as REC. 

No results were collated. In his desperation to pander to the vile whims and caprices of his pay masters, he simply made the declaration and walked away. As a REC, Yunusa-Ari knows that only the Returning Officer is empowered to declare the winner of the election. But beyond being a REC, he is also a lawyer, who once served as the secretary of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in his home state – Bauchi.

So, he should have known better. And, indeed, Yunusa-Ari knew that what he did was illegal – tantamount to a civilian coup d’état – but he committed the crime, nevertheless. It was impunity stretched to its very limits. And he was so reckless because the forces behind him, those who own Nigeria, had assured him that nothing will happen. And, indeed, nothing will happen despite the braggadocio of INEC. Yunusa-Ari is said to be classmate of a powerful minister in the Buhari cabinet, a member of the cabal.  

On Tuesday, INEC chieftains met in Abuja where they decided to write the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali, to investigate Yunusa-Ari for possible prosecution and also resolved to write the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Boss Mustapha, with a view to acquainting President Muhammadu Buhari with the “unwholesome” activities of the REC and possibly reviewing his appointment.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, while addressing newsmen same day in Abuja, said the IGP was yet to get any letter from INEC. Instead, he informed Nigerians that the IGP had recalled the Commissioner of Police on election duty in Adamawa State, Mohammed Barde, with immediate effect. It will be a pleasant surprise if INEC writes those letters to the IGP and SGF requesting that Yunusa-Ari be brought to justice. It will even be a bigger surprise if INEC writes and President Muhammadu Buhari acts on the letter before leaving office on May 29.

Nothing will happen because Yunusa-Ari is fully protected by the powers-that-be. He was only an errand boy. He didn’t act on his own. As the legendary Chinua Achebe noted: “A boy sent by his father to steal does not go stealthily but breaks the door with his feet.” 

Imagine what would have happened by now if Yunusa-Ari hails from a certain part of the country and made his false call for any other political party other than the APC. He would have left that venue in handcuffs. But he is roaming about right now a free man despite his heinous crime which could have ignited violence in Adamawa. He didn’t even honour the summons of his employers, INEC, to Abuja.   

On Wednesday, April 19, Dr. Idris Abdulaziz, a Bauchi Islamic cleric, said the suspended REC is a disgrace to the people of Bauchi State. “I am sad and frustrated for what an indigene of our state, Hudu Yunusa, did. He demeaned the good people of Bauchi as well as his own local government, Ningi,” the cleric said in a video that has gone viral on social media. 

While well-meaning Nigerians are understandably aghast at what the impudent REC did on Sunday and are calling him out accordingly, it smacks of hypocrisy for the same people to insist on cutting the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, some slack. Both men committed the same crime. 

In fact, Yukubu’s declaration of the result of the presidential election at 3.00am on Wednesday, March 1, despite entreaties from well-meaning citizens and international election observers to tarry awhile until sundry complaints are looked into was what emboldened Yunusa-Ari to go rogue on April 16 with the result of the Adamawa supplementary governorship election.

I don’t know how many Nigerians still remember that former South African President and Head of the Commonwealth Observer Mission to Nigeria, Mr. Thabo Mbeki, turned up at the National Collation Centre, Abuja on the night of Tuesday, February 28. His mission was to appeal to Yakubu to be fair to all. His advice was spurned by the INEC chairman. 

Some have tried differentiating, disingenuously, the actions of Yakubu from Yunusa-Ari on the ground that even if the INEC chairman erred, it was a question of the right man doing the wrong thing unlike Ari’s double jeopardy case – wrong man doing the wrong thing. No argument could be more absurd. What difference does it really make? A wrong action is still wrong whether it was taken by the right or wrong person.

Truth be told: Prof Yukubu has put Nigeria’s democracy in dire straits and patriotic, well-meaning Nigerians must continue to call him out, ceaselessly. His unacceptable actions must continue to draw critical attention. Pretending to be offended by Yunusa-Ari’s actions, while glossing over the iniquities of Yakubu, smacks of duplicity, just the same way huffing and puffing over Dr. Datti Baba-Ahmed’s comment that inaugurating a new government on May 29 before the cases challenging the presidential poll are determined would signal the death of democracy in Nigeria, while ignoring the actions of those who have made credible elections in Nigeria impossible is hypocritical.

Agreeing with Seun Kuti that Obidients is one of the most repulsive, off-putting concoctions ever encountered in any political arena, as someone did recently, while ignoring the very complaints of Nigerian youths over the conduct of the 2023 elections is hypocritical. 

It is even more so when the same people who once body-shamed the wife of President Goodluck Jonathan, Patience, calling her a “Madam Shepopotamus” became upset that the Pyrates confraternity mocked someone. Crass duplicity seems to have become the staple activity of many Nigerians and therein lies the real threat to Nigeria’s pseudo-democracy.

*Amaechi, publisher of TheNiche, is a commentator on public issues