Thursday, November 9, 2023

Nigeria’s Democracy And The Sin Of Self-Deception

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

In recent times, I have asked myself why anyone should bother about Nigeria since no matter how hard you try, evil still triumphs.

For the first time in recent history, Nigerians from all walks of life, having agreed that military rule was an aberration, and their hopes buoyed by the assurances of the leadership of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, that their votes in the 2023 elections will not only be counted but will count in determining who superintends over their affairs, came out in their numbers to make a difference.

It was a crusade. The enthusiasm was overwhelming and even Nigerians in the Diaspora were caught in the frenzy.

And then the anti-climax. INEC wilfully violated its own regulations and protocols and conducted elections that the outcome will continue to haunt the chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, for life no matter how hard he tries to keep a straight face.

Presidential candidates of the two main opposition parties – Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party and Mr Peter Obi of the Labour Party – went to court and both the Presidential Election Petitions Court, PEPC, and the Supreme Court not only ridiculed their petitions but contemptuously ruled that whatever INEC says was the result of the poll remains the result. Period!


The PEPC specifically ruled that electronic transmission of results was not expressly provided for in the Electoral Act but merely mentioned in the guidelines and manual of INEC, and therefore, not sufficient ground to challenge the outcome of the presidential election. The Supreme Court agreed and by so doing wittingly threw Nigeria’s democracy under the bus.


The same thing happened during the February 23, 2019 presidential election, in which INEC declared then President, Muhammadu Buhari, of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the winner, claiming that he polled 15,191,847 votes to defeat his closest rival, Atiku, who allegedly polled 11,262,978 votes. 

But Atiku and the PDP, in their petition filed on March 18, 2019 to challenge the outcome of the polls, contended that “from the data” obtained from INEC’s server, “the true, actual and correct results” showed that they polled a total of 18,356,732 votes to defeat Buhari whom they said scored 16,741,430 votes. And all Atiku and the PDP wanted was for the Court to grant them access to the server to prove their case. 


Curiously, INEC demurred, insisting that it had no electronic server. The courts agreed and threw away Atiku’s petition. How INEC could claim that it had no server where election results are stored to be retrieved when needed was a puerile lie that made no sense to anyone except their Lordships.

But it was an attempt to forestall such odious theatrics in the future that Nigerians clamoured for a new Electoral Act prior to the 2023 elections with electronic transmission of results at the centre of such clamour. Yet, INEC aborted what everyone agreed was going to be game changer after spending billions of tax payers’ money which it has not accounted for and will not account for.

As if to mock Nigerians, this self-same Yakubu, on October 14, made a volte face, claiming that electronic transmission of results is backed by law, vowing that results of the November 11 governorship elections in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi states would be transmitted electronically to its Result Viewing Portal, IReV, in real time.

Earlier, perhaps erring on the side of caution, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, for Bayelsa State, Obo Effanga, had during an interactive session with religious leaders and faith-based organisations, said the Commission planned to transmit results of Bayelsa election manually.

But addressing journalists in Kogi State, Yakubu urged Nigerians to disregard Effanga. “The method is as provided by law; electronic accreditation, electronic upload of results on the IREV portal and that is why we are doing this mock. So, please disregard whatever was reported about what the REC was said to have said in Bayelsa.”


Really?


Yes, the Supreme Court has ruled and those who “won” have derisively asked those who “lost” to appeal to God. But no one, no matter how powerful, can mock God. But it is a pyrrhic victory because as Obi noted on November 6: “The Supreme Court exhibited a disturbing aversion to public opinion just as it abandoned its responsibility as a court of law and policy… the Court’s decision contradicts the overwhelming evidence of election rigging, false claim of a technical glitch, substantial non-compliance with rules set by INEC itself as well as matters of perjury, identity theft, and forgery.”

Even as weighty as those allegations are and, therefore, shouldn’t be treated with levity in any society that lays claim to decency, as Obi further noted, more appalling is the fact that “the Supreme Court judgement wilfully condoned breaches of the Constitution relative to established qualifications and parameters for candidates in presidential elections.”

This is tragic for Nigeria’s democracy in many ways. Nobody could have put it any better. Even the seven justices of the Supreme Court deep down know that they sacrificed Nigeria’s fledgling democracy on the altar of political expediency. And it is not going to get any better. What the country’s apex court succeeded in doing is to tell anyone going for elections to make sure that it ends in the field. “Whatever it takes, make sure that the umpire announces you the winner. Take no prisoners, go for the kill,” is the message.


Is it any wonder that Nigerian politicians no longer bother with the electorate? While the politically naïve tries to convince the electorate to vote for them, which was what the likes of Peter Obi did, the “astute” politicians go for security agencies particularly the police and Department of State Services, DSS, and INEC officials.


That is why Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi states have suddenly become theatres of war because of the off-season governorship elections on November 11. In the political calculations of the gladiators, what matters most is who controls the security agencies and INEC.


It will be worse in 2027 when the election will be superintended by an INEC chairman appointed by the incumbent president, who owes maximum loyalty to his benefactor, and also the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, who enlisted in the Nigeria Police Force on March 3, 1990 and nine years after as a deputy superintendent of Police, was appointed the chief security officer to the then governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, who as President took him to Abuja as IGP.

Truth be told, this is not democracy and Nigerians know it. This sham is not sustainable and Nigeria cannot make any progress on this trajectory of lies and deceit. And this is not wishing the country any bad. It is just a statement of fact.

Some of our Christian friends particularly from the South-West remind some of us they erroneously misconstrue as being against President Tinubu that the Bible enjoins us to pray for our leaders so that they can rule us in the fear of God.

But I thought we also prayed for President Muhammadu Buhari and we are all living witnesses to the extent he ruled us in the fear of God.


They conveniently forget that the same Bible that tells us to pray for our leaders also admonishes us in Proverbs 14:34 that, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.”


When a man gets to power not with the mandate of the people but his own machinations, he owes the people no obligations and has no fear of God in him.

Sadly those making these hare-brained claims know the truth but would rather wallow in self-deception, which according to the Greek philosopher, Plato, “is the worst kind of deception” because no one can escape from the lies he tells himself.

“The consequences of self-deception are disastrous for my life, since living a lie is a source of temporary joy and constant unhappiness,” Plato further said.

Those who deny the reality of what happened in this election cycle are walloping in self-sabotage and betrayal because they are denying the truth staring them in the face. Nigeria and its democracy are worse for it, not Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar.

*Amaechi is the publisher of TheNiche 

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