By Ochereome Nnanna
There is something we call omehaa kachie enya in my Abiriba dialect of Igbo. It means a shameless or defiant offender. When a person is caught red-handed while committing an abomination, he is supposed to show remorse or contrition.
But if such a person adopts a bold face, displays impertinence and opts to brazen it out, that person is beyond redemption. In ancient times, society had ways of quietly getting rid of such people to create deterrence and prevent them from corrupting the rest of the community.
Embattled Chairman of Nigeria’s
so-called Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood
Yakubu, expectedly monitored the last weekend general elections in Ghana, in
which opposition leader and former President, John Dramani Mahama of the National
Democratic Congress (NDC), swept over the candidate of the ruling New Patriotic
Party (NPP), Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia. NDC also won the majority in the
national legislature.
Prof Yakubu claimed that Ghana
“copied” from Nigeria for its success. Prof Yakubu cannot claim ignorant of his
job disapproval rating among Nigerians. He is the only Electoral Chief Umpire
in Nigeria’s history to have enjoyed two five-year terms of office and
conducted two presidential elections (2019 and 2023) as well as numerous
others. Unlike no other electoral umpire, vast tranches of elections results
conducted by Prof Yakubu are decided by our corrupt judiciary.
My question for Prof Yakubu is: what did Ghana copy
from you? What can Ghana or any self-respecting electoral umpire possibly copy
from you?
Comparing Nigeria’s politics and democracy to that of Ghana is like comparing a piece of dry excrement to gold. As a Russian proverb says: gold sinks, sh-t floats. After years of military rule, Flt Lt John Jerry Rawlings transformed into a civilian politician and won the presidency in 1992 with his NDC. His ruling council, the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC), had also transformed into a political party. I went to Ghana to observe Rawlings’ re-election in December 1996 as a reporter, when he beat John Kuffour of the NPP.
However, in 2000, Kuffour led
the opposition NPP to victory. Ghana thus was 15 years ahead of Nigeria in
producing the defeat of the ruling party by the opposition. So, the victory of
the NDC over the NPP this time around simply reaffirmed Ghana democracy’s
proven ability to return the genuine choice of the people.
People might be deceived by what
happened in Nigeria in 2015, whereby President Goodluck Jonathan conceded to
the candidate of the opposition, retired Major Gen Muhammadu Buhari, before the
result of the presidential election was formally announced.
For me, Jonathan did not do that because the election was free and fair. It was
not.
The INEC under Prof Attahiru Jega allowed the election to be manipulated
in Buhari’s favour. Jonathan saw the war mood of the North and their South West
allies, and that of Western powers led by Barack Obama of America and David
Cameron of the UK. He did not want trouble for himself and the country, so he quit
to give peace a chance, when he saw the numbers that were coming in from INEC’s
table.
The Ghana situation is
dramatically different. Unlike Nigeria, Ghana is a genuinely organic country
where the citizens live in harmony, united by their love for their motherland,
despite their ethnoreligious differences. Nigeria is a nest of wasps where
everyone hates everyone else on religious, regional and ethnic bases, powered
by corruption.
In Ghana elections, the same
issues that affect the outcomes of elections in advances democracies – cost of
living, infrastructure, unemployment, social welfare and others, guide how
voters vote. But in Nigeria, while these same factors choke citizens, they are
led to the polls by primitive factors: ethnic, religious and regional
sentiments, powered by vote selling and violence.
In Ghana, the Electoral
Commission (EC) is truly independent, not because of any special measure. It is
still the president that appoints the EC Chairman and Directors under Article
70 of the Constitution. Also, Article 46 of the Constitution establishes the
independence of the EC by simply declaring: Except as provided by this
Constitution or in any other law not consistent with this Constitution, in the
performance of its functions, the Electoral Commission shall not be subject to
the direction or control of any person or authority. This is simply complied
with.
But in Nigeria, presidents
appoint morally-broken individuals into the INEC Board, which virtually becomes
a department of the Presidency and the ruling party. The people of Ghana,
Constitution of Ghana, and government of Ghana, are genuinely committedly to
the independence of the Electoral Commission of Ghana.
Prof Yakubu’s claim that Ghana
“copied” is fraudulent, unsupported by facts. Prof Yakubu promised a digital
process where human interference in results transmission would be minimal to
ensure that votes would count. He got the National Assembly and the President
to grant his request after a heated battle. He mobilised millions of Nigerians,
especially the youth to register and vote. He made people like me to trust him
and pass on the message.
But when it came to the crunch,
Prof Yakubu and his cabal sold us down the river. The Electoral Commissioner
who pioneered INEC’s digital revolution was posted out of the headquarters to
allow the system to be manipulated to produce a predetermined outcome, not the
people’s vote. We were told to go to an equally compromised judiciary for
redress. Prof Yakubu is the worst Chief Electoral Umpire in our history. He set
us up and betrayed us and our democracy, without any cogent explanation till
date.
Free and fair elections wear the same clothes all
over the world. The loser sees the handwriting on the wall congratulates the
winner. We saw it in the American elections in November, and in Ghana in
December.
Ghana democracy has nothing to copy from us.
*Nnanna is a commentator on public issues
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