By Tonnie Iredia
Over the years, the choices made by Nigerian voters during elections have always been either swapped, diverted or distorted making it difficult to get persons of integrity to represent Nigerian communities in several government positions. Going by recent public agitations, group rallies and general discussions, it has become obvious that Nigerians are anxious to bring to an end that pattern of convoluted voting process beginning with the forthcoming general elections of 2027.
It is precisely the foremost motivation for the specific and exceedingly loud demand everywhere for real-time electronic transmission of election results. Those who think the posture is an unnecessary frenzy or a deliberately organized effort by some opposition politicians to heat up the polity do not fully appreciate the historical context of the subject.
A cursory peep into past events in Nigeria would easily confirm that the current high demand for real-time electronic transmission of election results was greatly influenced by the declining level of distrust and suspicion which the average citizen has always had for their politicians and public officials.
The general belief was and still is that every process can be corrupted in the country to the extent that nothing is earned or well served – a cankerworm which evolved gradually till it got to alarming proportions in the last few years. For example, during the House of Representatives elections of 1964, only candidates of the ruling party were able to submit their nomination forms while opposition candidates had no access to the same officials. At the close of nominations, candidates of the ruling party were expectedly returned unopposed.
In 1965, although the candidates of the Action Group won almost all the seats in the Western Nigerian regional elections of that year, the NNPP which was in power in the region and which was in alliance with federal authorities swapped the victories by announcing Action Group candidates as losers. During the Second Republic the more popular Governor Sam Mbakwe used his broadcast station to announce his own re-election as governor of Imo state in 1983 at a time when the electoral body was yet to conclude the counting of votes in the same election.
He did that just to prevent federal authorities from ‘stealing’ his votes. Both the NPN and the PDP in their days in power similarly won ‘massive’ votes even in polling centres where voting did not actually take place. To stop MKO Abiola from becoming president the military annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election regarded worldwide as Nigeria’s best.
The culture of fake elections in Nigeria is yet to change. Every ruling party has sustained the urge to rig elections thereby establishing beyond reasonable doubt that most political leaders in the country always get into office through the back door. Whereas many citizens were dissatisfied with the Goodluck Jonathan government over the level of insecurity in the land, there is no evidence that he truly lost the 2015 election.
The surreptitious use of the incident form in one part of the country during the election has remained suspect. Former vice president Atiku Abubakar and his followers as well as a huge chunk of the Nigerian population still believe that it was Atiku that won the 2019 election. We cannot discountenance their claim considering that the INEC server which would have given a better record of the transactions was manipulated.
The official argument at the time that INEC had no server or decided not to put it into use was dubious. First, there were reports that the electoral body’s budget which was approved and fully released included the procurement of a server.
Second, there was the story that INEC did not only acquire a server, it also appointed and trained operators on it with an official plan to have two collation officers, one for manual and the other for digital during the election. Third, the allegation by the ruling party and some government supporters at a point that the opposition PDP had hacked the INEC server was clearly irrational having earlier claimed that the same INEC had no server. Painfully, the nation never got to know what the huge fund approved for server and released to INEC was used for.
When the above narrative is added to the 2023 situation in which a technical glitch was said to have adversely affected the presidential election without affecting both the senate and house of representatives’ elections that were simultaneously conducted, Nigerians who have despaired cannot be blamed.
This is more obvious when it is realized that the nation’s electoral body has always had partisan officials within its fold in breach of the constitution. In the circumstance, it makes ample sense for Nigerians to not trust INEC that many also feel is teleguided. It is therefore understandable that many citizens want legal provisions that can take away from the commission every iota of discretion which it can use to help the ruling party to rig every election.
The demand for real-time transmission of election results is therefore not too much to be made by citizens whose votes have never really counted in Nigerian elections. The urge to water down such demand by removing the term ‘real-time’ is unfair because it is for the same reason that all efforts in the past to use technology to sanitize Nigerian elections have always failed.
To make matters worse, those against the use of technology are not genuine as basic election technologies introduced in Nigeria so far are not more complex than the gsm telephone that everyone uses everywhere across the country. Many of our leaders are agitated over technology only when it comes to elections; but they randomly transfer funds to friends and relations in villages that they say have no signal when it concerns elections.
Again, if the demand for real-time transmission is too rigid, the Judiciary is part of the blame. Indeed, many Nigerians have no faith in our judges when the cases before them have to do with politics and elections. Today in Nigeria, even the elite would find it difficult to be on the same page with the judiciary. Not many for instance saw the point that was made in 2015 when the judiciary said the card reader was not known to the law.
Yet, President Jonathan had on March 20, 2015 signed into law an amendment which empowered INEC to use a device of its choice to facilitate the election process. It is submitted that card reader was known to the law, it was only at the apex court that some judges didn’t know about it. While we all have a duty to obey the apex court, we should also not forget to raise our hands when a judgment heightens societal cynicism.
As part of allowing political parties to manage their own affairs, the Judiciary approved the participation of the present and immediate past senate presidents who were not part of their party primaries to contest elections to the senate in 2023. In other words, INEC’s monitoring of party primaries is essentially of no value. If so, why did we need to use the law to burden INEC.
In addition, the fact that there are many cases today where courts are still involving themselves in the settlement of intraparty squabbles suggests that our laws on politics and elections have become indeterminable. Again, many cases abound where litigants lose cases for not following relevant guidelines; yet the judiciary decided in 2023 that INEC has a discretion to follow or ignore its own guidelines voluntarily made by itself for which it had led parties into accepting the process and procedures that everyone must follow.
How then do Nigerians and political parties know which guideline is binding and which is not? The answer seems to be that binding INEC guidelines must be those in the electoral law. There is therefore no better time than now for Nigerians to insist that electronic transmission of election results must be real-time and must be included in the current amendment of the law in order to be sure that it would be binding on INEC.
Indeed, people would possibly have insisted that all INEC processes be transmitted real-time for the purpose of ensuring that for once Nigeria attains transparency in her elections which have fallen below standard for too long. It is time to stop the collation of votes at night which usually leads to alteration and cancellation of figures and which in turn shortchanges society.
*Dr. Iredia is a commentator on public issues
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