By
Sufuyan Ojeifo
Political extremism
was an outrageous flaunt by the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2015
general elections: to win at all costs. It was accompanied by virulent
propaganda never seen in the history of electioneering in Nigeria, which
was, overall, sustained by a bare threat to destabilise the polity. The APC put
aside all decorum and threatened to form a parallel government if the outcome
of the presidential election did not favour them. Some political analysts
had, at that point, rightly dubbed the APC as an amalgamation of political
extremists and desperate politicians whose common purpose was to hijack power
by force of threat.
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| *Gov Adams Oshiomole of Edo State |
But before that
assertion is faulted, I invite you to also take a critical look at political
events in Edo State ahead of the September 10, 2016
governorship election. There is no doubt that the fortune of the APC in Edo has plummeted, and since there is no likely quick fix
in sight, its main political actors have resorted to threats. They want to
unleash Armageddon on a State that is already gripped by hunger. By
allegedly planning to rig the forthcoming election, the APC government is
preparing the ground for anarchism.
The fear of
possible mayhem is real. The fear is strengthened by a bizarre
development in Edo, which has further fuelled
suspicions that the APC is committed to perpetrate electoral fraud. The
development is called hunt for thugs (similar to the talent hunt show), and it
is basically fashioned out to assemble the most daring of the area boys in town
ahead of the governorship poll. Today, thuggery is considered as,
perhaps, the highest paying job in the State, with a lucrative recruitment
scheme such that if you can stake the unexpected as an area boy, just expect a
call from Oga at the top to be enlisted for the task ahead. It is that bad!
At the center of
this despicable political gambit is a certain Brother Adams, demonstrating a do
or die attitude in his conduct at rallies in a desperate bid to impose a
“puppet-candidate” on Edo
State. He has thrown caution
to the winds in his extreme disposition to enforce his third-term by other
means. He has threatened that a particular candidate will only be
governor over his dead body. But unfortunately for Brother Adams, the people do
not want him dead yet. Even though they have made up their minds to vote
out the APC, they want Brother Adams to be alive to witness the consequences of
his action of betraying their trust.
Though there is an
increased consciousness on the part of the people to frustrate any plan to
manipulate the election, it is however necessary for the law enforcement
agencies to be on the guard as impartial security outfits working to keep and
ensure the peace and stability of the State. The mood in Edo
is now that of a people ready to defend their mandate and protect their state
against any internal or external forces of destabilisation.
There is, however,
a major concern, the kind that was witnessed during the 2015 general elections
when an accreditation-technology of card reader was introduced and used against
the provision of the Electoral Act and the common sense of testing it at
smaller elections before a large scale application. Aside the fact that the
innovation was an unmitigated disaster during the general elections, the
Supreme Court has since ruled on its applicability and asked the electoral body
to appropriately include it in the Electoral Act if it so desired.
But it appears the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is again up
to something else in the forthcoming Edo and Ondo
States governorship elections with yet another introduction of an electronic
platform for collation of results. This has not been captured by any law or
guaranteed by the Electoral Act. It is called e-collation and
e-transmission of results.
