Yakubu Mahmood’s INEC Fooled Nigerians

 By Charles Okoh

For a lot of Nigerians who had looked forward to using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) technology in the presidential and National Assembly elections of Saturday, February 25, it was a huge disappointment to see that that was not to be. Well, maybe, except for those who conspired to see that the device, which the INEC chairman Yakubu Mahmood and his team had touted as the game changer, did not work.

*Yakubu

The BVAS, it was expected, will help deepen our democracy by removing as much as possible human intervention in the process. Opportunities were provided by INEC for manipulation, thereby exposing to the world their insincerity. In the end it was a total waste of the time of the voter and the resources of a nation whose revenues have continued to dwindle.

EU Election Report: Straight From Janus!

By Banji Ojewale

Janus was the Roman mythological god that had two faces, front and back. One looked backwards into the past, with the other gazing forward into the future. Heaven help you if you lost your way and ran into Janus at a crossroads. He would blight your plight. For, his mien would indicate two directions, when all you required was one to lead you to your destination. But alas the ancient Romans celebrated this god of guile, elevating him as inspirer of ‘’auspicious beginnings.’’ That’s how the month of January was imposed on us in honour of Janus.

And that is what the European Union Election Observer Mission, EU EOM, that came for Nigeria’s 2019 poll has given the nation: a report with two deceptive sides. The document has been hailed and contemned by the country’s two major political parties, All Progressives Congress, APC, and Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, suggesting that there are two angles, each suiting or damning one side or the other. You go home with what gratifies you and drop that which offends. Yet it’s one report.