Of INEC’s assurances on Ondo, vibes around minimum wage, and Tinubu’s tribute to the Ogonis

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is at it again—too many assurances to rock Nigerians to sleep? We have been here before.

The taste of the pudding is in the eating. I hope you are following the vibes around the new minimum wage. Chai!

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu scored the bull’s eye on Ogoni. But he must let the largesse go round.

As INEC goes to Ondo…

It would be necessary to state straightaway that the activities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in relation to election management have not been salutary.

Since the general election in 2023 and the off-cycle elections that have been held thereafter, the confidence of many citizens in the capacity of the electoral umpire has been eroded. The conduct of those elections has continued to attract scathing reactions from within and outside Nigeria. But INEC still believes it is on the right track.

On Tuesday, November 5, 2024, Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the INEC, said to Nigerians that the Commission was ready to conduct a free, fair, and credible election in Ondo State.

Yakubu gave the assurances when he physically visited some of the Commission’s LGA offices in Ondo State. He said that all the non-sensitive materials were already at the LG offices.

“In terms of the level of preparation so far, I am really impressed by what the state and local government offices have achieved,” he said.

He also said that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine had been charged and configured, explaining that it would be deployed along with the sensitive materials to the local government areas.

Talk, they say, is cheap!

Nigerians have been here over and over again and can no longer be hoodwinked with mere words and assurances.

In the estimation of many Nigerians, the INEC has not been able to serve tasty “pudding” since 2023. Assurances of the past were not kept.

So, many Nigerians have taken the INEC’s “we are ready” claim with a pinch of salt, considering the electoral umpire’s consistent faux pas.

On Wednesday, September 11, 2024, ten days to the September 21, election in Edo State, Yakubu, had told Nigerians that the Commission was super-ready for the exercise.

He said: “In terms of the readiness and technology to be deployed, we are satisfied with the level of preparations at our local government offices that we inspected as well as the two centres we visited to observe the mock accreditation exercise. I think we are good to go.”

The INEC boss gave the assurances during the Commission’s readiness assessment tour of three INEC LGA offices at Ikpoba-Okha, Oredo, and Igor.

Despite the effusive self-adulation, the election fell short of the expectations of many Nigerians. Civil society organisations (CSOs) flatly condemned the handling of the exercise by the INEC.

The CSOs, which monitored the election, issued a damning review of the exercise, declaring that the results from several polling units were altered at collation centres.

Read also: Make polling units accessible for us to vote on Saturday, PWDs tells INEC

The Situation Room emphatically said the conduct of the election lacked credibility. Yiaga Africa in particular cried blue murder over the alleged heist perpetrated in the election conducted by the INEC.

The group pointedly said that the conduct fell short of expectation and that the declared results lacked integrity.

Yiaga discredited the Edo election result on account of widespread irregularities that included alteration of results by the collation officers.

In November last year, when the off-cycle gubernatorial election was held in Imo, Kogi, and Bayelsa States, INEC had also assured Nigerians that the exercise was going to be free, fair, and credible.

At the end of the day, some observer groups released a damning report that all was not well with the elections. They claimed that there were cases of result-writing and that there was a semblance of a predetermined outcome.

No assurance could be more believable than what the INEC gave before the 2023 general election. But that election has, in the estimation of many Nigerians, remained the worst since the return of Nigeria to civil rule in 1999.

Looking back at the 2023 general election, the Commission made Nigerians believe that the exercise was going to be near perfect. It mesmerised the citizens with loads of promises but delivered nothing.

BudgiT noted that the failure of the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) on election day was a betrayal many Nigerians did not predict or should have expected. It was a massive disappointment for excited citizens who felt that the country would witness a transparent electoral process for the first time in a long time.”

It also noted that ‘Nigerians’ hope was further dashed when reality set in that the IReV could not make a difference. In many cases, the IReV portal was not working. In other instances, INEC ad hoc staff refused to upload the election sheets.

BudgiT further recalled that “INEC’s manual tally of votes has been roundly panned for being riddled with errors. As some election officers were reportedly corrupted during the process, it is not surprising that many Nigerians are questioning the integrity and authenticity of INEC’s operations. The manual collation that INEC resorted to when the BVAS and IReV pledges fell through was a big defeat for Nigeria since it not only prolonged the announcement of election results but also generated great confusion among voters and political parties.”

So the Nigerian people are pained. INEC would further be taking Nigerians for a ride at its own peril.

The Commission must wear its integrity tag in Ondo!

Dangerous vibes around minimum wage

In July this year, the Federal Government and the organised labour settled for N70,000 as the new minimum wage after months of haggling.

The same month, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the minimum wage bill into law at the State House in Abuja after the National Assembly had passed the Minimum Wage Act 2019 to increase the national minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000.

But before the ink with which the President signed the bill into law could dry on the paper, the entire exercise had become an exercise in futility as the N70,000 new minimum wage had been overtaken by the high cost of living in Nigeria.

Although the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had noted that the approved amount was no longer meaningful with the economic reality of the moment, it was difficult to immediately call out its members for a fresh round of negotiation.

Since the minimum wage, the price of gasoline has increased about three times. Joe Ajaero, president of the NLC, had said that the increase was against the agreement reached with the president before the N70,000 was settled.

“The basis for accepting the N70,000 minimum wage was for the President not to increase the pump price of petroleum products, and we made it clear there. If he had gone ahead to increase it, then we need to discuss the implications because we cannot compare N70,000 with what is happening now,” Ajaero said.

Read also: The payment of minimum wage in Nigeria

The President seemed to have rocked the organised labour to sleep when he promised to roll out compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered vehicles to ease the transportation cost of civil servants.

Although the Federal Government indeed dropped a few CNG vehicles, the number is tantamount to a drop of water in the ocean; it has made no impact.

Most state governments are still not forthcoming with the payment of the new wage, except nine states that have agreed to pay the amount or even increased it.

For instance, Lagos State has approved N85,000; Rivers N85,000; Bayelsa N80,000; Akwa Ibom N80,000; Niger N80,000; Oyo N80,000; Ogun N77,000; Delta N77,500; and Kebbi N75,000.

The unwillingness of the FG and most state governments to implement even the N70,000 has annoyed the NLC into giving notice of industrial action beginning from December 1st, 2024.

Do not forget, in a country where a family-size loaf of bread is close to N2,000 and a bag of rice is N100,000 or more, is N70,000 realistically a living wage for anybody? Just thinking aloud!

Ogoni: Presido, let the largesse go round!

Since Monday, when President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, through a statement released by his Spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, paid tribute to the late “Ken Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni martyrs,” there have been divergent reactions.

Part of the statement issued by Onanuga read: “We honour their memory, recognising the sacrifice made and pledging to strive for a future characterised by peace, justice, and sustainable development for all communities, particularly those in the Niger Delta.”

Reassuring as the tribute sounded, it brought to mind the continued agitation in parts of the country over perceived injustice that has continued to gain ground despite verbal proclamation to the contrary.

Read also: We will address the grievances of Ogoniland, others- Tinubu

The major plank of agitation in the Southeast geopolitical zone of the country, for example, is an offshoot of the perceived injustice that has gained ground over the years.

Many innocent citizens have been killed over the years for speaking up against what they perceived as injustice against them and their people.

In a video circulating on social media, Omoyele Yele Sowore, a human rights activist, pointedly said that there was a written document against the Igbos of the South East.

Sowore not only deplored the ill-treatment meted out to the people by successive governments and administrations, he said, if he were president today, he would go to the East and make a national apology to them.

President Tinubu’s tribute to the Ogoni martyrs was reassuring, and the pledge “to strive for a future characterised by peace, justice, and sustainable development for all communities” is very presidential!

The Ogonis were standing up against the oil exploitation on their land; their environment was badly degraded and devastated without compensation. To make matters worse, those who rose up to speak were clamped down upon, and many lost their lives. Some were maimed forever.

Ledun Mitee, former leader of the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP), speaking on Channels Television Wednesday, said that over 2000 people were massacred in Ogoniland during the period of the agitation.

Today, agitations are oozing out from many parts of the country, hindering the real development of Nigeria.

Now that it appears that there is an awakening consciousness of the atrocious deeds done ‘yesteryear’, would it not be commendable for the Federal Government to go the whole hog to, once and for all, right all the wrongs?

Let the presidential largesse go round, please!