Elections and the bigger picture

Irrespective of your political or party leanings all right thinking Nigerians must all agree that the regretful events that were recorded during the 2019 elections still does not represent the Nigeria of our dreams. The Saturday 23rd February elections was obviously marred by killings, ballot burning, hostage taking and violence in every form imaginable. Several lives were lost – police count says 16 fatalities nationwide, but other reports state that 15 people were killed in Rivers state alone.There were stories of politicians laying siege on INEC collation centres or holding INEC staff hostage in several states.

The mother of all ills during this election is the fact that there are allegations that both the military and the police have been overtly or covertly involved in laying sieges or burning ballot boxes or fomenting violence. Nigerians have too many questions to ask about what is going on: How does Demola a known OPC thug beat the movement restrictions and in broad day light move to a given location in Lagos to burn ballot boxes in full glare of the voters? How come there were no policemen in the vicinity on election day? How come we have not heard about any action taken subsequently by the Nigerian police despite the fact there are videos of Demola in hospital and there were videos of the scene. How do we read on social media that Rotimi Amaechi has used his military might to detain an INEC official in Rivers state and no one is rebutting this? Even if it is a rumour or fake news does this not warrant a statement from INEC or the police or even the army itself? How come social media has carried the fact that Rochas Okorocha has detained an INEC official in Imo State with the help of the Commissioner of police and no one has said it is not true – not Rochas, not the police, not INEC and not the military. How could a Youth Corper in Anambra state be abducted from her duty post in broad day light and later resurfaces and the story end there – Who abducted her? Why was she abducted? What is the police doing about this?

There are stories of parts of Lagos where thugs took the polling booth and made sure you did not vote unless you were there to vote for a named party of their choice. This is in Lagos, not a rural area. How does this happen? I thought policemen were deployed to all polling units? Elections in Lagos have also been escalated to a tribal war between the Igbos andYorubas. The word on the street is that votes from parts of Lagos with high Igbo residents’ density had a lot of voter suppression with ballot boxes burnt or Igbo names deleted from the voter register or mayhem caused by thugs of Yoruba extraction. This is surely not a good dialectic and should not be encouraged. Some politicians have prior to the elections made inflammatory statements that bandies tribal sentiments as a reason to vote for one party or the other. Obviously, people believe that this has played out on election day.

In my view the loss of lives and property is bad enough, but what constitutes a real danger is the perception or reality that our institutions have been compromised. If the institutions are failing then we can be assured that for as long as institutions are compromised, we would never have free, fair and credible elections. We would also never guarantee the right to life and other freedoms that come with a democracy. So, whilst I am sad that lives have been lost, my greater fear is that if the police and military continue to go to the highest bidder then we can be sure that Nigerian lives will continue to be lost in and out of election season. The deeper consequence of this is that when citizens no longer trust the state to guarantee their security, people will resort to self-help and we must note that anarchy is the next junction after self-help. We already saw this at play when you watch the gory video of the notorious OPC thug Demola being stoned on the street by citizens whose ballot papers he set on fire. Ordinarily, Demola should have been handed over to the police. But this is no ordinary situation, so we are resorting to extraordinary measures.

INEC as an institution needs to be protected, but as it seems neither the police nor the military are giving enough protection to INEC. INEC officials are being held against their will and threatened by political bigwigs. What does this say of a country where the players can beat up the referee in front of the crowd and the same referee is expected to continue being a referee in that same match. Which spectator will trust the outcome of the match? If INEC officials are treated in this manner and perpetrators no matter how highly placed can get away with it, we are not only destroying the fabric of the election umpire but settingdangerous precedent for future elections in Nigeria. By the next election, political parties’will factor into their planning the need to harass INEC officials and have a budget for this activity. By the next election we would have good INEC staff who can’t stand the heat stepping aside whilst those who intend to deal will readily lobby for postings.

Politicians will come and go, but our institutions will remain. Our institutions are the hub of a thriving democracy. Any actions that weaken our institutions will never augur well for the country.

Ayuli Jemide