…As controversy still trails Rivers’ bloody rerun
The poor outing of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) since the coming of Mahmood Yakubu as its chairman reminds one of the Maurice Iwu days when many believed that the electoral umpire sold itself to some elite that determined the outcomes of elections.
Just like the days of Iwu as INEC chairman when critics believed that elections were neither free nor fair, and even the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua acknowledged that the 2007 presidential election (supervised by Iwu) that brought him to power was not credible, every election conducted by Yakubu’s INEC so far has been mired in controversy. From Kogi to Bayelsa to Edo to Ondo to Rivers, the story has been much the same, with one word trailing virtually all the elections – INCONCLUSIVE!
It was so in Kogi and Bayelsa States. In Edo, the governorship election first suffered postponement before it was eventually held, fuelling suspicion that the eventual outcome of the election was predetermined. The controversy that surrounded the recent governorship election in Ondo State is yet to abate, while the heightened tension in Rivers State over re-run of National and State Assembly elections is still hanging over the state like a heavy cloud.
In the Rivers re-run election, despite deployment of thousands of security agents, high level of violence was recorded resulting in casualties.
According to police report, Alkali Mohamed, deputy superintendent of Police (DSP), Mobile Unit 48, and his orderly were killed by hoodlums in Ujju village, near Omoku, and beheaded; police vehicle conveying them and weapons were snatched.
The report also states that three policemen escaped, while five others went missing in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area (ONELGA), where Felix Obuah, chairman of Rivers State PDP, hails from.
Meanwhile, the two major parties in the state, PDP and APC, have continued to allege massive irregularities in the polls, bringing to the front burner the question of INEC’s independence in the Yakubu dispensation.
Earlier, Governor Nyesom Wike accused the police and army officers of killing three PDP members (two in Bodo-Ogoni in Gokana Local Government and one in Tai-Ogoni Local Government Areas, respectively); and that the security agents assisted APC members to hijack electoral materials.
In a statement issued in Abuja, Dayo Adeyeye, the PDP national publicity secretary, claimed that the party was in possession of all the results as announced at the polling units and that it was clear the PDP had won. He rejected the declaration of Magnus Abe as the winner of Rivers South East Senatorial District because “no election was held in the area”.
But countering, Dakuku Peterside, director general, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and Wike’s opponent in the 2015 election, told journalists at the APC secretariat in Port Harcourt that INEC announced the results without including the one from Emohua Local Government Area and that the results had also not been completely compiled in Etche Local Government Area before Sekibo was declared winner.
Analysts’ views
Balanle Asimolowo, an Abuja-based political commentator, told BDSUNDAY that the elections conducted under Maurice Iwu were overturned by tribunals because the erstwhile INEC chairman refused to be intimidated by politicians who wanted him to sway election outcome in their favour and that he received countless death threats for refusing to bow to the powers that be.
According to her, Nigerians are witnessing inconclusive elections under Mahmood Yakubu because the former secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETF) is afraid of political gladiators, particularly within the ruling APC, hence he is cautious not to take decision that would put his life in danger.
“Iwu’s idea was ‘don’t expect favour from me. I will announce result based on what is available before me; you cannot intimidate me to announce contrary result in your favour. If you have issues with the result go to the tribunal and sort it out’. Iwu even received death threats for not announcing result in favour of powerful politicians; and Mahmood may be facing similar challenges right now. It is a difficult thing to be INEC chairman in Nigeria,” she said.
“Our system is the problem. I would have also supported the establishment of an Electoral Offences Commission like several Nigerians but the same system that is impairing the EFCC would still affect it. We need to start respecting our values as a people; we should stop celebrating people who became rich by stealing our collective wealth. We must also stop joking with serious matters. Until we begin to build institutions and not strong men, we will continue to have problems with elections in the country. It is not about Mahmood,” she further said.
Following the ugly development in the re-run election in Rivers, Ebenezer Babatope, a chieftain of the PDP, described President Muhammadu Buhari as a specialist in election rigging who will be on the negative side of history.
While scoring INEC under Yakubu very low, Babatope told BDSUNDAY that the results of Kogi, Edo and Ondo States governorship elections show clearly that President Buhari is comfortably in charge of the commission and that he would not stop at anything till he makes Nigeria a one party-state.
“That Buhari is using INEC to rig election is clear to all, unless those who prefer to turn their eyes the other way for personal political consideration. We know how the Edo and Ondo governorship elections were rigged. The President is rigging election comfortably unchallenged,” he said.
“But I have bad news for the President: election riggers always suffer in the long run; go and check the history of leaders who specialise in election rigging, they usually end on the wrong side of history. Let him continue to use security agents and INEC to rig elections because opposition parties are helpless; but history will judge him,” he said.
But Jumoke Anifowoshe, daughter of the late Adekunle Ajasin, the first civilian governor of old Ondo State and former state chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), disputed the position, saying that there was no evidence supporting the claims in some quarters that President Buhari has been rigging elections since he assumed office.
“We still have the police and other security agents to thank for how the Rivers’ election went; because prediction was worse than what we eventually witnessed. INEC should be given maximum support by Nigerians. I don’t believe in the view that the presidency is influencing INEC because if that is true, the PDP would not have been able to win as it did in the Rivers’ re-run,” she told BDSUNDAY.
According to her, the Rivers’ re-run election would have been bloodier if thousands of security operatives had not been deployed there, arguing that the FG must devise a means to punish anyone involved in electoral violence and malpractices, no matter how highly placed in society.
Exonerating INEC from Nigeria’s current political violence while laying the blame on politicians’ doorstep, she said the peaceful conduct of the recent Ondo State gubernatorial election, which saw the emergence of Rotimi Akeredolu of the APC, proved that the umpire was not to be blamed for the desperation of politicians.
“INEC is trying as far as I am concerned. But I am more concerned for the innocent people who lose their lives after politicians would have incited them to cause violence. When two elephants fight, it is the grass that will suffer. But the electorates who are the grass should tell politicians that the grass is no longer green enough to withstand their fight. They should not fight because of any politician,” she said.
“The work of election tribunal should include trying and punishing politicians and their followers who commit electoral offences, doing so will bring sanity to Nigeria’s electoral culture. But INEC is trying its best,” she said.
Abubakar Momoh, a professor at the Lagos State University (LASU), told BDSUNDAY that unless the FG urgently establishes an Election Offences Commission (EOC), where offenders can be tried as recommend in the Justice Muhammadu Uwais’ report, Nigerian politicians will continue to be bloody in their quest for political relevance.
The Justice Uwais’ report recommended that special prosecutorial body to be known as Electoral Offences Commission should be established to work independently in the arraignment and prosecution of electoral offenders. This will include offences arising from failings of INEC before, during and after voting day.
“From Kogi to Bayelsa; from Edo to Ondo; and now Rivers State, it is evident that we have not matured in our democratic process; as we kept going round the circle of immaturity in our electoral development; and the reason why we are where we are is because politicians know that they can get away with electoral offences and until we address this, we will remain like this,” he said.
NATHANIEL AKHIGBE
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