Elections at the various levels have been fought and the electoral umpire has declared winners. The declarations have attracted controversy, protests and some Nigerians have maintained that declarations did not reflect the votes cast by the majority of Nigerians. There have been legal challenges in various election petition tribunals. There have also been protests including some women going half-naked in Nasarawa State. Print, electronic and social media discourse still paints a picture of campaigns and unresolved issues. This discourse reviews the expectations, especially from the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission, political parties and persons declared elected after the elections, and the bigger task of nation building. It also reviews the role of the electoral umpire in the task of establishing the truth and electoral reforms.
First, it is a fact supported by empirical evidence that INEC did not live up to expectations, especially its conduct of the presidential election. Its afterthought claims of technical glitches preventing it from fulfilling a fundamental part of electoral administration enshrined in its electoral guidelines, which is the real time uploading of election results is clearly a locution deliberately antithetical to verities apprehended by the intellect. Essentially, it is a lie and cannot be supported by INEC’s own averments and empirical evidence.
INEC repeated the requirement and position of real time uploading of results through its Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, ad nauseam. Being a history professor, one thought that the don repeating and almost swearing by this legal position meant that he took his statements seriously. But when push came to shove, he and INEC failed to upload the results, and instead of being apologetic, INEC started with a claim that it was no longer the legal position. Later, they soft-pedalled on that claim and stated that a technical hitch prevented them from doing what they promised. But when you lie once, you need five to 10 lies to cover your tracks. Wait a minute, INEC was supposed to be independent. But the Minister of Information Lai Mohammed later contradicted INEC when he went on a foreign tour, at the taxpayers’ expense, and stated that there was no hitch but simply that INEC was afraid of being hacked as the reason informing the refusal to do real time uploading of results. So, the ruling party and government had information, not available to the general public. To further the contradiction, INEC in its response to election petitions now states that uploading results in real time is not a mandatory requirement of the law.
When public officials and agencies, paid and run at the taxpayers expense, indulge in this kind of doublespeak and pander not to the public interest, but to the interest of a political party, the government of the day or the interest of a select few individuals, public morality, constitutionalism, the rule of law and the destiny of the youthful population in endangered if such deliberate mischief is not countered and rebuked. This is beyond legalism and abstruse judicialism. It is about a factual callout to an agency and men who made broad daylight categorical statements before the print and electronic media and which was further disseminated by the social media, coming out after they failed, refused and neglected to honour their words and the law, to seek to play on the intelligence of the population by denying what they said. This is unacceptable and the word of an honorable man should be his bond. But since honour seems to be no longer part of the lexicon of Nigerian electoral umpire, respectable and decent Nigerians ought to call them put beyond party lines.
In every political contest, there will be a winner and losers since there is one seat and contestants are many. The contestants invested energy, resources, emotions, etc., in the contest. They expect the umpire to be neutral and credible and follow the declared rules of the game. Following these declared rules in a transparent and credible manner makes it easy for losers to accept that they have lost and live to fight another day. But when the rules are not followed and there are no clear and satisfactory explanations as to why the rules were not followed, it becomes difficult to ask the declared losers to simply file a petition and go home. If the electoral umpire and the winning party did not play by the rules, accusing the declared losers of heating up the polity through their media complaints amounts to beating a child and asking it not to cry. Media statements are constitutional and not forbidden by law.
For the declared winners who claim they want to unite the nation, for every hand to be on deck in the task of nation building and development, if they continue to double down and deny the veracity and mandatory nature of the very laws and rules which their opponents complain about, it will be difficult for the declared winners to lead the task of reconciliation and national healing. There is a world of difference between everyone (declared winner and declared losers) agreeing that the law as declared before the election is the law, but the party accused of violating the law denying that it engaged in violations or bringing plausible reasons as to why it did not violate the law or that there were issues of act of god or acts beyond its control which was not its fault that resulted in violations. One can only ask for forgiveness, reconciliation and healing after acknowledging faults, stating the repentant nature of his mind with a promise never to do it again. Anything short of this even if validated by judicialism and the courts is impunity writ large. No society, as evidenced by the retrogressive nature of our polity and economy will progress on this route. It is a sure road to stagnation, perdition and backward movement.
The late President Umaru Yar’Adua acknowledged the flaws in his election as president and used these flaws as a basis for setting up a reform committee which made far reaching recommendations. The failure to implement the majority of the committee’s recommendations is part of what has led to the current impasse. Every setback, weakness or threat can be converted into opportunities with the appropriate mindset. But living in denial cannot only lead to the repeat of failures and enthroning backwardness.
INEC and the declared winners should come clean, acknowledge the undeniable facts and allow Nigeria to learn from the failures of the last presidential election. If this is not the case, we will reap backwardness, insane impunity and stagnation from the last election.
