Nigerians can heave a sigh of relief now that the prolonged and stressful 2019 general elections have almost come to an end. Whereas those who triumphed in the polls are celebrating their win; some of the losers are currently preoccupied with the thought of what went wrong and their next line of action.
Leaving out Rivers and Adamawa states where the elections are yet to be concluded, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, may be beating its chest that it has given Nigerians the free, fair and credible polls they yearned for.
Though INEC, as a body in charge of the periodic renewal of the mandate of political office holders in Nigeria has said repeatedly that there is no perfect election anywhere across the globe, the way it conducted the 2019 elections after four years of preparations has become a subject of debate across the country and among stakeholders.
While the commission is being applauded in some quarters; it is being vilified by those who felt that the Prof. Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC had squandered the opportunity to improve on the gains the commission recorded in 2015 under Prof. Attahiru Jega.
The manner in which INEC conducted the 2019 polls has also raised some issues that if objectively addressed, may lead to the advancement of the nation’s democratic process.
There is a popular maxim that preparation is the key to success; INEC did not meet the expectations of many Nigerians because of lack of adequate preparation before the commencement of the general elections.
Doubts were expressed by some concerned Nigerians about INEC’s readiness for the polls but such doubts were dismissed by the commission with its constant assurances that it was fully ready for the conduct of the polls.
However, the unexpected happened some hours to the Presidential and National Assembly elections and the exercise was postponed from its February 16 date. This singular action actually did some damages to the psyche of Nigerians as it dampened their enthusiasm to further participate in the voting process.
As expected, when people get disillusioned; it requires additional efforts and unrelenting voter-education to restore their confidence in the electoral process but the commission was unprepared to embark on such rigorous task.
Hence, the backlash of the postponement of the election on the eve of February 16 was voter-apathy which continued throughout the election period.
Even though President Muhamadu Buhari , did promise to sanction those that were responsible for the hitch, nothing has been said about it till date.
INEC’s excuses that logistic problems were responsible for its inability to hold the election as scheduled was a confirmation of the fact that the commission as presently constituted is in dire need of decentralization and restructuring.
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Some of the stakeholders who are currently reviewing the conduct of the elections are advocating decentralization and restructuring of the electoral body’s operations in order to enhance its performance.
On the other side of the isle is INEC’s penchant to declare elections inconclusive, which has done more harm than good to the nation’s democracy. Some analysts contend that it is a ploy to satisfy the whim of the ruling All progressives Congress, APC, and its candidates.
Also, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, shares the same sentiment, noting that INEC regularly pronounces elections inconclusive in order to give undue advantage to the candidates of the ruling party.
Prior to the just concluded general elections, INEC under Yakubu had conducted governorship polls in Bayelsa, Anambra, Kogi, Edo, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun states. Of these states, Bayelsa and Osun were declared inconclusive.
The Next Edition recalls that Governor Seriake Dickson of PDP was ahead of Timipre Sylva of APC in Bayelsa before the contest was declared inconclusive by INEC. It was the same scenario in Osun governorship poll where the PDP candidate was leading the APC’s candidate before the electoral umpire declared the contest inconclusive.
What transpired in the just-concluded elections seems to validate the claims of PDP. During the March 9, 2019 governorship elections, INEC set the unenviable record of declaring elections in six of the 29 states inconclusive. Apart from Plateau, the affected states were places that the candidates of the PDP were ahead of their APC’s counterparts.
For instance, in Bauchi State, the governor-elect, Bala Mohammed of the PDP had to go through the rigors of rerun to win the governorship poll. In the first ballot, the governor-elect scored 469,512 votes against the APC’s Governor Mohammed Abubakar who polled 465,453 votes but the contest was declared inconclusive.
In Adamawa, Umaru Fintri of the PDP garnered 367, 471 votes while Governor Jubrila Bindow of the APC scored 334,995 votes, INEC declined to pronounce Fintri winner because the 32, 476 votes margin was less than 40,988 cancelled votes.
Similarly, in Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom of PDP polled 410, 576 votes ahead of APC’s Emmanuel Jime who got 329,022 votes. It was the same situation in Sokoto and Kano states. Governor Aminu Tambuwal of PDP polled 489, 558 votes, while Aliyu Ahmed of APC got 486,145 votes.
Abba Yusuf of PDP scored 1,014,474 votes in Kano ahead of the eventual winner, Umar Ganduje who scored 987,819 votes in the first ballot. Plateau was the only state where the APC’s candidate, Governor Solomon Lalong of APC was leading his PDP counterpart, Jeremiah Useni before the election was declared inconclusive. It was APC 583, 255; PDP 538,326 votes before the rerun.
Experts argue that the doctrine of inconclusiveness of elections in Nigeria introduced by the present INEC has exposed the commission as a partial umpire. A legal practitioner, Mr. Olajide Yesufu is among those that hold this view.
He said, “In the application of this self imposed and strange principle of margin of votes, INEC has been found to be as insincere as it is inconsistent. INEC applies the principle usually to tilt the pendulum of victory in an election in favour of the APC or favoured candidate. Whenever APC seems to be at the receiving end, INEC usually fails to apply the principle.
“For instance, in the bye-election to fill the vacant seat of Lokoja, Kogi Federal Constituency last year, triggered by the death of Buba Jibrin, Haruna Isah was declared winner having polled 20,860 votes as against Bashir Abubakar of the PDP who scored 14, 845 votes. The margin of win was 6,900 votes. The election was marred by violence such that 19,860 votes were cancelled. INEC did not declare the election inconclusive but proceeded to declare the APC candidate winner. That is the level of arbitrariness and selectiveness of INEC in the application of the unknown principle,” he said.
A source referred The Next Edition to what some people described as ‘the Kano show of shame’, where the redeployment of top police officers could not prevent the violence that marred the rerun election conducted in one local government of the state, yet Ganduje was declared the winner of the election.
Other Nigerians who expressed deep concern over the negative effect of inconclusive elections to the nation include Assistance Inspector General of Police, AIG, Operations, Mr. Babatunde Ogunyanwo and a cleric, Temitope Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, Lagos.