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By Ehichioya Ezomon
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If, by any stretch of the imagination, the political parties and the thousands of candidates were unable to sufficiently mobilise the electorate for the crucial general election, and in particular, the presidential and national legislative balloting on February 16, 2019, the same couldn’t be said of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
At every turn, and in any opportune moment, the electoral umpire was in regular contacts with Nigerians, and the international community, up to the early hours of Friday, February 15.
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Repeatedly, it gave the assurance that the two-part election of February 16 and March 2 would not only hold as scheduled, but also conducted in line with international best practices of freeness, fairness, credibility and acceptability.
Even on Friday when “credible” news filtered in on the social media that the commission had postponed or about to shift the election by some weeks, INEC was quick to issue a rebuttal. It labelled the said adjournment as in the realm of “fake news,” and gave its word, once again, that everything was in place for a smooth and orderly conduct of the poll, as planned.
Hence, nothing could have prepared the citizens for the shocker the Professor Mahmoud Yakubu-headed commission handed down in the wee hours of Saturday, February 16. It’s a back-breaking piece of news no right-thinking and patriotic Nigerian craved for in their enthusiasm to cast their ballots.
As at the time of going to press, INEC had rounded off fielding questions from stakeholders in Abuja, to explain the plausible and believable reasons, besides logistical difficulties, it shifted the poll. But didn’t the electoral body have four years to prepare for the election, without having to put itself in an impracticable position, at the eleventh hour, to deliver materials to the voting precincts?
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For all Nigerians care, it’s an after-thought, even when there were reports of electoral materials going to the wrong places, or “missing” outrightly, like in two senatorial districts of Niger State.
Such mix-ups are not new in the conduct of elections in Nigeria. But what’s unfathomable is a huge mix-up in delivery to many states, and not being able to lift a reasonable quantity of the materials from the Abuja airport.
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With that, it would, indeed, be unreasonable to hold the election in about two-thirds of the 36 states of the federation, and wait for another date to complete the exercise before collating and announcing the results, and declaring and returning the winner.
With the mood in the country, that would be politically suicidal, as “fifth columnists,” accusingly angling to sabotage the system if the poll were held as scheduled, would pounce on the lull provided by INEC to instigate havoc in the country.
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That said, if it were possible, Nigerians would have (and many had) called on Prof. Yakubu to resign for this obvious “inefficiency,” as President Muhammadu Buhari described the scenario, that may have gladdened “saboteurs” of, and laggards in the election.
By the deferment, Yakubu has damaged his reputation as an impartial and unbiased umpire, his “regrets” notwithstanding. Nothing he does henceforth will be taken as credible, and not influenced by external forces in government, opposition or foreign countries that are lately in the eye of the political storm.
However, his resignation or being booted out would not solve the prevailing crisis of confidence; it would worsen it, as a new Chairman of INEC may invariably ask for more time than the one-week rescheduling that Prof. Yakubu has imposed on the nation.
Besides, controversy would arise, immediately, as to the “suitableness” of the person chosen to head the commission. The prerogative of appointing the INEC chair rests with the president, and in this case Buhari.
Being the real overseer of the general election, and a major participant as a candidate, the president would be accused of selecting a “card-carrying” member of his political platform, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to help his cause at the poll.
No matter how apolitical the nominee might be, it would not jell with an agitated opposition, which members had regularly “dreamt and saw” alleged manipulation of the electoral process by the INEC, in cahoots with security agencies, to return the ruling APC to power.
These allegations will not abate in the next six days. Instead, they’re going to intensify in rapidity likely to stoke more crises than would have arisen had the election held on February 16.
Meanwhile, despite the INEC chair’s explanation of taking “full responsibility” to shift the poll, President Buhari and the APC are taking the rap for the action. The opposition had harped on “plans” by the president to postpone the election because of his party’s (APC) fear of being worsted at the poll.
The APC had counter-accused the PDP of the actual planners of such electoral malfeasance, going by history during its 16 years in the saddle that ended in 2015; and Buhari had repeatedly vowed his neutrality, and vouched for a credible conduct of the election.
Yet, the allegations persisted, helped by the surprised shifting of the poll in the wake of an “innocuous” letter written by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), to the INEC, to enrol the barred APC candidates in Zamfara State just days to the election.
In making this request, following his reading of an Appeal Court’s ruling that “reinstated” the eligibly of the candidates, Malami asked the electoral body to grant them time to “catch up” in campaigns with their counterparts in the 73 of the 91 political parties fielding candidates for the election.
Willy-nilly, that’s a tell-tale sign that in the air was an alleged plan by INEC and the Buhari government to shift the election. Add the series of untoward happenings on the eve of the election, and the INEC and government played into the hands of a sceptical opposition doubtful of their readiness and neutrality for the election.
What’s Nigerians’ best bet in the circumstances? It’s to swallow the bitter pill forced down their throats by INEC, and hope that its new date(s) for the election would be sacrosanct, and inviolate, as envisaged by the electoral laws and guidelines, and the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Nothing else would assuage their bruised psyche, and the image of the nation!
* Mr. Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.