Nigeria: When INEC Assumes The Role Of Kingmaker! -By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

Well-meaning Nigerians are relieved that the misconceived bill which sought to impose “a maximum of six months imprisonment or a fine of no more than N100,000” on any Nigerian of voting age who refuses to vote “in all National and State Elections” which surprisingly scaled Second Reading at the House of Representatives recently has been withdrawn. Even the House Speaker, Mr. Abbas Tajudeen, who sponsored the controversial bill easily achieved the realization that it was poorly thought-out and hastened to withdraw it. Indeed, the widespread outrage the bill provoked was duly justified.

How can anyone sit in the comfort of the House chambers and attempt enacting a law that makes voting mandatory without first finding out the factors that watered the growing apathy towards voting? Indeed, there were several informed Nigerians who were ready to go to jail than allow any law to force them to vote.

For several years now, I have not voted in any election in Nigeria. I do not even have a voter’s card and I have no intention of getting one any time soon. My considered opinion is that almost every election conducted in this country now by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) represents a monumental insult to the intelligence of Nigerians.

How can Nigerians defy the elements and waste their precious time and energy to go and cast their votes only for a few people to stay in the comfort of a small room and announce whom they have decided to make the winner? From the hideous revelations that emerge from the various election petitions tribunals and the revolting accounts by election observers, sundry witnesses and the media, voting in this country seems to have become just an instrument for conferring credibility on electoral fraud.

During the 2023 governorship election in Abia State, it took the courage and moral force of the Returning Officer, Professor Nnenna Oti, the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, to ensure that the candidate Abia people voted for was announced the winner. Mrs. Oti told the world that overwhelming pressure was mounted on her from the INEC headquarters to discard the authentic result and announce the concocted version that was authorized by her superiors in Abuja, but she refused, because she did not want to soil her relationship with God whom she had served with sincerity as a Christian.

Today, many people from several states in Nigeria proudly identify Abia as their preferred state because within a very short time, Governor Alex Otti has recorded marvelous achievements in the state and Abia people are celebrating their good fortune daily. What would have been the case if the Returning Officer had bowed to pressure and announced the wrong result? It is on public record that after the 2023 elections, instead of celebrations everywhere when the “winners” were announced, the country was in a very somber and mournful mood, except, perhaps, in Abia State where spontaneous celebrations erupted everywhere because the man they voted for was the man that was declared the winner.

Governor Otti is able to freely work for his people because there are no rapacious godfathers breathing down his neck and making several unreasonable and crushing demands on him as payback for installing him as governor. This should underline for Nigerians the exciting possibilities that credible elections and having public officers duly elected by the people could yield in this country. It also clearly advertises the terrible harm done on the life and progress of Nigeria each time an election is rigged and the corrupt highest bidder who feels no obligations to work for the people is imposed on them. As long as candidates remain fully aware that the electorate retains the power to elect and remove them, they would work to impress the masses and the country would benefit from their efforts.

It can no longer be denied that we have at INEC a slew of unpatriotic characters who lack the capacity to appreciate the sacred and strategic nature of the assignment that has been put in their hands. And so, instead of seeing themselves as impartial electoral umpires whose work is very vital to the survival and development of the country, they brazenly take the liberty to redefine their job and turn themselves into kingmakers who can impose even criminals on the people as leaders with utmost impunity!

Why then should anybody take the pains to dignify this periodic charade INEC organizes in the name of elections?

How long shall this country be burdened by an INEC that the Nigerian people no longer trust? How long shall Nigerians continue to tolerate what appears to be the electoral body’s remorseless determination to perennially sabotage the growth and development of the country and the future of the citizenry through the imposition of incompetent and ethically challenged leaders?

Sadly, INEC has also succeeded in dragging the once hallowed judiciary which should be the last hope of the common man into the same slimy pit of disrepute in which it now proudly wallows. The most common joke among many Nigerians today is: “Go to Court!” This is one term INEC and the morally bankrupt politicians have created and popularized which carries a very injurious connotation that clearly tells the petitioner: Just go there and waste your time and resources!

How to reverse these very unsightly situations that have turned Nigeria into a laughing stock before the rest of the world is what should engage the attention of responsible lawmakers and not seeking to unleash a law to compel the people to dignify the drab joke INEC puts together periodically in the name of elections.

It is too late now to talk about appointing “credible people” to run INEC. Given the amount of money that floods the INEC coffers during elections from government subventions and donations from international agencies, which runs into hundreds of billions of naira (plus the hundreds of millions that allegedly flow into the hands of INEC officials from corrupt and desperate politicians), it has become useless to trust anyone that works in that badly tarnished organization anymore.

The only option open to this country now is to outsource the electronic transmission and collation of the results of the elections to a reputable foreign software development company. Let’s not even bother to mention anything that sounds like “national pride” because none presently exists in this badly sullied country.

This option would offer such a transparent process that anybody with an android phone or a computer can stay anywhere, log onto the INEC website and monitor the progress of the elections. Nobody can now come out tell us about “glitches” which is just an excuse to return to the old, easily corruptible way of conducting elections.

In fact, we can even conduct paperless elections. All it would require would be to provide  laptops connected to the internet at every polling unit. Once somebody thumbs on the face or party log of his preferred candidate, it will register at the appropriate section on the INEC server. This will even gratify the long sought opportunity for Nigerians abroad to participate in our elections.

Why do I prefer a “reputable foreign software development company”? Many foreign companies are now wary of indulging in unethical practices overseas. We all were witnesses some years ago when some foreign companies, like Siemens, Willbros, etc., were involved in ugly bribe scandals in Nigeria. The companies were taken to court in their various home countries and huge fines were imposed on them. But, sadly, after some noise in the media here, nobody heard anything again about any punishment meted out to the Nigerian officials that received those huge bribes from the foreign companies.

I don’t care who wins in any election as long as he is the people’s choice. Recently in America, we saw how Donald Trump who was disliked by the vocal minority swept the polls. Nobody went to court because the Americans trust their electoral system and they know that Trump’s victory indeed represents the will of the majority. Even in many countries in Africa now, free and fair elections are taken for granted.

How long shall Nigeria continue to embarrass itself, the continent of Africa and entire black race with the kind of crude, horrible elections which INEC conducts every now and again? Why must everyone continue to watch passively as a few vile characters at INEC and base politicians continue to ruin the credibility of our electoral system and the judiciary (with disputes over election results) and stagnate growth and progress of the country? How long should Nigeria’s politics remain the dirtiest in the world?

Nigerians can no longer afford to allow an insignificant minority made up of morally bankrupt politicians and unpatriotic and corrupt INEC staff to destroy our organized systems and hold the country to ransom. Every Nigerian must now insist on transparent elections as the first step in the effort to sanitize the country. If the National Assembly members are unwilling to push for a law that removes human interventions from the electoral process, members of their constituencies should organize themselves and recall them – a very simple process, by the way. It is because their determination to remain insensitive to the people’s feelings has so far brought no consequences to them that they persist in it.

During the 2023 elections, INEC went to the National Assembly with so much flourish to get the lawmakers to enact a law making electronic transmission of results mandatory. Many Nigerians applauded and supported the move and the successful passing of the bill sparked off jubilations across the nation. Many Nigerians abroad were so excited that the country was going to experience real democracy for the first time. Several of them bought air tickets and flew to Nigeria to be part of the very exciting experience that signaled the emergence of a new Nigeria. They posted pictures of themselves brandishing their flight tickets on the social media.

But at the end of the day, it was the same INEC that invented   “glitches” and used that as an excuse to relapse into the same old, easily corruptible process of manual transmission and collation of results, thus dashing the hope of the people.

That is why I insist that any election that would allow INEC officials to manipulate the process is not worth anybody’s time.

Nigerians must insist on that. Who conferred on INEC officials the right to choose our public officers for us? Is that not a huge insult? Why are we suddenly witnessing a rash of defections that is threatening to turn Nigeria into a One-Party state? Is it not because of the crushing fear that the ruling party, not INEC, would probably decide who wins or loses in the next elections? Is that not egregious enough in a supposedly democratic country?

I know there are other inhibiting factors like threats, violence and inducements during elections. That can easily be handled for now by cancelling the elections wherever they occur, but let us fix the core problem first, which is, retrieving from INEC the power to impose leaders on us!

Indeed, credible elections are richly rewarding. Nigerians deserve a taste of it and should no longer hang their hopes on the ethical configurations of INEC officials. Let reliable technology help us. Certainly, a new Nigeria is possible, so let’s all rise and work for it.

*Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye, a journalist and writer, is the author of the book, Nigeria: Why Looting May Not Stop” (scruples2006@yahoo.com)