By Sufuyan Ojeifo
In Monday’s opening ceremony of the caucus meeting of the All Progressives
Congress (APC), broadcast live from the party’s national secretariat,
Abuja, President Muhammadu Buhari reacted fully to the Independent
National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) postponement of the presidential
and national assembly election, 48 hours earlier.
The convergence of top-echelon APC members provided a very good
opportunity for Mr. President to ventilate his disappointment and anger at
what he read as incompetent management of the critical electoral process
by the Commission. It was clear that Buhari spoke to the issue of
postponement from his heart.
Dropping his prepared speech, he spoke ex-tempore, after the national
chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, had rambunctiously taken the electoral
body and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the cleaners.
As chairman of the ruling party and a critical stakeholder in the
election, Oshiomhole, in his trademark, compelling oratory identified and
dealt with the issues.
Oshiomhole took on the INEC whom he accused of colluding with the PDP to
abort the February 16 presidential and national assembly election. That
was not all. He accused the electoral body of plotting to manipulate the
general election against the APC.
For, instance, he claimed the Commission gave prior notice of the
postponement of the February 16 election to the PDP. These were all grave
allegations. Nobody should fault Oshiomhole for leveling these serious
allegations, especially if there is no specific evidence to conclusively
counter them.
I have read the quick riposte by the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, wherein he said: “This is a very
surprising statement considering the fact that the Federal Government
controls every institution and agency involved in the electoral process,
including the CBN, Nigerian Air Force, and Aviation authorities, among
others.”
Dogara had continued: “We are also very familiar with the pressure brought
on INEC by top government officials and APC leaders to go ahead with the
elections despite not being adequately prepared…. We are also aware the
APC wanted the INEC chairman to conduct elections in some States and
postpone in other States so as to have staggered elections. It should
also be noted that the areas that would have been affected by inadequate
delivery of materials were PDP strongholds.”
These accusations and counter accusations are the stuff that political
confrontations are made of. Oshiomhole was right to throw his devastating
punches at the PDP while Dogara was in apple-pie order to deliver his
counter punches at the APC. The development has tweaked and livened up the
political terrain.
In fact, it appears that 2015 events are repeating themselves. Then the
ruling PDP was accusing the opposition APC of collaborating with the INEC
and enjoying the electoral body’s sympathy. The Jonathan administration
was even pressured to remove the then INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru
Jega, just as Buhari had been called upon to sack Professor Mahmoud
Yakubu.
Clearly, many Nigerians have not forgotten the shameful protest by Elder
Godsday Orubebe (then a cabinet minister) at the collation centre,
accusing Jega of bias for APC’s candidate (Buhari). It does appear all
those scenarios are being re-enacted. How so similar! How so real! The
eventual bigger picture could just end up being a classic replay of the
2015 electoral saga, from the way things are panning out.
With the goodwill the APC enjoyed then as an underdog or whipping boy in
2015, the goodwill the PDP, as opposition or underdog, appears to be
enjoying, Oshiomhole was right to take on the INEC and the PDP in the
manner he did, sparing no jabs. But to those who are not politically
discerning or versed in the dynamics of electoral contests, Oshiomhole
was, perhaps, only crying wolf where none existed.
I do not think Oshiomhole was playing to the gallery or putting up an act
to veil APC and the Presidency’s actual feelings or positions. I think
Oshiomhole was serious about his claims. And, I think he was right to have
verbalized them the way he did. This is a power game where winners take no
prisoners. If I had doubted the sincerity of Oshiomhole’s histrionics,
every modicum of doubts dissipated immediately Buhari began to ventilate
his anger.
It was clear Buhari was going to be frank and obtrusive when he chose to
speak ex-tempore. He had effectively adopted and deployed the speech of
Oshiomhole as an anchor to further harangue the opposition parties and
those who had perfected plots to perpetrate electoral malpractices during
the rescheduled series of election.
Apparently unconvinced by the reasons offered by INEC in postponing the
February 16 election a few hours to the commencement of the exercise, the
president who noted that all funds required by the commission were made
available, assured that the development, which led to the poll
postponement would be investigated at the end of the election.
While I don’t see anything wrong in that or in the declaration by the
president that he was disappointed at the seeming incompetence of the
electoral body, as it was within his constitutional powers to cause
investigation of INEC’s perceived failure and within his rights to comment
on how he feels about the let-down by government agencies to deliver on
their mandates, there were areas of the president’s speech which I
consider extreme and tendentious.
The declaration to expressly direct the nation’s security agencies to be
ruthless against ballot box snatchers or the threat to influential
political leaders who attempt to lead their supporters to snatch ballot
boxes during the election that they should be ready to do that at the
expense of their life is, to me, a resort to jungle justice. That part of
the speech and other similar aspects that tended to reinforce the theme of
jungle justice was not presidential or statesmanlike.
I say no to Mr. President on that outlandish declaration. I can
understand his pains and frustrations at electoral manipulations. I
remember the fate that he suffered on that score in the 2003, 2007 and
2011 presidential elections until 2015 when he won, defeating an incumbent
to clinch the presidential prize. I remember the statement credited to him
ahead of the 2015 election to the effect that the dog and the baboon would
be soaked in their blood if what happened (rigging) in the 2011
presidential election was allowed to repeat itself in 2015.
I know the celebrated statement was a product of frustration with a
compromised system that could not deliver justice. And, having had the
opportunity to be president, I had expected Mr. President to encourage a
process that would have culminated in a reform of our nation’s electoral
system in all its ramifications. For instance, the Electoral Act
Amendment Bill, making the use of card readers mandatory should have been
signed into an Act.
In any case, the INEC must be commended for administratively making it
obligatory for only holders of recognizable permanent voter cards to vote
on Election Day. It is part of effort to bolster the integrity of the
process. This will make it easy for winners and losers of the series of
election to accept the outcomes.
This is the ultimate, reasonable expectation from the electoral process.
Any mischief that circumvents this reasonable expectation should be cured
through the laid-down procedures circumscribed by extant laws. Nobody is
permissible or justifiable to issue illegal order that ballot snatchers
should be shot on sight. Mr. President lost me on that score.
There are laws to take care of electoral malpractice, especially
Sectionn129(4) of the Constitution which prescribes a two-year
imprisonment for offenders. What the president should have done or said
was to declare that he would deploy the power of his office to ensure that
perpetrators of electoral malpractices are expeditiously prosecuted and
sanctioned. Anything short of this is a retreat to Hobessian state of
nature and a resort to unconscionable and desperate illegality, as Mr.
President had indicated in his speech at the APC caucus meeting. I hope he
will not keep fidelity with his avowed intention or directive.
· Ojeifo contributed this piece via ojwonderngr@yahoo.com