These days, officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission,
\nespecially its head and chief proponent, Professor Attahiru Jega, will
\nfind it difficult to wear genuine smiles in public, because of the
\nmonumental failure called Anambra. With years of preparations (from the
\nlast elections that brought in sitting Governor, Peter Obi), what the
\npeople of Anambra, and indeed the whole nation, got for gubernatorial
\nelections was, to put it decently, a goof.
\nFears are already being expressed that what happened in Anambra was a
\nprelude to the forthcoming presidential elections. That may be an extreme
\nposition, but opponents of Jega, even within the ruling Peoples Democratic
\nParty (PDP), are uneasy with the prospect of an inconclusive presidential
\nelection in a politically volatile Nigeria.
\nOn television at the weekend, Jega tried to put on the face of a man on
\ntop of the situation, but by Sunday night, it was obvious that Jega’s men
\nin Anambra had bungled big time. With tails between their legs, they
\nfaced the public to declare they could not proclaim a winner, though All
\nProgressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, Willie Obiano, was in an
\nemphatic lead with released results.
\nIf Obiano was gloating over cruising to victory, political foes like Dr.
\nChris Ngige (APC), Comrade Tony Nwoye (PDP), and Dr. Ifeanyi Ubah (Labour
\nParty), were wearing long faces, like the top brass in the Independent
\nNational Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Maitama, Abuja. That
\nis if they were not party to the alleged charade. But beyond the actual
\nelections, there were accusations that thugs were hired from Southwest
\nzone to muscle a particular doctor into power.
\nWith an election that featured a “Made in Japan” doctor, and a “Made in
\nTaiwan” doctor, many did not have to think up the party that could hire
\nthugs from the stronghold of the self-styled leader of Yorubaland. The
\nsame situation is believed to have played out in Ondo and Edo States when
\ngubernatorial elections held there. In one of the states, one player got
\nso brazen he allegedly brought in militants from the Niger Delta to secure
\nvictory.
\nINEC has said it would hold supplementary elections in places where
\nelections were canceled in Anambra as a result of logistic problems. The
\nelection might have been held by the time this piece is published. It
\nhad declared the election inconclusive. That might be INEC’s position,
\nbut the three other gladiators thought and still think otherwise, because
\nthe commission played into their hands, in the full glare of everyone.
\nAccording to the three newfound political friends: “We, Senator Dr. Chris
\nNwabueze Ngige, Dr Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah and Comrade Tony Nwoye, candidates
\nof All Progressives Congress (APC), Labour Party (LP) and Peoples
\nDemocratic Party (PDP) respectively, hereby call for the total
\ncancellation of Anambra State Governorship Election held on the 16th Nov.
\n2013.
\n“We are making this clarion call for total cancellation of the election
\nbecause it was marred by gross irregularities emanating from: gross
\nmanipulation of the Voters Register leading to disenfranchisement of
\nthousands of innocent voters; illegal removal of result sheets, doctoring
\nof the said result sheets and massive removal of ballot booklet and
\nthumb-printing of the said ballot papers; harassment and intimidation of
\nPolling Agents and voters by security officials and party thugs; use of
\nVoters Registers in some Local Government Councils different from the
\nVoters Registers made available to candidates; late arrival of electoral
\nmaterials; and Manufacturing of results in many polling units where no
\nvoting took place.
\n“We are of the candid view that the sham election does not reflect the
\nwishes and aspirations of Anambra voters. Our call for the cancellation
\nof this election is reinforced by the public admission by Professor
\nAttahiru Jega, the INEC chairman that some INEC staff sabotaged the
\nconduct of the Election. This call for the cancellation of the Election
\nwould have been unnecessary if INEC had postponed the conduct of the
\nelection after becoming aware of the sabotage of the election by INEC
\nofficials.”
\nBut bent on the supplementary elections, INEC announced that it would hold
\nthem in over 200 polling units with 113,113 voters. Idemili North Local
\nGovernment Area, one of the strong political bases of Senator Chris Ngige.
\nDetails of the contentious results released, and which integrity has been
\ncalled to question, showed Wiillie Obiano with 174, 710 votes; PDP’s
\nComrade Tony Nwoye 94,856 votes, while Senator Chris Ngige of APC polled
\n93,300 votes.
\nSeeing INEC in the mud, the propaganda machinery of the All Progressives
\nCongress (APC) went its full cylinders, thundering: ”First, the
\nelectoral commission proposed make-up election in only 65 polling units in
\nObosi before scaling things up to a supplementary election ‘in those areas
\nwhere election was cancelled’. But we say, without equivocating, that a
\ntotal cancellation of the election and the organization of a fresh poll,
\nunder the supervision of a credible Resident Electoral Commissioner, will
\nbe acceptable to our party
\n”It is not enough for INEC’s detached Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to
\ntell the nation that an INEC official sabotaged the election in a certain
\npart of the state; he must tell the nation who this fellow is, who he\/she
\nis working for, what is the extent of the damage he\/she has done to this
\nand previous elections, and whether or not he\/she has access to the
\ncommission’s database of voters’ register, which was apparently tampered
\nwith for Saturday’s election.
\n”Prof. Jega must also tell Nigerians why 16 Electoral Commissioners, who
\nmigrated to Anambra days before the election ostensibly to supervise
\nthings, could not ensure the success of an election in a single state,
\nwhen even a polling unit behind the INEC office in Awka did not get voting
\nmaterials till after 9 am on Election Day.”
\nWell, now that the APC has lost out again, with the active connivance of
\nthe INEC officials or otherwise, the newspaper pages and airwaves will
\nwitness a cacophony of clanging cymbals of the party desperate to have a
\nSoutheast State. It was so desperate it sent a known destroyer of Igbo
\nlanded property in Abuja during his infamous demolition exercise to
\nAnambra. But someone who may bear the full brunt of APC’s anger is Jega.
\nBut does he deserve people\u2019s sympathy? Answer to this poser is blowing in
\nthe air.
\n\u00b7 Babatunde, a public affairs commentator, wrote in from Abuja.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
These days, officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, especially its head and chief proponent, Professor Attahiru Jega, will find it difficult to wear genuine smiles in public, because of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-opinions"],"yoast_head":"\n