The general elections that will usher in a new set of leaders in Nigeria are just a few weeks away. INEC no doubt is the body saddled with the responsibility to conduct these elections. The way and manner INEC carries out this unique responsibility will determine whether the elections will be free, fair, peaceful and credible. Is INEC ready for this all important national assignment?
Conducting a Free, Fair and Peaceful election is not rocket science. INEC must first and foremost see itself as an unbiased, umpire and must be fair to all the parties and their candidates. INEC will be failing in her duties if she does otherwise.
INEC leadership, its Permanent and ad-hoc staff must not be seen to be working for the ruling party both at state and Federal levels. INEC must not take side or orders from the ruling party in carrying out its assignment. INEC must constantly remind itself that they are on a very important and sensitive national assignment which must be carried out with a high sense of probity and patriotism. INEC must be guided by the fact that election is a contest and in any contest there is always an umpire that must be fair to all by ensuring transparency at all the stages of the contest or elections.
Elections in Nigeria have always been characterised by turgery, vote buying, ballot Box Snatching, Falsification of election figures and results. Some of these electoral vices like violence especially during and after announcing election results are as a result of perceived injustices by the electoral body and the party in power against the opposing parties.
All these electoral vices can be prevented if INEC, by its conducts and pronouncements, shows that it has no preferred Party or Candidates. Our recent experiences in the conduct of elections in Edo, Ekiti and Osun States shows that election rigging has moved away from ballot Box snatching to vote buying, falsification of results from the polling Station to collation centers and finally the announcement of doctored results. This, no doubt, is a recipe for violence.
This is the Area where INEC is in total control and should not allow electoral thieves and vested interests to undermine National Interest. INEC alone cannot handle these vices as some of them are even done with the aid of the security agents who are drafted to election duties to solely enforce the Law. We have situations where the security agents become the party agents and helping the agents of their preferred party to commit electoral offences. This is, to say the least, most shameful and reprehensible. However, Nigeria is expecting a very big change for the better at these 2019 general elections which will be the first to be conducted under President Muhammudu Buhari. The Buhari presidency and the All Progressive Congress [APC] Change Mantra were hinged on war against corruption which they have partially sustained.
President Buhari, no doubt, is a man of integrity even though a lot of things have happened these three and half years of his administration that has dented this much taunted integrity. President Buhari has a golden opportunity to shore up his sagging integrity by giving Nigerians free, fair and credible elections. He must, as a statesman and a patriot, be more concerned with the process of the elections than the outcome. Election rigging is the father of all corruptions and must not be condoned. For a start, he must, as Commander- in- Chief of the Nigeria Armed Forces, give the inspector General of Police clear and unambiguous instructions on the role of the Police which must be only to provide security during the elections. Also, with the involvement of the armed forces in the unusual internal security through the operation python Dance they must be directed not to go beyond the provision of security to Nigerians; they must not intimidate the opposition party members so as to give the ruling party undue advantage over others.
The police and the other members of the armed forces must be reminded that they are agents of the Nigerian state and not APC or PDP Police.
They must bear this in mind and act at all times in the interest of the larger Nigerian nation and not in the interest of a few self-centred politicians. The new inspector General of police, Mr. Adamu Mohamed, must rise to the occasion and prove to Nigerians that he is a well-bred professional sheriff who cannot be cajoled to do the biddings of the ruling party. As the inspector General of police he is the Chief security officer of the nation. He must brief his men [police] and the other members of the armed forces who are to assist in the security assignment not to in anyway interfere with the smooth conduct of the elections.
Their responsibility is to ensure that Nigerians are giving the freedom to choose who is to govern them. They must make sure that nobody no matter how highly placed is allowed to subvert the electoral wishes of the Nigerian people. There must be zero tolerance to turgery, chasing of out of agents of other parties by the agents of the ruling party, a scenario that played out during the Edo, Ekiti, Osun States elections in the full glare of the police, thereby giving the ruling party freedom to alter election figures and results.
Local and international observers must be given unhindered access to all collation centres and copies of results signed by authentic party agents given to them for reference when it becomes necessary. The issue of violation of our national sovereignty by international observers must not be used to deny these observers access to very crucial areas of result collation by those who are hell bent on subverting the electoral wishes of the Nigerian people.
Using the police and other members of the armed forces to intimidate Nigerians before, during and after the elections to enable the ruling party coast to a fraudulent victory through a well thought out rigging plan is on its own the greatest corruption. Electoral corruption is the grandfather of all corruptions. The 2019 general elections is the litmus test of president Buharis integrity and sincerity in his war against corruption.
Election rigging is the grandfather of all corruptions because it is viral and teaches the young ones who just turned eighteen and are participating in voting for the first time get to know that the only way to get what they want in our nation is by hook or crook means. This first lesson of corruption in our national life is what they will grow up with.
President Buhari will write his name in gold if he ensures that he and his party go into these general elections as sportsmen who will play by the rules of the game and take the outcome in the spirit of a sportsmanship. The only way to do this is to ensure that INEC and all the security agents do what is right, and that is being transparent in the distribution of electoral materials, in the voting proper, counting of the votes, and in the collation of votes at the various levels of collation centres, and in the announcement of the final results.
INEC must ensure that at no time in the counting, collation of votes are agents of other parties be driven away. The security agents must make sure that no party or candidate is short changed at these various levels. The returning officers especially the university dons must not collude with fraudulent politicians to drag their names into the mud. They owe the Nigerian nation a duty of uprightness in making sure that election results which are being collated are the actual results as was announced at the polling station and not results being disputed by any of the parties and their candidates. As the leading nation of the black race we must lead by good examples as doing otherwise will be subjecting our nation and its people into global ridicule. President Buhari and the APC must not fail us and if they do, history will certainly not be kind to them.
Iduh, a veteran labour leader, wrote in from Lagos.
