The dirty game called politics is getting messier by the day, courtesy of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Recession notwithstanding, INEC defiantly released its timetable for the “far away” general elections of 2019. Can you imagine?
With uncommon enthusiasm, its National Commissioner, South-West, Solomon Soyebi, told us February 16, 2019, had been chosen as the date for the presidential and National Assembly elections. The governorship and state assembly elections come up two weeks later on March 2.
We wonder who INEC intends to impress with this timetable. The commission has already bitten off more than it can chew before 2019. Yet, its timetable did not say anything about the governorship elections bound to hold in Anambra State, November 2017, Ekiti State, June 2018, and Osun State, August 2018.
What about the avoidable flaws that dogged its past elections? No word on them either. Clearly, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu’s INEC is a far cry from Prof. Attahiru Jega’s. The former has an uncanny appetite for “inconclusive” elections. Its record in this regard is incredible and ridiculous.
Even the ones that it beat its chest for being “concluded” are still subject of embarrassing litigations and controversies. INEC is at any given time either at the election tribunal or in court. That is never the case in societies that cherish rules and regulations.
And with that repulsive record, Yakubu is plunging headlong to conduct elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states in that order. The release of the 2019 election timetable is schemed to hike the anxiety in our tension-soaked polity.
That timetable is the game changer needed to divert attention and get us occupied. It is to get us away from seriously attending to the hardship in the land. But Soyebi vehemently disagreed. He insisted the itinerary was released two weeks ago to “ensure proper planning by the commission, political parties, security agents, candidates and all stakeholders.”
Now, see how “well prepared” INEC is. It is still consulting to appoint Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in over 20 states. The commission is giving adequate room for suspicious speculations, hearsay and the like.
Its past activities, actions and inactions were in the least disgusting and deplorable. Its deficiencies were unexplainable, because they were avoidable, yet it opted to fall flat into them.
The governorship elections it conducted in Kogi, Edo and Ondo states were bitter testimonies. These polls that exposed INEC on all fronts and ripped open its sore defects.
We were shamelessly treated to a legion of inconclusive elections. Rerun elections in Rivers and Imo states and area councils in Abuja fall into this category. They gave the impression that INEC was ill-prepared. It was always at the receiving end.
We dare not forget the aberration in Kogi State. It was highly nauseating. That governorship election in November 2015 after the death of Abubakar Audu was out of place with the Constitution. It was something not of this planet, but from the moon.
Audu was former governor. He came back to contest for the same position. But the unexpected happened while election results were coming in. He was actually leading when he dropped dead.
The situation that his death threw up was never envisaged by the writers of our Constitution. They never saw that in their crystal ball while drafting the Constitution.
All the same, we made nonsense of the situation. It was not handled well by stakeholders, particularly, INEC. Its actions on the logjam raised serious doubts and suspicion. Since then, Kogi State has never been the same again.
After the death of Audu, since there was no provision for such eventuality in the Constitution, what options did we have then? The nearest would have been for his running mate, James Faleke, to step in. But the powers that be disagreed. They vowed not to allow that to happen.
Audu did not run alone, he couldn’t have. He ran with Faleke. They had a joint ticket. That ticket, not Audu alone, was winning the election before death came calling. His death ought not to have truncated the ticket.
INEC, in its warped wisdom, upturned that. It even allowed Yahaya Bello to contest without a running mate. Faleke saw that as an absurdity. He went ahead to contest that at the election tribunal. However, from the tribunal, through the Appeal Court to the Supreme Court, Bello’s election was upheld. That judgment is a huge drawback on our fragile and wobbling democracy.
These inadequacies and others are still staring Yakubu’s INEC in the face. The commission cannot run away from its shortcomings. We are not convinced concerted efforts are being made to tackle these failings.
INEC must not go into the elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun with all these limitations. The commission should not give the impression that it is helpless in the face of all these tragedies.
We don’t want to believe the commission is being tele-guided from somewhere, somehow. We don’t want to agree with “pessimists” and doubting Thomases that Yakubu’s hands are tied. There are suggestions over the elections in Rivers, Edo and Ondo states that lend heavy credence to this assertion.
These pessimists, you cannot beat them. They are mischievous. They are convinced these elections were tilted and tainted. And that Yakubu has lots of explanations to make before conducting another election.
They genuinely fear a gory repeat performance in the coming elections. They particularly cite Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states as the next ports of call for INEC. That the commission is determined to unleash on these states what it did to others before them.
And the body language from these states indicates INEC will not have an easy ride this time around. That is the promise of all the critical stakeholders in these states.
They are prepared to defend their votes with all the strength in them. And they are taking every precaution to that effect. They abhor the Rivers, Edo, Ondo and Kogi treatment. They hate it with passion.