The office of chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) issued a public statement over the weekend to the effect that the chief electoral officer of Nigeria does not intend to contest for President in the forthcoming general election in 2023.
There is nothing oxymoronic about the statement. In a normal environment and under normal circumstances, there will be no basis for such a public disavowal. Who does not know that an election-conducting officer is not also a contestant in the same election? But this is 2022 Nigeria. The All Progressive Congress (APC) is in government. And Muhammadu Buhari is the President.
The communication from INEC said the very thought that the chairman of the election management body will contest for office in the election (already being organized by himself) is “preposterous.” That, of course, is their opinion. There is nothing preposterous about such possibility in Nigeria of the moment.
Even with the statement from INEC, the matter is not yet closed. The possibility of the chief electoral officer of the country transmuting midway from an umpire to a contender in the presidential election is still very much alive. What the INEC folks do not seem to realise yet is that it is not in their hands. If by mid-week a collection of 124 groups that had failed to gain registration as political parties put heads and hands together and raise N100 million and proceed subsequently to the headquarters of the APC to buy the ever-available nomination form for Professor Mahmood Yakubu and ask him to contest for the presidential ticket, what will he do? Take note that, in this matter, as things presently stand, there does not seem to be provision for refusal by anyone lucky to have the N100 million nomination form hung on his neck. Should this scenario play itself out, the man will, willy-nilly, gear up for what has become a journey without clear destination.
The people at INEC or for that matter anybody else should, therefore, not delude themselves that their chief executive is out of the race yet, just because they see such prospect as preposterous. Anyone who says that is not possible has obviously not woken up to the reality of what is possible in Nigeria under APC. The decision of who contests for the presidential nomination of the ruling party does not seem to lie with individuals, especially if they are not known members of the APC. The decision lies more with the nondescript groups brandishing N100 million drafts, clumsily placed on their hands, to go to the APC secretariat to purchase presidential nomination forms. This is where Nigeria has found itself.
These days, there is always a fluid group of Nigerians without address, with loose cash in hand looking for who to buy APC nomination form for. Once the amorphous moneybags identify you as the chosen beneficiary of their largess, you are in for it. For good measure, the APC now runs the proverbial open-door policy. Any moment any such group shows up with the enchanting N100 million, the doors of the party are flung open and the form is issued to them in whatever name they desire. So far, nobody has refused the magic offer. As it seems, once the form is purchased in your name, you are programmed for the journey to the next level, whether alive or dead, nobody knows yet.
On the face of it, the chief electoral officer of the country may seem an unlikely contender in an election he is setting up. If, however, you still think such a prospect is far too remote, consider the fact that Dr. Godwin Emefiele, governor of the Central Bank of the country, has been bitten by the dangerous bug and he is presently speaking in tongues. What the man, an otherwise brilliant man, is saying as explanation for how he got himself in the mess, makes no sense to anyone.
By function and by placement, the governor of the Central Bank is quite removed from prospects of political contamination. Ordinarily. He is by far, more consequential to the survival of the whole country and its economy than most other public officials, including, to some extent, the President. If then such a prime officer of the state is currently ensnared in a grim dance of self-destruction in the name of purchasing APC nomination form to run for President, which other hitherto non-partisan public functionary is safe?
The implication of the curious drama of every prime public servant now being a prospective contender for President, with a broom thrust in their hand, is truly grim for the country. The meaning is that, under the government of APC, there is no more neutral prime state functionaries. Every officer of the state is a closet APC member, either by choice or under duress. This is a most dangerous form of attack on the foundation of a state and it should be condemned. APC is not and will not be the end of the Nigerian state. Hopefully.
There is nothing APC sees in Dr. Emefiele that it cannot find inside its fold. If, however, the party believes that Dr. Emefiele is the ultimate profile of the citizen it wants as President of Nigeria, for God’s sake, could the party not have prevailed on him to leave the sanctity of the CBN so that he would duly focus on becoming President? The fault is not entirely with Dr. Emefiele. The problem is substantially with the APC government. The whimsical proclivity to corrode everything and every institution that was held sacrosanct in the society has become an uncomplimentary character of the APC as a party and a government.
It was extremely perplexing reading the comments from Dr. Emefiele himself on the saga of the purchase of the APC presidential nomination form for him. He even thanked the “rice farmers” who he said raised the N100 million to purchase the form for him. Thereafter, he proceeded to assure the country that he had not made up his mind on seeking the party nomination for President but that he was still thinking about it. Can you imagine that? Then he dropped the most common dishonest line by Nigerian politicians: he was waiting for God to tell him what to do.
It has become obvious that if God refuses to adjust his pace and start prompt visitation of His sanctions on Nigerian politicians who use His name in vain, they will put Him in bigger trouble. Meanwhile, with all the political dust around him, Dr. Emefiele sits pretty at his desk at the apex bank. And that is very fine by President Buhari and the APC.
Interestingly, while the rice farmers were coming back from the APC secretariat with Emefiele’s form in their bag, another group whose exact composition has not been made known, arrived the same liberal APC bazaar, where they paid their own N100 million and purchased the presidential nomination form for Akinwunmi Adesina, currently president of the African Development Bank in Cote d’Ivoire and former Minister of Agriculture. Something must be going on at the APC.