By SHEDDY OZOENE
As we read this, the results from Saturday’s local government elections in Rivers State are still filtering in. The elections held in spite of the refusal by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to avail the state electoral body an updated version of the state’s voters register. To add to the intrigues, the Police – supposedly acting on a court ruling – abdicated its responsibility and refused to be part of maintaining lawful conduct of the polls.
The elections held all the same and by the time all the results are called, Governor Sim Fubara will surely enter the history books for making a ‘success’ out of the chaos foisted on him by INEC and the Police believed to be acting for vested interests in the state. Former Governor Nyesom Wike, now Minister of the FCT has vociferously led the opposition against the governor and acted up to his promise to make the state ungovernable. Saturday’s election was the latest front in that battle for the political soul of Rivers State.
The chaotic State of our electoral system didn’t start in Rivers State; the rot has been there for over a decade, even if it has deteriorated exponentially in recent years, especially on the watch of Mahmood Yakubu as the nation’s chief electoral umpire.
The charade that went for the governorship election in Edo State has come and gone. It has, quite predictably, been called for Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressives Congress that administers Nigeria’s federal government. Many have advised the losers, especially Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party, not to bother seeking redress at the courts where characteristically, the APC chieftains have urged him to seek further redress.
Asue may be new in the dark waters of Nigerian politics, but he is experienced enough to know that the courts, in this case, are a waste of his time, his resources and peace of mind. As has been proved in our recent history, when members of the ruling APC goad you onto the courts after an electoral heist has taken place, you heed their advice at your peril.
What rankles about the Edo sham election is not only that Governor Obaseki and his protégé, Ighodalo, have been outsmarted by the APC, it is the damning reports by observers that once again, the Independent National Elelctoral Commission, INEC, was hand-in-gloves with those that perpetrated that tragedy that befell the people. The umpire who loves to descend into the arena to subvert the huge public trust invested in it was alleged to have turned the books upside down in favour of its paymaster.
When the Igbo say no dogs eats the bones tied around its neck, INEC had not been established.
Another disgusting aspect of the Edo charade is the narrative that has been promoted to give the impression, obviously false, that most of the established institutions in the state – especially the Benin palace – were opposed to the Ighodalo candidacy. It is not true, even if the narrative was promoted as an alibi, to deflect from the clear subversion of the people’s will. While it is true that Obaseki, like any other governor who is determined to fight godfatherism that was so entrenched in the state, would naturally face stiff opposition, the so-called anger by the Oba’s palace is greatly exaggerated.
The narrative that the Oba’s palace was involved in the political contest serves the interests of the victorious APC but it does so much harm to the state’s foremost traditional institution. And it still shocks every discerning onlooker why the palace would look helpless in the circumstances, keeping mute while its reputation as the father of all, is being dragged down. It owes its children a response, at least to counter that single narrative that can lead Edo people to default assumptions, wrong conclusions and a fatal misunderstanding about their traditional institution.
Elections come with their complexities and their nuances; it will be tragic indeed when the voter in the street is led to conclude that the all-important decision about who governs the state was taken in the Oba’s palace that stands as a refuge for all. And if, perchance, it is true that the palace rejoices at Okpebholo’s victory, then it will share in the fallout if he ends up a bad governor? The problem with such stereotypes of invincibility being weaved around the palace is that it becomes complicit, inadvertently, when things dont turn out as expected.
MAHMOOD’S INEC
There are many similarities between Professor Attahiru Jega and Mahmood Yakubu. Both of them raised the expectation of Nigerians when they were appointed, at different times, as the nation’s chief electoral umpires, and both have ended as monumental disappointments. Jega’s appointment in June 2010 raised expectations that the much-desired credibility would return to the nation’s electoral system. Coming after the general elections of 2007 which even the winner, President Umaru Yar’adua acknowledged were flawed, Nigerias had reasons to place their hope on the former President of ASUU. With impressive academic and civil society credentials, Jega was the best man to deliver on the promises of electoral reform, which President Jonathan had promised. Or so we all thought.
The tenure of Mahmood Yakubu who equally boasts a rich civil society background came with so much expectation, but like Jega, he has turned out one of the most disappointing, soiling his reputation and ending up with a doubtful integrity. At a time the 2015 election was adjudged the worst in the nation’s history, the charade that was the 2023 national elections has taken the all-time record.
The electoral process under Mahmood has so deteriorated that even the state electoral bodies which many accuse of underhand tactics in helping the governors install their preferred choices as local government chairman, have taken cue. On Mahmood’s watch, the state electoral commissions have ended up as mere appendages of governors’ offices. Worse still, what they conduct are mere selections without any pretence to fairness.
As you read this, the results of the yesterday’s local council contests in Rivers state are being awaited. It was a sham in all intents and purposes, partly because the same INEC that had availed other states with the voters’ register decided, this time, to join Nyesom Wike, the minister of the Federal Capital Territory, in his battle against the Rivers state governor, Similayi Fubara. The INEC, believed to be acting Wike’s script, acted to sabotage the election, just like the Nigerian Police that relied on a questionable court judgment in addicting their responsibility of maintaining law and order during the polls.
By the time Fubara calls the election, it may enter the Guinness Books as, perhaps, the most chaotic of such exercises ever conducted, thanks in part to the indiscretions of Mahmood Yakubu’s INEC and the self-serving interests of the Police led by the IG, Kayode Egbetoku.
