The doomsayers’ predictions of Nigeria’s disintegration in an orgy of violence after the general elections of March 28 and April 11 have proved false. Instead of causing break up, the elections recorded some achievements.
The electorate displayed uncommon commitment to peaceful polls just as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deployed the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and card reader technology to maximum use.
So committed were the electorate that even when the card readers failed in some polling units, they accepted postponement to the next day or manual substitutes without disrupting the process.
The result was that, for the first time, a defeated candidate, incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, conceded defeat to President-elect Muhammadu Buhari even before the INEC officially announced the result.
But despite all these milestones, it is not yet uhuru. While Nigerians exhibited a firm commitment to the democratic project, that cannot be said of the political class.
Elections in Nigeria remain a “do-or-die” affair. Malpractices such as snatching of ballot boxes, falsification of results and intimidation of political opponents, were rife. There were process failures with late voting and widespread abandonment of the voter card reader intended to counter inflation of voter turnout.
The INEC still has many bad eggs in its employ who connive with politicians to commit atrocious electoral crimes.
It is instructive that for the first time in the history of elections in Nigeria, polls were declared inconclusive in three states – Imo, Abia, and Taraba. The number of polling units and local governments where elections were cancelled is also unprecedented.
In the North, under-aged voters had a field day. In most states in the South East, political bigwigs used security personnel to intimidate and harass opponents.
But it would seem that the worst forms of political brigandage occurred in Rivers and Akwa Ibom.
In a report on Rivers State, SDN, a politically independent and non-partisan group, said the governorship and state Assembly elections “were marred by violence and disruption with over 470,000 of 2,537,520 (19 per cent) registered voters denied the chance to vote due to official cancellations. Many more stayed away from the polls due to well justified fears of violence.
“The inflation of announced votes in many local governments makes it impossible to know how many voters turned out but in six of the more closely contested LGAs (including Port Harcourt) official turnout ranged between 14-25 per cent of registered voters. From what we observed this seems a more plausible turnout.
“Some results seem to defy any effort to acknowledge reality. In Buguma town (Asari Toru LGA) where security forces finally ended with shooting and clashes mid-morning of election day, with one gang leader beheaded, official results later recorded turnouts of 84-90 per cent in the town (87 per cent for the whole LGA).
“In Gokana, where five wards were cancelled due to clashes and theft of election materials, the remainder of the local government recorded an official turnout of 94 per cent.
“Significant efforts by the INEC and police to improve security and election processes were simply overwhelmed by the breadth of violence and intimidation. Election officials were assaulted and abducted in incidents across the state and they often faced intolerable pressures from political actors.”
A report by one of the INEC-accredited observer groups, the Independent Election Monitoring Group (IEMG), also described the elections in Rivers as “a bloody charade, neither free nor fair, a coup against democracy which rubbishes all the progress Nigeria has made in its democratic process, with hoodlums, thugs, security agents conniving to unleash terror on peaceful voters.”
The report detailed killings, obstruction of voting, arson, voters’ intimidation, ballot snatching, missing result sheets, fake ballot papers, multiple thumb-printing, campaigning at polling units, compromise of ad-hoc staff, absence of level playing environment, violence against observers, media personnel and impunity across the state.
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room coalition added Akwa Ibom, Taraba and Abia where widespread electoral malpractices triggered violence and marred the elections.
The European Union Election Observation Mission in Nigeria (EUEOMIN) questioned the “highly implausible data” from Rivers and Akwa Ibom where the process was blighted by violence and deliberate interference.
These are only instances of the malpractices that characterised the polls in most states.
So, while Nigerians are happy that the country has not descended into anarchy as predicted in certain quarters, the 2015 elections have again failed significantly the test of credibility because of the selfishness of politicians.
Buhari has his job cut out. If he wants to be taken serious on his promise of sanitising the polity, the place to start is the electoral process.
Nobody who contributed to the violation of the electoral will of the people should go unpunished. Electoral malpractice is the most cynical form of corruption.
There is, therefore, need for the government to follow through with its promise and punish all those involved in the malpractices to serve as deterrent to others.
