Utomi warns failure to punish electoral offenders will encourage others to join
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Nigeria’s democracy is headed for the rocks if the country fails to prosecute and jail all electoral offenders in this year’s ballot that was riddled with violence, voter suppression, and unprecedented rigging, Pat Utomi has warned.
Utomi, Professor of political economy and Convener of The Big Tent – a coalition of political parties, social movements and civil society organisations for Peter Obi and Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed – sounded the alarm on Monday in Lagos when he assessed the 2023 general elections.
He said unless those who commit electoral fraud, disrupt the process, harass, kill and maimed voters are jailed, the phrase “go to court” will be a regular line among election riggers in Nigeria.
And he stressed unless the judiciary is reformed and regains the confidence of citizens, “go to court” will continue to be used to mock the judiciary.
“Consequences management impunity, which has become widespread and everyday, moves us further down the road to Somalia, and is widespread mainly because consequence management is poor in Nigeria,” Utomi said.
“What happened to yesterday’s electoral processes offenders? So why will the offence not be committed again?
“I do hope our judiciary can draw a lesson from Kenya and not its reputation to go down the drain.
“But it must then punish offenders. If this does not happen then the essence of institutions in setting boundaries is gone and we can kiss democracy Goodbye.”
Utomi announced The Big Tent is putting finishing touches to its plan in partnership with other organisations to prosecute election riggers in Nigeria and at the International Criminal Court (ICC) to deter others who may want to emulate them.
“Governors, politicians and other public officials who undermined the 2023 elections, should be dragged to the ICC. The only reason impunity thrives is that yesterday’s offenders were not punished.
“Electoral offenders must be punished and we are determined to do that. We are compiling their names and very soon, we will take action on that.”
Utomi, also founder of the Centre for Values in Leadership and a former presidential candidate, canvassed for strong institutions, reliable systems and values to save Nigeria’s democracy and produce a new nation.
“The push of the strongman for power usually is either pushed back by strong institutions and reliable systems (BVAS, IReV).
“Strong institutions and values remain key to saving Nigeria, and true patriots are obliged to intensify the struggle as we smell freedom from the hard work of Obidients and the Big Tent in 2023.
“Nigeria cannot afford the crisis of legitimacy that comes to every election cycle. It hurts growth and development and we need to work our institutions to maturity to avoid these negative disruptions.”
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Shocking election results
Utomi said many are still in shock over the presidential and National Assembly (NASS) elections on February 25 and the governorship and state Assembly elections on March 18, according to reporting by Vanguard.
He commended Nigerians for uniting to secure the country through the Obidient Movement, insisting “the ring of a new Nigeria is possible.”
Utomi said the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) oversold the infallibility of the BVAS and IReV technology which later failed on Election Day and gave room for the manipulation of results.
The system collapsed, he stressed, and “whether it be a glitch or was tampered with, is left for the tribunals and competent court to establish.”
He lamented that between the February 25 and March 18 elections, things had deteriorated so badly in some states, especially in Lagos, Rivers and Kano, which dimmed the vision of a united hopeful country.
“To understand what happened in those three weeks is to understand why nations fail and others succeed.”
Utomi emphasised the need to enforce the rule of law because the consensus from historians, political scientists and economists is that “institutions separate the success from the failures of the race of progress for the human race.”
The INEC failed to deliver on its promise of uploading polling units results by BVAS to IReV, he said, which made most people, including foreign election observers, lose confidence in the Commission.
In Utomi’s view, if INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu knew anything about the Moral Authority of the intellectual, he should have resigned at that point.
He said The Big Tent is satisfied it gave impetus to the most issues-based campaign since the return to democracy in 1999 through the policy thrust of the Obi-Datti Campaign, which is unprecedented in political campaigns in Nigeria.
He stressed the group owes its achievements to the support of other groups and Nigerians at large, and thanked former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Ayo Adebayo, and Edwin Clark, among others, for their vision of a new Nigeria and the courage of their conviction.
“On our front burner right now is returning Nigeria to democracy, make elections meaningful and providing example of how political parties should be organised.”
