Often, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is blamedfor the shortcomings on polling day which make it declare elections as inconclusive, cancelled, or rescheduled.
But the real culprits of the chaos which mars orderly conduct of Nigerian elections are so well-ensconced that few know them. They are the politicians contesting for power at any level.
It makes no difference whether they are vying for positions themselves or backing stooges.
They are rich, powerful – even power-drunk – well connected men and women who rig elections when their fellow contestants campaign for votes by enlightening the electorate.
They recruit violent thugs who snatch ballot boxes, harass and beat up voters, security men and election officials. They recruit other confederates to thumbprint ballot papers and stuff ballot boxes illegally.
Their only currency is bribery and corruption.
So, in the Nigerian democratic space, a wide gap separates real democrats from the ignorant.
Real democrats know the importance of free, fair and credible election by an informed electorate which value freedom of choice as the cornerstone of democratic governance.
The illiterates are a menace. They see political office as the route to wealth. These are the real threat to democratic ethos anywhere.
One of the innovations former INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega, introduced to minimise corruption was to invite university vice chancellors as Returning Officers (ROs). But with the level of manipulation still observed in elections, the innovation seem not to have solved much problem.
Even the INEC chairman has no power to alter one vote submitted by a RO from any state. Results are altered other INEC staff.
Politicians also rope in the security agents – the police officer in charge of the security architecture; the military officer in charge of troops. Once these are compromised, power mongers can write their own results to be read by ROs at collation centres.
When the INEC conducted the governorship election in Kogi State that has a population of 3,314,043 and 21 local governments on November 21, order was disrupted in only one polling unit at Anyigba in Dekina local government.
Other electoral malpractices like over-voting and impersonation, were identified in 91 polling units, which led to the cancellation of results in 18 local governments. Overall, the election was adjudged free, fair, and credible.
But same INEC conducted the governorship election in Bayelsa State with a population of 1,998,349 in eight local governments on December 5 and it became bedlam.
It had to nullify the result in Ijaw South Local Government and declare the election inconclusive. The Bayelsa political class should be blamed.
Rehabilitated militants, whom nobody heard about unless someone missed his Amnesty stipend payment, were induced back into the election turf.
The INEC can conduct free and fair election only when the security agencies provide the conducive ambience for voters to cast their ballots unmolested by thugs.
In a highly corrupt milieu where officialdom at every level has a price to the political class, hardly would anyone expect the ideal cornerstone of democracy to be established with credible election.
The INEC, National Orientation Agency (NOA), and other public education agencies must lead the voter education indispensable to the political class whose quest for power and treasury-looting is limitless.
The law-enforcement agencies they corrupt know the electoral thieves whose stooges they help plant in unmerited public offices. These plants are mere mouthpieces for those who have no capacity to lead at any level. And they impose their mediocre standards on leaders to retard national development.
The INEC should accelerate the upgrade of the hi-tech card readers into fully automatic voting machines where no human intervention is required.
An accredited voter presses a relevant button for his preferred candidate and the machine records and updates the tally automatically.
While it is true that dubious politicians will still try to compromise ICT professionals to rig the machine for false upgrades, with time such malpractices will be drastically reduced.
There is need to ensure that the tenure of the INEC chairman against interference by political leaders who appoint them. The outcome of the stand alone elections in Kogi and Bayelsa has proved that 16 years down the road, it is not yet uhuru.
