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Tag: BVAS

  • INEC tenders Tinubu’s biodata form, BVAS report for 36 states, FCT

    INEC tenders Tinubu’s biodata form, BVAS report for 36 states, FCT

    The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Yakubu Mahmood has tendered documents before the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) in respect of the petition of Alhaji Abubakar Atiku and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

    The documents were tendered on Thursday through Mrs. Morenikeji Tairu, Deputy Director, Certification and Complaints, Legal Drafting and Clearance Department of the commission.

    They include Form EC9  of President Bola Tinubu, who is the second respondent in the petition.

    The Form EC9 is an affidavit in support of particulars of persons seeking election to the office of president and vice-president.

    The court had issued a subpoena on Mahmood in respect of certain documents relating to the conduct of the Feb. 25 presidential election following an application by Atiku.

    Counsel to the petitioners, Mr. Chris Uche, SAN, said that the petitioners in the application of May 26, listed 11 items for Mahmood to bring before the court.

    Mrs. Tairu, however, told the court that only four items requested by the petitioners were available.

    She said that the items available were Form EC8D series (results from states); EC8DA (final declaration of results); Certified True Copies (CTCs) of Rivers Bi-modal Verification Accreditation System (BVAS) report.

    Others were the BVAS report from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and the Form EC9 of Tinubu (personal information supplied by Tinubu to INEC in aid of his qualification for the presidential election).

    INEC’s lawyer, Mr Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN, counsel to Tinubu, Mr Wole Olanipekin, SAN and that of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) all objected to the admissibility of the documents in evidence.

    Uche, while responding to INEC’s position that the certified documents had not been paid for, reiterated that his clients had  so far paid the sum of N6.7 million to INEC for certification.

    He added that the documents brought before the court were court subpoenaed documents.

    Atiku and the PDP are before the PEPC challenging the process and the outcome of the Feb. 25 presidential election which produced Tinubu as president.

    They are also contending that the election was conducted in violation of the electoral laws.

    The petitioners are also insisting that President Tinubu was not qualified to contest the poll on the grounds of alleged double nomination and  dual citizenship.

  • As the electoral proceedings snowball – By Lawrence Alle

    As the electoral proceedings snowball – By Lawrence Alle

    By Fr Lawrence Alle

    The 2023 presidential and gubernatorial elections in Nigeria have come and gone (although some would dispute that it is hardly over yet) with much hue and cry. The pre-elections have also had its own share of finger-pointing, accusations and counter accusations by supporters of both the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress, and the opposition parties alike.

    The cliché “go to court” became so commonplace that it almost sounded like a street joke. But like an off the cuff joke that surprisingly becomes real, the opposition has indeed gone to court. Petitions have been filed. As unsavoury as the plots and twists may be, electoral matters are very sensitive issues that would require careful unbundling so as to reach the crust of justice.

    The call of the Ooni of Ife, The Arole Oduduwa, on Nigerians a couple of days ago to “sheath their swords”, is not out of place, especially now that nerves are frayed and there are agitations in the polity.

    I would like to believe that by this he implies that it is now left for the Electoral Tribunal, and if need the arises, the Supreme Court, to adjudicate on the matters at hand. Of course, the president elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, would have to prepare for his swearing in come May 29th.  And by this, I mean he would have to assemble his team to take over the reins of the most populous country in Africa when the D-day arrives.

    But until he is sworn in, he remains a “president elect” without the requisite Executive powers of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Surely, the Ooni does not mean that aggrieved opponents should not or cannot continue with prosecuting their grievances against those irregularities, anomalies and malfeasance which they registered were inflicted on the electoral processes at the court of Law. Neither does he mean that if the courts were to toe a different line from what has been declared by the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), then Nigerians are to willy nilly drift with the currents of the latter.

    Now to the crux of the matter. The claims and rebuttals are in court. And as Rev. Fr. Professor Anthony A. Akinwale, O.P. said in his article titled “We are Faced with Two Anomalies” a few days back, “Justice now has become a piece of meat. While it is being chewed, the one chewing it asks us to go in search of it. Politics in Nigeria is hugely distant from morality. It is an open secret that our electoral process is subject to brazen manipulation from party primaries to the polls.”

    Permit me to employ an analogy here. If a lion were gorging on its kill in the wild what business would the hunter have to interfere except that either the lion were of some remote ornamental or egotistic importance to him? And then, it would be underscored that the hunter was merely interested in the lion and not his kill.

    But if the lion were to have something precious to the hunter in his jaws, say his son, then the hunter would conscientiously be justified for trying by all means to pry his precious flesh and blood from those jaws of mischief. With eyes to the optics one cannot but agree that Nigeria has been held under for far too long. Justice has not only been delayed too many times but literally denied. Our founding fathers would turn in their graves in repudiation from the mere whiff of the many abortions and rapes of justice perpetrated within the polity.

    Having been constantly battered, bloodied and ailing from incessant indignities, the floundering electoral process is once again groaning for redress. It is high time the Judiciary rose to the occasion. Let it be known that no man nor god is above the law. The sacrosanct underpinnings of the law must be protected at all cost.

    The fact remains, things will never be the same. Nigerians are awake. There is a growing consciousness ushered in by the digital age and the milieu of Artificial Intelligence that has spurred the momentum for change.

    The earlier this is embraced and employed for good, the better. Here, it must be recalled that there was a clarion call on Nigerians to go register and pick up their Permanent Voters Card. But this alone proved insufficient. It is therefore no news that it was the faith appended to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine and the promise by INEC that electoral results will be uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing Portal in real time that propelled citizens to brave all man-made odds and inclement weathers to head out to the polls on Election days. We could philosophize or go into sophistry as to whether religion or ethnicity have their imports when it comes to the will of Nigerians to vote or be voted for.

    But beyond all that, I would surmise that there is nothing that would surpass technology, now or in the future, to win the trust of Nigerians back to the electoral process if there remained unanswered questions evinced by the very same process in which BVAS were employed. That is why it is “Now or Never” as sung by the Late Sunny Okosun.

    The capsheaf of all rhetoric now needs to zero on neutrality. There is no gainsaying that there have been loud outcries from various quarters that money has repeatedly and indeed negatively influenced the final outcome of cases handled by those who enjoy the trust of Nigerians and to whom authority has been given to attend to such cases. So much so that faith in the process of seeking redress has been lost even before such kinds of cases arrive before the panel of justice.  Could our Judicial System be said to be beyond reproach? As we arrive at the crossroads, I would like to think that there is still a modicum of hope. There is always a last straw that breaks the camel’s back but I hope things do not go worse as predicted by the naysayers. The Judiciary has an opportunity again to prove its mettle.

    Would the Electoral Tribunal step up to its responsibility or be swayed in favour of the inglorious cabal, that has since the country’s independence from colonial rule, held her on the jugular and prevailed against the will of the people and of justice? As the Electoral Tribunal sits for the hearings of petitions, should Nigerians hope for the worst or the best? As the proceedings snowball and gain momentum, will justice be served or will evidences and testimonies be glossed over, perjury enthroned and like the proverbial dog that returns to its vomit, citizens are then expected to stoop their heads and ruefully stagger off to their usual doomed state of hopelessness? The words of Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, words etched in gold, published in TELL magazine on the 29th October, 2001 put it very poignantly, “So, for democracy to be really nurtured, we must realize that there are some democratic institutions that we must rely on for reforms, for testing some of the assumptions that we have about democracy. To me, the most critical is the Judiciary, because democracy is about the rule of law.” There can be no true reforms if there are no historical references to true and untainted verdicts emanating from our courthouses which would serve as the basis for departure.

    Jesus, addressing his disciples, once said, “If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands and two feet and be thrown into Hades” (Matt 18:8). As a priest and a man of God, I have oftentimes been confronted with the burden moral tenets bring. I have witnessed its ability to humble even the best of us. So, let me say here that it will be wise for the Justices of the Electoral Tribunal not to go snug and hope Nigerians will move on. It will be wiser to let justice take its course.

  • BVAS is a welcome development, it has come to stay – Atiku

    BVAS is a welcome development, it has come to stay – Atiku

    Alhaji Atiku Abubakar the Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has endorsed the introduction of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), as a welcome development, saying it has come to stay.

    BVAS an instrument for the accreditation and transmission of election results in Nigeria was introduced to aid smooth process of transmission  of election results by INEC.

    The Adamawa politician and Nigeria’s former Vice president made the declaration in his response, through a press statement by his media office, to the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the victory of Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State.

    Atiku, who congratulated the people of Osun State for the affirmation of their collective mandate given to Governor Adeleke, said that the introduction of technology in the conduct of elections in Nigeria is a progress that cannot be reversed.

    “The law governing our elections has truly brought power to the people, and those power-mongering politicians who believe that they can freely subvert the inherent power of democracy now have their hopes dashed,” he said.

    The PDP presidential candidate urged Nigerians to take a keen interest in the growth and development of democracy in the country, saying: “We must not put the laws in our hands but remain vigilant because, as the saying goes, ‘eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

  • BVAS has come to stay – Atiku

    BVAS has come to stay – Atiku

    Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar says Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has come to stay as a legal instrument for the accreditation and transmission of election results in Nigeria.

    Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the February 2023 election, said this in a statement by his Media Office in Abuja on Tuesday.

    It was in reaction to the Supreme Court’s affirmation of the victory of Gov. Ademola Adeleke of Osun in the state governorship election.

    Abubakar said that the introduction of technology in the conduct of elections in Nigeria was a progress that could not be reversed.

    “We are all witnesses to the copious references to the BVAS technology in coming up with this judgement.

    “The law governing our elections has truly brought power to the people, and those power mongering politicians who believe that they can freely subvert the inherent power of democracy now have their hopes dashed.”

    Abubakar urged Nigerians to take keen interest in the growth and development of democracy in the country.

    “We must not put the laws in our hands but remain vigilant because, as the saying goes, ‘eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”

    Abubakar congratulated the people of Osun State for the affirmation of their collective mandate given to Adeleke.

  • What Nigeria’s election cannot teach does not exist – By Azu Ishiekwene

    What Nigeria’s election cannot teach does not exist – By Azu Ishiekwene

    Nigeria’s February/March elections undid many things. One of them was the 63-year-old myth that no wealthy and ambitious candidate could emerge president. Until the last presidential election.

    Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s president between 1963 and 1966, came close. But while ownership of his extensive and authoritative newspaper chain made him influential, he was not wealthy. In any case, he was only a ceremonial president.

    The other leaders, especially the elected ones, up till now, had neither money nor ambition. And all, without exception, were also not prepared for office. A number of them even said so publicly.

    Bola Ahmed Tinubu would be the first Nigerian leader to have money and ambition and also to publicly say he is ready and prepared to rule and still get elected. Considered to be one of Africa’s wealthiest politicians, he has extensive business interests and investments from real estate and stocks to media.

    He would be the first elected president to defy the so-called “owners of Nigeria” who have over the years been obsessed that power in the hands of a wealthy and independent-minded candidate might put the beneficiary beyond their reach.

    As it turned out in the February 25 presidential election, ambition alone would not have been enough to get Tinubu over the line, especially after his own party leader President Muhammadu Buhari’s banknote redesign on the eve of the elections threw the country into financial chaos. Money, ambition and dare-devil courage combined to snatch the chestnut of Tinubu’s aspiration from the fire of adversity.

    “Do you know why he won the election?,” US diplomat and election observer asked recently. “He got the money; he had the best national organisation that worked for him and the ground game.”

    What this means for governance, whether it brings more freedom and accountability or inhibitions and opaqueness, would be interesting to see in the days ahead.

    But the loss of kingmaker leverage is not the only lesson from the 2023 elections. The unravelling myth of the sitting president as alfa and omega in determining a successor, is lesson number two.

    In the last election, Buhari showed himself as the master of strategic ambivalence. He did not want Tinubu as his successor. Yet, in his valley of indecision, he knew that the surging wave would land the shore, and was quite pleased, in spite of his misery, to go with the flow. It was not always like that.

    President Olusegun Obasanjo made his own wave. As military head of state, he moved heaven and earth to install Shehu Shagari as civilian president in 1979. And in his second coming as civilian president he went over, above and beyond the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) at the time to choose Umaru Shehu Yar’Adua as successor.

    And I remember that after he fell out with the party and tore his card, he told a visiting reconciliation party to Abeokuta comprising President Goodluck Jonathan that after God and Jonathan’s parents he was the most consequential person in making the former president.

    It now appears that those days are going, or gone. What the 2023 elections show is that every serious and determined candidate can make their own victory.

    The governor-king has been undone, too. And that is lesson number three. For decades, Tinubu, for example, ruled the roost in Lagos. He survived the wiles and deadly onslaught of the Obasanjo era, going for years without one kobo for Lagos councils from the Federal Government which illegally seized their statutory allocations following a dispute over the creation of additional councils by the Tinubu administration.

    Yet, in what his associate and Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola SAN, recently described as “blindsiding”, Tinubu lost Lagos to Labour Party’s Peter Obi, a rookie in the presidential race. But it was not only Tinubu who suffered defeat in his stronghold.

    Other party stalwarts, including seven governors, failed to get election to their new retirement home – the Senate. Six states featuring the governors’ preferred candidates on the ballot also flipped.

    Lesson number four: Abraham Lincolns come once in a blue moon. Famous among things for contesting and losing eight elections, two of them the presidency, Lincoln could have been a distant political cousin of Nigeria’s former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, in another life. Atiku, the presidential candidate of the opposition PDP, was on his sixth attempt in 30 years.

    He did not lose the last election, though. He won it for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which may have found it far more difficult to keep power if Atiku had let his decades of political experience guide him.

    Unlike Lincoln whose multiple losses taught him that the only way to win the 1860 presidential election was to keep the Republican Party united, Atiku’s strategy to win was keeping his party divided.

    Even Buhari, another serial loser, had learnt that his fabled 12 million voter-base in one section of the country could not win him the presidency. It took Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) an alliance with Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and three other parties to win at his fourth attempt in 2015.

    In Atiku’s world of contrarian politics, the PDP “split” not into two but into four parties – Labour Party, NNPP and the Wike-led Integrity Group. In his next life, no matter the degree of temptation or provocation, it’s unlikely that Atiku would yield to the dissociative political maths of subtraction and division.

    Kenyan political veteran, Raila Odinga, shared the fifth lesson during the LEADERSHIP Awards and Conference in Abuja shortly before Nigeria’s election, but we were not listening: “Don’t trust technology too much,” he said, or something to that effect. “They can fail or be made to fail.”

    In spite of Odinga, we believed otherwise. The bimodal voter verification system (BVAS) was advertised as the gamechanger, but widely believed as the miracle-worker. Unfortunately, the system was undermined by glitches in a number of areas and the electoral management body which seemed unprepared for a Plan B, found itself seeking refuge in a backhanded electoral guideline that it was not obliged to transmit results electronically.

    Machines fail, just as people fail them. But whether they fail or are made to fail, the recourse must be clear beforehand and consequences applied.

    And yes, the ground game, infamously called “political structure” still matters. That is the sixth lesson of the last election. Even though Obi despised those who criticised the Labour Party for not having political structures, he still relied significantly on the structures of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to mobilise support.

    Obi commanded the social media army. Unlike the APC and PDP, however, his extra-terrestrial troops were largely absent in many of the over 176,000 polling units where party agents needed to be physically present to oversee voting, counting and collation of results. If, as Joseph Stalin said, it is who counts and not who votes that matters, then LP lost the election before it was even held.

    Lesson number seven: Polls are like mini-skirts. They are short enough to attract attention but long enough to hide the subject matter. They disappointed catastrophically in the U.S. elections in 2016. It was the same in Nigeria. Nine polls, including those by Bloomberg, CNN, ANAP/NOI among others, projected Obi would win. Only three, including Stears Polls, were close to the mark.

    Even where strong anecdotal evidence suggested that the polls would be wrong, the pollsters did not let such evidence get in the way of their will. In the light of what eventually happened, there would still be enough humble pie left for pollsters, their sponsors and subscribers to eat before the next major election in Nigeria.

    Lesson number eight is that ideology is an elite fiction. Ideology is dead! The tribe is resurgent. Long live the party! Peter Obi, a self-confessed capitalist trader, ended up flying the flag of LP! Apart from Tinubu who has maintained his progressive bonafides and AAC’s Omoyele Sowore who has remained unapologetically anti-establishment, other candidates have elevated political flirting to an art.

    The courts have blessed this infidelity by ruling that it is the party and not the individual candidates that matters. And since the difference in policies and ideas among the major parties is a matter of form rather than of substance, candidates have become rolling stones gathering no moss.

    With no real incentive to debate or discuss issues in spite of elite consternation over the lack of ideology, candidates relapsed to their primordial strongholds, invoking religion and ethnicity for redemption.

    Post-election Nigeria feels like Humpty Dumpty. On top of the serious challenges of inflation, unemployment, stark economic deterioration and insecurity facing the country, not to mention the growing sub-regional instability, the incoming government has to first pick up the broken pieces of hope before it can start the difficult job of putting the country together again.

     

    Ishiekwene is Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP

  • Supreme Court in the eye of the storm – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    Supreme Court in the eye of the storm – By Sonnie Ekwowusi

    I could hear the approaching thunder and the low rumblings of the thick black cloud as I lay by the mouth of a grave, in my trepidation, while the shining lights of black, white, red, and green candles danced in the wild wind amid the rising storm. The storm tossed us up and down, and soon broke out, and then everything roared. It was a roaring dark night. For hours, it went on, a night of storm and screaming skies, with peals of black thunder reminiscent of Anna Bontemps’ novel Black Thunder (1936). I didn’t know how, but the rumbles of thunder were clearly drawn into the politics and pragmatics of slavery and freedom, and slavery, which is the condition of the overwhelming number of Nigerians. In the end, everything was black, for the flames of the candles had now gone, leaving in its wake great sorrows that crushed and assailed us.

    This is not Sonnie’s somnambulism. What is before us is nothing known to common sense: what is before us is total darkness, the eclipse of reason. What is before us are Nigerians sorrowfully writhing in pain, trying to come to terms with the flawed 2023 electoral verdicts. What pangs of excruciating pain molest us. Must we continue to dwell in slavery and servitude in our fatherland? What sorrows labor in our breasts? Far beyond our tearful feeble sight lies the Supreme Court of Nigeria. At the moment, the Supreme Court is the cynosure of all eyes. The highest court in the land is expected to dispense justice in the petitions resulting from the flawed 2023 elections. Salvation comes from Christ alone. Justice dispensed on earth is not philosophical truth. Earthly justice is not perfect justice. Perfect justice lies in the City of God, not in the City of Man. Nevertheless, we live on earth, in the City of Man, and we need earthly justice, no matter how imperfect it is, to build the City of Man. Justice, as the raison d’être of the judiciary and one of the cardinal virtues, is that vital thread that knits human society together. Without justice, it will be impossible to promote societal aims. “Remove justice, what are kingdoms but great robberies,” said St. Augustine.

    To Justice Chukwudifu Oputa (of blessed memory), “Injustice breeds intolerance, violence, and social disorder in the same way justice brings along with it the blessings of peace and mutual understanding. Small wonder Cicero praises justice to high heavens by stating that the brightest of virtues shines above all in justice.” The so-called Nigerian question revolves around the failure to do justice. If every Nigerian is given his or her due in the scheme of things in Nigeria, there would probably be less social discontent and social strife in Nigeria. Those urging Nigeria to “move forward” often forget that Nigeria cannot “move forward” without shared core values or communally-binding ideals such as justice. A nation like the U.S. has been able to build a spirit and core around the core values of “life, happiness, and the pursuit of happiness.” Apart from the Super Eagles, I can hardly think of any Nigerian core values or communally-binding ideals that act as the superstructure for the building of our national ethos. Therefore, until we begin to build a nation with shared core values such as justice, Nigeria cannot “move forward.” There will be no peace in Nigeria where justice is denied or defeated because peace resides and grows in the crannies of justice. Where there is wrong, it is only justice that can right the wrong and thus restore peace and the balance of things.

    Consequently, the Supreme Court is respectfully invited to exercise exceptional brilliance, a high sense of justice, and profound philosophical forensic legal enunciations in adjudicating the election petitions that would be brought before it in accordance with substantial justice (not technical justice). About seventy percent of the election petitions arising from the just-concluded flawed 2023 elections in Nigeria, especially the flawed presidential election, would end up at the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is expected to live up to its bidding in those petitions, as the country’s highest court. You cannot steal what belongs to another person and turn around to be saying that the country should “move forward”. Move forward to where? How can the country “move forward” when it has not even started the journey? The monumental electoral frauds committed in the 2023 elections have truncated Nigeria’s journey to nationhood. The frauds have moved Nigeria back to 1964.

    Four years ago, INEC and the Buhari government deceived Nigerians into believing that what would count in the 2023 election were the PVCs and the casting of votes on Election Day. Impelled by this, most Nigerians procured their PVCs and actually went out to vote on Voting Day. At every turn, the conversation centered on acquiring the PVC and nothing more. Besides, at the twilight of the Elections, President Buhari came out to swear to high heavens that his government was out to supervise the freest and fairest elections in the world, in which many Nigerians would look forward to and be grateful for his government. At that time, we thought that Buhari had repented and was poised to leave a lasting legacy for posterity, and history would judge him well. We were wrong. The INEC chairman also appeared on National TV a few days before the election to announce that there was no going back on the issue of using the BVAS to transmit election results. Little did the Nigerian voters suspect that the PVC and the voting would not count on Election Day and that the only things that would count were bribery and corruption, intimidation and threatening the life of electoral officers to falsify results in favor of APC [Bravo to Prof. Nnnena Otti who stood her ground and called the bluff of the Abuja pressuring her to falsify the Abia Gubernatorial election], carting away of the ballot boxes by the APC thugs, refusal to upload results with the BVAS by compromised INEC staffers, pressures from Abuja on electoral officers to manipulate the electoral process in favor of the APC. But on Election Day, February 25, the APC ruling party, in conspiracy with INEC staffers, brought out their rigging machinery to rig the presidential election in favor of the APC. Ditto for the Governorship and State Assembly Election on March 18, 2023. The regrettable aspect, however, was that despite the mounting complaints before INEC that the presidential election was massively rigged in favor of Emilokan Bola Tinubu, INEC chair Prof. Mamood Yakubu ignored the complaints and swiftly proceeded to announce Emilokan Bola Tinubu President-Elect by midnight, as well as issue him with INEC’s certificate of return. It beats the imagination that Prof. Yakubu should, amid the mounting complaints on the monumental electoral frauds that were committed on February 25, still hurry down to announce and return Tinubu as the winner. Yakubu obviously did that to destroy the rest and foist a state of helplessness and fait accompli on the matter. Which means that INEC and President Buhari deceived Nigerians by telling them that the only tools needed for the elections were PVCs when, in fact, the tools needed for the elections were gun-wielding political thugs, guns, knives, juju, intimidation, killing and maiming, vote-buying and falsification of results by refusing to upload results via BVAS.

    Therefore, we respectfully urge our Supreme Court Justices, as I mentioned earlier, to do substantial justice in the petitions that will be brought before them. Justice is an indispensable human good. “Neither the morning star nor the evening star is as glorious as justice” (Aristotle in his Nichomachean Ethics). “Men are called good because of their justice” (Cicero). It’s a good thing that our Supreme Court Justices don’t live on the moon; they live on the part of the Earth called Nigeria. They and members of their respective families witnessed the electoral frauds committed on February 25 and March 18, respectively. If the Supreme Court Justices and their wives and members of their respective families had gone to vote on February 25 and March 18, they would have seen INEC staffers refusing to upload the results of the elections in flagrant violation of the INEC Rules and Regulations. They would have seen hired political thugs engaged in vote suppression, vote buying, and election rigging. They would have seen voters being beaten up and tortured for exercising their fundamental human right in the full glare of the public. And if they had waited for the votes to be counted and uploaded before departing the polling unit, they would have probably noticed that the votes were not uploaded via BVAS, or, as occurred in my polling unit, they would have noticed to their greatest chagrin that the APC thugs had stormed the polling unit and carted away with the presidential election ballot box. Watching TV or listening to the news, the Supreme Justices would have taken judicial notice that the February 25 and March 18 elections were the greatest electoral frauds committed in the political history of Nigeria.

    This is why the world is keeping vigil at the moment and waiting for the Nigerian Supreme Court to remedy the electoral frauds that were committed in the 2023 elections in Nigeria. The crisis of integrity afflicting the country’s Supreme Court in the last seven and a half years is quite embarrassing and regrettable. In Nigeria, the power of the Supreme Court to dispense justice has been whittled down by executive lawlessness and interference in the course of justice. Nothing destroys the public’s confidence in the judiciary more than this kind of abuse. The Supreme Court Justices should restore the eroding public confidence in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court should be reminded that it is accountable to the people in terms of its overall performance and in meeting the justice needs of the people in a timely and efficient manner. It must, therefore, interpret the law in a way that fulfills the needs and aspirations of the Nigerian people, as envisioned in sections 13, 14 (1) (2) (a) (b) (c) of the 1999 Constitution. Justice is rooted in public perception. Justice must not only be done but also be seen to be manifestly done. This is why Lord Hewart, the then Lord Chief Justice of England, laid down the dictum in the case of Rex v. Sussex Justices, [1924] 1 KB 256, that “it is not merely of some importance but is of fundamental importance that justice should not only be done but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done.” Therefore, the Supreme Court ought not to be surprised that its decisions, particularly in the cases of Ihedioha V Hope Uzodinma and recently Lawan V Machina and Akpabio V INEC and others, are evoking excoriating public criticism because the decisions were treacherously anti-democratic, anti-justice and clearly show that the Supreme Court is slavishly adhering to technical legalisms and formalism at the expense of substantial justice. The essence of the need for justice to be manifestly seen to be done was observed by the Master of the Rolls, Lord Denning, in Metropolitan Properties Co (FGC) Ltd v Lannon, wherein he stated, “Justice must be rooted in confidence, and confidence is destroyed when right-minded people go away thinking: ‘The judge was biased.’” To date, the public constantly refers to Imo State Governor Hope Uzodinma, who came fourth in the last Imo State Gubernatorial Election, as the “Supreme Court governor” because they feel that the Supreme Court was wrong in imposing him on the people of Imo State.

    Our Supreme Court Justices should not be men of timorous proclivity and timidity. They must not bow to public sentiments, electoral defilement, and electoral roguery in their judgments. They should not be afraid of doing what has not been done before. They should not be afraid of upturning the flawed verdict of the flawed presidential election of February 25. They should be Justices of avowed integrity and judicial activism. For example, the very height of Lord Denning’s judicial activism was demonstrated in his often-cited dictum in the case of Parker V Parker where he said: “If we never did a thing that has not been done before, we shall never get anywhere. The law shall never stand still while the rest of the world goes on, and it will be bad for both.” So, our Supreme Court Justices should be bold and courageous. If, for example, it is proved that Emilakon Bola Tinubu should have been disqualified from contesting the last presidential election because the U.S. court had convicted him in a drug case, our Supreme Court should be courageous enough to come to that conclusion without any equivocation. If, for example, there is evidence that the presidential election was massively rigged in favor of Emilokan Tinubu or that Tinubu failed to satisfy the constitutional requirements to be declared a President of Nigeria, the Supreme Court should also be courageous enough to come to that conclusion, no matter whose ox is gored. Fiat justicia ruat coelum (Let justice be done though the heaven fail).

    In 2017, the Kenyan election commission had declared incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta the winner by a margin of 1.4 million votes. But Raila Odinga, Mr. Kenyatta’s opponent, said the commission was “rotten” and demanded resignations and prosecutions. Chief Justice David Maraga, who was appointed by President Kenyatta, ruled that the election had not been “conducted in accordance with the constitution” and declared it “invalid, null and void.” Today, the name of Kenya’s Chief Justice David Maraga, and three of his colleagues, have been inscribed in the annals of African history. Prior to 2017, it was unprecedented in Africa for an opposition to successfully challenge a presidential election result in court. But the Chief Justice of Kenya changed that in 2017. Today, Kenyans praise Justice Maraga for having the courage to rule against President Uhuru Kenyatta, the man who appointed him as Chief Justice. So, we look forward to seeing the Nigerian Court do substantial justice in the petitions brought before it, especially the presidential election, in order to restore faith and confidence in the Supreme Court.

    I argue that there should be a departure from the age-old corrupt structure of elevating only Justices of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court to fill the vacancy in that court. We should revert back to the old selective process. In the past, senior lawyers and academics with integrity were appointed to the Supreme Court to salvage the court from the doldrums of corruption, poor legal scholarship, and inefficiency that currently afflict the court. For example, Dr. Taslim Olawale Elias was appointed Chief Justice of Nigeria directly from the Bar. Augustine Nnamani SAN (of blessed memory) was appointed to the Supreme Court by Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo in 1979 from his position as the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice. He was at the Supreme Court for 11 years. Justice Okay Achike (of blessed memory) was appointed judge of the High Court from academia and elevated to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, respectively, in no distant time. There are more Dr. Eliases, Justice Nnamanis, and Justice Achikes waiting to be appointed to the Supreme Court. Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush has recently announced that the Indiana Judicial Nominating Commission would begin to accept applications from Indiana lawyers for appointment to fill the upcoming vacancy on the Court of Appeals of Indiana. Nigeria should imbibe the Indian practice.

  • Elections 2023: Bruised political parties and crushed Nigerians – By Magnus Onyibe

    Elections 2023: Bruised political parties and crushed Nigerians – By Magnus Onyibe

    During the run up to the 18 March elections, there were palpable concerns on whether there would be a domino effect of the party that won at the presidential and National Assembly, NASS levels on 25 February also triumphing at the subnational stage.

    To the contrary, after the 18 March voting exercise for the recruitment of governors and members of the House of Representatives, it was quite welcoming and encouraging that each of the four (4) main political parties,All Progressives Congress,APC, Peoples Democratic Party,PDP and Labour Party,LP as well as New Nigerian Peoples Party,NNPP, left their imprints country wide without any of them dominating the political scene.

    Indeed, it is fortuitous that the APC and PDP had won twelve (12) states apiece, just as LP won 11 states plus the FCT which comprises of the thirty five (35) of the thirty six (36) states in the country and the Federal Capital Territory,FCT.

    The New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP also succeeded in wining one state-kano which is the most populous in the northern Nigeria, bringing the total number of territories to thirty seven (37) when the FCT is added.

    As things are currently shaping up,it would appear as if there has not really been any crushing defeat suffered by any of the four (4) main political parties. But they have only suffered bruises as their supporters bases are evenly spread across the country.

    But conversely Nigerians have been crushed as not less than twenty one (21), and by some accounts thirty (30) people have been reported as having been killed in the course of the 18 March elections.

    A few millions of the masses have also been crushed by hunger and starvation as they are not only buying foreign currencies with naira, but as a negative fall out of the naira redesign policy, they are now compelled to use local naira currency to purchase the new naira notes from those privileged to have it at a premium of up to 30%.

    If any thing,amongst the political parties,it is the LP that has suffered a reversal of fortune from the commanding heights that it had attained during the 25 February political assizes which inspired the framing the title of my column last week in form of a question: “Election 2023 as Giant Killer, End Of Incumbency?”

    In that piece,l had extolled Mr Obi and LP for the feat of stirring up the youths that were hitherto dormant politically, but whose 37 million strong voting power of the 93.4 million registered voters by INEC took our country by storm during the 25 February elections and forced a change.

    But the 18th March subnational election that witnessed a tamed involvement of the Obi-Dients saw the rise of NNPP in north, particularly in Kano state where it has won the gubernatorial elections and in the east where APGA is poised to expand from being the ruling party only in  Anambra state to other eastern states where it’s candidates for governor positions are serious contenders,particularly in Abia state.

    As Mr Alex Otti has won the gubernatorial contest in Abia state,LP would end up producing at least a governor. lts major hope for producing the governor of lagos state has been dashed by multiple factors including ethnic/identity politics and violence.

    As an equally insurgent party,NNPP won the gubernatorial election in kano state, and LP must also have been nursing the ambition of controlling at least a state in lgbo land which it eventually achieved.

    But its hope to win in the governorship election in Enugu state was not called in its favor.

    The reduced impact of LP/Obi-Dients in the 18 March election may in part be attributable to the mixed messaging from Mr Obi who is the indisputable leader of the party and its prime motivator who during the run up to the elections at first stated that the Obidients are not in partnership with any of the parties for the state governor and house if assembly elections.

    That decision was obviously informed by the deluge of leading political parties scrambling to benefit from the positive value intrinsic in the name of LP that was enjoying tremendous goodwill of voters and LP presidential flag bearer Mr Obi whose positive image was soaring into the sky at rockstar popularity level.

    In his wisdom,Mr Obi had subsequently stated that not everyone flying the flag of LP should be voted for.

    Rather he instructed as it were that Obi-Dients should vote only for competent candidates.

    With such an utterance, Mr Obi literally threw the contestants on the LP ticket, perhaps with the exception of Mr Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivor contesting for the governorship of Lagos state under the bus.

    Simply put,Mr Obi reversed himself as some parties started claiming alliance with the LP and the good fortune rubbed off on them and the party’s candidates not endorsed by him got sidelined by Obi-Dients who aligned with politicians of the old order that they had vowed they were on a mission to unseat.

    It is needless reiterating that the confusion enabled vote buying to become an option as Obi-Dients became susceptible to being free agents ready to swing the votes in favor of the highest bidder for their votes during the 18 March election exercise which is rather unfortunate.

    In the light of the above, it has been concluded by some analysts that it is Mr Obi who unwittingly flung the door open for vote buying by parties desperate to harness the votes of Obi-Dients who are currently enjoying the positive reputation of being disruptors of old order.

    Apparently,the LP candidates that did not receive Mr Obi’s endorsement were just used to fill in the blank spaces in INEC’s records after it was made public by the electoral umpire and amplified in the media that LP was short of candidates vying for elective offices compared to APC,PDP, NNPP and even SDP.

    In the bid to close the gap,the so called third force party must have lowered its standards by engaging in anything goes hence political dredges were featured in LP’s platform.

    Even when every Tom,Dick and Harry were hastily accepted to fill up the slots in order for LP to fulfill all righteousness, as it were, it is not surprising that there were still numerous seats across Nigeria of which the LP did not field candidates.

    In fact there was also a dearth of agents to represent LP according to lNEC.

    The aforementioned situation arose simply because the LP only became significant and of national reckoning after Mr Obi got on board and became its presidential standard bearer barely nine (9) months ago.

    But does disowning LP political office seeking candidates who helped Obi win big in the 25 February contest not smack of the Machiavellian principle of the end justifies the means in the sense that those denied validation by Obi and LP during the state governorship and house of assembly elections on 18 March may be considering themselves as having been used and dumped?

    Before the advent of Mr Obi and Obi-Dients,no real politician subscribed to LP, particularly after the exit of Comrades Segun Mimiko and Adams Oshiomole who had become governors of Ondo and Edo states respectively leveraging the platform of LP.

    Even those that failed to win in the primaries of the major parties like APC and PDP hardly pivoted to LP, since it had no prospect and lacked structure.

    Rather,they moved to SDP and other fringe parties that had appeared to be more robust than LP.

    But from the look of things,LP hitherto an underdog that became the most sought after bride following a fairy tale outing on 25 February does not appear to have replicated its superlative performance of clinching 11 states plus the FCT during the 25 February elections.

    As such it may be on a retreat which is quite the opposite of NNPP which won overwhelmingly the votes of Kano people during the 25 February presidential and National Assembly elections and repeated the victory during the 18 March elections at the sub national level by producing the governor-elect of kano state proving that, indeed it is the dominant political party in the state.

    Conversely,despite LP’s superlative performance barely three weeks ago,it is not likely to produce a state governor.

    So, was the 25 February election victory by LP a flash in the pan?

    Whatever the case may be ,the feat of LP winning equal number of states clinched by the erstwhile political giants such as the current ruling and main opposition parties,APC and PDP respectively is manifestly one of the wonders of election 2023.

    That is because it is rather unprecedented that the three leading parties respectively came first in twelve states apiece out of the 36 states in the country plus the FCT.

    Never has the strongholds of major parties been so evenly shared in our country since 1979 when roughly half a dozen political parties-NPN,UPN,UPGA,GNPP, PRP, NPP representing the multiple ethnic groups, regions and religious leanings ruled the roost in Nigerian political space as the political landscape of our country is currently looking.

    The present political landscape of Nigeria tend to be echoing or exhibiting same character as events in 1979. The assertion is premised on the springing forth of regional parties that have become entrenched in ethnic enclaves after the 25 February and 18 March elections.

    The realities above came into greater relief after the Saturday 18 March elections.

    While the lgbo party APGA that can be said to be a kind of reincarnation of UPGA is regaining its foothold in the east as it is poised to expand from Anambra to Abia,NNPP that can be be likened to PRP is also consolidating its hold in Kano and likely Yobe and Jigawa states where it is having strong presence. As l have been observing in past articles,the Yorubas have shifted from being the champions of regional or ethnic based parties as reflected by UPN led by the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who the late Dimkpa Odumegu Ojukwu tagged the best President Nigeria never had, into a nationally focused group. That was largely due to the transition of the narrow scope of the UPN which was essentially a Yoruba ethnic focused political vehicle into the ACN led by former Lagos state governor,Asiwaju Bola Tinubu now president-elect which eventually morphed into the current ruling party,APC.

    Fortuitously, the initiative of getting ACN to join forces with other ethnic focused parties to form APC which is an initiative midwifed between 2013-2015 by Asiwaju Tinubu has paid off.

    Basically, unlike Pa Awolowo, whose focus was regional hence he could not win the presidency, and the likes of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe who was nationalistic in his politics and became the first president and also Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa who was also a nationalist and thus became prime minister of Nigeria, Tinubu by becoming nationalistic via the collapse of ACN and other parties to form the mega party,ACN has followed a pattern similar to Azikiwe and Balewa to clinch the presidency of Nigeria in 2023.

    But even with the Yoruba ethnic group,(erstwhile champions of political party with ethic focus)becoming more nationalistic, it has not stopped the growth of regional parties in the current political dispensation.
    For instance in south eastern states where LP (a party with national outlook) received votes in excess of 80% during the 25 February presidential and National Assembly elections as it won in all the five (5) states,there appear to be a reversal of fortune after the 18 March election with PDP and APGA as opposed to LP appearing to be in the lead to produce the next governor of Abia and a couple of other states where gubernatorial elections results have been suspended due to disputes.

    In Anambra state where there were palpable fears that Peter Obi who is the LP presidential candidate and a former governor of the state whose party prevailed during the 25 February elections was accused of plotting to impeach the incumbent governor Prof Chukwuma Soludo by ensuring that candidates of his LP win majority of the house of Assembly seats than Soludo’s APGA.

    But that did not happen as available interim results from lReV also indicate that APGA may sweep most of the state’s house of assembly seats.

    So,governor Soludo appears not to be under the threat of being impeached by LP as had been feared if Obidients were to dominate Anambra state house of assembly.

    Somehow, APGA may once again be ruling the roost in the east as it had been doing since the party was founded at the dawn of the new political era in 1999 by Chief Odumegu Ojukwu,the late Biafran war leader before NPN and later PDP took over before lmo and Ebonyi states which have currently fallen under the control of the ruling APC by virtue of a controversial Supreme Court ruling in favor of Chief Hope Uzodimma as governor of lmo and by defection of the governor of Ebonyi state, Mr Dave Umahi.

    The narrative in Edo state is not in any shape or form distinct from what has unfolded in Anambra state.
    The 25 February Presidential and National Assembly victory of Obi-Dients in Edo state and particularly the successful clinching of the senatorial seat by Comrade Adams Oshiomole who is also an ex governor of the state and one time benefactor of the current governor , Mr Godwin Obaseki,had also sent shivers down the spines of the incumbent.

    The trepidation was owed to the anticipated consequences of the APC producing the majority of members of the house of assembly which could have been leveraged to impeach him.

    Again,going by the current results uploaded into lReV,the threat seem to have been neutralized by the resurgence of PDP during the 18 March subnational elections in Edo state.

    The results so far released indicate that the ruling party in the state performed far much better than it did during 25 February presidential and NASS elections which was swept by Obi-Dients leaving the PDP that ruled in the state in the lurch. Currently more than sufficient PDP lawmakers appear to have been elected during the 18 March exercise.

    The disruptive, but positive impact that the Obi-Dients made during the 25 February elections had encouraged me to wonder whether the power of incumbency had been dealt a deadly blow such that it had receded.

    But that line of thought has turned out to be a hasty presumption about the power of incumbency and the assumption that Obi-Dients are giant killers.

    The new reality is that the power of incumbency has become even more potent and lethal factor in the political of Nigerian as state apparatus and resources in terms of the use or abuse of security agencies and financial power to self perpetuate by second term governors or outgoing governors imposing surrogates have become more rife.

    As such,survival of the fittest is currently the rule rather than the exception, just as might is right is the new mantra by Nigerian political actors relying more on self help than depending on rule of law.

    In fact the rule of law as we used to know it has been either altered or completely thrown to the dogs.
    And jungle tactics that had receded has bounced back more furiously with anarchy reigning supreme in Nigerian political arena. Of the 28 state governorship positions in contention, all the ones seeking re-elections succeeded except in Zamfara state where the incumbent governor Bello Mutawele could not win his re-election bid and in Adamawa where incumbent PDP governor Ahmadu Fintiri is locked in a deadlock with APC’s senator Aisha Dahiru also known as Binani.

    Those trying to replace themselves with surrogates largely succeeded except in kano state where NNPP is replacing the incumbent APC governor Umaru Ganduje and in Sokoto state where APC candidate is succeeding the PDP governor, Aminu Tambuwal and in Benue state where Samuel Ortom of PDP did not succeed in replacing himself with surrogate as well as in Abia state where incumbent governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu failed to get his surrogate to take over from him because LP candidate, Dr Alex Otti triumphed in the polls.

    Without pretense,all gloves were literally taken off their hands by political animals and bare knuckle fights ensued after INEC Chairman,Prof Mahmood Yakubu,unfazed by the complaints of party agents about the non reliance on data from BVAS in the collation of election results for the presidential and National Assembly race,advised those that disagreed with the election results of the 25 February elections that he called on 1st March in favor of the ruling APC to go to court. Since politicians have no confidence in the courts, more so because they are the ones that have been compromising the judicial system,they have been engaging in self help with catastrophic consequences on the polity as evidenced by the twenty one (21) and perhaps thirty (30) fatalities recorded as fall outs of the elections.

    As l had predicted in my last piece: “INEC Chairman’s Failure To Keep Promises, A Treat Or Trick?” politicians that were bruised after the conduct of the 25 February elections fought back like wounded lions during the 18 March elections exercise.

    It is generally agreed by a broad spectrum of Nigerians that the 25 February exercise was initially smoothly organized with BVAS accreditation. But it degenerated into a fiasco when the input of voters data into BVAS was not uploaded into IReV as promised by INEC.

    Instead, results written on Form EC8A mutilated and correction fluid ridden,were relied upon by lNEC for calling the results. That was to the consternation of politicians who thereafter vowed to take their proverbial pound of flesh by unleashing terror on the electorate during the second balloting at the sub national level.

    Unscrupulous political actors practically returned to their old ways of brigandage -ballot box snatching and stuffing, hijacking of forms for writing results and kidnapping of INEC officials and compelling them to write and announce results under duress simply because they did not want to be fooled by INEC twice.

    And it is rather unfortunate that while Nigerians that got killed and maimed have been crushed,political parties and their candidates have only been bruised by the outcome of 25 February elections.

    That is why they got brutal during the 28 March exercise leaving in their trail the tragic death of Nigerians who are no more alive,while the individual political patrons and parties that some of the dead were fighting for are alive and savoring their stolen mandates procured violently.

    l am of the conviction that the chairman of the electoral body, INEC on hindsight must have realized by now that he could have handled better the situation that led to loss of faith in the sanctity of the BVAS by a critical mass of Nigerians reflected by the low turn out of voters during the 28 March round of balloting.

    But as the saying goes,the hand of time can not be taken back as the outcome of 25 February elections is undeniably the trigger for the return of politics in Nigeria to the dark ages of the rule of the jungle.

    How can such horrific political violence be happening in Nigeria in 2023 when we all thought that the era of bloody politics had been consigned to the dustbin of history after the 2011 orgy of political violence that consumed innocent youths?

    After ex president Goodluck Jonathan prevented a repeat of such experience in 2015 following his loss of the presidency to the opposition APC during which he famously stated that his political interest is not worth the blood of Nigerians,political office contestations in our clime had become less fractious due largely to introduction of technology.

    Sadly,political violence is likely to be the legacy that INEC under the current leadership of Prof Yakubu as the chairman,but also the rank and file of the organization which has resurrected the ghost of violence and foisted it on our country.

    How can one defend a situation where politicians are saying that if the maker of the law is the master breaker of the same law,who can counsel them not to take the laws into their hands as they have done during 18 March elections?

    As we all know,the verdict above is dominating the news and as we all also very well know,current news is history in motion.

    So,lNEC chairman and his board members/national commissioners are writing their history right now and it is a very unsavory and unpalatable one.

    Over all what election 2023 has laid bare is that not enough critical thinking went into organizing the event which is supposed to be so epochal and consequential that it should not have been treated with such levity.

    For instance,the election is setting our country back by about N355 billion naira that was appropriated for INEC to conduct the election.

    That is just the direct cost of tax payers money allocated to lNEC.

    When the down time of locking down the country on election days twice are factored in,the cost burden on an economy which is tottering on the brinks of collapse would be much more higher.

    And we all know our country is groaning under the crushing weight of an Olympian size debt in excess of N77 trillion.

    As such , an expenditure of over N355 just to conduct an election can be said to be profligacy on steroid.

    Frankly,the folly of staking such a colossal sum on conducting elections is comparable to the ruinous policy of channeling a whopping N6 trillion naira into subsidizing petrol pump price in the 2022 budget of the federal government.

    If the authorities had been more prudent, they would not have done a yeoman’s job of conducting the elections in a period of two (2) days with three weeks in between. They could have been more pragmatic and prudent by holding all the elections in only one day.

    It is a position that some members of civil society organizations have also been pointing out.

    Clearly, there is no reason the election exercise could not have been conducted in one day only so that the cost-both financially and human catastrophe-could have been halved or significantly less.

    What is wrong with voters being given five (5) ballot papers to thump print in one fell swoop instead of thump printing three (3) for national elections in one day and two (2) ballots on another day?

    Why spread the elections between national and sub national levels at colossal financial cost and logistical nightmare instead of consolidating the balloting for the five (5) elective offices into one single event?

    If all the elections were held on the same day ,there could have truly been a political rebirth in Nigeria.
    Apparently, the INEC board of commissioners were not engaging in critical thinking or being mindful of the precarious financial situation of our country hence they were not cost conscious.

    Similarly, the presidency and NASS that should have interrogated the rationale for the recommendations by INEC board were perhaps acting in unison by concurring with each other instead of engaging in scrutiny of each other’s decisions which is part of the principle of checks and balances that constitute the bulwark of democracy.

    Staggering the elections into two events enabled the political actors that had been shocked by the power of BVAS during the first round of balloting, to regroup for the second round with brutality in order to self perpetuate by unleashing mayhem on the electorate while destroying or seizing election materials.

    Imagine if the surplus funds that was applied in the conduct of the staggered 2023 election were invested in boosting education through student loans that would raise the number of skilled workforce for improved national productivity levels and migration of the surplus into the diaspora to boost inflow of income from Nigerians in the diaspora in the manner that india and the Philippines currently benefit.

    The saved funds could also provide housing for all that would generate employment for those in the construction industry and also boost national productivity as well as develop alternative sources of electricity power supply such as relying more on solar power and wind energy by taking advantage of the abundance of sunlight in our country through investments in solar panels production which is no longer as complex as rocket science.

    These are productive as opposed to consumption activities which conducting elections is actually all about.

    A significant harm inflicted on our country by election 2023 is that it has made our country suffer an avoidable jeopardy.

    The unvarnished truth is that the opportunity costs of the policies and programs of government that could have helped our country develop into a socioeconomic and political powerhouse in Africa and indeed the world which is huge has been lost.

    It is disheartening that our country that has the potential to progress from third (3rd) world to first world like it’s former peer Singapore did a couple of decades ago has remained in socioeconomic and political stagnation.

    The expected leap frogging is yet to happen simply because of the loss of the humongous sums of scarce financial resources such as the one pumped into the conduct of the 2023 elections and also the incredulous sums appropriated as petrol subsidy in the past eight (8) years which by some estimate is in excess of fifteen (15) billion United States (US) dollars.

    There is no doubt that a sizable chunk of the N355 billion allocated to INEC was applied in the acquisition of the BVAS and other technological devices that were touted as the magic pill that would cure all the electoral ills in our country.

    Obviously,the promoters of BVAS information technology driven election process must have forgotten that for technology to work,human input is required. In a country where impunity is the norm rather than the exception,and those who breach the rules or the laws of the land often go unpunished so long as they have the right connections, the integrity of BVAS was bound to be compromised by those seeking political power by hook or crook.

    That is why to the chagrin of the electorate, the ghosts of the electoral woes of the past are now on parade and setting back democracy in our country to pre 2015 levels.

    Arising from the scenario above,the leveraging of technology for the conduct of elections which was supposed to be a panacea to the ills that have dogged our electioneering process is now a farce. That is because voter fraud that had progressed negatively from the days of ‘Wettie’ in the western region
    which is an era wherein political opponents doused each other with petrol before proceeding to set victims on fire,is now officially back alive and kicking in our country’s political space.

    In fact,the political thuggery and brigandage of the hue and dimensions witnessed during 18 March elections was supposed to have been dead and buried after the 2011 murder of innocent National Youth Corp Service,NYSC members who had served as temporary INEC staff during the election exercise.

    For context, it is worth recalling that upon the return of multi democracy in 1999 up to 2011 there was an increase in violence during politics via the assassination of opponents in cold blood.

    Political violence such as the murder of Engr Funsho Williams in lagos seventeen years ago and the killing of Chief Bola lge in his bedroom in lbadan 22 years ago as well as the shooting to death of Chief Aminasoari Kala Dikibo 19 years ago on his way from Portharcourt to Asaba, readily come to mind. Some twenty years ago , there was also the blood cuddling murder in Abuja of another political heavy weight,Chief Harry Marshall from Portharcourt, Rivers state.

    How can we also forget the 2011 brutal killing of some NYSC members in the north (earlier mentioned) as a reprisal action against the unfavorable outcome of the election that perpetuated president Goodluck Jonathan in office after the sudden passage of Umaru Yar’adua of blessed memory.

    Of course it is only high profile murders that have been listed here,while the murder of some unsung heroes of democracy abound all over our country,including in the northern region, such as Kano where the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner was reportedly burnt to death along with his family in 2015 when his house was allegedly set on fire by aggrieved political elements.

    The dastardly acts enumerated above are sad reminders of our political evolution from the nascent stages of our democracy characterized by violence to a more liberal stage whereby the principle of majority carries the vote is being observed which is what Nigerians are craving but crooked officials operating manipulatable electoral system seems to be denying them the pleasure.

    It was expected that by now free , fair and transparent election could be achieved leveraging technology as reflected by BVAS and IReV facilitated by the reformed Electoral Act 2022.

    Against the backdrop of the highlighted mayhem that had in the past been invoked on society by politicians and their thugs, it was very relieving that political violence in the polity had ebbed as a result of the reforms in the process of conducting elections initiated by late President Yar’adua in 2007 and pursued to its logical conclusion by ex president Jonathan from 2010 to 2015 who succeeded Yar’adua.
    In fact,it is such a positive irony that it is the electoral reform introduced by Jonathan that led to the triumph of the outgoing ruling APC and incumbent president Mohammadu Buhari in 2015 over then ruling PDP which then president,Goodluck Jonathan was leading.

    Commendably, the reforms had conferred some measure of integrity via the introduction of technology into the electoral process via the deployment of Smart Card Readers,SCR and Temporary Voters Card,TVC by INEC.

    In 2019, although Permanent Voters Card, PVC and Bimodal Voters Accreditation System,BVAS which are higher levels of technological innovations had been adopted by INEC under the leadership of Prof Yakubu,there was not much improvement in the electoral process as president Buhari was as at that time focused on his getting re-elected instead of pursuing reforms.

    So,Mr President was not keen on assenting to what became Electoral Act 2022 which had actually been in the pipeline since 2017.

    When he eventually signed off on the bill for it to become an act of parliament in 2022,Nigerians were full of expectations.

    That is why the number of registered voters soared from 2019 figures of 84 million to over 93.4 million registered with 87 million collecting their PVC for 2023 elections.

    But the bubble of the enthusiastic registrants who were very keen to vote was burst by the lNEC which disappointed them by not living up to expectations in the reckoning of a broad spectrum of Nigerians,especially the youths who obviously did not actively participate in the second exercise held on 18 February hence a very low turnout was recorded compared to 25 February outing.

    The poor turnout of voters is perhaps owed to multiple factors such as deliberate voters suppression by state and non state actors, the fear of members of the electorate being killed and maimed by the same purveyors of violence or voter apathy stemming from the belief that it had been proven based on the experience from the 25 February voting exercise that contrary to the entreaties and exhortations by INEC that convinced youths to get into the political fray,votes do not really count in Nigeria.

    So,in the light of the above , it is rather unfortunate that the much vaunted Electoral Act 2022 as the magic wand that would consign electoral malpractices to the dustbin of history has been the biggest disappointment and the main culprit for the reversal of the electoral fortunes that Nigeria had garnered since 2015.

    In terms of violence,as stated earlier,according to European Union,EU observer mission’s report,twenty one (21) people lost their lives and other unofficial sources reckon that the death toll from 18 March elections is in the region of 30.

    Only three weeks ago,the National Assembly elections held on 25 February did not witness as much blood letting.

    Also in 2015 and 2019,such alarming number of deaths arising from the conduct of general elections did not occur.

    Without doubt,what triggered the orgy of violence during 18 March elections is the loss of confidence in INEC.

    Is it not remarkable that it is not the threat of terrorism in the northern region or unknown gunmen in the south eastern region which had been touted as the biggest threats to election 2023, that have eventually marred, if not ruined it?

    And it is a sad narrative for democracy in Nigeria as the government of the people,by the people and for the people suffers what can simply be referred to as a relapse as jungle justice in politics has once again taken center stage in the way and manner politics is practiced in our beloved country.

    Is there a path to healing or exorcising the nation of the demons of electoral malfeasance which haunts a country once there is negligence and denigration of the ethos of democracy by not playing by the rules?
    l would think so.

    As an optimist,I imagine that there could be an efficacious solution if we retrace our steps to figure out how and why our country seems to have returned to its vomit with a view to further reforming our electoral system by tightening the loose ends.

    For instance,it would help if it is expressly stated in the Electoral Act that results that do not emanate from the BVAS and IReV would not be admitted. There is also need for clarity on the status of the FCT regarding whether the two third (2/3) majority votes policy which is nebulous applies to it specially or it is covered by what obtains for states.

    By the same token,recommending severe sanctions against elections offenders including INEC officials who up till date have remained unpunished for all the election related atrocities that they have allegedly been committing should be prioritized by incoming executive and legislative arms of government.

    Those who breach election laws should be made to be accountable for the crime committed against democracy and our country.

    lt is about time we stopped leaving punishments for election crimes to the United Kingdom, UK and the United States of America, USA that threaten election criminals with visa ban.

    Although the offer is in good faith , visa as punishment for subverting the will of the people is a mere slap in the wrist and a wicked conspiracy by both the presidency and NASS against the masses of Nigeria who are ultimately the victims of electoral fraud.

    With the benefit of hindsight,one is curios to know if the failure of the 9th NASS to pass the law establishing a special court for election offenders that could have out most of them in jail was deliberate or borne out of exigencies.

    Also,the Central Bank of Nigeria,CBN has just devalued the naira further by moving the exchange rate of our local currency to the dollar from N462 to N551.

    It means that to purchase the dollar,Nigerians would need more naira.

    The CBN has also just adjusted upwards its Monetary Policy Rate ( MPR) which determines the interest rates that banks charge customers.

    The MPR that has just been increased from seventeen and half [17.5%]to eighteen [18%] percent by our country’s apex financial institution and lender of last resort indicates that banks would soon be notifying customers that their interest charges for loans disbursed to them has increased to about 25%.

    Are the decisions of the CBN in isolation or pointer to an exit plan or conspiracy of the outgoing administration leaving long suffering Nigerians in deeper misery?

    As we are all well aware,plans are afoot to end the obnoxious and funds guzzling petrol pump price subsidy on 1st of June which is one day after the exit of the outgoing government and an action that is overdue.

    It is also a day after the inauguration of the incoming administration.

    But up till now,there is no framework or plan on how the effect of the subsidy on the masses would be mitigated through policies and programs that would bring human face to the end of petrol subsidy regime which Nigerians actually desire.

    My concern is that without a robust fallback position or buffer to ameliorate the anticipated pains that the change would initially foist on Nigerians,especially if the plan is slammed on the masses or forced down their throats like the ill fated naira redesign policy,there may be a revolution of the sort witnessed in the Magreb region of western and central north Africa whereby in 2010,a Tunisian, faced with acute hunger and other deprivations occasioned by corrupt government and economic stagnation gave up hope by setting himself ablaze thereby triggering a revolution across the Arab world,particularly in Africa that is infamously known as:Arab Spring.

    Is the announcement by the CBN that bank interest and foreign exchange rates have been increased and plans by the federal government to end petrol subsidy regime by 1st June foreboding news of a further crush of the masses by hardship that is lying ahead of them?

    For how long would our teeming and hapless compatriots who are already under heavy strain and too impoverished by government policies that are not critically thought through continue to be victims of maladministration?

    It is an urgent question to which the president-elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu must provide viable and actionable answers as he prepares to mount the saddle of leadership in Aso Rock Villa on 29 May,all things being equal.

     

    Magnus onyibe,an entrepreneur, public policy analyst ,author,development strategist,alumnus of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,Tufts University, Massachusetts,USA and a former commissioner in Delta state government, sent this piece from lagos.
    To continue with this conversation, please visit www.magnum.ng

  • Gov Election: See governorship winners of 12 States, 16 more to be declared by INEC

    Gov Election: See governorship winners of 12 States, 16 more to be declared by INEC

    As Nigerians remain desperate to know the winners of the March 18 elections held throughout the nation, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has, so far, released the governorship election results of 12 States and 16 more are yet to be declared by the commission.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the governorship election was held in 28 states of the federation.

    Millions of voters headed to the polls on Saturday (March 18, 2023) to choose their governors and state house of assembly members for a new four-year term.

    This was after a dramatic round of presidential and National Assembly elections on February 28, 2023.

    After issues of non-uploading of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) from the polling units and IReV was raised, INEC, last Saturday, took centre stage for the conduct of governorship and state house of assembly polls across the country.

    Gov Election: See governorship winners of 12 States, 16 more to be declared by INEC

    The state-centred elections were initially scheduled for March 11 but the fallout of the federal elections set back the reconfiguration of the BVAS devices, prompting a one-week delay.

    Amid hopes of a hitch-free exercise, Nigerians finally trooped out to various polling units to cast their votes for their candidates of choice.

    According to INEC, a total of 87.2 million were eligible to vote, having collected their permanent voter cards (PVCs).

    Of the 36 states, governorship polls were held in 28, namely Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, and Zamfara.

    As for the state legislatures, all 36 states are the home bases of thousands competing for 993 state house of assembly seats.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) keeps an eye on INEC’s declaration of winners and announcement of results, to feed it’s esteemed readers with updates.

    See updates on events, winners and results below:

    • Governor Abdullahi Sule was announced as the winner of the Nasarawa State governorship election. The Returning Officer of the governorship election, Professor Tanko Ishaya, declares that Sule (APC) polled 347,209 to beat his closest contender, David Ombugadu (PDP) who got 283,016 votes.
    • The battle for political control of Kano State in Nigeria’s North-West between the APC and NNPP was settled with the declaration of Yusuf Kabir (NNPP) as the governor-elect. Kabir was declared winner of the keenly contested poll by INEC, scoring 1,019,602 votes to defeat his closest contender, Nasir Gawuna of the APC who polled 890,705 votes.
    • INEC declares Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu winner of Lagos State governorship election. The incumbent governor polled a total of 762,134 votes, defeating Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party who scored 312,329 votes, followed by Abdul-Azeez Adediran aka Jandor with 62,449 votes.
    • In the Niger State governorship elections, 23 out of 25 LGAs have been announced by Prof Clement Alawa, the state Returning Officer. APC has won in 17 LGAs, while PDP triumphed in five. The remaining three LGAs, Mashegu, Rijau and Shiroro are yet to be submitted.
    • The collation of results for the Enugu State governorship election continues on Monday morning. INEC steps down results from two LGAs, citing irregularities.
    • APC wins 9 Of 12 LGAs, as INEC postpones final result announcement In Ebonyi State till 10 am today, March 20.
    • INEC issues a form to recompile the governorship election results for some areas in the Fufore Local Government Area (LGA) of Adamawa State.
    • Labour Party (LP). Kevin Chukwu unseats Nnamani, wins Enugu East Senate Post. The LP candidate defeated incumbent Nnamani of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
    • APC governorship candidate in Katsina State, Dr. Dikko Radda, declared the winner of Saturday’s election. Radda scored 859,892 votes to defeat his closest opponent, Senator Yakubu Danmarke, of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who polled a total of 486,620
    • INEC declares the incumbent Governor of Yobe State, Mai Mala Buni as the winner of the 2023 governorship election in the state.
    • Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State in North-East Nigeria and the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 18, 2023 governorship election has been declared winner of the poll.
    • 26-Year-Old Rukayat Shittu Wins Kwara Assembly Seat.
    • INEC Declares APC’s Umar Namadi of APC as Jigawa Gov-Elect. Namadi scored 618, 449 votes to beat the PDP candidate Sule Lamido who had 368,726 ballots. NNNP’s Aminu Ringim got 37, 156 votes.
    • Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State has been reelected for another four-year term. The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate polled 273,424 to defeat his closest opponents — Abdullah Yahman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 155,490 and Hakeem Lawal of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who got 18,922 votes.
    • Dapo Abiodun Of APC defeats Adebutu, re-elected Ogun Governor
    • INEC declares the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State, Umo Eno, as the winner of the March 18 governorship poll in the state.
    • PDP’s Seyi Makinde re-elected as Oyo Governor
    • APC wins 26 seats out of 27 seats in Imo State House of Assembly election, as INEC declares Ahiazu Mbaise state constituency election inconclusive.

    RIVERS STATE GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION RESULTS

    TAI LGA

    APC 295
    ACCORD 35
    LP 13
    PDP 9,276
    SDP 508

    OPOBO-NKORO LGA

    APC 1,426
    ACCORD 16
    LP 10
    PDP 11,538
    SDP 159

    GOKANA LGA

    APC 7,410
    ACCORD 74
    LP 97
    PDP 17,455
    SDP 13,840

    OGU-BOLO LGA

    APC 1,524
    ACCORD 121
    LP 34
    PDP 7,103
    SDP 310

    ELEME LGA

    APC 2662
    ACCORD 67
    LP 544
    PDP 8,414
    SDP 2,251

    IKWERRE LGA

    APC 7,503
    ACCORD 138
    LP 895
    PDP 13,716
    SDP 1,447

    OYIBO LGA

    APC 2,793
    ACCORD 147
    LP 2,688
    PDP 9,886
    SDP 796

    ETCHE LGA

    APC 6,408
    ACCORD 288
    LP 552
    PDP 16,043
    SDP 2,586

    KHANA LGA

    APC 620
    ACCORD 120
    LP 57
    PDP 9,475
    SDP 5,846

    ADAMAWA STATE GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION RESULTS

    Guyuk LGA
    APC – 14,172
    PDP – 18,427
    LP – 46
    SDP – 422

    Jada LGA

    APC- 20,899
    PDP- 22,933
    LP – 46
    SDP – 422

    Gombi
    APC – 19,665
    PDP – 19,866
    LP – 36
    SDP – 59

    SHELLENG LGA

    APC – 12,589
    PDP -14,867
    LP – 12
    SDP – 1,136

    GANYE LGA
    APC – 21,605
    PDP – 17,883
    LP – 22
    SDP – 69

    DEMSA LGA

    APC – 11,798
    PDP – 22,958
    LP – 84
    SDP – 146.

    LAMURDE LGA

    APC – 9,376
    PDP – 19,104
    LP – 97
    SDP – 126

    MUBI NORTH LGA

    APC – 32,342
    PDP – 17,469
    LP 52
    SDP 53

    JIGAWA STATE GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION RESULTS

    MIGA LG
    APC 18,537
    LP 08
    NNPP 705
    PDP 11,520

    GARKI LG
    APC 26,031
    LP 33
    NNPP 3,199
    PDP 12,449

    BABURA LG
    APC 28,041
    LP 67
    NNPP 2,567
    PDP 13,172

    BUJI LG
    APC 15,941
    LP 07
    NNPP 316
    PDP 11,447

    RONI LG
    APC 15,697
    NNPP 258
    PDP 7,419

    GAGARAWA LG
    APC 12,752
    LP 31
    PDP 8,704
    NNPP 1,405

    KAZAURE LG
    APC 13,650
    LP 34
    NNPP 559
    PDP 10,138

    AUYO LG
    APC 25, 115
    LP 59
    NNPP 1,400
    PDP 10,424

    YANKWASHI LG
    APC 8,473
    LP 26
    NNPP 294
    PDP 5,069

    BIRNIN KUDU LG
    APC 33, 027
    LP 30
    NNPP 677
    PDP 35, 517

    MALA MADORI LG
    APC 20, 538
    LP 25
    NNPP 914
    PDP 10,692

  • 2023 Polls: “Investigate and bring perpetrators of electoral violence to book” -Gbajabiamila tells security agencies

    2023 Polls: “Investigate and bring perpetrators of electoral violence to book” -Gbajabiamila tells security agencies

    The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, has called on the authorities to investigate and bring perpetrators of electoral violence to book.

    In his words: “It’s unfortunate! We just have to continue to educate ourselves and encourage people to go out and exercise their franchise.

    “There’s freedom of movement, freedom of expression as enshrined in our constitution and voting for whoever you want is part of the freedom of expression. Your vote is an expression that is guaranteed under the constitution. So, we have to just continue to imbibe that culture of tolerance and allowing people to vote their choices.”

    I think INEC has corrected whatever lapses or loopholes they had and we are seeing a much better operation this time around

    He commended the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for improving the electoral process during the Governorship and House of Assembly elections.

    Giving the commendations on Saturday, Gbajabiamila said that INEC has enhanced its game compared to what was obtainable two weeks ago during the Presidential Elections in Nigeria.

    “From what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen, INEC has opted its game. There’s been a lot of improvement in terms of preparedness by the commission. Materials came early, the staff came early, accreditation has gone well, BVAS has worked practically everywhere from my understanding.

    “That’s on one hand as far as INEC is concerned. As far as the people are concerned, the electorates, the masses, I believe that It’s very very peaceful. You can see here in my polling unit it’s orderly and peaceful,” Gbajabiamila said.

    2023 Polls: "Investigate and bring perpetrators of electoral violence to book" -Gbajabiamila tells secutity agencies
    Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila

    He also said that what happened two weeks ago was a learning process for INEC which has been corrected by the commission.

    The Speaker said; “I think what happened two weeks ago was a learning process. INEC tried to introduce a new technology which we all applauded. I don’t know what happened to the technology.

    “It’s a learning curve and I think INEC has corrected whatever lapses or loopholes they had and we are seeing a much better operation this time around. You know the system is perfected. It is not perfected on the first day. It’s perfect as you continue to familiarise yourself with it.”

    Gbajabiamila also said that every system required perfection.

    He however lamented the low turnout of the people for the polls saying the number is less than that of the presidential election.

    “I think the downside is the voter turnout. It has been incredibly low. The “mad rush” of two weeks ago is not there,” he stated.

    Gbajabiamila also said that although there was a violent build-up to the election in Lagos, there was a need to continue to educate the people on the need to exercise their franchise.

     

     

  • Lai Mohammed describes 2023 polls as one of the most transparent elections in Nigeria –

    Lai Mohammed describes 2023 polls as one of the most transparent elections in Nigeria –

    The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has described the 2023 elections as the most transparent and credible ever held in the country.

    The minister said this on Saturday, March 18 in his hometown, Oro, Ilorin area of Kwara State.

    Mohammed said the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, helped tackle the issues of multiple accreditations, voting and rigging.

    “With what I have observed both in the February 25 and today’s elections, there has been a remarkable improvement in the performance of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    This is to me probably one of the most transparent and credible elections in Nigeria. That is why I get worried about the red-erring by some people I can call sad losers in the aftermath of the presidential and National Assembly elections.

    “I am glad to say that some of the aggrieved parties have gone to court. That is the best thing in any election in the world. Let the court interpret what the law says.”

    “Without any doubt, the introduction of BVAS has been a game changer in the sense that with BVAS, you are able to get the actual number of people who are accredited.

    “Also with BVAS, it is now not possible for you to vote twice because your biometric and facial are captured. That explained why though INEC said there were 84 million voters in Nigeria, the last election showed that only about 24 million people cast their votes,’’ he said.

    He pointed out that most of the issues being raised about the credibility of INEC in conducting the polls were to distract people.

    “What we noticed is that some media houses had taken position for one candidate and this makes rubbish of most of the analysis we see on their platforms,’’ he said.