Penultimate weekend millions of Nigerians frustratingly went to the polls to elect a new President and National Assembly members. Prior to the polls there was this artificial scarcity of fuel that caused commotion in many cities and towns. And above all, the Naira redesign policy that caused a serious crisis across the federation. Violent demonstrations followed the currency crunch in many cities forcing the Buhari regime to extend the deadline for the swapping of the old and the new notes.
Now, critics and analysts who should know better had argued strongly that the two crises were tailored to scuttle a presidential aspiration of a particular candidate. But now that that candidate had ‘won’ a fundamentally flawed presidential election it is either that he outsmarted the cabal hell-bent on frustrating his ambition or that they underestimated his resolve to claim the big prize.
The Naira redesign policy implementation was flawed because of the timing. It caused serious hardship. President Buhari and the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, were diabolically determined to push the policy down the throat of Nigerians mere days to the crucial general elections.
The presidential poll came and went with a whimper. The ruling party’s candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was declared the winner while the PDP’s Atiku Abubakar came a close second. The Labour Party’s Peter Obi took ‘silver’ coming third in a demonstration of historic electoral feat never before seen in our clime.
On election day we saw how thugs and hoodlums loyal to Asiwaju Tinubu in Lagos and Governor Wike in Port Harcourt went about using guns to intimidate voters, snatch ballot boxes and cause mayhem on polling units. While it is conceded that the elections were generally peaceful incidents of violence and physical assaults sought to discredit the process.
Besides, the low turn-out did not help to invest the process with any legitimacy. Millions of Nigerians were disenfranchised by the actions of hooligans and the late arrival of election materials and voting.
Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar had addressed press conferences in Abuja in which they rejected the outcome of the presidential poll dismissing it as fundamentally flawed and vowing to challenge it in court!
For the big man from Adamawa it was a “rape of democracy”! And for Obi he won but was cheated out! And for peace to reign and in deference to the electoral constitutional exigencies the courts are there to do justice. And there they are headed!
Indeed, there are reasons to believe that the presidential poll was manipulated with active connivance of the umpire, INEC. The failure to transmit the results from the polling units to the server of the INEC as promised made the exercise suspect. The failure of BVAS and the failure of uploading to INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV) gave the impression of a sinister plot to rig the poll in favour of the ‘winner’.
The crucial questions are: were the mandatory provisions of relevant sections of the Electoral Act, 2022 followed in the collation and announcement of the results? Were the irregularities taken into account? Why did BVAS and IReV fail to deliver? Were they made to fail, sabotaged or were unable genuinely to function according to plan?
From all indications the presidential poll was neither free nor fair and therefore cannot withstand credibility scrutiny. INEC violated its own set rules. Rules were broken leading to a stolen mandate! Let it, therefore, be proven that a mandate was stolen and rules broken. Recovering the stolen mandate may be inconsequential here.
Peter Obi in the press conference had alluded to the fact that he was convinced he won the election. And he made it clear that the ‘stolen’ mandate would ultimately be retrieved in court. Going down history lane it would appear an uphill task. No presidential poll had ever been annulled by the court in Nigeria before!
However, the same history makes us understand that as Governor of Anambra State Obi had suffered two illegal impeachments. And he successfully used the instrumentality of the law to vindicate himself. Therefore, he cannot be described as a man afraid of the judicial system. He seems to have their trust to do justice even when many Nigerians have pointed out that no chance in hell exists of righting the electoral wrong via the Tribunal or the apex court.
Again, those describing Obi as ‘weak’ may have cause, in the end, to acknowledge his faith in the judicial system no matter how corrupt or compromised it appears to be.
While Asiwaju Tinubu has been sounding conciliatory lately extending the olive branch to the losing candidates, they reserve the right to challenge his tainted victory at the court. Electoral litigation must not be misconstrued as ‘grandstanding’. It is rather a good thing that the opposition has chosen the legal way to resolve the issue. They could have elected to call their supporters on to the streets.
So, they must be encouraged to seek legal redress in what they perceived to be an electoral heist of the century! Let the judicial fireworks, therefore, begin in earnest. We shall see if our judiciary is up to the task. By the time the judicial options are exhausted Asiwaju Tinubu can then afford to bask in the euphoria of victory. For now it remains a pyrrhic victory!
Now, talking about stolen mandates we may go down memory lane yet again to comprehend how and why mandates are often purloined. During the Obasanjo military tyranny the mandate of the late sage, Obafemi Awolowo, was stolen and handed over to the late Shehu Shagari. The late Bashorun MKO Abiola’s June 12 mandate was brazenly stolen by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and handed over to Ernest Shonekan and the late Gen. Sani Abacha.
Bashorun Abiola died in prison, assassinated by the state, trying to retrieve the popular mandate! In 2019 the ruling APC and President Buhari ‘stole’ the PDP’s Atiku Abubakar’s mandate. And now another stolen mandate waiting to be retrieved.
To those who say it is impossible to reclaim the mandate through the courts we say there is always a first thing or first time in everything in life. Peter Obi may well fail in his determined attempt but it is worth trying out.
The system in our country is broken profoundly. The rot never started with the advent of the Buhari regime but it has gotten worse under his leadership ineptitude. There is a broken judicial system, a broken parliamentary system, a broken social system, a broken economic system and now a broken political system. Now add the stolen mandate to it and the system is headed to the rocks!
How much more, fellow Nigerians, can the broken system take for it to be classified a failed state; for it to crumble and become history? Only time shall tell!
SOC Okenwa
soco_abj_2006_rci@hotmail.fr
