Nigeria’s knife-edge general elections were thrown into increasing doubt after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) cowered to pressure from the military and postponed the elections for six weeks, ostensibly because no soldiers will be available to provide security if the vote held on February 14 as initially scheduled. After contentious and rancorous meetings with stakeholders, INEC chairman, Attahiru Jega, announced presidential and National Assembly elections for March 28, while State Houses of Assembly and gubernatorial elections were set for April 11. Using security as an excuse to undermine the democratic process is cheap blackmail; and unacceptable, hence Nigerians must ensure that the rescheduled dates remain sacrosanct.
Insisting that the May 29 handover date was still sacrosanct, Jega said INEC’s decision was based purely on security reasons, after he received a letter from the National Security Adviser “strongly advising” a six-week delay in polling because security agencies cannot guarantee security for the election, as they needed to deal with a renewed anti-insurgency campaign against Boko Haram in the Northeast. Explaining that the new dates would attract no extra cost to the tax payer, Jega further said it would have been unfair to allow over 700,000 ad hoc staff and INEC staff to engage in the elections without adequate security. He also said he consulted with 28 political parties, the 37 Resident Electoral Commissioners, civil society groups as well as the Director General of the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) before reaching the decision.
Both incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and his main APC challenger, Muhammadu Buhari have endorsed the shift and while Jonathan pledged that the May 29 handover date was still sacrosanct, Buhari urged the authorities to ensure the March 28 rescheduled date remain sacrosanct. In the meantime, though, the controversial decision has attracted kudos from some quarters and a hailstorm of criticism and condemnation from others, including the United Nations, the USA, the Conference of Political Parties (CNPP) and other human rights groups.
Jega has been under pressure to delay the vote because not all of the 68.8 million registered voters have received their cards. The insurgency in the northeast has displaced hundreds of thousands of people who are unable to cast their ballots. In a vote conducted Saturday by Jega, after he met with political parties and the civil society, 21 Resident Electoral commissioners (RECs) voted for the elections to be held as planned while 16 others voted in support of a postponement. Nigeria has 37 RECs, one for each state and the Federal Capital, Abuja. The vote came as troops from Nigeria, Chad, Niger and Cameroon launched a joint counter-offensive to curb the threat to regional security from Boko Haram.
The 1999 Constitution gives INEC powers to set the dates for elections into the office of president, vice president, governor, and deputy governor as well as elections into the National Assembly and the State Houses of Assembly. Section 25 of the 2010 Electoral Act, provides that elections into the above positions shall hold not earlier than 150 days and not later than 30 days before the expiration of the tenure of the last holder of that office. So, INEC had between December 30, 2014 and April 28, 2015 to conduct the general election. A year ago, INEC announced February 14 for the presidential and National Assembly elections, and February 28 for the governorship and House of Assembly elections. INEC said it had to leave considerable time between the elections and the expiration of the mandates of the incumbents on May 29 to accommodate litigations that might emanate from the polls. It therefore stands to reason that the six weeks postponement is within the constitutionally allowed period.
But the reasons advanced have become the source of much controversy and anger. The mood across the nation suggests that INEC merely capitulated to a surreptitious coup against democracy by the security chiefs who are requesting six weeks to end a six-year insurgency which they have been unable to contain, and which appears to be spreading on a daily basis. Some have even called for the resignation of the military chiefs and security heads, including the Police, on account of their abdication of their constitutional responsibility to secure lives and property at all times, including during elections.
The military’s resort to mendacity and scaremongering evokes memories of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, which the late Moshood Abiola, was poised to win. But the election was annulled by then military leader, Ibrahim Babangida, to the ostensible delight of Abiola’s opponent in the election Alhaji Bashir Tofa. Till date, Tofa has not condemned the annulment of June 12. The standing view among a majority of Nigerians is that the basis for the postponement is contrived and to a large extent pedestrian, given that less than 10% of the country’s local government areas is under the control of Boko Haram. It is hard to fathom what mileage the military will cover between now and March 28, so what happens if the insurgency rages after the six weeks? Will the elections be shifted again?
Besides security, the deficit in the PVC distribution exercise is another excuse for the postponement. INEC claims that only 45, 829, 808 representing 66.58% of the total number of registered voters have received their PVCs, but admitted that, over two million voter cards were either lost, stolen or not yet delivered to INEC by its contractors. It is very unlikely that six weeks will be enough to resolve all the outstanding issues pertaining to non-collection of PVCs. It stretches credulity to claim there could ever be a 100% PVC collection rate even if the elections were postponed till December 2015 to allow more time for the distribution of the cards. Therefore the PDP charge that only 100% distribution of PVCs to all registered eligible voters before March 28 could ensure a credible poll is empty grandstanding that ignores the fact that the number of PVCs already collected rates highly in comparison to the level of voter turnout historically in Nigerian elections.
INEC had consistently denied any plans to shift the general election; hence the popular impression is that the postponement is a PDP hatched plot pushed through by the security agencies as sundry proxies. The APC believes the ruling PDP, fearful of defeat due to the notably high momentum behind the main opposition candidate, Buhari, simply wants to delay the election in the hope that conditions will be more favorable later. In reality, the postponement confers no advantage to any party or candidate, in the same way the postponement of an exam cannot assist an indolent student. The ultimate issue in this regard is for INEC to conduct free, fair and credible elections, come March 28. This is what Nigerians are craving for; and the country deserves nothing less.
