With the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announcing collated results for the presidential election from the 36 states and the FCT, it is now all but certain that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Major-General Muhammadu Buhari has won the 2015 presidential election, defeating incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party. As the nation awaits the final tally of the votes, General Buhari holds an unassailable lead by any results still to be declared. Kudos to the president-elect for a hard won victory after four attempts, but congratulations to President Goodluck Jonathan for keeping his promise to give Nigerians the legacy of free, fair and credible elections. Huhuonline.com urges Jonathan to do right by Nigeria and immediately call Buhari and concede defeat. The unprecedented turnout of electorate, their peaceful conduct, patience and cooperation for successful conduct of this election should be respected with declaration of winners without bias. It is a victory for all Nigerians; and one that even the outgoing President can cherish.
Despite public cynicisms nurtured by the culture of low expectations, there is a sense in which we can say that the Presidential and National Assembly elections that held over the weekend were not just ordinary events. These were elections all Nigerians had to win. They were not about the two main candidates: Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari. These elections like no other, were about the future and survival of Nigeria, generally believed to be the most populous nation of black people on earth. In other words, the success of the elections will affect the profile of the black people in a global context. As apprehension and fear gave way to forlornness after voting was extended into Sunday, the ominous uncertainty surrounding the electoral process was substituted with reassurance going by the transparent manner in which INEC has been announcing the results.
In spite of the security challenges in some areas and threats and the hitches associated with card readers, people remained resolute and committed to ensuring that they participated in the exercise. As the country anxiously awaits the final results of the knife-edge vote, it is fair to say that the democratic culture is gradually finding roots in the country, a further testimony that if the current experience is allowed to go on without interference; Nigeria would soon get its acts together. But if the Nigerian voter is gradually imbibing the culture of democracy, the same could not be said of the political elite who always look for ways to subvert the will of the people. Because of unbridled ambition for political power, politicians who lose the elections might be tempted into taking advantage of centrifugal factors that could divide the country, to feather their own nests. They better not.
If any success has been recorded in the last 16 years of Nigeria’s current democratic experience, it is that the country has, against all odds, sustained the democratic culture to continue to strengthen the pillars of participatory governance in the largest concentration of black people on the globe. Having figuratively won the war in organizing the elections, the Nigerian people cannot afford to lose the peace. As the darkest part of the night is just before dawn, any act capable of reversing the progress so far made or even alter, however slightly, the journey, be it out of incompetence of INEC or inordinate ambition of politicians, is reprehensible and unacceptable.
It is imperative that Nigerians remain committed to peace and democracy, taking the electoral challenges in their strides, even if with a mixture of distress and comic relief, including the national embarrassment from the failure of the card reader to read the President’s own fingerprints. So far, Nigerians have comported themselves with utmost civility and patient forbearance. This gesture demands reciprocity from INEC. But the unfolding situation in parts of the country is a debasement of the sensibilities and an irreverent infringement on the collective psyche of Nigerians. Any attempt to short-change the Nigerian people not only belittles Nigerians and Nigeria before the international community, more importantly, it advertises to the whole world a certain Nigerian definition of democracy that diminishes the ideal and mocks the primacy of the people in the process. There is no excuse for INEC, whatsoever, to deliver such a performance, other than gross incompetence, partiality, corruption and mischief.
The open admittance and declaration by Jega that the Rivers election was flawed and compromised by some of his officials has raised hopes of redemption. The question remains: what does he intend to do about it? Amid reports of missing RECs and returning officers and deserted collation centers, and INEC officials failing to show up in known opposition strongholds for voting on Sunday, there are many reasons for INEC to be worried, like most Nigerians currently are, by its performance in the South-South. Jega must also realize that the national, political and psychological cost of this disenfranchisement is high. In the event that INEC has already canceled election results of two polling units in Kano following the tampering of the results by vandals, Jega should, on his personal integrity and honor, ensure that fraudulent results do not stand.
It is, however, pertinent to commend the people of Rivers and the South-South for the peaceful manner in which they have comported themselves, despite the massive disenfranchisement. No one has done anything that would compromise the peace and stability. This is not only commendable, it would help in eventually establishing the credibility or otherwise on the process, conferring legitimacy or otherwise on the outcome. It is, therefore, the expectation of all Nigerians that INEC would live up to its responsibility and do justice in situations where fraud and irregularities compromised the integrity of the process.
It is an enduring tragedy that despite a period of four years within which INEC has had to prepare for this election, it is being weighed down by logistics problems and seeming ill-preparation. In the key battleground of Rivers, where all manner of malfeasance is possible, it is a calculated outcome of a dangerous gambit by certain quarters of the political class to either act some well-orchestrated script, or to disingenuously warehouse the electoral results sheet for sinister purposes with the potential for sullying the electoral outcome. Little doubt, Governor Rotimi Amaechi refused to vote without the results sheet.
It is a sad commentary on the character of Nigerian politics and politicians that electoral malpractices have become a recurring decimal, which have bedeviled the country since independence and have incrementally worsened over the years. The crisis in Rivers is again giving democracy in Nigeria a very bad name. It is a matter for regret, indeed shame, that 16 years after the return of democracy, electoral contest in Nigeria still gives patriotic Nigerians, as well as the world, sleepless nights so much so that foreign countries, small and big, have cause to offer either advice or issue warning on good behavior to Nigeria’s politician. US Secretary of State, John Kerry visited with a warning that persons linked with election violence will be denied visas into America. That speaks much for the low esteem in which the Nigerian political elite are held by outsiders.
It is important to remind Nigerian politicians who hardly draw lessons from history that the legitimacy of democracy rests in a freely given mandate of the electorate and not in unorthodox tactics. After all the logistical challenges posed by the card readers, the nation was poised for a real taste of joy. It is just enough to say that Nigerians cannot afford to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and the nation’s manifest rendezvous with glory should not be halted. Any attempt to subvert democracy will be probably the most wicked act perpetrated against this nation, second only to the June 12, 1993 presidential election adjudged the freest and fairest in the history of Nigeria, and which was annulled by the military in a streak of authoritarian madness.The integrity of INEC’s leadership is now at stake, no doubt. Nigerians, however, expect the leadership to rise to this occasion and acquit itself creditably. By acting with a modicum of patriotism at this critical period of Nigeria’s political history, the dramatis personae can write their own names in gold and save the country the odium of failure. Should they choose to do otherwise, history will also be there to judge.
