The dramatic events in Rivers State, with the violence that marred last Saturday’s rerun election in which at least 12 people were killed, is, to say the least, disgraceful and totally condemnable. It is a sad commentary that this crisis is not about any well-formulated plan to transform Rivers, but rather a rampage over self-aggrandizement and personality cult between Rotimi Amaechi, former governor and Transport Minister and his successor, Nysome Wike. In this battle for political supremacy between the APC and the PDP, it is pertinent to note that democracy was not just assaulted; it was put to the kind of shame that threatens its existence. Inadvertently, the demonization of democracy was completed with INEC cancelling elections in eight of the 23 local government areas (LGAs) due to irregularities. Given the prevalence of violence in Nigerian elections and its predilection for unsavory consequences, all Nigerians must say enough to this needless inflammation of an already heated polity.
Certainly, the rerun did not portend positive signals for future elections. While the conduct of the last election elicited expectations of a free and fair contest, events before the vote gave no hope to the high expectation as INEC failed woefully, as sundry contradictions resurfaced. These included late arrival of polling materials, omission of names from the electoral registers, non-mobilization of officials financially to move to their duty stations, while the actors themselves ratchetted up the rhetoric. Above all, there was collusion by INEC officials with politicians and security agents to undermine the electorate. Given the above contradictions, the outcome was easily predictable – an electoral fiasco. The election was declared inconclusive and cancelled in Eleme, Bonny, Andoni, Asari-Toru, Etche, Tai, Khana and Gokana.
In virtually all the 23 LGAs, there were reported cases of late arrival of voting materials and APC and PDP supporters fought running battles to snatch the materials. Solders arrested the Secretary to the Rivers government and former Trade and Investment Minister, Kenneth Kobani, for allegedly disrupting the distribution of electoral materials in Gokana LGA. The caretaker committee chairman of Port Harcourt, Samuel Ejekwu, was arrested by soldiers for driving during the election. Police spokesperson, Ahmed Mohammed said two persons with marked result sheets were arrested at a checkpoint near UniPort. Fake INEC officials carrying a busload of electoral materials to an undisclosed location were also arrested by soldiers at GRA junction along Aba Road. Rivers PDP chairman, Felix Obuah, condemned the arrests of Kobani and the arrest of former Chairman of Khana LGA, Hon. Greg Nwidam, by soldiers in Bori. He alleged that soldiers beat up the state Commissioner for Environment, Prof Roseline Konya, and PDP agents at INEC offices in Bori, Tai and Gokana councils.
Certainly, no modicum of morality or iota of legality justifies this kind of political brigandage. It was senseless, unimaginable, disgraceful and devoid of any perfunctory exaggeration. Electoral malpractices in Rivers have become a recurring decimal. In the 2015 general elections, similar irregularities were experienced. The contradictions have once again underlined the problem of electoral misconduct that have bedeviled the country since independence and have incrementally worsened over the years. However, the bigger issue is that if election could not be conclusive in a single state despite the concentration of resources, both human and financial, it portends serious implication for nation-wide electoral exercises. Something is fundamentally wrong.
The problem this time lies squarely on the laps of the umpire, INEC. After the conduct of the 2015 general elections, adjudged free, fair and credible by any standards, INEC’s credibility as an institution has been seemingly compromised in this exercise. If the election was well conducted, the hiccups would have been avoided. The failure of INEC to pull through the Rivers rerun election is demoralizing and it accentuates in no small measure, the body’s incapacity to conduct future general elections. This clearly is a failure of leadership.
An election is not a one-day event; rather it is a process. The point at issue here is the failure of INEC more than the constraints of the actual conduct of election itself. It translates into a colossal waste of resources, which was put at the disposal of INEC for the rerun election. What happened in effect was a damning example; of how an institution can single handedly derail the destiny of a people. Besides, it is an indictment of the President’s choice of INEC leadership, and in particular, the fact that less than a year after Jega left, the expected culture of conducting free elections is yet to take root. This Rivers election is significant for the singular reason that it was supposed to be the litmus test of the new INEC leadership. Sadly the exercise has not only undermined the optimism of future elections, it casts a huge pall of illusion on the future of the country’s democracy.
Given the effrontery and brazen brutality with which the violence unfolded, this unbridled barbarism, a remotely controlled continuation of the battle of ego between the Presidency-backed Abuja politicians and the Port-Harcourt-based ones, is all the more sickening because it is not over any edifying ideal or the interest of the people, but mere personal aggrandizement and struggle for access to power. And the tragedy is: if these actors are the ones representing the people, then the people are doomed! This abysmal degeneration of values and absence of stately comportment by politicians, who, by authority and common trust are supposed to lead by example, is hugely disturbing. This feeling is heightened by the culture of impunity, which gives vent to incessant high level official rascality deployed for partisan political mileage. Coupled with these is the inbreeding of mediocre politicians, who lack the requisite knowledge, capacity or temperament for governance.
The Federal Government cannot gloss over or exonerate itself from the crisis in Rivers. It must judiciously exorcise itself of any partisanship and complicity. To demonstrate the heavy weight of the law on this issue, all those involved should be investigated, and if culpable, prosecuted. The invidious animalism on display in Rivers negates all that law and morals stand for; and it is a telling lesson to the Nigerian people. Politicians in all political parties have unabashedly demonstrated to Nigerians that the political class cannot be trusted to change anything, let alone change Nigeria. They can’t even change themselves! Nigeria’s salvation, it would seem, does not rest in the hands of this band of mendacious self-seekers.
No index of positive continuity, let alone a change agenda, can emanate from such insensitivity where the roadmap for the destiny of a State is consciously undermined and attacked by sinecurists and self-seeking pests; little minds in high places who have no patience for the finer acts of democracy, and whose only quest is to feast on the commonwealth. With responsibility for the present quagmire on its door step, INEC has a duty to correct the anomalies and sanction those responsible as appropriate. Above all, it must ensure that the next rerun election ultimately and fully reflects the genuine desire of the Rivers people.
