There is ample justification for the public outrage and babel of dissenting voices that greeted the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to appoint Mrs. Amina Zakari as head of the agency’s collation centre committee for the 2019 presidential election.
Sources at the election umpire told Huhuonline.com that the choice of Mrs. Zakari, who was imposed on INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, from Aso Rock was a strategic move by the incumbent, President Muhammad Buhari and his ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) party to gain political mileage over other political parties at the starting point. “It is an open secret that Amina is the official backchannel between INEC and Aso Rock,” the INEC source said.
The source, who elected anonymity for obvious reasons, revealed that it was Zakari who made the now infamous phone call to the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Osun, Segun Agbaje and ordered him to declare the gubernatorial election inconclusive after Ademola Adeleke, the PDP candidate scored 254,698 votes to beat Gboyega Oyetola, his APC rival who polled 254,345 votes in the September 22 poll. In the September 27 re-run, Oyetola was proclaimed winner.
The standing in view inside INEC is that Zakari is the real INEC chairperson and Yakubu is just a figure head. Huhuonline.com understands that Zakari’s elevation to the head of the collation center is not unconnected to INEC’s decision to reverse itself over the controversial issue of incident forms – a register where voter thumb-print and signature has been created, such that in case the card reader does not recognize your thumb, you can vote either by thumb printing or signing. The forms are then collated at the INEC collation center now headed by Zakari. INEC data show that 75% of the almost 14 million people who voted without biometric accreditation in the 2015 elections were in states Buhari won. Unfortunately, there are no reliable and accurate means of knowing who those voters were and whether they were genuine or sham voters.
Predictably, the main opposition PDP has vehemently rejected the choice of Mrs. Zakari. “Today, we have been informed that the chairman of INEC, apparently in furtherance of the plots to rig the presidential election, has appointed Mrs. Amina Zakari, a blood relation (niece) of the APC candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, as the chairperson of INEC advisory committee and presidential election collation centre committee. The PDP Presidential Campaign Organization (PPCO) vehemently and unequivocally rejects, in its entirety, the appointment of Mrs. Amina Zakari, President Buhari’s blood relation, as the head of the collation of results, in the same election in which her uncle, President Buhari, as a candidate, has displayed a huge desperation to win,” PDP’s national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, told a press conference in Abuja. Describing the appointment as a step towards destroying the future of democracy in Nigeria, the PDP said Mrs. Zakari would compromise the presidential election, particularly on account of “her blood relationship” with Buhari who is a candidate in the poll.”
But Buhari has denied any blood relationship with Zakari. A state house press release by Garba Shehu,
Senior Special Assistant to the President, Media & Publicity, clarified that: “President Buhari and Commissioner Amina Zakari don’t share a family relationship. An inter-marriage occurred in their extended families, so the imputation of blood relationship between the President and the electoral commissioner is a simple lie.” Accusing the PDP of desperately “clutching at straws,” the statement noted that: “What is even more curious about all the fuss coming from the PDP is that they, as a ruling party picked Mrs. Zakari, judging her by her own merit and made her an electoral commissioner. She served so well with distinction as can be verified from the records that President Buhari approved the recommendation that she be reappointed, as he did other PDP nominees for second-term of four years”
The appointment of Mrs. Zakari, who hitherto was INEC national commissioner for health and welfare, came in the wake of another controversial decision by INEC; to unilaterally draft guidelines for the conduct of the general elections, which raised questions about the agency’s credibility. The PDP described the new guidelines, especially the decision to reintroduce the use of the controversial incident form as illegal and unacceptable.
The PDP sentiment was also echoed by a pro-democracy group; Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), which condemned INEC, saying: “What has happened today, with the ill-advised decision of Yakubu Mahmood [INEC chairman] to give the most sensitive appointment to the biological blood sibling of a major contender in the same electoral contest, is the electoral equivalent of match-fixing.” Similarly, the opposition Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) accused the presidency of plotting to rig the elections.
In a statement by one of its spokespersons, Ikenga Ugochinyere, CUPP decried “the unholy collaboration among the presidency, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the leadership of security agencies to rig the presidential election, announce fake results and deploy lethal force to quell the expected popular resistance.” CUPP said: “This has come to light with the unprecedented move of the Nigerian Army to put the entire country on military lockdown from December 28, 2018 to February 28, 2019 in a maneuver termed Operation Python Dance III.”
INEC however defended the choice of Mrs. Zakari, explaining: “Amina Zakari is not the person responsible for the collation exercise of the presidential election collation centre of INEC. She is in charge of setting up the Situation Room and National Collation Centre for the upcoming elections. This includes creating an environment conducive to national and international election observers, INEC staff and civil society organizations for the duration of election activities.”
But the PDP and other stakeholders remained unconvinced, arguing that INEC has refused to issue a firm commitment that it would grant international and local observers access to its situation room during the elections, despite repeated calls by political parties for INEC to do so, in the interest of transparency and fairness. The PDP pointed to Buhari’s refusal to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill and alleged that manipulations during the Ekiti and Osun State gubernatorial polls offered a foretaste of what is to come in the February 26 general election. “The appointment of Mrs. Amina Zakari, who had been openly accused in various quarters as being the link person between INEC and the Buhari presidency in their schemes to rig the election for President Buhari constitutes a direct violence against the presidential election and the PDP will not, in any way, whatsoever, accept it.”
The PDP and other political parties that will participate in the election have been clamoring for INEC to clarify election-day modalities, arguing that no person should be allowed to vote without a Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC). “INEC must be clear and unambiguous about the use of the incident form. They cannot go behind and reintroduce another incident form having announced publicly that they will not allow the use of the form. We say this in cognizance of the fact that in 2015, INEC said they would not use incident forms, only for the commission to revert to its use. So, we totally reject this as unacceptable.” The PDP national publicity secretary added: “We are aware that INEC is proposing a register where voter thumb-print and signature has been created, such that in case the card reader does not recognize your thumb, you can vote either by thumb printing or signing. If INEC has such, it has not made it known to the PDP or majority of political parties.”
Meanwhile, PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, expressed deep concern over INEC’s decision to reintroduce the controversial incident forms. A statement by Paul Ibe, media adviser to Atiku said: “this is unacceptable to the PDP and Atiku Abubakar. Any decision to use incident forms in the February 16, 2019 elections is an attempt to toe the line of President Muhammadu Buhari, who thrice refused to sign the amended Electoral Act, for fear of the use of card readers, which would prevent rigging by desperate power mongers…Atiku Abubakar notes that data from the 2015 elections show that 75 per cent of the almost 14 million people who voted without biometric accreditation in 2015 were linked to Muhammadu Buhari. There are no reliable and accurate means of knowing who those voters were and whether they were genuine voters or sham voters.
“This disproportionate number of voters who voted without biometric accreditation in 2015 affected the integrity of those elections and we hold the INEC to its oft-repeated promise not to use anything but the smart card readers and PVCs for the 2019 elections. We know that the Buhari administration has been desperate to avoid the use of smart card readers and PVCs for the 2019 elections and the reported volte face by the INEC can only raise concerns about the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau. Atiku Abubakar reminds INEC that the world is watching and Nigerians are alert to see if the present chairman and board of INEC would place national interests above narrow oligarchic interest.”
Ultimately, politicians and their parties must realize that the time for vote rigging is past and should avoid violating the electoral process. Much that INEC is being faulted is just a tip of the iceberg and there is much vacuum to be filled if mundane issues like “stomach infrastructure” and selling of voter’s card are to be subtracted from voters’ calculations. Worst of all, the proliferation of weapons all over Nigeria, and the failure of security agencies to tackle insecurity, or show political neutrality, augurs extremely badly.
A reading of these factors, to be sure, is worrying, making the political atmosphere ahead of next month’s election gloomy, especially as the polls from Ekiti and Osun provide little hope for optimism. To avoid accusations of bungling the electoral process and raising suspicion of a questionable 2019 poll, INEC should continue distribution of PVCs till at least election eve. All registered voters are constitutionally entitled to the PVCs. INEC should also explore the possibility of declaring results at polling stations to avoid the compromising hazards of the collation centers. This will surely be a demonstration of transparency.
