NATIONAL HOWLERS IN AN HOUR OF NEED

The macabre poetry that went into the voice of Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as he read out the final results of the February 25, 2023 election spelt a death knell for the hopes of many well-meaning Nigerians that the country would work again any time soon.

In hotly contested and disputed elections during which Nigerians trooped out to their polling units across the country to challenge the status quo that had been eight years in the making, many Nigerians thought that something could come out of the ballot.

However, the handwriting was soon scrawled writ large on the wall at the National Collation Center as the states began to turn in their results. It soon appeared beyond reasonable doubt that Professor Mahmood was the chief conductor of the elaborate orchestra that was conducted to give Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the frail and ailing candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), victory at the polls.

It had been slow and methodical even if poorly coordinated. In some states, many state governors toiled and toyed with results until they had sufficiently shaped same to their satisfaction while in other states, the manipulation was left for those at the national level.

The results from the core north were not all that surprising. Even with their history of over-voting, under-age voting and mass delusion, it was no surprise that they favoured the APC. After all that has happened to them under the nonchalant watch of the Buhari  administration, in travelling the same path of the APC again, they made it abundantly clear that it will take a major miracle to redeem what seems an  irreparably benighted region.

It is unfortunate that INEC has failed yet again in spite of the massive support and goodwill of many Nigerians. The Commission has a spectacularly embarrassing way of always coming up short in an hour of need. INEC’s constant and recurring failures speak to a country where many institutions are weak, having been deliberately weakened by the efforts of those who insist on always having their way at the expense of a country that continues to totter and stutter despite its extravagant gifts.

In a country where democracy is still struggling to find its bearing even after two decades, there is always a sense in which underfunding works to cripple institutions. This deliberate attempt to weaken institutions takes away their autonomy, and critically, their independence.

However, beyond the many institutional and financial difficulties that INEC faces with each election cycle that comes around, the integrity of its staff is just as huge a problem. Nigerians do not trust those who staff the Commission. The same mutual suspicion Nigeria reserves for those who staff other government agencies is reserved for INEC.

Unfortunately, when elections come around, Nigerians are not given reasons to say that anything at all has changed. Listening to the INEC chairman read out the results with predetermined finality, having struggled desperately  to answer questions that bordered on the integrity of the election results showed just how much work Nigeria has to do to become that country many of its citizens earnestly yearn for.

Nigeria was at a critical crossroads before the elections. Now that INEC’s howlers have contributed to make its journey even more arduous, an ugly situation just got uglier.

It is really sad to see how much mistrust Nigerians nurse against key institutions of government like INEC and the judiciary. It requires no clairvoyance to say that as soon as this remains the case, many people will not contribute their own quota as citizens to build a proper country.

Without such critical contributions, it is doomsday beckons.

Kene Obiezu, keneobiezu@gmail.com