THE OFF-SEASON GUBERNATORIAL ELECTIONS
Can INEC learn from its missed opportunities?
In July, five months after the 2023 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) reviewed the entire exercise with critical stakeholders. Despite widespread criticism, the commission gave itself a pass mark and noted its attempt to improve the transparency of its processes by using such technology as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). But INEC also acknowledged challenges it must surmount in future elections. They include the perennial logistic nightmare of voting materials getting to polling units on schedule, electoral violence, and compromise of its result management system. Well, the future is not far away. Indeed, it is already here.
Come Saturday, the people of Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo States will go to the polls to elect their governors for another four years. Being an off-season election and given misgivings in several quarters about the conduct of the February/March general election, INEC has an opportunity to redeem its image. The commission must realise that it has been given a sacred duty to ensure that the will of the people prevails through the conduct of free and fair polls in the three states. For that to happen, INEC must bring onboard public concerns and the reports of the 54 international and domestic observers it accredited to monitor its conduct of the last general election earlier this year. Though minimal in relation to the overall number of litigations across the country, some judicial outcomes have demonstrated that even with the introduction of technology, the human element continues to get in the way of INEC operations. Yet, it is becoming increasingly clear that the more automated the electoral process, the more credible the outcomes.
Being the first set of elections under his watch, President Bola Tinubu also has a responsibility to ensure a level-playing field for all the participating political parties and candidates. INEC has already sounded the alarm that should concern authorities in the security sector. “The three states of Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi are not the easiest states in Nigeria to conduct elections. The difficult geographical terrain and prevailing insecurity are compounded by negative mobilisation by political actors,” said INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu. “Violence and other undemocratic activities such as vote buying, attacks on election officials and disruption of the electoral process must stop.”
While electoral violence and all manner of intimidations should have no place in a civilised society, it should worry authorities in Nigeria that we are increasingly being marked down as a country where anything goes, where obstacles are deliberately placed on perceived opponents, and where politicians engage in reckless, unlawful, improper and questionable activities without consequences. These desperate moves put the democratic experiment and our country at great risks and should be check-mated before we are tripped over the precipice by the inordinate ambition of a few.
Since an ‘end justifies the means’ approach to politics has over the years provided the incentive and motivation for power seekers to believe that all is fair and acceptable in electoral politics, we agree with Yakubu that the success or failure of the polls will depend largely on the capacity of the security agencies that must remain neutral throughout the entire process.
Meanwhile, there are interesting dynamics to the gubernatorial election in the three states. Unlike in the past where the choice is usually between the ruling party and main opposition party, there are formidable contenders who run on party platforms outside the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), especially in Imo and Kogi States. And for that reason, INEC and the security agencies must be neutral before, during and after the polls on Saturday.
Fortunately, INEC has had ample time to prepare and get its act together by ensuring that all logistical problems like late arrival of ballot papers and voting materials to polling centres are not repeated. So, there is no room for excuses. At the end, the choice of who govern Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi States for the next four years is that of the residents of the states to make. That is what is before them on Saturday. May the best candidates win.
