INEC? NO. ITS ANEC!

 AUSTIN ISIKHUEMEN urges INEC to mind its language

Read the attached INEC press release. Read it again. Does anything strike you as odd? 

We have become so used to absurdities that atrocious language by government agencies and statutory, even constitutional, bodies spew gibberish and we chew it, swallow and move on!

How can a body that is supposed to organise an election, without fear or favour to participants, in an even handed way that guarantees fairness, equity and justice, classify the electorate in such a derogatory and cavalier manner? 

If you still don’t see what my gripe is about, please ask INEC what it means by “THE WELL-MEANING CITIZENS” of Rivers State? If there are well-meaning, then there must be those that don’t mean well, in INEC’s jaundiced view.

INEC is supposed to be even-handed, non-aligned and INDEPENDENT! Like the maiden of justice, it is supposed to wear a blindfold, to avoid bias, allowing the scale to tilt to the side with a heavier weight of justice. 

Dividing the people of Rivers into a well-meaning and an ill-meaning groups is a sign that INEC, rather than being even-handed and fair to all, is secretly aligned. They have just been betrayed by choice of language, inadvertently.  

This mode of communication, of classifying citizens and constituents, started from our National Assembly. We never heard such from Joseph Wayas’ Senate or Edwin Ume Ezioke’s House of Representatives. It was in the 3rd Republic NASS we started hearing silly intros like “I represent the good people of Abadabidi constituency”. Pray, who represents the bad people there? 

To claim you mean all the people there are good would not only be disingenuous, but utterly untrue. It would mean that the honourable is starting his presentation based on a lie! There is no constituency without thieves, murderers, sexual predators, lunatics, kidnappers, extortionists and scammers in Nigeria today. As a member of the legislature, you are their representative! Can we even assume that everyone in the NASS is “good” ? 

You cannot pick and choose which member of your constituency you represent once you get the majority of the votes. Your claim that you represent “the good people” is at best ridiculous, at worst, utterly silly, really. You represent the thugs and drug addicts, the harlots and hedonists, believers and atheists, the good, the bad and the ugly.  

It is this inane introduction now commonplace in the people’s parliament that INEC is adopting, as seen in this press release to the people of Rivers State. It has ill portents. It is no news that there is a dangerous political cleavage in Rivers State at the moment: Wike supporters and Fubara supporters. Which of these groups is INEC considering as well-meaning? Your guess is as good as mine. 

Is it not better, considering the likely alignment that INEC may have gone into, as indicated by the language of this press release, that they swear an affidavit for a name change? From Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to Aligned National Electoral Commision (ANEC). Let them hurry and get this done before the next elections planned for Rivers State. They can even swear the affidavit at the Supreme Court!

Isikhuemen writes from Lagos