INEC must get its acts together

•It should not rush into an election on Saturday

It came as a shock, an intrusion into a steady resolution of the Nigerian electorate to demonstrate their civic duty to choose who will preside over the affairs of their country for the next four years. The postponement of the February 16 presidential poll served as an anti-climax to years of strategising and intra-party intrigues and politicking, deployment of persons and resources, months of barnstorming,rostrum rhetoric, arduous road trips, repartees and recriminations, grandstanding and, of course, hope.

It was also, for the electoral umpire, a grind of details. Eventually, it blew up. And the nation for the past few days has ventilated and hyperventilated, simultaneously railing at the National Electoral Commission and throwing barbs at the other party, especially between the People’s Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress.

It began at about 2am on Saturday, February 16, when the INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu announced that for logistical reasons he could not allow the elections to hold. His reasons, which included bad weather and delay in delivery of electoral materials, were tenable, and it was better to put it off rather than allow a chaos in the conduct that would not only have endangered lives but would have thrown the whole exercise into doubtful credibility. It was a hard decision to ingest, but the fait accompli by definition could not be reversed.

Yet, days after the postponement, Nigerians are gradually coming round to facts that show the integrity of the election had come under the manipulative devilry of a set of Nigerians. Although Prof. Yakubu noted that the electronics card readers (ECRs) were going to be reconfigured for the new date of election, the news had not come to light that election materials and even architecture have been compromised. The full extent has not yet been revealed, but suffice it to say that the public knows enough to scandalise a nation’s conscience.

Not least is the fact that the adhoc committee put in charge of logistics had come into question. The Directorate of State Services, has reportedly invited some officials of INEC for questioning in connection with their postponed polls. Without prejudice to what they might have done or did not do, it indicates that the logistics that Prof Yakubu alluded to was a source of worry.  The INEC chairman has also said he would personally oversee the logistics department, an admission that all was not well with that aspect of the commission’s preparation for the polls on Saturday.

If that hint of distrust sullies the centre, we were not surprised at stories in some of the states in the federation. For instance, in Akwa Ibom State, 63 persons were arrested who had no business with the polls, and they reportedly travelled in from the neighbouring states of Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers. According to reports, the arrested persons, who were paraded to the public and featured on the front pages of some national newspapers, also named names during interrogation by the security agencies. In Akwa Ibom State, reports also had it that some hoodlums attacked an INEC van and the personnel on board. They also burned election materials in OkotAbara Local Government Area.

In Rivers State, some miscreants dumped 31 ECRs into a bush while fleeing a security agency’s car chase. Thirty four ECRs were also found in Akwa Ibom State. In Abia State, a result sheet with the vote tallies already written was discovered.

There is also the damning allegation that a presidential candidate in league with former INEC boss plied its party branches across the 36 states with $3million (1.6 billion) each to induce electoral officials, agents and voters. It is a travesty that showcases a seedy party of our politics in the ambience of anti-corruption rhetoric and activities over the past decade.

These imply that if the election had taken place, its results would have suffered from severe credibility issues. It may have led to recriminations, a public bandying of figures and a potential constitutional crisis. Those who lose would have impugned INEC’s impartiality, while the winner would have accused losers of sour grapes. A stalemate of sanguinary implications would set Nigeria into the sort of demographic anarchy with some considering moving to safer places within and outside the country.

Already a few voices have called for interim government, and others have said that it all shows a desperation by some politicians to realise forlorn ambitions. In the heat of this, President Muhammadu Buhari had expressed his displeasure with INEC and has also warned vote riggers and those who make away with ballot boxes to skew the results in favour of their candidates. He said, “I have briefed law enforcement agencies and the military to identify hot spots and flashpoints. Anybody who decides to snatch ballot boxes or lead thugs to disturb it (elections), maybe that would be the last unlawful action he would take. I have directed the police and the military to be ruthless.”

This assertion reflects the urgency of the moment. Although some opposition politicians, including Speaker Yakubu Dogara and PDP chairman Uche Secondus, see it as a licence to murder, we disagree. He did not order the security agencies to shoot on sight. Rather he warned the perpetrators to desist or face the reprisal of the law. Ballot snatchers are bandits and they are usually armed when they purloin ballot boxes. They are therefore armed robbers and the law is clear how to deal with armed robbers. If they collide with the law enforcement agencies, fire exchanges assure a possibility of fatalities. Again, an armed robber is no small criminal. He is an interloper of the state, a freeloader who wants to take away the country’s patrimony. It is treasonable.

The task ahead is a challenge. Prof Yakubu has said that it takes time to reconfigure the PVCs, and the exercise calls for a painstaking dedication and attention to detail. There have been accusation as well that some of the security personnel in some key states as well as INEC officials, especially the resident electoral commissioners, have been so compromised that they have to either be removed and replaced or, at worst, redeployed. The security agencies ought to investigate this, and ascertain whether these allegations are true.

It is of no value now to wonder why the security agencies had no hint of some of the clandestine machinations now being revealed, but we must now warn that the February 23 date fixed for the elections should not be seen as sacrosanct. If INEC cannot get its acts together before then, it should not feel obliged to go ahead with the polls. It would amount to a wilful journey into a crash. In light of the complications of the PVCs, the doubtful integrity of some resident electoral commissioners, the prowl of manipulators still in the sewer of our electoral system, it is better to postpone than be prone to disaster.