When in 1849, French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, wrot,e “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose “ – the more things change, the more they stay the same…he must have been referring to Nigeria’s electoral body, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, and politicians that inhabit the stratosphere.
The off-cycle elections, meaning polls that were decided by the courts for governorships that saw the hitherto incumbents removed for office, and in their steads the actual winners taking oaths of office later than May 29.
The polls were to serve as a marked departure from the general elections fraught with telling irregularities, violence, alleged technical glitch on the commission’s server and other unsavoury happenings during the polls.
If anything, the November 11, 2023 elections in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states demonstrate that there is nothing new under the heavens and that experiences that should lead to a profound change of heart both of the electoral umpire and the politicians is but Eldorado.
From the creeks of Bayelsa to the dry land of Imo and the rocky terrains of Kogi, it was incidents of late arrival of electoral materials, violence, vote buying and stark poor turn out of voters but magically inflated figures.
Preliminary reports from observer groups is anything but cheering.
One of the groups, the Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD, a pro-democracy think-tank, in a statement, on Saturday, said its Election Analysis Centre (CDD-EAC) was observing the off-cycle elections in the states through the over 150 fact-checkers and observers deployed to monitor the exercise in the three states.
The statement signed by Adele Jinadu, Chair, CDD EAC, explained how delays in voting and deployment challenges, election irregularities, election violence, disinformation, BVAS functionality and how vote-buying and trading characterised the governorship elections generally across the states.
“Our observers reported that voting in 65 per cent of polling units observed in Bayelsa and 80 per cent of polling units observed in Imo started late, well after the 8 am commencement time. While this was different in Kogi, where this rate was 40 per cent, there were still pockets of late polls commencing across the state.”
It said of particular concern is the low voter turnout noted in the various polling units.
“Observers at Comprehensive Secondary School Ward, Polling Unit 001, Orsu LGA, in Imo, reported that INEC officials were not at the PU,” it said.
The statement explained that the few voters who were present confirmed that many eligible voters were scared of coming out to vote due to fear of violence.
“We are particularly concerned about the turnout rate and how this will affect future engagements between the citizens and elected officials.
“Several observers in Bayelsa have reported the late arrival of INEC staff and security personnel. In PU 24 WARD 4 (Yenagoa) voting started as late as 11:37 a.m. In Oporoma, the headquarters of the Southern Ijaw LGA, INEC officials only arrived at 12:15 p.m., while in Ogbia LGA Ward 10 Unit 3, voting only commenced at 12:40 pm,” it said.
The CDD’s report tallies with what other observer groups are saying.
Already, the INEC hurriedly through the night collated the Imo guber results and returned Hope Uzodinma as elected with 540,308 votes to defeat Sen. Samuel Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who scored a distant 71,503 votes to emerge second, while the candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Athan Achonu, came third with 64,081 votes.
This is for a state rife with violence and voter apathy and widespread thumb printing by electoral officials and security agencies.
In Kogi, the INEC was crying blue murder when already filled results sheets were flying all over with the APC the beneficiary of the heist.
The face saving of free elections in 59 wards with paltry 15, 000 votes when the APC is leading with over 300, 000 votes cannot excuse the INEC from its decent to electoral infamy.
It will do well for President Tinubu to decide whether his tenure will finally see to the death of democracy in Nigeria, or he will live by the conviction that he is a democrat and institute far-reaching measures to halt the drift to electoral fascism.
