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Of Inconclusive Elections …My Fears For 2019

Published

10 years ago

August 22, 2016

When Walt Whitman once said, ‘I know nothing grander, better exercise, better digestion, more positive proof of the past, the triumphant result of faith in human kind, than a well-contested …. “election”, he was, among other variables, underscoring the completeness of a people’s right to decide who leads them.
Such a process must be dependable, free from partiality on the part of umpires and supervisors and above all else, it must enjoy the faith of the people. A process that lacks the people’s confidence, exudes partisanship and indeed betrayal of the voters’ trust cannot be the fascination Whitman extols.
Nigeria’s electoral processes in the recent past give little hope of delivering complete and conclusive results. From Kogi to Bayelsa and then Rivers, there is indeed little to hope for in 2019, because all the democratic gains that, for the first time, ushered an opposition party, in government appear to have frittered away like unwanted garbage.
What remains is outright partisanship of the supposed umpire, who now abuses the right to annul questionable poll results, to tilt the pendulum in favour of a friendly party. It is now, the easiest way to rig elections and shortchange the people.
Before now, attention was on the ballot box. So, to rig, a politician must have an army of well-trained thugs, as fit as rugby players, who would snatch the box and sprint as farther away to as possible, to a safe place, only as a Usain Bolt can. Thereafter, the stolen box is sneaked into the collation centre and counted in favour of the box robbers.
With time, ballot boxes became less attractive in preference for authentic poll results sheets. That was when election results got written in hotel rooms, long before the elections, and ballots stolen to march the concocted figures. Once such results get their way through a compromised electoral officer, through a reasonable cash reward, the elections are won and lost. In all such cases, the rigging politician must have accomplices within the electoral commission.
Today, with the awareness of the people and their new willingness to defend their vote, rigging is possible only if one ignites violence in areas he or she is less popular. For a local government with nine wards, may be unevenly shared between two contestants, with a ratio of five to four.
To win, the less popular candidate with four supporting wards only needs to secure votes of his four wards, concede defeat in three of his opponent’s three and create security breaches in the two remaining wards. With a friendly electoral officer in the commission, result of those two unfriendly wards would be cancelled and with four wards, the less popular becomes winner.
One of the easiest ways to create such security breach is to use uniformed and armed men to attempt drive some of the opposing politician’s many supporters away from the polling station, and with little resistance, some gun shots are fired into the air. Thereafter, a good make-up artiste is commissioned to create dead men and women for the social media and as evidence to the electoral body, confirming how insecure the opponent’s territory could be for free, fair and credible elections. And balm! Those elections are cancelled.
If that fails, apparently because of lack of in-roads made into the politician’s supposed safe zone; when cancelation of two wards alone could not guarantee victory, the electoral body would cancel many more and declare such elections inconclusive. Most elections declared inconclusive cannot be too distant from these reasons. And nothing an unfriendly politician can do, to sway the electoral umpire to his favour, especially if such an umpire is acting the devilish script of power from above.
From the little Nigerians have witnessed about inconclusive elections, very few have faith in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a free, fair and credible election in 2019. Apart from lacking the capacity, integrity and impartiality needed to do right, INEC’s apparent unwillingness to distance itself from partisan ends, makes it impossible for the supposed umpires to deliver a complete electoral end as envisaged by Whitman.
These fears were confirmed last week, when Chairman of the INEC, Prof. Mahmud Yakubu accepted that the commission cannot guarantee that the 2019 elections would be conclusive, saying, “inconclusive elections did not start with me”. He then blamed such shameful ends on insecurity, saying, if major players play according to the rules, INEC would have no choice other than to return conclusive results, but cannot be blamed for declaring inconclusive results if any form of insecurity is reported.
Insecurity of any kind is an indictment on the Federal Government whose responsibility it is to ensure security of lives and property. The ordinary Nigerian should not be punished for the incompetence of the centre to do right.
This is why the confession that INEC cannot guarantee that the 2019 general elections will be conclusive should worry many well-meaning Nigerians.
For a commission chairman, under whose watch, 50 percent of elections conducted have been declared inconclusive, even with, Bayelsa, with as few as eight local government areas, cannot be depended upon to conduct a conclusive national election. And with the confession by the Chief electoral officer himself, the country requires no better reason to overhaul the electoral process.
First, the INEC Chairman needs to disqualify himself. Second, the Federal Government must properly constitute the electoral body as required by law. Third, the government in power must give sufficient reason to Nigerians to believe that the people’s vote would count.
Prior to the emergence of the current INEC Chairman, many Nigerians had canvassed that the replacement for Prof Attahiru Jega, the former Chairman of INEC be sourced from the Southern part of Nigeria since the new President is from the North, and also, since under the Jonathan Presidency, the electoral umpire was of the Northern extraction. All President Buhari needed to do, was to choose from the many men and women of integrity in the South for a replacement for Jega. But it seemed, no Southerner earned the President’s thrust for the job and so settled for Prof. Yakubu.
Now that the umpire himself has confessed to his lack of capacity to guarantee conclusive elections, now perhaps is the right time to make the desired change and give Nigerians a reason to believe in INEC.
At a time when Nigerians expect the right template to make the people’s vote count, the current crop of INEC commissioners cannot be the required solution because, from all indications, they have become part of the problem.
Nigerians are no fools. The right change can only come when the people form an ample part of the process and team up with eventual victors to work towards such change.
Results declared by a partisan INEC cannot inspire patriotic following by the people. It can only breed discontent and even civil disobedience. With so much hunger and anger in the land, denial of the people’s right to choose their preferred representatives in government shall be counter-productive, criminal at worse.
Now therefore, is the time to restructure INEC to earn the trust and confidence of the ordinary Nigerian?
My Agony is that all the gains made of our democracy have all been allowed to fritter-away by politicians who fear a harsh verdict by the same people they have failed to provide positive change.

Soye Wilson Jamabo

Featured

Fubara Dissolves Rivers Executive Council

Published

7 days ago

February 13, 2026

The Tide

Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminialayi Fubara, has dissolved the State Executive Council.

The governor announced the cabinet dissolution yesterday in a statement titled ‘Government Special Announcement’, signed by his new Chief Press Secretary, Onwuka Nzeshi.

Governor Fubara directed all Commissioners and Special Advisers to hand over to the Permanent Secretaries or the most Senior officers in their Ministries with immediate effect.

He thanked the outgoing members of the State Executive Council for their service and wished them the best in their future endeavours.

The three-paragraph special announcement read, “His Excellency, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, GSSRS, Governor of Rivers State, has dissolved the State Executive Council.

“His Excellency, the Governor, has therefore directed all Commissioners and Special Advisers to hand over to the Permanent Secretaries or the most Senior officers in their Ministries with immediate effect.

“His Excellency further expresses his deepest appreciation to the outgoing members of the Executive Council wishing them the best in their future endeavours.”

Featured

INEC Proposes N873.78bn For 2027 Elections, N171bn For 2026 Operations

Published

7 days ago

February 13, 2026

The Tide

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday told the National Assembly that it requires N873.78bn to conduct the 2027 general elections, even as it seeks N171bn to fund its operations in the 2026 fiscal year.

INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan, made the disclosure while presenting the commission’s 2026 budget proposal and the projected cost for the 2027 general elections before the National Assembly Joint Committee on Electoral Matters in Abuja.

According to Amupitan, the N873.78bn election budget covers the full conduct of national polls in 2027.

An additional N171bn is needed to support INEC’s routine activities in 2026, including bye-elections and off-season elections, the commission stated.

The INEC boss said the proposed election budget does not include a fresh request from the National Youth Service Corps seeking increased allowances for corps members engaged as ad-hoc staff during elections.

He explained that, although the details of specific line items were not exhaustively presented, the almost N1tn election budget is structured across five major components.

“N379.75bn is for operational costs, N92.32bn for administrative costs, N209.21bn for technological costs, N154.91bn for election capital costs and N42.61bn for miscellaneous expenses,” Amupitan said.

The INEC chief noted that the budget was prepared “in line with Section 3(3) of the Electoral Act 2022, which mandates the Commission to prepare its election budget at least one year before the general election.”

On the 2026 fiscal year, Amupitan disclosed that the Ministry of Finance provided an envelope of N140bn, stressing, however, that “INEC is proposing a total expenditure of N171bn.”

The breakdown includes N109bn for personnel costs, N18.7bn for overheads, N42.63bn for election-related activities and N1.4bn for capital expenditure.

He argued that the envelope budgeting system is not suitable for the Commission’s operations, noting that INEC’s activities often require urgent and flexible funding.

Amupitan also identified the lack of a dedicated communications network as a major operational challenge, adding that if the commission develops its own network infrastructure, Nigerians would be in a better position to hold it accountable for any technical glitches.

Speaking at the session, Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC, Edo North) said external agencies should not dictate the budgeting framework for INEC, given the unique and sensitive nature of its mandate.

He advocated that the envelope budgeting model should be set aside.

He urged the National Assembly to work with INEC’s financial proposal to avoid future instances of possible underfunding.

In the same vein, a member of the House of Representatives from Edo State, Billy Osawaru, called for INEC’s budget to be placed on first-line charge as provided in the Constitution, with funds released in full and on time to enable the Commission to plan early enough for the 2027 general election.

The Joint Committee approved a motion recommending the one-time release of the Commission’s annual budget.

The committee also said it would consider the NYSC’s request for about N32bn to increase allowances for corps members to N125,000 each when engaged for election duties.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Simon Along, assured that the National Assembly would work closely with the Commission to ensure it receives the necessary support for the successful conduct of the 2027 general elections.

Similarly, the Chairman of the House Committee on Electoral Matters, Bayo Balogun, also pledged legislative support, warning INEC to be careful about promises it might be unable to keep.

He recalled that during the 2023 general election, INEC made strong assurances about uploading results to the INEC Result Viewing portal, creating the impression that results could be monitored in real time.

“iREV was not even in the Electoral Act; it was only in INEC regulations. So, be careful how you make promises,” Balogun warned.

The N873.78bn proposed by INEC for next year’s general election is a significant increase from the N313.4bn released to the Commission by the Federal Government for the conduct of the 2023 general election.

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Tinubu Mourns Literary Icon, Biodun Jeyifo

Published

7 days ago

February 13, 2026

The Tide

President Bola Tinubu yesterday expressed grief over the death of a former President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities and one of Africa’s foremost literary scholars, Professor Emeritus Biodun Jeyifo.

Jeyifo passed away on Wednesday, drawing tributes from across Nigeria and the global academic community.

In a condolence message to the family, friends, and associates of the late scholar, Tinubu in a statement by his spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, described Jeyifo as a towering intellectual whose contributions to African literature, postcolonial studies, and cultural theory left an enduring legacy.

He noted that the late professor would be sorely missed for his incisive criticism and masterful interpretations of the works of Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka.

The President also recalled Jeyifo’s leadership of ASUU, praising the temperance, foresight, and wisdom he brought to the union over the years.

Tinubu said Jeyifo played a key role in shaping negotiation frameworks with the government aimed at improving working conditions for university staff and enhancing the learning environment in Nigerian universities.

According to the President, Professor Jeyifo’s longstanding advocacy for academic freedom and social justice will continue to inspire generations.

He added that the late scholar’s influence extended beyond academia into political and cultural journalism, where he served as a mentor to numerous scholars, writers, and activists.

Tinubu condoled with ASUU, the Nigerian Academy of Letters, the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism, the University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, Oberlin University, Cornell University, and Harvard University—institutions where Jeyifo studied, taught, or made significant scholarly contributions.

“Nigeria and the global academic community have lost a towering figure and outstanding global citizen,” the President said.

“Professor Biodun Jeyifo was an intellectual giant who dedicated his entire life to knowledge production and the promotion of human dignity. I share a strong personal relationship with him. His contributions to literary and cultural advancement and to society at large will be missed.”

Jeyifo was widely regarded as one of Africa’s most influential literary critics and public intellectuals. Among several honours, he received the prestigious W.E.B. Du Bois Medal in 2019.