When the Goodluck Jonathan Presidency appointed renowned academic, frontline civil rights crusader and unrepentant apostle of democracy. Professor Attahiru Jega, as electoral umpire, the political plane in Nigeria agreed that the nation’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would indeed be independent. Adjudged too forthright, no government, anxious to hang-on to power, would have risked considering Jega as first choice.

But because President Jonathan wanted to institutionalize true democracy, even at great risk to his re-election bid, he listened to public opinion which, at the time weighed overwhelmingly in favour of Jega, and went on to make the pronouncement.

The appointment of the current INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu failed to attract that measure of public acceptance. Infact, his, seemed an after-thought when, first attempt by the Muhammadu Buhari’s Prsidency to impose a relation, Amina Zakari attracted fierce public criticism of unimaginable kind. It also revealed the obvious signs that Buhari would not be as ‘careless’ about power, as did Jonathan, to allow INEC be run by an ‘outsider’. If not, being a southerner, since Jonathan appointed a Northerner as INEC Chairman, Buhari was under moral obligation to appoint a Southerner, for purposes of balance.

When Jega exited the office, he handed over to the next most senior, Ambassador Ahmed Wali, as Acting Chairman, but upon assumption of office, Buhari quickly chose a relation in INEC, Hajiya Amina Zakari as Acting Chairman amidst public uproar. It was in her replacement that Prof. Yakubu emerged as INEC Chair without any contributions by the Nigerian public as was the case with Prof. Jega’s appointment.

The immediate implication is the fear that Yakubu may well be working only for the interest of his appointer and not for the furtherance of democracy as was the case with Prof. Jega. Many indeed voiced skepticism over the needed neutrality of Yakubu and the possibility to defend electoral victory against his appointor’s party.

Public fears were proved right, when, within a short time, every election not won by the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared inconclusive but those won by APC, conclusive, even in similar circumstances.

From Kogi to Bayelsa, and Rivers the same pattern of obvious partisanship ran through. When elections were seen going the way of the opposition, a make-belief violent atmosphere is conjured and those elections declared inconclusive for security reasons, to enable the APC more time to replan.

It is often said that one can fool some of the people all the time or even all of the people some of the time, but surely not all the people all the time. This is what INEC’s criminal delay of rerun elections, for Rivers State and subsequent Senate reproach clearly magnifies. INEC bought time, repeatedly claiming insecurity in Rivers as reason for its inability to conduct credible elections, while in fact it was because, its attempts to subvert the people’s will was resisted by voters in every step, even with the deployment of armed security in questionable numbers.

The Ruling APC has never hidden its desperation to control oil-producing states like Akwa Ibom, Edo, Rivers and Delta States. Infact, when the Supreme Court delivered judgement on Governorship polls on both Rivers and Akwa Ibom States, APC Chairman, Chief John Oyegun seemed heartbroken, and was quoted as saying, even with the fall in oil prices, Rivers and Akwa Ibom are not states we should lose to PDP.

With the governorship lost, and legislative seats in Rivers thrown open and up for grabs, by the in Appeal Court ruling, APC’s hopes of controlling the state, by winning majority seats in the 32-member Rivers State House of Assembly and using that to ultimately unseat the elected PDP Governor, Nyesom Wike, was rekindled. That indeed was the calculation of both INEC and APC before the rerun of March 19, 2016.

To the shock of INEC, 10 out of 11 early results of election into the State House of Assembly went the way of PDP and with leads, in nearly all the remaining 21 others. Did that inform INEC’s declaration of those election inconclusive, only to over-dramatize violence, violence not worse than that in Sambisa Forest where, Jega’s INEC conducted elections in 2015?

The same signs followed elections into the three Senatorial seats, and those of 21 House of Representatives. With early favourable results and massive turn-out of Rivers people even in the face of the over militarization of the electoral preccints, it was made very clear that the APC could not win the rerun.

Sadly, after declaring the polls inconclusive, INEC did not see the urgency to conclude its work in Rivers. Meanwhile, for the purpose of the election INEC had carried-out a questionable re-posting of personnel which returned back to the State, the INEC Commissioner, who ran the state office under former Governor Amaechi in office. Did that suggest anything?

What informed that posting just days before the re-run? What special job was the Akwa Ibom Elder brought back to conclude, that he didn’t before he was transferred out of the State?

But most annoying was the reported threat by a leader of the APC that since his party was denied the governorship, he would see how Rivers will be represented in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. A case of the dog in a manger, ‘if cannot get it, nobody else should’.

True to that threat, INEC did not find any urgency in concluding elections to guarantee Rivers representation in the National Assembly. That was in spite of the fact that the PDP had swept nearly all House of Assembly, Senate and Representatives seats in the 2015 polls, but were reprieved by the Appeal Court ruling of December 11, last year.

That ruling had unseated the three Senators, all elected on the PDP platform, 12 House of Representatives members also of the PDP and a huge majority of State House of Assembly members. With the eventual re-run of March 19, 2016 producing 10 out 11 PDP seats, as many as 21 seats are yet to be filled.

That indeed was not only immoral on the part of INEC, it amounted to a grievous breach of the Constitution which emphasizes equal and adequate representation of all states in the Senate (Three each) and of the House of Representatives, according to Federal Constituencies.

The economic and socio-political denial stemming from INEC’s refusal to conduct elections in a timely fashion, as directed by the Appeal Court, is indeed huge, retrogressive and undemocratic. Yet Yakubu’s INEC felt unperturbed, even with repeated appeals and protestations by the Rivers government.

It is indeed condemnable that INEC would allow itself to be used in making Rivers a constant theatre of war, using inconclusive elections as excuse, and rather than claim failure, blames its ineptitude and obvious partisanship on security challenges.

Is not a shame that it would take the intervention of the Senate for INEC to quickly take a December 10 date for another rerun it has politicized for months, just to deny Rivers people their due? This is indeed why many are curious about what INEC hopes to achieve with the Rivers elections this time around.

Some have even asked: “If Rivers State’s governor were APC, all Senators elected were APC and all the House Assembly seats declared vacant were originally won by APC, and also enjoys the amount of support the Wike-led PDP in the State enjoys, will INEC delay any re-run even if Boko Haram were operating in the State? From the Presidential elections to the State Assembly polls, a pattern runs through, that majority of Rivers people are pro-PDP. Expanded further, the same state has also been governed by the same party since 1999 and without jerrimandering of a criminal kind, the support cannot turn APC over-night.

Besides, within his very short period in office, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezebunwo Wike, has through massive infrastructural development drive, further endeared himself and his party to the people, which makes rigging of the elections very difficult, event with battalions of armed men.

That is the reality on ground. A reality INEC seems reluctant to behold and has instead been moving against the tide by resorting to partisanship, criminal denial and delay tactics to buy time for a possible reversal of fortunes.

These are why many are uncomfortable with a Yakubu-led INEC conducting a free, fair and credible re-run. And worse still, a national election that would equal that by Prof. Jega’s INEC by half.

My Agony is that a Federal Government that assumed power on the foundation of true democracy, found no reason to call INEC to order all these days even in the face of obvious denial of justice. Instead, it took a pro-active Senate to rekindle the people’s hope for democracy, no matter discomforting the day gone had been.

If I were Prof Yakubu, with so much disapproval by the people and questions raised about my neutrality, I would disqualify myself by resigning honourably, as did members of the bench in Ondo.

Soye Wilson Jamabo