Let The Electoral Process Be Without Acrimony

In every election year in Nigeria, there is always the suspicion that the ruling party in a particular area be it at the state or federal level would be finalising plans to rig or abort the will of the electorate.
Sometimes, these suspicions might be unfounded but the antics of the ruling party might give credence to this notion. Recently, the controversy over the appointment of Mrs Amina Zakari as the Chairperson, Advisory Committee and the presidential election collation centre is being criticised by the opposition parties and other stakeholders in the Nigerian project.
According to sources, Mrs Zakari is supposed to have completed her tenure as an INEC commissioner since August of 2018. Apart from that, she is said to be a niece to the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari.
The fear is that as a blood relation to the president, she might use that connection to subvert the vote counting exercise. Another area of grouse by the opposition parties has to do with the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris, who is supposed to have retired from the service since January 3.
The Inspector-General has served the mandatory 35 years and his continual stay in office, according to them is illegal as the constitution bars him from being retained or reappointed as he is no longer a serving officer.
According to them, the president should do the needful by appointing a new IGP otherwise, retaining him means that Mr Idris will not be answerable for his actions but will only do the biddings of his master.
Although these claims cannot be dismissed outright the action of the president vis-a-vis the ruling party in disobeying court orders and breaching the constitution leave much to be desired.
The concern raised by the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) is not just a propaganda tool or false alarm but should be seen as a patriotic act as the country should tell its leaders that we are under a democratic rule and not dictatorship in any guise.
If a serving officer has reached the mandatory retirement age or has served for the stipulated 35 years, he or she should honourably vacate such office. But where the services of such persons are still needed, then the necessary due process should be followed to avoid the situation where eye brows would be raised.
However, the recent pronouncements by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), that it is now set to conduct a free, fair and credible election by presenting copies of the voters register to the political parties is highly appreciated. This is because with the register, political parties now can monitor and scrutinise the number of eligible voters, monitor the voting process and also ensure that the number of votes cast during next month’s elections reflect with what is in the register.
Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmmod Yakubu, has said that a total of 84 million Nigerians registered to vote, that the register was up to date and that as part of the measure put in place, smart card readers would be used for the exercise. He also said the use of the separate incident form had been abolished and called on the political parties to submit a list of their agents to INEC, not later than 14 days to the election.
The implication of these pronoucements is that the political parties will no longer give excuses that the electoral body is not prepared for the elections. From observations so far, INEC has shown that it has put in place all necessary facilities for now and what remains is the conduct of the election proper.
For the political parties, the issue of having centres should be seen as a serious task. This is because from past experience, some party agents did not even show up at the polling centres and how are we sure that this time would be different with the number of parties hovering over 70 and with 97, 119,973 polling units that will be manned.
Hopefully for the candidates some of the smaller parties which would not be able to afford the services of volunteers may have to rely on agents of the major political parties especially in the rural areas. And if that is not possible, they should strive to have agents at least in the 8,809 collation centres at the ward level.
With the large number of poltical parties, the logistics will be enormous and following the confidence expressed by INEC for the task ahead, all the political parties should go into the field and start canvassing for the people’s mandate. This time around, no excuses would be accepted as what we want are zero tolerance to rigging, vote buying, violence and indolence. Serious candidates especially those vying for the state houses of assembly seats should not tie their future to that of the governorship candidate. Now is the time to tell Nigerians why they should be voted for. Since this exercise comes every four years, adequate preparations should be made by the political parties to support their candidates in next month’s elections.
The police hierarchy on its part has assured that it would not be partisan likewise that of the armed forces. But with the current tensed security situation, the fear is still there that the ruling party could probably use the situation to its advantage especially at the presidential election.
Today, the world is watching the political trend in Nigeria, the situation is still tense but not as that of 2015 where there were fears that the election would end up causing civil unrest in the country. The two major actors are all from one geogaphical region, same religion and culture, so the presidential election now has nothing to do with differences of faith.
This time around, it is less complicated and the main issues are “development and quality service delivery”.
The election should be tension-free as we are not at war. From 1999 to 2018, the security agencies including the armed forces were allowed to play roles which constitutionally they were not permitted. Nigeria should do away with the curfew tradion on election days. 2019 elections should be an improvement on that of 2015 ditto the security situations.
Why is it that Nigeria is the only, country in Africa where on election days. everywhere is blocked, the streets empty with gun-totting policemen and members of the armed forces patrolling the major highways?
Let us learn to do things differently. In neighbouring West African countries, the situation is quite not the same. Let our politicians strive to improve on the electoral process especially by allowing the free movement of people on election days. Elections can even be conducted in a way that movement can not be restricted, afterall it is not everybody that will vote on election day.
Also modalities could be put in place to make it less stressful whereby a potential voter can just walk in and cast his or her ballot.

Tonye Ikiroma-owiye