Wanted: Peaceful Polls In Rivers

As Nigerians go to the polls tomorrow to elect their state governors and Houses of Assembly members in the final round of the 2019 general election, palpable apprehension has filled the air. The reasons for this are not far-fetched especially against the backdrop of the intimidation of voters and the violence that characterised the February 23 Presidential and National Assembly polls in the country.
Governorship poll will, ceteris paribus, hold in 29 of the 36 states of the federation. Though Assembly seats will be contested in all the states, the remaining seven will be holding staggered elections later as has been the case since 2007, thanks to the judiciary.
Nevertheless, there is so much at stake at tomorrow’s elections. This is moreso as the polls will determine public men and women very close to the grassroots. And considering how the last elections went with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yet to convince the highly perceptible segment of the electorate that it did not do a shoddy job, the nation’s politicians are already in combative mood that has generateted more concerns, tensions and even terrible anxiety in the public domain.
The entire nation is a witness to the fact that violence marred the February 23 exercise in such states as Rivers, Bayelsa, Lagos, Kogi, Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Taraba and Kebbi before the very watchful eyes of the officers and men of the security agencies who, curiously enough, became the problem rather than the solution. They gleefully aided and abated very obvious and noticeable electoral irregularities.
Little wonder then that the populace is taking the assurances of a peaceful, free, fair and hitch-free poll by both the INEC and the security agencies, particularly, the Police, with a pinch of salt.
Expectedly, the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammad Adamu, has, like he did before the February 23 polls, announced the deployment of some 294 top officers in the 36 states for the polls, while Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo and Sokoto States got new Commissioners of Police. How far these deployments will go in ensuring a credible and rancour-free poll that would be acceptable to all parties concerned remains to be seen, considering the flagrant and arrogant display of overt partisanship by many unscrupulous and unprofessional officers of the Nigerian Police and even other security agencies.
Apart from the unholy role of the Police and the Army in the last Presidential and National Assembly polls, the entire exercise was bedevilled by several infractions and deliberate violations of the electoral law and guidelines that have cast a pall on the credibility, transparency and integrity of the whole electoral processes so much so that not a few are doubting the commitment and sincerity of INEC to conduct a successful and acceptable poll tomorrow.
It is, indeed, worrisome and totally unacceptable that INEC cannot get things right and does not appear set to get them right in Saturday’s elections despite all the tax payers’ money expended on it to effectively handle its logistical and operational outlay.
If Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections must be credible and devoid of operational and logistical challenges, INEC must learn from its past mistakes, missteps and failures by re-evaluating its operational strategy in line with global best practices.
Added to that is the unconstitutional deployment of the military, particularly the Army to election duties ostensibly to harass, intimidate and suppress political opponents and INEC officials to do the biddings of some desperate political gladiators who see the elections as a do-or-die affair, and who are bent on truncating the country’s fledgling democracy.
Back home in Rivers State, the electorate and, indeed, the entire people of the state have cause to worry, considering the role of some officers and men of the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army, Port Harcourt, in the killings that heralded the botched Presidential and National Assembly polls in some parts of the state, especially in Abonnema in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area.
A situation where officers and men of the Nigerian Army cordoned off collation centres and chased away accredited agents and or candidates of a particular party just to give an edge to the other party to manipulate and mutilate results emanating from units, after having been compromised, must not repeat itself in tomorrow’s polls.
Elections, as it were, are purely civil affair which does not require the intervention of the military whatsoever. It is an indisputable fact that it is the duty of the military to defend the nation’s territorial integrity and not to meddle into political or election matters. The Army in particular can only act as a back-up to the police when called upon to assist in quelling some unmanageable security breaches, and nothing more.
Thus, for Saturday’s polls to be free, credible and acceptable, the neutrality of security agencies, particularly is imperative. This, The Tide insists, is the true path to ensuring peaceful polls in Rivers State.