Politics
This Charade Of An Election
The presidential election has come and gone but its effect leaves a very sour taste in the mouth. For the first time in Rivers State, some major local governments were held hostage by the army and other security personnel to prevent people from exercising their franchise.
No political pundit envisaged that there would be that huge number of causalities in Akuku-Toru Local Government area, especially in Abonnema.
Right from the Bridge leading to the town, entry into the community was not allowed even for journalists covering the election, and it took much discussion with a senior military personnel before phone calls were made to higher military authorities before journalists could gain entrance into the town. This was just an eye opener of what to expect on the date of the Presidential and National Assembly elections. Tension was everywhere.
The situation was not that different in Okrika, Ikwerre, Emohua, Bonny and Abua / Odual Local government areas. In Akuku-Toru local government area, the council secretary, Mr Tobins Tobins was alleged to have been whisked away by security personnel, the council chairman, Mr. Roland Sekibo also had to run for his dear life.
In other local government areas, council chairmen and even some commissioners had to go into hiding for fear of being arrested or detained.
In other states like Imo, / Professor Maurice Iwu, a former chairman of the National Electoral Commission (NEC) was picked up on the day of the election. A similar scenario also played out in Akwa Ibom, Kwara, Kaduna and Kano States.
February 23, 2019 to many voters and monitors was like a date with Satan. You live to die or you live to run. The risk was understood clearly that things will go wrong but not as expected and that was the big surprise.
prior to the elections, when INEC offices were going up in flames in Rivers State, Plateau, Akwa Ibom and Anambra States, nobody thought that there would be invasion of collation centres but this happened expecially in Rivers and Bayelsa States with electoral officials accusing the army of colluding with high ranking government officials in the APC to snatch and doctor result sheets. What transpired in Isiokpo, headquarters of Ikwerre Local Government Area was just a tip of the iceberg in the whole election. Despite threats coercion and mouth-watering offers, Mrs Mary Efeture Imayuwa and her Emohua counterpart, Mr Kenneth Etah refused to bulge or be compromised in declaring false results. They even narrated how soldiers of the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army invaded the collation centres of Emohua and Ikwerre local government areas to snatch result sheets and in the fracas, had to shoot to scare away people. Same thing played out in Okrika with the soldiers acting as thugs.
Elections are supposed to bring out the best in us but when the system is seriously flawed like what happened last Saturday, then, serious questions need to be asked as to whether in Nigeria, our politicians are really sane. How come people who call themselves fathers and grandfathers still behave as common touts or whose diligence from childhood has grown to that of adulthood.
What type of message are we sending to children who also monitored the situation at home from their television sets or listen to radio that in Nigeria either their fathers or their fathers are serial election riggers?
To some, the outcome of the presidential election in particular was not a surprise as they opined that the stage for the disgraceful outing was planned in stages right from 2016. First, the ruling party had to discredit the PDP, Secondly, the judiciary had to be harassed, disgraced and rubbished. Thirdly, disobey court orders, and compromise the judiciary after replacing those who refuse to play the ball, the armed forces and other security operatives induce electoral officers, soothe, use thugs with backings by the army to disrupt elections, cart away result sheets, chase away the opposition and where they resist, shoot either to scare them away or kill.
But one thing remains paramount. Power is always transient. No matter the malfeasance or method used in gaining power, anybody on the seat or power will leave one day.
From all indications, the February 23 presidential election is the worst since the return of democratic governance in 1993. If the war against corruption is a song, then, electoral malpractice should be a hit theme. Nigeria is indeed a giant in distress. No political analyst will claim that the country is better than Equatorial Guinea in electoral matters. Countries such as Benin Republic, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, Tanzania and even Congo are by far miles ahead of us in anything to do with elections.
For how long will this charade continue even in places where Boko Haram holds sway with people chased away from their communities recording huge number of votes? Nigeria indeed is a funny country. No wonder we don’t have steady power supply or good roads.
The average Nigerian is very religious and if for example a pastor witnessed the last election in Emohua, or Ikwerre and saw a member of his church running away with result sheets and eventually is declared the winner and comes for thanksgiving in the church, will he as a pastor officiate in such a service? Is such victory from God or Satan. These are questions we should start asking ourselves.
Will this charade roll over into the next elections? Can we do anything to checkmate these challenges?
Holding elections every four years is not the problem, INEC is not the problem, the voter is not the problem. The problem in holding a free, fair and credible election has always remained with the elites. Those who hold the instrument of coercion, power at the centre. Rigging of elections or manipulating election results are always planned by top ranking politicians whose backing comes the centre.
Political parties use thugs as foot soldiers to disrupt the voting process especially where such a political party does not have wide spread support so we will continue to have this problem with us. Why is that in places such as Kwara State, Lagos, Borno, Katsina, Bauchi, Gombe to name a few states, soldiers did not snatch result sheets but did so in Niger Delta states?
As we prepare for the governorship and House of Assembly elections, all the major political actors in Rivers State should not allow what happened last week to re-occur. The people killed were Rivers sons and daughters. They were not the children of politicians. Politics is not a do or die affair. But if this advice is not heeded, then, know that Nigeria’s democracy is in big trouble.
Social critics should also as part of their mandate be more involved in monitoring elections so that they can interact with actual voters and see things for themselves to really understand where the country is heading to.
Tonye Ikiroma-Owiye
Politics
Reps Constitution Review Committee Holds Zonal Hearing For Rivers, C’River, Akwa Ibom In Calabar
A press statement issued by the Chief Press Secretary to the Cross River State Governor, Mr Linus Obogo, disclosed that the Calabar Centre — designated as Centre B — will host representatives and stakeholders from Cross River, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom States.
The public hearing is scheduled to take place on Saturday, July 19, 2025, at 10:00 a.m. at the Transcorp (Metropolitan) Hotel, Calabar.
The initiative, according to the statement, is designed to promote inclusive dialogue and capture the aspirations of Nigerians from all regions.
It aims to serve as a platform for citizens to contribute meaningfully to the ongoing national efforts to refine and strengthen the country’s legal and institutional frameworks.
“Citizens, civil society groups, professional bodies, traditional rulers, and other interest blocs are invited to participate in this landmark engagement aimed at advancing a more just, equitable, and responsive Nigerian Constitution,” the statement read.
The hearing forms part of the broader review process of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and is seen as a strategic move toward fostering national unity and addressing structural legal issues within the federation.
For the first time since 2022, when then-presidential aspirant Alhaji Bola Tinubu declared he made former President Buhari Nigeria’s President in 2015, Mr Mustapha dismissed the claims, stressing that the merger only contributed about three million votes in addition to Buhari’s existing 12 million votes in the North.
He insisted that former President Buhari’s integrity, national stature, and disciplined messaging were central to the breakthrough, not the three million votes from the merging parties, which he described as insignificant.
Speaking on the role of the merging parties, particularly President Tinubu, the leader of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Mr Mustapha, who was the keynote speaker at the launch of the book ‘According to the President: Lessons from a Presidential Spokesman’s Experience’ authored by Mallam Garba Shehu, described the impact of the votes from other merging parties as very insignificant.
In attendance were former Head of State Yakubu Gowon, chair of the event; immediate past Vice President Yemi Osinbajo; SGF George Akume, who represented President Tinubu; PDP’s 2023 presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar; former Chief of Staff to Buhari Ibrahim Gambari; elder statesman Babagana Kingibe; former governors Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Chris Ngige (Anambra), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Raji Babatunde Fashola (Lagos); former ministers Solomon Dalung and Sunday Dare; former Army Chief Tukur Buratai, and Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu’s spokesman, among others.
According to Mr Mustapha, “I do not intend to stir up any controversy. The merger in 2013 was midwifed to create a Buhari presidency. Let us look at the statistics. In the 2003 election, it was the Obasanjo-Buhari presidential contest where Buhari recorded 12.7 million votes. In 2007, it came to 6.6 million, and it went back to 12.2 million in 2011.
“When we were conceptualising the merger, what would give us a headstart? Obviously, it was at the back of our consciousness that the merger with the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), though it had only one state, the ACN had six states, ANPP three states, and when you sum up the total votes that we had as the presidency in 2015, the aggregate of the total votes was 15.4 million.
“So, basically, what we brought to the table after the merger outside the Buhari 12.5 million votes was three million. Before turning to that presidency, it is important to recognise the former President’s role in reshaping Nigeria’s political trajectory.
“In early 2013, as the leader of the CPC, Buhari formally requested and supported the creation of a CPC merger committee, part of a broader coalition-building process that brought together the ACN, ANPP, APGA faction, and elements of the ruling party through the breakaway ‘new PDP’ group. His endorsement and participation, along with other party leaders such as President Tinubu and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, lent credibility and direction to the merger, helping to unify disparate party factions under the banner of the APC. That coalition-building paved the way for the first democratic defeat of an incumbent ruling party in Nigeria’s history.
“President Buhari’s integrity, national stature, and disciplined messaging were central to that breakthrough. No account of President Buhari’s tenure would be complete without acknowledging the extended periods he spent on medical leave. These moments, while politically delicate, were also telling of his leadership philosophy and personality,” he said.
In his remarks, President Tinubu promised to build on the legacies of former President Buhari, stressing that “nation-building is a relay. The efforts of one administration lay the foundation for the next.
“In this regard, I acknowledge the efforts of my predecessor, President Buhari, and assure all Nigerians that the reform-oriented path he initiated will be consolidated and strengthened under this administration. Our Renewed Hope Agenda is inspired by the desire to build a resilient, just, and inclusive Nigeria—a nation that delivers dividends of democracy to all its citizens”.
Speaking during an appearance on live television on Wednesday, Mr Omokri alleged that Mr Obi’s statements were misleading and damaging to the country’s economic prospects.
Mr Omokri said some investors currently operating in Nigeria were considering exiting the market due to Mr Obi’s remarks.
“That is not true. He doesn’t rile me up. I rile him up. The reason why I came here is because I’m a patriot. Peter Obi lied. You know, foreign direct investors are watching your programme, who are making investment decisions not to come to Nigeria. There are foreign investors in Nigeria that are making investment decisions to leave Nigeria because of the lie he told.
“One of the lies he told is that President Tinubu has borrowed more than the administrations of Yar’Adua, Jonathan, Buhari. That is a blatant lie”, Mr Omokri said.
To buttress his claims, Mr Omokri referenced figures from the Debt Management Office (DMO), maintaining that President Tinubu had actually reduced Nigeria’s external debt burden since assuming office.
“I have here with me data from the Debt Management Office, and Nigerians who are watching can go to DMO.com and search Debt Management Office, Nigeria State of Indebtedness 2015.
“As of 2015, Nigeria was owing a total of $63 billion. When Buhari was leaving office, Nigeria was owing $113 billion. Today, from the DMO, our debt has gone from $113 billion to $97 billion, meaning that Tinubu has reduced our debt by over $14 billion.
“We should be appreciating this man. Yet Peter Obi came here and lied to the Nigerian people. He took the debts and translated them into naira to make it look like the debts have increased”, he said.
-
Business2 days ago
CRG Partner JR Farms To Plant 30m Coffee Seedlings
-
Foods/Drinks2 days ago
What To Know About Your Menu
-
Niger Delta2 days agoNDLEA Intercepts 584.171kg Hard Drugs In Bayelsa … Arrests 559 Suspects
-
Rivers2 days ago
Four Internet Fraudstars Get Different Jail Terms In PH
-
Business2 days ago
Food Security: NDDC Pays Counterpart Fund For LIFE-ND Project
-
Business2 days ago
PH Women Plan Alternative Stew, Shun Tomato High Prices
-
Sports2 days ago
Nigerian Athletes Serving Doping Bans
-
Niger Delta2 days agoEx-IYC President Lampoons Atiku’s Presidential Ambition … Declares It Negative Impact On N’Delta