Rabiu Omaku
- Why INEC And Security Must Do The Needful
The 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections in Nasarawa State has come and gone but the dust raised is yet to settle as aggrieved political party, the People’s Democratic Party, the PDP has taken a position to follow implore the legal means to challenge the outcome of the election which the party says was marred by Irregularities arising from absence or connivance of security personnel from either Polling Unit or collation centres.
Other lapses that gave rise to manipulation also include malfunction card readers, delayed in the distribution of election materials by the Independent National Electoral Commission across Polling booths for instance in Agwatashi distribution of materials was as early as 8:00am while in Lafia, the State capital voting in many Polling Units started after 11:00am and lasted till 11:30 to 12:00am,it was alleged that election in stronghold of PDP were delayed with the sole aimed of using thugs to disrupt the process, this ungodly act happened at St. Williams Polling Unit and Police Barrack Polling Unit PU 015.
The worst of all was the tactical delayed in the submission of election results of the thirteen Local Governments, imagine the results of Lafia, the seat of power was delayed from Saturday to Monday morning, been the State Capital and was the last to bring the result of Presidential election to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Which type of election was it, electronic voting with manual counting? If yes Nigeria is not yet ripe for electronic voting considering the smooth conduct of manual voting which gave rise to rampant Irregularities, while comparing the 2015 general election, you would consider the last general election as a paradigm shift because the election was free, fair and credible process that brought in the current President, Muhammadu Buhari and also in the 2011 election, a political novice, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura whisked away the occupant of the Shendam Government, Aliyu Akwe Doma whose dream of ruling for consecutive times hit bricks wall.
The was a wider margin of what was obtainable under a government that believe in change mantra as political analyst described the process as the worst election since 1983 election which was by violence which lead to political crisis and later spread to other part of the country this bring down the administration of President Shehu Shagari after his second re-election.
With the available results of Presidential and National Assembly elections particularly in Nasarawa State, it will take us another 50 years to conduct credible process in the State especially in Nasarawa South Senatorial zone A because 2019 election was a total sham in the sense that the results did not reflect the will of the masses whom turn en masse to vote.
SOME OF THE HICCUPS SURROUNDING 2019 ELECTION
Security agencies in Nasarawa State had taken side in the Presidential and National Assembly elections , at St. Williams Polling Unit PU 015 energetic policemen were busy discussion irrelevant issues while rigging was been perpetrated by rigging machines of the power that be in the State.
It was reliably gathered that the police attached to the Polling Unit left three minutes and thugs takes advantage of their absence to strike at the Polling Unit which was a stronghold of the opposition political party, the PDP. Security deployed to maintain law and order had compromised their national responsible for a get reach quick syndrome.
LATE DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTION MATERIALS
The delayed in the distribution of all materials also is a serious impediment to 2019 election in Nasarawa State reason been that in the State capital, Lafia election kick-start after 10:00am ,the situation was also applicable to Obi,the headquarter of Obi Local Government as complain trail the delayed.
MALFUNCTION CARD READERS
Apart from the delayed in the distribution of sensitive and non-sensitive materials, there were reported cases of inability of some ad-hoc staff to handle card readers in various Polling booths; this was occasioned by the engagement of ad-hoc staff that did participate in the training exercise.
There is the need for the electoral umpire to embark on proper training for fruitful results.
CORRUPTION REIGN SUPREME IN 2019 ELECTION
The recruitment of ad-hoc staff was one sided by INEC this gave rise to the cancellation of 157,000 votes in Nasarawa State, imagining why and how can a presiding officer in a Polling Unit of 500 voters shouting of over voting, this a new improve way to cancel votes especially in areas taken over by the oppositions.
LATE ARRIVAL OF ELECTION RESULTS
Saturday 23, February Presidential and National Assembly elections it was open that the results of Lafia was the last to be submitted to the collation centre, Toto Local Government which was more than 4 hours’ drive from the State capital submitted the outcome of their results on Sunday, others like Nasarawa Local Government, Karu, Awe and amongst others followed suit while Lafia Local Government results was the last ,what a sham to our electoral process ?
This ugly trend must be tackle assiduously by the Independent National Electoral Commission to avoid any outbreak of law and order.
LOGISTICS PROBLEM
Some self-seeking politicians that are hell bent to win at all cost connive with commercial drivers to twist election results, INEC should make provision for logistics ahead of Saturday 9,election to avoid the replicate of what happened in the last election as members of the NURTW protest the non-release of their allowances before embarking on the Journey.
INDUCEMENT OF SECURITY BY POLITICIANS
I witnessed what transpired at St. Williams and Police Barrack Polling Units PU 015 where armed policemen left the polling booths few minutes and thugs barricaded the units carted away sensitive materials in the presence of some security agencies without even a stick.
Our security agencies must be up and doing and should have a rethink that the same of lives and properties lies in their hands.
Again INEC should ensure that only security agencies are given security tag, not like in the last election where people on the street are given security tag with the sole aimed of abetting rigging of election.
INEC must reverse or review the modus operandi of the selection of Observers either International or Domestic, from a critical look,95 out of 100 Domestic Observers are supporters of the party in power and what statement do you expect from the team, a one sided report that would favor the party in power, the Independent National Electoral Commission should as matter of urgency rectify this lapses for credible governorship and Houses of Assembly elections.
INEC MUST AVOID WASTAGE ON LITIGATION
Over the years huge amount of money went down the drain in the name of court case, the situation in 2019 general election in Nasarawa State is the same as names of candidates and logo of some political parties are missing on Election Day.
In Nasarawa South Senatorial Zone where the incumbent governor, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura was announced winner of the ticket in spite of the manipulations ranging from unnecessary cancellation of results, the senate-elect and INEC would face the costly mistake if not antics of the electoral umpire to skip the logo of People’s Democratic Movement, a registered political party that fielded Abdullahi Agwai for senate.
The questioned asked was what happened to the name of the Senatorial candidate who was screened, qualify and eligible to contest missing in a ballot paper, there was also another case of Bar.Ubandoma of the ADC whose name was missing in the list of qualify candidates.
Bar.Ubandoma is challenging the current member House of Representatives, representing Lafia/Obi Federal Constituency, Hon.Abubakar Sarki Dahiru of the All Progressives Congress, INEC should make some adjustments to avoid wastage of taxpayers money on litigation by doing the needful.
Today another worst election has come and gone while the outcome from President and National Assembly were been challenged by those defeated in court of law. We should forget about card reader which was an alternative of voting far away from manual voting.
Nigerians are the problem of this entity called Nigeria by introducing something that would not be useful to the citizenry that was the case of card reader introduced by Professor Attahiru Jega where billions were expended and today the same machines are malfunctioning.
Nigeria must not be a wasteful nation that would budget huge amount to INEC still issues of logistics and distribution of election materials are still problem.
OUR UNIVERSITIES DON ARE DISSAPPOINTMENT
From what our professor’s and academic Documents display in the Presidential and National Assembly elections is a total shame as majority of the collation and returning officers are inactive in telling the truth, What Dr.Uthman display at Ibrahim Abacha Youth Centre, Lafia during the collation of Lafia/Obi Federal Constituency results, it was a display of incompetency to favor the candidature of Hon.Abubakar Sarki Dahiru of the APC as against the candidate of the PDP, Hon.Joseph Kigbu who was leading with wider margin and results were twisted.
The Independent National Electoral Commission must wake up from her slumber by been truly Independent so that Nigeria would be great again, So that we should avoid the replicate of political crisis of 1983 that lead to military coup headed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
And for the opposition political parties, we must accept defeat where elections are free, fair and credible and now that INEC failed the masses with chunk amount of money budgeted for 2019 elections ,there is the need for us to revert to Manual voting and introduce a system that is generally accepted the broad-spectrum populace, I mean a system that is friendly for the nation.
The partial electronic voting must stop or else there should be a consensus for electronic voting and we should all agree on this for our democracy to thrive.
