- Umpire rejects declaration of Binani as Adamawa Governor-elect
- Declares APC’s Idris winner of Kebbi governorship poll
- Redeem your image with Kogi, Bayelsa, Imo off-cycle elections, stakeholders tell INEC
BY AUGUSTINE AVWODE, TIMOTHY AGBOR, MAYOWA SAMUEL AND BRIGHT JACOB
The Independent National Electoral Commission got both knocks and kudos on Sunday over the conduct of supplementary elections held across the country at the weekend.
INEC came under scathing criticisms following what was described as an ugly drama at the Adamawa State governorship collation centre.
The state’s governorship election was among those marked for supplementary elections that took place over the weekend.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner of Adamawa, Prof Hudu Yunus Ari, had declared Senator Aisha Dahiru, popularly known as Binani, as the winner midway into the collation.
Results from 10 out of the 20 local government areas had been declared while the exercise was adjourned till 11 am on Sunday. However, Ari announced the final result an hour before the scheduled time.
Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the People’s Democratic Party was leading before the pronouncement was made. Some PDP supporters in the hall queried why the announcement was made by the REC instead of the Returning Officer.
The REC reportedly stormed the collation centre in the company of a senior police officer and without any paper, figures or protocol, and announced Binani as the winner.
However, in a swift reaction, INEC’s National Commissioner, Information & Voter Education, Festus Okoye, tweeted that the announcement was “null and void”.
INEC subsequently summoned the Resident Electoral Commissioner and all those involved to its headquarters in Abuja over his declaration of the candidate of the APC in the state.
INEC, in a statement by Okoye, said, “The attention of the Commission has been drawn to a purported declaration of winner in the Adamawa Governorship election by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) even when the process has clearly not been concluded.
“The action of the REC is a usurpation of the power of the Returning Officer. It is null, void and of no effect.
Consequently, the collation of the results of the supplementary election is hereby suspended.
“The REC, Returning Officer and all involved are hereby invited to the Commission’s Headquarters in Abuja immediately.”
INEC declares APC’s Idris winner of Kebbi governorship election
Meanwhile, the APC candidate, Nasiru Idris, has been declared the winner of the 2023 governorship election in Kebbi State.
Idris was declared the winner on Sunday by the Returning Officer for Kebbi State, Yusuf Saidu, in Birnin Kebbi, the state capital.
Saidu, a Professor of Nutritional Biochemistry with the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, said Idris polled a total of 409,225 votes to beat his close rival of the PDP, Maj-Gen. Aminu Bande (retd) who garnered 360,940 votes.
The vote margin between them was 48,285.
Declaring Idris the winner of the keenly contested poll, the Returning Officer said, “I, Professor Yusuf Saidu, hereby certify that I am the Returning Officer for the 2023 Kebbi State Governorship Election held on the 15th day of April, 2023.
“That Idris Nasiru of APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby the winner and is returned elected.”
Redeem your image with Kogi, Bayelsa, Imo off-cycle elections, stakeholders tell INEC
Meanwhile the electoral umpire has been called upon to redeem its image and try to win back the confidence of Nigerians by using the off-circle elections in the three states of Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa, all coming up in November.
Speaking to The Point on Sunday, a Warri-based lawyer and public affairs analyst, George Gbemudu, said the electoral umpire must work very hard to redeem its image and present itself as a competent, unbiased and apolitical umpire in Nigeria’s electoral matter.
He argued that what happened on Sunday in Adamawa was unbecoming of an umpire that desires to retain the confidence of the people.
“We just witnessed an ugly, shameful and disgusting drama played out this morning in Adamawa State. For goodness sake, this INEC must do a lot more to clean itself and redeem its image as an electoral umpire. And the opportunity is in the Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa off-circle elections.
“What just happened in Adamawa is indicative of the fact that there seems to be no one in charge of INEC. A place where anybody can just wake up and declare whoever he wants as the winner of an election. A place where there is no regard for laid down procedures and rules. Or, everyone is working to undermine the system just to satisfy his personal interest. I think sanctions should follow that reckless show of shame. We wait for November,” he stated.
Other respondents also insisted that INEC should unfailingly address the noticeable challenges recorded at the last general elections.
They insisted that if nothing was done to correct and assuage the disappointments and pains of the electorate, apathy at future polls might be more pronounced than ever, starting with the forthcoming governorship elections in these three states.
Speaking with The Point while reacting to Saturday’s supplementary polls, politicians, lawyers, election observers, public affairs commentators and civil society organisations, said that the poll was marred by apathy and the other usual negatives such as ballot box snatching, vote buying and intimidation by hoodlums in some places and, more importantly, reckless and brazen official intervention.
In his opinion, Bukola Idowu, the Executive Director, Kimpact Development Initiative, a civil society group that led hundreds of election observers across the length and breadth of the country during the 2023 general elections, said there was no sufficient awareness by INEC and other stakeholders concerning the supplementary election that took place on Saturday, adding that it contributed to the low turnout recorded.
Idowu said, “Most people don’t even know that we are still conducting elections. The March 18 election was not over, but many people had thought that the whole battle had shifted to the tribunal. Most people had forgotten that about two states didn’t conclude their governorship elections; I mean Adamawa and Kebbi States.
“Now, as we put finality to the 2023 general elections, we must stress that violence and ballot box snatching contributed to the cancellation of some polling units, which later led to the supplementary polls. Surprisingly, despite the heavy security, some polling units still witnessed violence and ballot box snatching at the supplementary elections.”
While revealing some of the negatives of the general elections and the need for INEC, security agencies and other stakeholders to address them going forward, Idowu said, “One of the trends in our observation is that most supplementary elections always witness low turnout. Don’t forget that in the Anambra election that brought in Governor Soludo, the supplementary election was conducted in places like Ihiala Local Government Area and the turnout was low. This is one of the challenges I always feel happens during the supplementary election. Don’t forget that some people have also moved on after the March 18 election and it takes a whole lot to bring people out to come and exercise their franchise. If you ask me, I wasn’t really expecting a large turnout.
“Drawing from the trend again, this happened in the Osun 2018 election and this also happened in the Kano 2019 election, where most of the supplementary elections security operatives deployed had to favour the ruling party in those particular states. This time around, we expect that security agencies have to be neutral.
“The Inspector General of Police has said the Police and other security agencies will be neutral. Now we are looking forward to how they will behave during the supplementary elections and thereafter, the coming off-cycle polls. We expect that the police will be able to police and provide security for the elections in a neutral manner and nobody will allege that he or she has been disenfranchised.”
“So, we also expect INEC to have a seamless process because they are not going to be under pressure this time. I expect adequate deployment. No late arrival of materials because they aren’t deploying across the country. We expect IReV and BVAS to work so that people will be able to see results as they are being transmitted on the IReV,” the analyst noted.
Echoing the same sentiment, Spokesperson for the Obi-Datti Campaign Council, Tanko Yunusa, said, from experience, supplementary elections were usually marred by poor voter turnouts.
He argued that many voters did not consider it important because they are not usually very keen after the first exercise.
He stressed that huge mobilisation and sensitisation must necessarily be done to get people back to the voting mood.
He stated, “From historical references, most of the supplementary elections being done, you would discover that many people were not too keen about them except those candidates running for election in those particular areas. They are therefore expected to mobilise and attract the attention of people. Without adequate mobilisation, the turnout may be very poor in areas where there are elections.
“INEC will always try to show its capacity in that regard but the thing is that you’ll end up having voter apathy, considering the fact that many people were not happy with what happened in the last general elections. We may not say, maybe INEC has the capacity to deliver because people will not even be too happy to come out to know exactly what they’re doing.
“The ruling party now is the one that has the capacity to mobilise. Other candidates may not actually be interested in mobilising in that regard. That is where the challenge will be. For us, if we have candidates in those particular areas, we’ll actually be able to mobilise and ask people to come out but it is quite challenging, I must confess.
“For us, we have to ensure that we have a lot of agents to cover up most of the tracks, to ensure that people are ready to go out and vote at that particular point in time and ensure that we mobilise enough. Most of the problems that we have is mobilising people, which requires a lot of funds, and then to ensure that the system is not skewed in the favour of a particular party.”
Yunusa stressed the importance of having the right candidate, saying it makes mobilisation easier for political parties.
“I’m right now in Owerri conducting a party primary. We’re trying to make sure that we conclude our party primary today to ensure that we have the right candidate. If we have the right candidate, we should be able to mobilise people along that line. If the right candidate is presented, the people will be able to rejoice and come out to vote for our candidate.
“So, we’re trying to make sure that we put everything in place, and not leave anything unturned for any manipulation or intimidation of the people that have suffered over the years,” he added.
Also speaking with The Point, a chieftain of the PDP, Kolapo Alimi, expressed confidence in the ability of his party to win the seats being contested. But he was mindful of the fact that in some areas, the party had yet to have a candidate and so couldn’t hazard a guess.
“As a party man, I have no doubt that our party will win the majority of the supplementary elections. For example, in Adamawa, Fintiri will defeat Binani and in most other places, we are confident that our party will carry the day, notwithstanding what happened on Sunday,” he said.
Alimi, a lawyer, identified what he described as human factor as one of the major challenges confronting INEC, even as he noted that the Commission deserved some commendation.
He explained, “INEC is trying. It is just the human factor that has been the major challenge facing it. This human factor is disrupting INEC’s plan. I just want them to take care of the human factor in taking action and rolling out their guidelines.
“The moment they take into consideration the human factor, all other things will fall in line. Look at the issue of transmission of results, everybody already knows that this thing depends on the network. It is the human factor at the INEC’s ICT department that can really cause confusion and once it’s taken care of, things will be in order.”
Making his assessment of the fallout of the supplementary elections, a Lagos-based political analyst, Ndidi Okwara, said that INEC had yet to learn anything from previous elections.
According to Okwara, a supplementary election, which shouldn’t have recorded any ugly scene, was marred by the usual violence, ballot snatching and inability of INEC ad hoc staff to transmit results.
Okwara also said that INEC had failed in spite of the billions of naira earmarked for it by the government.
He added that Nigeria had “achieved almost next to nothing with our electoral experience.”
According to him, INEC officials responsible for the collation of results are always acting calm and unbothered and pretending like everything is okay.
Okwara said they could afford to act that way because they don’t use their personal funds for court cases.
“INEC has yet to learn anything from previous elections. They never learn and it’s worrying, really. Almost all the hiccups experienced before are still glaring.
“You would think that since it was a supplementary election, adequate security, for instance, would be provided. But no, they continue to show us how consistent they are with disappointing Nigerians.
“INEC has been a failure. After all the billions of Naira pumped into the exercise, we are still achieving almost next to nothing with our electoral experience. Who did this to us?
“And when you inform these so-called collation officers at collation centres about the irregularities, they would act calm and pretend like everything is okay. They’re like that because they know they won’t spend their personal money for litigations….but government money. If it was their money, I’m sure they would have been running helter-skelter to fix the problems before announcing their irresponsible results,” he said.
Okwara also revealed that supplementary elections don’t usually favour political parties, which didn’t do well in the general elections, insinuating that people would prefer to vote for the parties that did so well. Because of this, he said the APC would get the absolute majority.
As for lessons learnt, he said early preparation was vital.
But Okwara also said that during the off-season elections, Nigeria would go through the usual confusion. He added that the country was one that valued mediocrity over excellence.
Meanwhile, INEC has been charged to ensure that those arrested for various electoral offences were prosecuted and punished in order to serve as deterrent to others.
A public affairs analyst, Dr. Oluyemi Omotosho-Junior, said, “Not punishing electoral offenders has been encouraging electoral violence. The Police in the last election arrested about 143 offenders, and till today, none was prosecuted officially and jailed. Now, the police and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have arrested many and they have been shouting that they arrested them but they have not prosecuted them. Why is it difficult to prosecute them?
“If we have laws, there should be punishment and it’s the punishment that will deter offenders. If you don’t do that, we will continue with the circle of electoral malpractices and that is why people and politicians are doing it with impunity.
“Politicians thrive in electoral malpractice because they feel nothing will happen and this has been affecting our election and it is not good for the image of the country. In this last election, we saw so much harassment, people carrying cudgels, cutlasses, and all sorts of offensive weapons.”
“They said they would arrest them but nothing has been done. I hope INEC is not embarking on propaganda because after the last election that it refused to transmit results on time, many lost interest and confidence in INEC,” he concluded.
