Africa
By Steve Nwabuko
THE supreme court ruling of 26/10/2023, affirming the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the February 25th 2023 Presidential polls did not come to many as a surprise because the INEC chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu asked the aggrieved parties to *”Go to Court”* in full realisation that his declaration of the Presidential election results shall not be upturned.
An umpire that knows it’s onions oughtn’t to have referred aggrieved parties to court but would rather have provided enough grounds to authenticate its declaration as true and valid based on procedural coherence.
However, INEC’s standpoint was hinged on an *”unavoidable glitches”* that attended to it’s frivolous inability to transmit the Presidential election results real time online from the BEVAS to IREV which created the opportunities for election fraud, manipulation of figures, substitution of numbers, mutilation of result sheets and declaration of false results.
*TORTUOUS PATH.*
The path that defined the 2023 general elections was cast on youth umbrage against the old order, against bad leadership from 1999 to 2023, against general insecurity all over Nigeria, against police brutality that birthed the *#ENDSARS RIOT of 2020, against Nigeria becoming the poverty capital of the world, against Nigeria having over one hundred and forty million citizens as multi dimensionally poor, against a debt profile in excess of seventy trillion naira, against youth unemployment in excess of 35% with inflation rate of over 25%, and interest rate above 20%, with debt service ratio in excess of 95% and massive oil theft that created Nigeria’s revenue problems.
Former President BUHARI administration resorted to unrestrained foreign borrowing and printing of the naira currency to the tune of over twenty two trillion naira in total disregard to the provisions of the CBN Act.
The above unenviable, disgraceful and demeaning incontrovertible data facts of eight years of inglorious and massive corruption ridden reign of APC after sixteen years of PDP lack lustre grip on power, provided the impetus for Nigerian youths to challenge the political class through effective participation in the 2023 general elections.
The malfeasance, thievery and total misgovernment of Buhari’s administration may have informed his determination to impair the electoral process by fortuitously foisting another APC tenure led by President Bola Tinubu to protect his ill fated regime from prosecution.
The Nigerian youths created a formidable platform under the toga of *OBIdient Movement* as a Special Purpose Vehicle to clinch power through the Labour Party in a momentous paradigm shift that rattled and unsettled the political class and that made it clear to the government that without impugning the electoral process, the incumbent government was set to loose power to neophytes in the corridors of power.
This is why the same BVAS that uploaded National Assembly election results, failed to upload the Presidential election results same day, same time and same medium with odious excuse of glitches infracting the transmission process.
*TOUCHY ASSURANCES.*
The 2023 general elections was the seventh in the fourth republic and promising to be a watershed in the annals of elections in Nigeria as it was destined to be driven by digital election technology process with the introduction of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and IREV as platform for voter accreditation and results rendition.
However, this was not to be when the chips were down especially during the manual counting of votes at the polling units and the results were not going the way of the ruling party in power.
The Electoral Act 2022 was passed into law to firm up technological driven election process.
The 1999 constitution was very clear on the status of Abuja as deciding factor in determining power capture after garnering two thirds majority of thirty six states as opus magnum for declaration of the winner of the Presidential election.
This was not to be as INEC chairman unilaterally declared a result by fiat and without due diligence.
All assurances by INEC that our votes must count was, *”a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”* (Shakespeare in Macbeth).
The promises about collection of Permanent voters card(PVC) turned out to be Persistent Violent Charge at INEC’s PVC collection centers.
The violent free election that was promised became violent full process especially in Lagos, kano, Kaduna, Rivers, and in all the states in Nigeria as proven by the number of election cases in courts all over Nigeria.
*TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCES.*
While INEC declared the Presidential election results in the night, it told agitators in the day time to go to court and challenge the declaration.
Arriving at the court, INEC took the position of a prosecutor in an election it was suppose to be it’s umpire.
INEC challenged the documents it tendered to partieyd for litigation and denied that it was not obligatory for it to rely absolutely on technology driven election process.
Nigerians were entertained with soap opera showpieces of Atiku Abubakar accusing Bola Tinubu of drug running and forfeiture of $460,000 USD dollars drug money and forgery of Chicago State university academic records and Bola Tinubu accused Atiku Abubakar of official malfeasance by using a dubious Special Purpose Vehicle to siphon contracts from FG.
In all of these, Nigeria’s security agencies stood aloof, saw nothing, heard nothing and did nothing.
It was the silence of the security agencies in not speaking up and failing to properly screen Public office seekers that provided the impetus for the Judiciary to deploy technicalities that obviated truth and enthroned frivolities as facts for ruling.
*LESSONS.*
The supreme court ruling affirming President Bola Tinubu as properly elected has some implications:
That the 1999 constitution provision of Abuja being a compulsory requirement for declaration of the winner of a Presidential election holds no water.
That the non use of IREV enabled results uploads is not mandatory.
That forgery, forfeitures, once not captured within litigation period can not annul election results.
Three groups produced the verdict that affirmed President Tinubu by the supreme court:
The out gone government of President BUHARI that didn’t get NSA and DSS to do proper pre election screening of Presidential candidates and advise INEC appropriately.
INEC that turned the election process from technology platform to analogue or manual platform.
The security agencies that aided and abated vote fraud at collation centers.
It is instructive that in all of these, from security agencies, to INEC staff, to lawyers and judges and State Collation Officers for Presidential Election(SCOPE, University V.C’s) comprises the elite group that oversaw a dirty, quarrelsome, worrisome, unwholesome 2023 charade called a general elections in Nigeria.
If Nigerian electorates take to voter apathy in future elections, the Elites should be blamed and the 2023 election outcomes is the root cause.
We know the truth about 2023 general elections and all courts on earth are subject to the court of heaven.
Let us wait for heavens ruling.
God bless Nigeria.
T
October 27, 2023 @ 6:53 GMT|
Tags: President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Prof Mahmood Yakubu
