Expediency Of Ensuring Free And Fair Elections On March 11 -By Isaac Asabor

There is no denying the fact that since the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) released the results of the last presidential election conducted on February 25, 2023, wherein Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) emerged the winner that it has become relatively common for politicians to be disavowing certain contents depicting how the election was allegedly rigged. Some of the contents were shared through social media and were dismissed to be false by concerned politicians.

It is not an exaggeration to say that since the election was concluded, with its attendant results released to the public that there have been electoral materials that depict “doctored” scores of votes cast, even as some materials were reportedly found in the bush and all sorts of odd places. Despite the foregoing allegations, INEC officials were accused of not uploading the results on time to the commission’s website for public view. In fact, videos showing how the BVAS Machine and INEC’s result sheets were compromised during the February 25th elections have made the rounds on social media.

Against the foregoing weighty allegations that are no doubt capable of denting INEC’s integrity, image, and credibility, political leaders in various leadership positions, royal fathers, INEC officials, and supporters of the winner of the election have resorted to playing the ostrich. As if the insensitivity been exhibited by them are not enough, they keep advising Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party to go to court as if obtaining justice in the court is assured.   Not only that, they keep dismissing election-related content as fabricated.  If I may ask, “Have they forgotten that the world is been driven by technology where people’s activities can easily be captured; either through audio or video devices?

Personally speaking, it is expedient to say that since the results of the election were announced, and the winner declared that not a few democratic-minded Nigerians and foreigners have had ashes in their mouths, and become sickeningly disappointed as their collective joy and hope in Mr. Peter Obi, the LP candidate, have turned to despair and anger.

Without resorting to sounding exaggerative, Nigerians have lost total confidence in Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the National Chairman of the INEC, while some Nigerians who were disappointed with the outcomes of the election had urged him to resign. One of the Nigerians that have made such a call is the former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Timi Frank. He expressed his view on the issue in a statement issued on Monday.

At this juncture, it is expedient for Nigerians that are expressing their grievances over the election not to be blamed or faulted as elections and other political processes are pivotal to the quality of a country’s governance and can either greatly advance or set back a country’s long-term democratic development.

Without a doubt, the most fundamental principle defining credible elections is that they must reflect the free expression of the will of the people.

To achieve this, elections should be transparent, inclusive, and accountable, and there must be equitable opportunities to compete in the elections. These broad principles are buttressed by several electoral process-related obligations, as well as a number of key rights and freedoms, each of which derives from public international law. The electoral cycle approach depicts elections as a continuous, integrated process made up of building blocks that interact with and influence each other, rather than as a series of isolated events.

Given the essence of free and fair elections, it is expedient to urge the INEC chairman to ensure that the March 11 gubernatorial election is held as ostensibly to calm fray nerves and engender trust as it is very obvious that freedom and democracy are visibly in retreat. Without a doubt, an election is intended as a mechanism for the peaceful arbitration of political rivalries, but if not well managed it becomes a flashpoint for political violence. At the core of these paradoxes are elections without integrity.

According to Kofi Annan, “All too often, elections serve merely to give autocratic regimes a veneer of legitimacy. But elections without integrity cannot provide the winners with legitimacy, the losers with security, and the public with confidence in their leaders and institutions. This makes polities fragile as it encourages disgruntled groups to find other, less constructive, channels for the expression of their discontent.”

Against the foregoing backdrop, it is expedient to urge the INEC chairman to ensure that the coming gubernatorial election is conducted in such a way that it redeems the commission’s image, and his own integrity even as doing that will in turn strengthen the integrity and legitimacy of the electoral processes and avoid election-related violence.