Independent National Electoral Commission Today -By Oluwasanmi Femi

The unprecedented acceleration in the wave of litigations against most of the results of elections conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the recent time raises serious questions on the independence of the umpire and the place of the electorate in Nigerian Democray.

Just of recent, the Supreme Court resuscitated the results of 382 polling units excluded by INEC in March 2019 and declared Hope Uzodinma the Governor of Imo State as against Emeka Ihedioha declared by INEC as the winner of the the election in 2019. Though, this declaration and the arithmetic remains a landmark in Nigerian Jurisprudence and polictical history but at the same time, it shows the position of INEC in Nigerian political space today.

Apart from this verdict, there are other disputes where the Supreme Court has either ordered for a re-run of the election or the removal of those assumed to be ‘election fraudsters’ from the office while in some instances, further complement the result declared by INEC even despite the contradictory judgements delivered by the lower courts.

In the case of Imo State gubernatorial election, the lower courts had on several occasions rejected the petition filed by Hope Uzodinma challenging the victory of the Emeka Ihedioha by seeking the resuscitation of the results excluded at the collation center in March, 2019 even up to the Court of Appeal.

Not satisfying with the judgement of the Appeal Court, the APC gubernatorial candidate, now the Governor of the State took the case to the Supreme Court where his request was granted and declared the Winner. The People Democratic Party (PDP) knowing fully well the implication of this, quickly resulted to protest inorder to gain public sympathy.

However, the act of protesting court judgement in Nigeria is not new. The Federal Government (FG) had on several occasions protested the judgement of Court of competent Jurisdiction. One of the recent protests by the FG was the invasion of the High Court by men of the DSS in December 2019. But the only thing that seems to be new is the street protest organized by the PDP to defame the judiciary.

While this protest continues to generate concerns among Nigerians, the salient questions are what was the method used by the Supreme Court to uplift Hope Uzodinma from the fourth to the first position? and what might have led to the exclusion of the results of almost 400 polling units from the collation center, even after the presiding officers have signed the results?

Probably, the spectacle of objectivity has at one point or the other be sacrificed on the alter of group or personal interest. This has been the bane of free and fair election in Nigeria and the reason political actors most times prepare for election in a war-like manner.

INEC as a commission commissioned by the Constitution to mediate between these political competitors sometimes collaborate with them to heat up the polity by creating an enabling environment where the highest bidders have their ways and the lesser bidders have their say.

The lesser bidder in most cases result to noise making which usually manifest inform of violent protest or through legal battle after election in order to create more awareness on their next level contest or recognition so that they can be considered in power or economic sharing formula. While the electorate continue to anticipate the dividence of democracy which often comes with full force during election period.

Due to this anticipation, the electoral umpire most of the time find it difficult to conduct free and fair election. Infact, if she wants to do that the electorate will truncate the process because of their quest to get their “election’s day dividence of democracy” which in other developed clime of the world always manifest on daily basis.

Also, most electorates in Nigeria don’t believe that the electoral umpire can ever conduct a free and fair election, so casting vote because of integrity some times becomes an issue.

Compounding this, is the issue of poverty which has become so endemic in the land to the extent that people want to go for anything so far it can bring out something. This has made the issue of money politics and vote buying a culture despite mushroom Non Governmental Organization (NGO) and sensitization against such practices.

In some cases, the people even pushed INEC to sell their votes by threatening to kill the INEC officers on duty during the election. This is complicated by the level of corruption among the security agencies. Some security officers even collaborate with politicians to put pressure on the presiding officer they assigned to protect in order to fast track the rigging process.

However, the reason for this unethical behavior apart from the personal gain might not be unconnected with the experiences of most of the officers regarding election crisis where the perpetrators most of the times return to the trade after days with more ranks despite the gravity of atrocities committed. No wonder why inconclusive, supplementary and re-run remain the other names given to INEC by some Nigerians.

To correct this anomaly, the issue of poverty, illiteracy, unemployment among others, need to be urgently addressed while the electoral amendment is given proper attention. This is because where there is no buyer there can not be seller.