Nigeria – No Free Freedom -By Loretta Oduware Ogboro-Okor

It was at about 3.30 am West African Time, in the morning, on the 1^st of March 2023, while tired Nigerians slumbered, wary from years of bad leadership, that the brazen subversion of the people’s mandate was completed by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). INEC’s action was a paradox where night-time mechanism was employed to seal their systematically clear day-light robbery of Nigeria’s evolving unstable democracy, a move which if left to run its course will send our hitherto sleeping Giant of Africa into complete coma. Our nation has struggled in a negative direction over the years due to poor “rulership” to dominate a place amongst the lowest of the low and maintain a crown as one of the poorest countries in the world with no value for human life.

On Saturday the 25^th of February 2023, Nigerians took a decision in large numbers, to take their destiny in their hands and change the gloomy picture. They knew and still know, that it was a water shed Saturday, as well as a moment where they needed to make the lives of everyday Nigerians count.  Their weapon was their vote and the pathway to liberation was the ballot box. I was in Nigeria, I was at polling units where the old, young, the pregnant women and nursing mothers as well as the “uniquely-abled” came out in their numbers to vote. Their confidence level was high that their vote would count this time because of the new technology that our country had spent an estimated 355 billion Naira (771 million Dollars when I last checked the conversion rates) acquiring. The Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) was what our Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) promised would make the difference. INEC promised a free and fair election that was largely hinged on the promise of a game changing real time upload of the electoral results from the poling units by the BVAS technology. This meant that there would be no gaps where fraudulent doctoring of the results would happen after voting to collation and that announcement of result would be swift. Nigerians were determined to bridge the gap of the lack of value for human lives plaguing our nation. So, we welcomed BVAS and we engaged whole heartedly with the process neither deterred by man-made threats, nor nature’s poor weather conditions like the blazing sun or pouring clouds.

However, before our very eyes and with the rest of the world as our willing or unwilling audience, a systematic derailing of the people’s mandate began. Evidence abounds of how many polling units did not have INEC staff arrive until well past noon. The people waited. The voting started and despite there being no ink as well as multiple consumables for the process, the people went about to buy ink and anything that was needed for INEC. This was the same INEC that had a mind blowing budget that can compete with that of certain countries. Then, enter the thugs, who came on the scenes, carting away the ballot boxes right before the voters. The pictures and videos from different polling units that experienced these barbaric acts are copious on the worldwide web thanks to modern day smart phones.

In polling units where the ballot boxes were not destroyed or carted away, those who voted waited and they counted with the INEC officials, determined more than ever that their vote must count. Then came the final straw that broke the nation’s back – upload in real time failed woefully. The civic contract between INEC and Nigerians was breeched by none other than INEC itself. Nigerians watched as we went right back to the middle ages in minutes and the gap between the people and their mandate widened. Figures from the polling units went missing enroute, in this man-made gap and re-appeared inflated to suit the ruling party. On the flip side, the votes we the people came armed with, to mandate the man popularly supported by the people, Mr Peter Obi were deflated in the gap to suit the same ruling party.

As I watch the handing over of the certificate by INEC to the purported winner and listen to his acceptance speech with the multiple innuendoes of placating Nigerians and especially patronising the youths, I see clearly now, that our road to TRUE democracy has only just begun. I am glad and happy to thank Mr Peter Gregory Obi and Dr Datti Yusuf Baba-Ahmed for initiating a consciousness of change in Nigerians. It is to their bravery and determination to confront conventional status quo as well as their organic support by visionary Nigerians in their millions that we owe the tsunami of change blowing over Nigeria. It is clear from the events leading to these elections and with the engagement of Nigerians on the day, that our Nigerian political terrain will never be the same again. For being brave enough to confront the old order and giving Nigerians a reason to wake up, we are eternally grateful to them.

In 9 months, despite the massive sabotage, despite the rigging, it is clear that we the people have spoken. It is not over at all… the battle for the soul of Nigeria has just begun. Even with a mandate stolen, we the people must not give up. We must each speak up in our different ways and niches, to bring the irregularities of this election to the attention of the world. We must keep the fire burning and let our collective voices be heard because like I always say, there is no “free freedom”. The old order will not relinquish power without a fight so it goes without question why the process that has brought on the “current rulership elect” upon us is grossly flawed and has disenfranchised Nigerians. Therefore, we the people will keep pushing within the ambit of the law and continue asking that the rest of the world sits up and take a proper look in a timely manner at Nigeria today. The global community needs to join well-meaning Nigerians now, to determine how they can help a Nigeria on the brink because the world will quake should over 200 million people have a reason to become displaced following an internal implosion.  Ukraine is a recent world lesson in time.

Obi-Datti tag team and the Nigerians whose conscience are not bought must keep faith and forge on. We must collate the abundant evidence we all generated on Saturday the 25^th of February 2023 and seek legal redress. I have no doubt the Mr Peter Obi and Dr Datti Ahmed will stay the tide, remaining the visible rock and lighthouse for Nigerians and friends of Nigeria who are changing Nigeria. Together, we will all walk the walk and work the work. Rest assured that it is just starting – and the marathon is on, to close the gap. I will sum up this my opinion piece by modifying the final lines of David Diop’s poem Africa, to reflect this new Nigeria that is now upon us in the wake of the just concluded 2023 elections and the people’s stolen mandate. I posit thus that “this is Nigeria, springing up anew, springing up patiently, obstinately against the old order and whose fruit, bit by bit acquires the bitter taste of liberty”.

Dr Loretta Oduware Ogboro-Okor is a social commentator and author of the book ‘My Father’s Daughter’.