Review…Inconclusive elections: 5 dangers staring INEC and Nigerians

In from Olumide Olaoluwa . . .
Governor Udom Emmanuel woke up Friday oblivious his status was about to change. By 4pm, the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja had nullified his election. The Court also cancelled the entire electoral process in the 31 local governments of the state. It ordered a rerun within the next 90 days.

In neighbouring Rivers State, the same Court of Appeal reaffirmed the cancellation of the election of Governor Nyesom Wike by the Tribunal few days before. It agreed with the earlier decision that Wike was not validly elected.

In November, Taraba State Election Petition Tribunal nullified the declaration of ‎ Darius Ishaku as governor because he was not duly elected as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) at its primary, which held in Abuja as against the capital city as enshrined in the Constitution.

As it is with elected executives, so it is with legislators. At the last count, over 50 lawmakers have had their elections nullified at federal and state levels since the election tribunals started sitting.

Among them are former Senate President, David Mark; Taraba Speaker Abel Diah; Senator Abdulrahman Abubakar (Kogi East); Senator Gilbert Nnaji (Enugu East); Baba Madugu (Bauchi); Rivers Speaker, Owaji Ibani and 19 lawmakers from the state.

All of these are coming on the heels of the inconclusive December 5 governorship election in Bayelsa State. A supplementary poll is expected to hold on January 9, 2016. In Kogi State, it took cancellations and a supplementary poll for a governor to emerge amid intense intrigues and horse-trading.
The high wages of reruns

These cancelled polls have confirmed that the nation’s electoral system is flawed and vulnerable to manipulations. The implication is that it is possible for wrong candidates to emerge and have access to state treasuries which are easily looted before they are dislodged through judicial pronouncements.

For those who are really daring, they can easily dig into state funds to finance reruns and buy their way back to reckoning. The easy implication is that good governance will continue to remain a mirage as long as Nigerians do not elect those they deem qualified to run the affairs of state.

Though some believe the cancelled polls will sanitise the electoral system, the truth is the reruns will come at huge costs to the nation and taxpayers. In the first place, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will have to spend much more to reorganise the polls.

This will mean double spending for the same purpose with manpower also overstretched just a little after eight months the nation went through rigorous national elections. At a time the country is battling with severe economic recession and cash crunch, spending unexpected millions on conducting fresh polls will certainly widen the holes in the nation’s purse.

Induced voters’ apathy
Besides, voters will also be expected to return to polling centres against their wish too soon. It took all the mobilisation and public enlightenment to get most of them to exercise their civic obligation in March and April. There is no doubt they won’t be too enthusiastic to go through the same rigours so soon again.

“When you have such situation, many of them never vote again because they are afraid and do not want to wait for a long time again. That is what we can describe as induced apathy, which is not good for the nation and our electoral system,” Leke Amos, the coordinator of Voters Rights Initiative (VRI), a non-governmental organisation, pointed out.
This apathy, he argued, will affect turnout and the quality of candidates voted for. “It means with a few votes, an unpopular candidate can win elections because the majority would have been induced to stay away. That is dangerous for democracy and does not guarantee quality representation,” he added.
Overstretching security agencies

INEC has to also deploy ad hoc staff and electoral materials to violence-prone areas, a development that will put the lives of electoral workers at risk. Many of them died across the nation in March and April during the last general elections.

The implication of the reruns predisposes that security agencies have to return to the ‘battle fields’ again to protect lives and properties in the affected areas. For zones where elections are issues of warfare, the situation will certainly stretch the capacity of the agencies at a time the northeast is practically at war with Boko Haram terrorists and increased criminalities in other parts of the country.

Many law enforcement officers will be distracted from their primary assignment to douse tension and protect lives in the affected area during the rerun exercise. Abel Kolade, a security consultant, said the implication could be dire for a volatile nation like Nigeria.

“We are lucky to have emerged unscathed from the last electioneering period. Many nations predicted we won’t survive but we did. However, we are plunging ourselves back to a precarious situation with the reruns. In places where the contests will be hot, we should expect skirmishes and violence.
“Our security forces will be stretched again, which is a something we really cannot afford considering the insurgency challenge we are on against. It is a needless pressure we are putting ourselves through and we could have avoided it altogether,” he said.

Read also: Bayelsa: Dickson, Sylva know fate Jan 9

Open invitation to looting
For office holders with access to public fund, a rerun election is an open invitation to treasury looting. “They need money more than anything now. They have to oil their machineries and impress many godfathers. They will loot as much as they can because money is an important tool in electioneering activities in our democracy,” Chris Eze, a political scientist, stated.

Eze explained that stock-piling of funds for rerun will not only drain the treasuries but also affect governance. “Many of them are not thinking about what project to implement now or how to deliver dividends to the masses. They have to return to office at all costs. Governance is at the back-foot now. Survival is the ultimate,” he stressed.
Zero punishment for riggers

Dr Kukoyi Ige, a political scientist, is convinced reruns are not enough deterrents for electoral robbers. He said many deliberately get elected through violent and illegal means to have access to public treasuries.

“Their thinking is if they are just governors for just a month, they would have made enough to last them for a lifetime. So, for me, electoral manipulation is a deliberate offence that should carry serious implications,” he argued.

He said being told to face the polls again is never enough to deter others from following suit. “If we really want to stop rigging and electoral frauds, we should prosecute offenders. If you benefit from a flawed election, you should face the music. It is childish to just say, ‘you were wrongly elected. Go back and face a rerun’. You need to face the law because you could have instigated people to manipulate the process for you,” Ige stated.

Emboldened electoral robbers
Eze is incensed that many of the sacked candidates are still occupying stolen seats and wasting time through appeals. “The tribunals already proved they stole the mandate. Why are they still hanging on to them? It is annoying that they are even appealing. Electoral robbers have become emboldened and it is a shame they are resorting to the law to protect their stolen mandates.”

Yes, political opponents are happy with the reruns but the nation is the ultimate loser. It will lose hard-earned money, manpower and valuable time all in an attempt to get the electoral system right.

So before we rejoice over the cancelled polls and forthcoming reruns, it is time to reflect whether the development is worth the while and if the situation couldn’t have been avoided altogether with better planning and paying closer attention to details.

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