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•Election fraud won’t stop until perpetrators are brought to book
The National President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr Bitrus Pogu, has said that the outcome of the just concluded elections in Nigeria showed that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) INEC was never sincere in his dealings with Nigerians.
In an interview with VINCENT KALU, the MBF leader noted that the conduct of the just concluded 2023 election was woeful, and that the INEC leadership should be held responsible.
The 2023 general elections have ended. What is your assessment of the polls?
It is the worst election. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has performed woefully and below expectations. They deceived Nigerians on what would be done, but did a different thing. Not only that, despite improvement in technology, the technology was compromised, and there are lots of issues which may not be addressed in the law court.
This election, especially the presidential, the first election, fell below standard because changes in the results were effected and INEC was never sincere in its dealings right from its leadership. If the provisions of the electoral laws were to be adhered to, there are some people because of what they have done either by commission or omission that should be jailed so that it will serve as a lesson to others and we still pray that the true winner would emerge through the court. The court has even given the complainants the go ahead to have access to the INEC documents and machines, but the electoral commission has deliberately refused to oblige. So when you look at the whole process, it is one that falls below any expected standard.
This year’s election, people were enthusiastic that the turnout of the presidential was so good because they thought that technology would be brought to bear and would have a credible election, but INEC messed it up. It is INEC that is our problem in this election and not Nigerians because they came out en mass to vote for their candidates, but unfortunately INEC disappointed them.
At what point did INEC get it wrong?
Last year, the INEC chairman came out openly and told us that the results from the polls would be transmitted real time, but when it came to implementation, everything was changed as INEC started singing a different song. That is where they got it wrong.
When compared with the presidential election, there was low voters turnout for the governorship poll. Why do you think it was so?
It is because people knew who they voted and why they voted. But when the results came out and they saw something very different, they felt injustice has been meted out to them and they felt discouraged. That is why the voter apathy manifested. If people have seen the right result coming out of the process, I can assure you that the governorship would have been with the same enthusiasm if not more than the presidential election.
Nigerians saw and realised that the truth was not there as the person who won was not declared, but somebody who lost was declared. So, as a result, Nigerians felt that there was no point wasting their energy to go out and vote again; they felt that the same injustice meted out to them and their votes would be done again at the governorship election, so majority didn’t come out to vote. That is why voter apathy manifested just because they believed that INEC didn’t do the right thing and their votes didn’t count.
Do you think it might affect future elections in this country?
Of course, it would. Anything done wrongly will affect anything coming after unless we do something deliberate to change the system, and not only to identify the culprits involved, but to punish those who have messed things up in INEC, so that anybody coming after them would not try the same thing. Then the effect may be in the positive rather than in the negative because whichever way, it is going to affect coming elections. If justice is done it is going to affect coming election positively, but if nothing is done it is going to affect everything negatively because Nigerians will feel there is no hope in our electoral system.
Our prayer is that not only will this be corrected but people who have led us into where we are and the mess we are in should be appropriately punished for the evil they have committed against Nigeria and against our democracy so that the common man will have hope that tomorrow the right thing would be done. If justice is meted out then we can correct future things and have better things.
The international observers also condemned the elections. What doesn’t it portend for the image of the country among the comity of nations?
Our image in the international community is so low. It shows that whereas we have tried democracy for 24 years, our performance is so bad that we cannot be rated as one of the democracies in the world which can be emulated by the others. It is a bad development. We have to do something right to let the international community start taking us into confidence. This government, before President Buhari leaves office, should do something to right these wrongs so that our image in the international community would again be redeemed so that we can also be considered as one of the countries to be reckoned with in the comity of nations.
Nigeria is already rated low in terms of development indices. When added to the damning election reports, how will the nation’s scorecard read?
We are gradually descending to the level of a failed state; a banana republic and that is not good for the nation. We need to redeem our image. Nobody knows what might happen because this disobedience to even electoral laws and disobedience to court orders even by INEC and other bodies makes us a country that doesn’t have rule of law; a country that is not modern in terms of what standards are seen in the comity of nations.
The negative indices are increasing and piling, and we are only praying that before Buhari leaves office, we would want him to be encouraged to do the needful so that in the long run we can say at least those things that have gone wrong, he didn’t bequeath them to the coming government. He can still redeem the situation because it is within his powers as the president to bequeath to the future generations what could be considered as a country that obeys rule of law and can conduct credible elections. He can still do the needful if he wishes so that the image of this country can be redeemed before he hands over by May 29.
What is that ‘needful’ that you think he should do?
Now, we are at the stage of the judiciary, as INEC has done its own thing, and at this stage, he should call the judicial officers to order for them to do things according to law and they should not be swayed by favouritism or any vice or vices that will further tarnish the image of this country so that we can redeem the bad image of the nation.
If the president does that and gives judiciary free hands and assure them that nobody was going to push them around and they should do things according to law, things can be done and will be done rightly.
Where he has to use executive powers to redeem the country’s image, then he has to do it. Many of the results posted on INEC IRev came at the wrong time, and the electoral laws are not obeyed. Many of the results were mutilated and changed. Even if it requires cancellation, let him be bold enough to say that this thing falls below the standard that we expected. The needful has to be done so that we can redeem our bad image. Even if it requires annulling the election, let it be done for us to redeem our image.
What do you think the options are for voters whose votes couldn’t count?
Some people destroyed democracy, but the ballot still remains what can be used and should be used to take down bad government. The people who truncated this system and messed it up should be appropriately punished so that the wrong which is there should be righted.
INEC and its current leadership right from the chairman should be held responsible for the mess we are in. It is the INEC that destroyed Nigeria’s democracy, not Nigerians, not our ballot.
How can you rate the performance of the security agencies?
We cannot totally label our security agencies as culprits in the rigging. Where such is done, they should be brought to book. The problem we have in this country is that moneybags are given free hands to do one thing or the other, but if through the judicial process these people can be brought to bear and punished, then the problem would be solved. When that is not done then we remain where we are. People who have been identified as accomplices in that act, whether they are military men, police or civil defence or whichever one, an appropriate punishment should be meted out and when this is done, others would not do the same in future, and then we can have better elections. Unless that is done we will continue to face this kind of attitude. I believe that so many of them have been compromised to do the bidding of politicians, but when necessary punishment is meted out to those identified to have done such thing, then we will have an improved elections in future, because no security man will want to risk his career because of inducement by some politicians in future. That is the way forward.
What do you think might be wrong with our elections? Does it mean that we are not growing or the politicians don’t want to learn from history?
Not learning from lessons comes from one source and which is if people do the wrong thing and they are not punished for the bad act they have committed, then of course, they will do it again. That is the problem; it is not an issue of Nigerians not learning a lesson. A lesson has to be taught. When politicians bribe security men to do all sorts of ill and nobody punishes them and the judiciary doesn’t come to the aid of Nigerians to punish such culprits; they will continue to do the same thing. But if people are punished, locked up, made to lose their jobs, then lessons would have been learnt and people will stop doing these things because they know that the result will not favour them. They use money to induce security men, judicial officers and nobody is punished, then nobody will learn a lesson; lessons are learnt when people are punished for the bad deed they have done. That is where we can get it right. Let the judiciary punish people who have erred; who have messed up our electoral system. It doesn’t matter who is involved.
If the chairman of INEC would come out on air and tell Nigerians that we were going to transmit results real time and he went and did something different , he should be arrested, as well as others who are accomplices, including the security agents who colluded in doing these things and punished. I can assure you that tomorrow we will have a credible election, as no security man would want to tarnish his image and soil his career by doing the bidding of our politicians and the system will be corrected.
What we need are strong institutions. Even if our government is weak, but if the institutions are strong, all this nonsense will not happen. That is what we have in developed countries. In America, if the president messes up, the institutions are strong and they will get him, but in Nigeria, the president is a demigod and the institutions are weak and can be manipulated. What we need to keep a check on this nonsense are strong institutions – the police should be strong, the DSS should be strong, the military should be strong, the judiciary should be strong to be able to do their jobs without any influence from anybody. That is how this country will be good for all of us.
