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Nigeria’s so-called powerbrokers may continue to have their way with regard to who becomes President or governor but the Nigerian masses will always have their say. The abracadabra called the 2023 general election has come and gone. Rather than allow Nigerians to lick the psychological wounds inflicted on them by the rigging machine of the ruling party, President Muhammadu Buhari has continued to rub mud on their collective faces. 
Penultimate week, the President gloated about the questionable victory of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), at the 2023 general election. He told the Progressive Governors’ Forum that while the APC worked hard to retain power, the opposition parties lost because of a combination of overconfidence, complacency and bad tactical moves.
“They were already telling their foreign backers that they would defeat the APC. Our party blended confidence with caution, we worked hard and won. Now, their overconfidence is creating more problems for the opposition than anyone else. They are finding it hard to convince those who supported them from outside why they are unable to beat us,” he said.
This is absolutely preposterous! Mr. President, most Nigerians know how the APC’s ‘hard work’ manifested. It showed in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) refusing to upload the election results of the presidential election to the INEC portal real time. This ‘hard work’ propelled the thuggery, threats, attacks and resultant disenfranchisement of non-indigenes and opposition party supporters in a place like Lagos. It manifested fully in the changing of figures and mutilation of election results in favour of the ruling party in places like Rivers State.
Incidentally, some of the stalwarts of the ruling party have not relented in provoking ethnic tension in some places in order to create confusion for political gains. It is on record that the director, media and communication, of the Bola Tinubu Campaign Organisation, Bayo Onanuga, cast ethnic slurs against the Igbo in the name of politics. It is on record that some markets populated mainly by the Igbo in Lagos were vandalised soon after the elections. Even some baales (traditional rulers) and a school in Lagos joined in the APC’s dangerous political game to snatch victory at all costs. Local and international observers merely told us the election was greatly flawed and moved on.
Politicians can always push out false narratives to suit their selfish interests, but truth remains constant. It never changes and will never change. And the truth remains that Buhari and his party deceived Nigerians into believing that the 2023 election would be a watershed in the history of the country. On assumption of office in 2015, the outgoing President said he was for everybody and for nobody. We clapped for him, oblivious of what lay in store for us. Shortly before the elections, he said Nigerians were free to vote for any candidate of their choice. We hailed him. He added that security personnel had been mobilized to deal with anybody who might attempt to cause trouble during the election. Some of us said, “Hurrah! Our messiah has finally come!”
How myopic we were! We failed to see through the deceit of the cabal in Abuja. We failed to see the thin line between reality and the false hope, which the electoral umpire gave us. INEC assured us it had the antidote to rigging. It promised to deploy the latest technology to counter election manipulators. The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was touted as the game changer. We were happy.
But we never knew we were living in fool’s paradise! Buhari, who asked us to vote any candidate of our choice without fear or favour, was the first to break one of the provisions of the amended Electoral Act, which he signed in 2022. He voted and waved his ballot paper to show the whole world, especially INEC, that the APC was the party the powerbrokers wanted. INEC probably understood the message and has been cooperating since then.
Despite the protests that trailed the election, for instance, the umpire declared APC’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, winner of the presidential election at an ungodly hour on March 1. What followed was, “if you are not satisfied, go to court.”
Of course, the main opposition parties have gone to court. But the same people who asked them to go to court have not allowed them to drink water and drop their cups. The candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, for instance, has had to undergo different trials and tribulations on account of his principled stand to pursue his case in court. There have been overt and covert moves to force him to abandon his case at the tribunal. But he has remained resolute in pursuing what he believes in.
For now, Nigerians are fixated on the tribunal. The case will most likely get to the Supreme Court. But, no matter how it ends, one thing is certain: the APC has destroyed the little confidence some of us had in the electoral system. After all said and done, if there is no conscious effort to reform the electoral and political system, the ruling party may later discover that its members and supporters may be the only people coming out to vote in future.
My unsolicited advice to Buhari is to talk less and prepare to go for his retirement in Niger Republic, his favourite country. His eight-year rule is an unmitigated disaster and about the worst in the history of Nigeria. His reign witnessed an unprecedented inflation, which rose from the single digit of 9.0 per cent in 2015 to 22.04 per cent as of March 2023; high debt burden, which rose from N12.12 trillion in June 2015 when he took over to N44.7trillion as of December 2022; two economic recessions; unfavourable exchange rate; high rate of unemployment conservatively put at 33.3 per cent; and acute hunger, with 133 million citizens living in multidimensional poverty. Corruption, profligacy, nepotism, ethnic and religious bigotry as well as high rate of insecurity have all wrapped Nigeria in a sick cloth.
Our democracy is on trial. Our political party system is on trial. An opportunity we had in the last general election to change our negative narratives in leadership was truncated by the same cabal who have held Nigeria hostage for decades. If care is not taken, Nigeria may end up a one-party state. And once that happens, what we will witness is civilian autocracy at its worst. Let’s pray it never gets to that level.
Re: Adamawa poll and FG’s grand hypocrisy
Dear Casy, whenever the she-goat chews the cud, its kids watch with keen interest in order to learn. INEC’s chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, gave the impetus to the Adamawa REC, Hudu Yunusa Ari, to display such impunity and lawlessness. So many brazen acts of impunity happened all over Nigeria, particularly in Imo State, but Hudu Ari took it to the zenith. How could a lawyer like him behave in that manner if not for filthy lucre? How can Nigeria move forward with the likes of Hudu Ari? Unless the man is prosecuted and, if found guilty, jailed to serve as deterrent to future Hudu Aris who are being prepared for the 2027 general election, this country is doomed. In 2027, louts like MC Oluomo could be appointed as RECs who would be emboldened to announce gubernatorial election results in opposition states. Buhari longed to become President just for its sake. He has not added even a block to build this country higher but rather has demolished it from the lintel level President Jonathan left it. Now he’s set to hand over to Tinubu who has appointed a dead woman (Zainab Buba Marwa) as a member of his transition team. Sorry, Nigeria!
–Ifeanyi, Owerri, +234 806 156 2735
Dear Casy, when the head is rotten, what do you expect of the remaining parts of the body? Again, when the mother of a goat is chewing cud, her baby gathers experience by watching her. What do we, then, think would become the contagious outcomes when: (1) the INEC arrowhead decided that, of all the days on earth, the Presidential election day would become the anointed date for their Portal to develop ‘glitches’ as an alibi for not uploading poll results as promised in real time and, even, had the effrontery to splash saliva on the faces of Nigerians by asking us to go to court? (2) When INEC would collect humongous amount as security vote, only to become blind, deaf and dumb when the anointed and predetermined victors would deploy their goons against the poor, helpless voting public to achieve their target while security agents watch in cahoots or in co-operation? One of the outcomes is what has resonated as Ari-gate in Adamawa. All the window-dressing actions directing the investigation of the said Ari-gate are merely to pull the wool over the eyes of the gullible ones.
–Steve Okoye, Awka, 08036630731.
The Adamawa guber rerun ugly drama was a carefully planned script of the APC which suffered a monumental blow at the actualization stage. The APC and its promoters are duly aware that no credible election would coax its dead horse back to life. The way out was the resort to the last electoral debacle: a situational irony that has remained an embarrassing sore to Nigerians at home and in Diaspora. Yunusa-Ari was confidently dancing to the tunes of his unseen drummers. His case will soon be consigned to the trash can of history. The president himself appeared to have admitted that the APC ‘prevailed’ over the rest, NOT on the strength of its case, but because of overconfidence and tactical flaw of the opposition.
–Edet Essien Esq., Cal. South, +234 810 809 5633
Casmir, undoubtedly, PMB is trying to repair his already battered image by trying to play the role of a ‘good man’ vis-a-vis the Adamawa elections. He was a ‘spoiler’ during the presidential election as he kept mute when the electoral heist was foisted on us by INEC. He has played an electoral game of 2 halves and should be rightly dubbed a hypocrite! Releasing hypocritical statements would not save his soiled image. His reasons on why Obi & Atiku supposedly or subjectively lost is watery and a hard sell. When it comes to elections in Nigeria, “never say never” because impossible is nothing as anything and everything is possible. Binani and Ari practised what their mentor (Tinubu) taught them: power is not served ala carte, you grab/snatch it and run away with it. They should note that ‘a good name is better than gold’. The Tinubu that PMB wants to hand over to doesn’t inspire hope! PMB is a mistake. Tinubu will be a bigger mistake!
–Mike, Mushin, +234 816 111 4572
Casmir, the audacity of the Adamawa State INEC REC to announce the result of yet-to-be concluded election is an additional proof of an alliance of INEC and APC to defraud the Nigerian voters. The impunity showed by the REC is similar to the one shown by the Chairman during the Presidential election. The uproar shown by INEC is deceitful as the culprit will eventually be left off the hook and probably offered a better appointment for the job well done. It’s regrettable that the APC-led government has brought down this country in every available parameters of development. It’s also regrettable that the culture of lies, hypocrisy and impunity which the outgoing administration of Buhari planted and nurtured by his ‘able’ information minister has germinated into a national APC culture which the subsequent administrations both federal and states are willing to perpetuate.
–Pharm. Okwuchukwu Njike, +234 803 885 4922
