There is this popular saying among Nigerian Christians. They often say, “There is nothing that God cannot do.” With the Nigerian, there is nothing that God cannot do. The thought opens up several other questions both philosophical and theological. However, I think that the most appropriate saying ought to be that ‘there is nothing money cannot do.’ Even where many argue that there are limits to what money can buy, there is no limit to what the smell of N2 billion can do.
The sight of N2bn can make a compound fool of a very clever human. The thought of what it can do in impacting a life that is nearing retirement from active public service can be radically transformative. That is why I am grateful to God for using the Adamawa State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Yunusa Hudu Ari, listed as a lawyer and by implication a servant in the temple of justice, to finally wreck the 2023 general election process and whatever is left of that thing called integrity. With Ari, we now have proof that human integrity can only be vouched for when not challenged with money. It says to us that almost all who pontificate on integrity will fail when the smell of money hits their nostrils. For Ari, who obviously did not act alone, it was N2 billion as alleged.
What the Adamawa situation did was to expose a suspected fact often spoken about in hushed tones and behind steel doors – that elections in Nigeria are freely sold to the highest bidder by the electoral umpires. The Adamawa situation tells Nigerians, especially those who seek elective office, that they should quit praying and hoping for transparent elections where their votes will count but buy their way through. Ari and those he played ball with have frontally removed every doubt that votes count in Nigeria.
They actually do not count. With Ari and his gang, I am now more convinced that I have always been right in my conclusion that elections are simply justifications for previous bargains. It means that when you and I go to stand in the sun and wait for our turn to cast our votes, we are actually lending ourselves to the process of ratifying a decision that had long been taken among a few persons after the right sum had been paid. Nothing else! Therefore, we must all go thank God for using Ari and his gang in Adamawa to expose what they always suspected.
However, the truth in the Ari exposé is that both the giver and the given must have acted in total disregard of the electoral laws, despicably abused trust and hanged their integrity because they were privy to what probably obtained in the ‘elections’ of February 25 and March 18. I put elections in parenthesis because what happened across Nigeria on February 25 leading to the famous Yakubian (from Prof. Mahmood Yakubu) saying “go to court”, was very far from an election. February 25 became a precursor to the larceny of March 18. In all these, the central body, INEC, superintended by Yakubu, sold itself very cheaply, trashed its integrity and removed every iota of doubt about its independence. Yakubu led the organisation to openly waste a princely N350bn just to show that it is mawkishly attached. As it is said, monkeys learn by imitation.
The Adamawa REC and his gang learned by courteously imitating INEC headquarters; and like you know, fish rots from the head. The logical implication is that the body of a fish will not rot if the head is not rotten. Taking a cue from that, the Adamawa REC and his team only successfully messed with whatever was left of INEC’s integrity after February 25 and March 18.
I guess that was why it was very easy for INEC headquarters to simply ease Ari out of office and is now inviting law enforcement to investigate and prosecute him. Not formally sending a petition to either EFCC or ICPC for his arrest and prosecution alongside whosoever played ball with him, especially those that made that straight pass to him. Quietly easing Ari out and recalling commissioner of police in the state would constitute a lesser evil, which all the people in the chain of what happened at the collation centre would more likely be happy with. With Ari and his gang, even Yakubu ignored his advice.
He wouldn’t want to “go to court” with those who allegedly provided the N2bn, at least, to seek to use the judiciary to restore a bit of INEC’s integrity by suing them for seeking to compromise, or impugn the commission. But he is not likely to take that chance.
By his go-to-court pronouncement, Yakubu leaves the public with very strong doubts about the capacity of the judiciary to be independent and impartial. This is why the judiciary must be concerned about the meaning of those words. When those who frantically and idiotically abuse the law ask those who are shocked by their actions to go to court, it suggests that the court is in bed with them.
This is where the judiciary must show serious concern about the implications of that ‘Yakubian order’ on its image and integrity. Doing otherwise would suggest that it plays the script written and dictated by those who ask others to “go to court,” and for those who suggest that calling on the judiciary to show courage and independence means intimidating the judiciary.
Either way, the judiciary may have soiled itself through previous actions, which show it as being strongly attached to the apron strings of the executive and disregards the society’s need for justice, which ought to be a healing balm for the victim, the aggressor, and the society at large. Many fear that “go to court” may eventually become the language of compromise, which is already a signature of the present administration’s fight against corruption.
Those who burn their fingers in the corruption fire are quietly eased out of office like Ari now enjoys. They are rarely prosecuted, especially if it is suspected that doing so will make the public more knowledgeable about what they already know.
For instance, it is unimaginable how, till this moment, INEC has cleverly shied away from leading an inquest to unravel the actual circumstances in which its REC in Kano State, Alhaji Munkaila Abdullahi, his wife and daughters died in the aftermath of the presidential election in 2015.