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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
Last Saturday’s tensed presidential election has finally come to an end with the announcement of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) early morning of Wednesday. The development has put to rest three months of politicking by presidential candidates of the 18 political parties that participated in the election.
For some, the announcement calls for victory dance but for others, it raises more questions than answers on the the preparedness of INEC to conduct a credible election. was a pyrrhic victory and the one obtained through the altar of tears, sorrow and blood. So, as some are rejoicing, others are gnashing their teeth.
And to confirm that failure is an orphan, while success has many siblings, the losers are left to leak their wounds while the winners are literally in cloud nine with celebration.
From the build up to the party primary, the 2023 presidential race was laced with intense intrigues and drama. All manner of shenanigans, litigations, betrayal, alignment and realignment were dominant features of the presidential poll.
Interestingly, none of the four frontrunner presidential candidates had a smooth ride through the thorny road to winning the race. From the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Atiku Abubakar to the surprising game changer, the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, it was a very rough and tough journey.
Ranging from the controversial Muslim-Muslim joint ticket against the APC candidate, to the destabilising distraction from the G-five PDP governors against the PDP candidate, and the stepping down of the LP Director General, the stake was intriguingly high.
From the party primaries to the crowning of the king, there was no dull moment. Indeed, it was a presidential contest full of suspense and one that unfortunately balkanised the country along tribal, religious fault lines.
But even at the eve of the poll, bookmakers could not predict what awaits the candidates as the outcome of the election. It is understandable because of the assurances from the INEC that the deployment of technologies like the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the Results Viewing Portal (IReV) will be the shocker game changer.
The electorate had equally approached the poll with that enthusiasm until the first surprise of the multiple failure of the commission to match their expectations hit them like thunderbolt.
Late arrival of electoral materials, voter intimidation, malfunctioning BVAS, ballot box snatching, stuffing, ethnic discrimination, and above all the failure of IReV to upload polling units results real time turned their enthusiasm to despodency.
Unending complaints, non-violent protests were equally ignored by the commission even when it was escalated to the National Collation Centre. The commission had deployed all manner of tricky and diversionary tactics to continue with the collation and announcement of the questionable results from the states.
Not even when the leading opposition party rejected and called for the cancellation of the results, staging a walkout could deter the commission from its mission of concluding the process regardless of who is hurt.
Led by PDP National Collation agent, Dino Melaye, his LP counterpart and seven other opposition party agents, had described the election as a sham, emphasising that they could not be reduced to rubber-stamping the doctored and adulterated results from the states that have not been uploaded into the commission’s IReV portal.
Before the pronouncement of the winner, warnings and drums of warfare had come from former President Olusegun Obasanjo who called for the cancellation of the election in places where the process was compromised. Also, protesting Nigeria mothers threatened to strip naked if the INEC failed to correct the anomaly in the collation of the result. The vice presidential candidates of the Labour Party, Datti Baba Ahmed and Ifeanyi Okowa of the PDP also insisting on the commission to terminate further collation processes.
According to Obasanjo; “I am constrained to speak at this point. I crave the indulgence of the President Buhari, to make this statement because I have had the opportunity to keep him aware of what I know is happening and the danger looming ahead.
“Until last Saturday night, February 25, 2023, the good, noble plan and preparation for the elections seemed to be going well. For INEC, a lot of money was spent to introduce BVAS, and the Server for immediate transmission of results from polling units.
“It is no secret that INEC officials, at operational level, have been allegedly compromised to make what should have worked not to work and to revert to manual transmission of results which is manipulated and the results doctored. The Chairman of INEC may claim ignorance but he cannot fold his hands and do nothing when he knows that election process has been corrupted and most of the results that are brought outside BVAS and Server are not true reflection of the will of Nigerians who have made their individual choice. “At this stage, we do not need wittingly or unwittingly to set this country on fire with the greed, irresponsibility and unpatriotic act of those who allegedly gave money to INEC officials for perversion and those who collected the blood money.
“Let me appeal to the Chairman of INEC, if his hands are clean, to save Nigeria from the looming danger and disaster which is just waiting to happen; if the Chairman can postpone elections four days to the election, he can do everything to rectify the errors of the last two days – no BVAS, no result to be acceptable; and no uploading through Server, no result to be acceptable,” he appealed.
On their own, the duo of the PDP and LP presidential running mates, Ifeanyi Okowa and Datti Baba-Ahmed respectively, had called for outright cancellation of the election.
“The election was a sham, and never free and fair,” said Okowa, a position corroborated by the LP’s vice-presidential candidate. Their main grouse is that INEC failed to upload the results of elections in the over 170,000 polling units into a central IReV portal as required by law, claiming that step should have been done before the collation and announcement of results.
The two parties also demanded that the chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, must step aside over what they described as electoral irregularities and malfeasance. United by the same purpose, the two opposition parties claimed at their press conference that; “we monitored with dismay the travesty to democracy that was exhibited at the National Collation Centre of INEC. The results announced by INEC so far show some irregularities. INEC Chairman deliberately refusing to respect the pre-existing regulations that result of this election shall be uploaded on the INEC portal through the BVAS technology.”
On their own, Nigerian women, numbering hundreds, threatened to protest naked should the result is allowed to stay.
They brandished placards with various inscriptions like ‘occupy INEC now’, ‘our votes must count’, ‘Nigeria not for sale, we must fight for justice’, ‘we stand for justice, we fight for a new Nigeria’, ‘INEC is subverting the will of the people’, ‘INEC, please save Nigeria from war’, ‘the poor does not have money for visa, for flight tickets abroad’… .
“We defied sun and rain, denied ourselves comfort, we resisted hunger, came out Saturday massively and voted for the president we desire, but we are getting entirely different results from what they are presenting at INEC collation centre here.
“Many Nigerians were denied the opportunity to vote, where they voted, the security agents aided and abated the change of the results. We appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari, the father of the nation to call the INEC Chairman to order.
“Our demands are very simple, we want the discontinuation of the announcement of the result at ICC. The election must be cancelled and fresh one conducted. We are very peaceful in our protest today, but if the authorities concerned failed to listen to our demands, we will go completely naked until the election is re-conducted.
“All of them from the president, the security agents, INEC Chairman came through women and we are ready to do the unthinkable, striping naked until they hearken to our request of cancelling the election and conducting a fresh one,” many of the protesters demanded.
The International Observers and international community came with damning reports, discrediting and faulting the poll in many ways, especially the failed technology.
But, despite the petition, the commission had adamantly continued the collation until the early hours of Wednesday when it announced the APC candidate, Bola Tinubu, the President-elect, promising belatedly to look into the complaints from the opposition parties.
Tinubu, according to the electoral umpire, won in 12 states, polling a total number of 8.79 million votes, more than a million votes higher than the candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, who finished second.
Chairman of the commission, who doubles as the Chief Returning Officer for the presidential election, announced that the former Vice President, Atiku, garnered a total number of 6.98 million votes from 12 states.
Trailing closely at the third spot is the candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, who scored a total sum of 6.10 million votes, winning 12 states.
Coming a distance fourth is the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who scored 1.49 million votes despite winning only his state, Kano, harvesting 997,279 votes.
Expectedly, commendations have continued to pour in for the president-elect, ranging from President Buhari to the ruling party chieftains. Regardless of the countenance of the Nigerian electorate towards the emergence of the former governor of Lagos State, it is inconsequential.
“For your information, this is one of the elections a president was declared and Nigerians instead of taking to the street to celebrate rather came out to protest. Election has been concluded but tension, apprehension and anxiety continued to build in almost every part of the country.
“Take it or leave it, greater percentage of Nigerians are not happy with the outcome of the results of the election. Many Nigerians, affected by the obnoxious policies of the APC-led government, are very much aggrieved by the outcome of the results.
“But, this is election and there is no morality in politics. It will be a wound that will certainly take time to heal but trust Nigerians, life continues,” an APC chieftain, who declined identity told Daily Sun.
However, irrespective of the side of the divide one finds oneself, there are many takeaways in this presidential election, ranging from the dangers of over-reliance on the technology deployment by the commission to the upsetting of the old order by the movement represented by the Labour Party.
Another takeaway is that the era of arogantly writing outrageous figures may gradually belong to the past. It was exemplified in the high disparity between the number of registered voters and the total number of valid votes cast across the country.
Again, to many political pundits, part of the surprises were the upsets across the country where the mightiest fell for people considered as political weaklings. Many governors, the hitherto untouchable emperors in their state lost their tickets. Like a thunderbolt, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu, Samuel Ortom of Benue, Okozie Ikpeazu of Abia, among many other political heavyweights fell by the wayside.
Surprisingly, inconsequential political neophytes effortlessly occupied the exalted positions of the political heavyweights. Worthy of mention is an Okada rider in Kaduna state without losing any drop of sweat and or making serious financial commitments.
But a major minus in the poll was the malfeasance perpetrated and endorsed by the INEC during the presidential election as many fear it might embolden political actors to dance different musics during the forthcoming March 11 governorship and State Assembly election.
But, while the hurt are still nursing the injury, celebrations have started in some quarters as the president-elect, in his acceptance speech promised not to disappoint on the confidence reposed in him.
He had, in his acceptance speech, thanked President Buhari and others that made his victory possible, specifically appealing to other contestants to sheath their sword and join him in repositioning the country.
“The victory is the shining moment of any man and from my heart and truly from my heart, I say thank you to everybody. I wish all of you well. Whether you are Batified, Atikulated, Obidient, Kwankwasiya, or any other political linings, I want you to know that renewed hope has landed.
“I commend INEC for running a credible election no matter what anybody feels about it. I thank all of you that supported my campaign especially President Buhari. He has shown that he is a truly patriotic man. I thank my running mate and Vice President-elect, Kashim Shettima.
“I will work to make Nigeria great,” he promised, appealing to other contestants; “to join me and work for the unity of this country. I want to work with you to ensure that we make Nigeria to a destination of choice.”
So, the die is cast, but it remains to be seen whether the other contestants will heed to his appeals and eschew the urge to institute legal action and whether Nigerians will stomach the bile that comes with the emergence of another candidate other than their choice candidates.
