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By Aloy Uzoekwe
Way back in 1983, I read James Hadley Chase’s “Believe This, You’ll Believe Anything”. It was the introduction to J.H. Chase’s books for me and itself was a gift from my now late cousin, Dr. Brendan Onwuneme, PhD. The title of the book fits what should be Nigerians reaction to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s chairman’s promise of free, fair and credible elections in January 2027.
The truth is that the INEC chairman with his whole structure in tandem with the ruling APC are banking on Nigerians’ famed character of gullibility, docility and complacency in their schemes to pull off yet another election heist in Nigeria in 2027. They believe that, like it happened in 2015, 2019 and 2023, they will allow Nigerians to vote and then they will announce whatever results they concoct, watch us whine for two weeks and accept the robbery and go about our normal business. When it happened in 2015, Senator Godsday Orubebe shouted and protested but he turned out a lone voice. In 2019, Atiku/Obi won but the reverse result was announced with nobody raising an eyebrow. Then in 2023, while we were sleeping, Yakubu Mahmood announced his result and dared the opposition and the rest of Nigerians to go to court.
So it is only a fool or a foreigner who did not witness the last three elections in Nigeria (2015, 2019 and 2023) who will accept Prof. Joash Amupitan’s present pontifications and promises as possible. Or did Profs Jega and Mahmood, even Iwu (2007), not give us the same assurances? Mahmood even swore, almost with his father’s name, that the results would be transmitted in real time – electronically. Yet the ‘glitch’ happened.
The audacity in Amupitan’s promises is what baffles one. How does he expect Nigerians to trust him and his words? He wants us to trust a promise from an entity with tainted reputation? An institution accused of voters registration/register manipulation, which has done nothing to debunk the accusations; an electoral body’s head person with apparent evidence of partisanship even appearing as part of the defense team of the ruling party during the 2023 Elections Petition hearing, before his present appointment. An electoral body that leaked the voters’ registers database for an outsider to access and could not come up with a plausible explanation for the breach let alone sanction those involved. Nigerians may be docile but we are not that foolish.
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The undiluted truth of the matter is that the INEC, President Bola Tinubu and APC will try to rig the next year’s elections under Amupitan (that’s why he was appointed ab initio). They have used all the off-season elections, the FCT council elections inclusive, to test the waters and will still use the forthcoming Osun State gubernatorial election to observe the terrain further before striking big time in January. And INEC is at the front seat.
If INEC wants us to believe they have turned a new leaf like Amupitan is trying to profess, they should start with this simple task: the INEC is hiring ad hoc staff for the 2027 general election. Unlike in the past when the list of hired ad hoc staff was shrouded in secrecy, they should publish the names of the staff hired for 2027 elections for all to see. The names should be published with their full details and areas of postings on the commission’s website/portal at least one month before the elections. The names and postings should not be changed, under any circumstances except death or incapacitation, after they have been displayed. This way, we will know those to be held responsible, in addition to Amupitan, from bottom to top.
For now, Amupitan should note that we believe him not, not his sermons and definitely not his promises. The belief and trust he desires of us will come from the results of his acts. Then, even posterity will bless him more.
• Aloy Uzoekwe, Isuofia, Anambra State, 07015310650, [email protected]
