First, it was the Presidency, represented by the Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Mr. Dele Alake. He was quick in his denunciation of the final report of the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU-EOM), which said in clear terms that the 2023 general election in Nigeria was flawed. Smarting from the unequivocal declarations of the report largely directed at Nigeria’s electoral commission, Alake, whose principal was the beneficiary of INEC’s recklessness, dismissed the report as the product of a poorly done desk job. He was disappointed that the EU observers did not speak tongue-in-cheek. He would have wished for a patronizing report that would have swept hard facts under the carpet.
Then some nameless protesters took the second turn. The rabble was reported to have besieged the premises of the European Union in Abuja to protest against the report of the EU-EOM. The protesters told the EU to withdraw the report because, according to them, it was capable of setting the country ablaze. What bunkum. What an affront. Does an international agency operating in Nigeria deserve such haranguing?
But what did the EU-EOM say that has incensed Bola Tinubu’s apologists? A bird’s-eye view of the report will suffice. The report had noted, among other things, that the 2023 general election did not ensure a well-run transparent and inclusive democratic process as assured by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Public confidence and trust in INEC were severely damaged during the presidential poll and was not restored in state level elections, leading civil society to call for an independent audit of the entire process. The report noted further that a critical failure in the entire election process manifested at collation stage on February 25 due to widespread disorganization and a lack of adherence to prescribed procedures. It then noted with regret that public confidence in INEC was severely damaged on February 25 due to its operational failures and lack of transparency.
Need we go into further details? I do not think so. What must be pointed out at this stage is that the EU-EOM report said it as it is. Anybody who has the faintest idea of what transpired on Election Day in Nigeria will readily agree that the EU observers were on target. The report is factual and unbiased. It is true in every material particular.
So, why are the naysayers raging? What is their fury all about? We can hazard a guess. The Abuja protesters said they were furious that the report is before the Presidential Election Petitions Court. They fear that the court could take recourse to the report in the process of taking a decision on the facts before it. On the basis of this, the protesters have chosen to embark on a preemptive strike. They want to discredit the report by playing to the gallery. But Nigerians are no fools. They know the truth. They know that the elections were even worse than as presented by the EU-EOM.
Nigerians are not about to forget. They still remember with disappointment the enthusiasm and expectations with which they approached the elections. Mahmood Yakubu, their country’s electoral chief, had promised them that their votes would count. He told them that results would be transmitted real-time to the result viewing portal as soon as voting ended at every polling unit. Sadly, the promises ended up as a paper tiger. INEC did the direct opposite of what it promised.
Then to confirm to everyone that it had a destructive agenda, it hurriedly announced election results without bothering about the myriad of electoral infractions brought to its attention. Nigerians are still astounded by the level of dishonesty that the electoral commission inflicted on the system. For the people of this beleaguered country, it is clear and evident that the 2023 general election was the worst in the history of Nigeria. They are still trying to come to terms with the nightmare that the election was.
Regardless of all this, Nigerians approached the outrage with utmost sense of maturity. They did not disturb public peace. They neither killed nor maimed.
It was, therefore, such an irony to hear the Abuja protesters talk about the report as having the potentiality to set Nigeria ablaze. This is a clear case of cheap blackmail. They set out to assume the moral high ground. But they failed. They merely reminded Nigerians that they should have poured into the streets in protest when Yakubu announced the result of the presidential election on March 1. The result read out by Yakubu was an insult to Nigerians. It was an assault on their sobriety. They could have been jolted into street protests by the rape and assault. But they chose the path of peace. They decided to give the courts a chance in the hope that they will right the wrongs of February 25. To imagine that those who thwarted the people’s will have the shamelessness to protest is bewildering . When did the sinner become the saint? Why is the transgressor sounding sanctimonious?
All this is happening because this is Nigeria. We live in that part of the universe where a wrongdoer could put up a bold face so as to harass his victims out of the way. That is why the Presidency and the Abuja protesters have no qualms about the rape of February 25. That is why they do not feel embarrassed when they claim that the 2023 general election was the freest and most transparent that Nigeria has had since 1999. What an assault on truth.
But those who are up in arms against the EU-EOM must understand that their blackmail and intimidation will not work. The mission remains one of the most thorough in the assessment of the 2023 general election. They were here for three months without a break. They deployed field officers who had a first-hand knowledge and information about what happened. The EU-EOM was not one of those observers that operated from the comfort of hotel rooms and wrote reports that were anything but credible. Those who are bellyaching over the report under consideration should find something else to do.
Luckily for Nigeria, the EU-EOM did not just give us report about the 2023 polls. It outlined a number of recommendations that can help Nigeria to conduct credible and acceptable elections in future. Rather than struggling to discredit the EU-EOM report, concerned government agencies, particularly INEC, should learn lessons from the good job that has been done. That way, we can escape the tragedy of repeating the mistakes of yesterday.