Let me start with this confession. I have enjoyed the rare privilege of having several one-on-one interactive sessions with the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Yakubu Mahmmod since his appointment as head of the nation’s electoral umpire. Quite honestly, I don’t envy him. The office he occupies, though described as independent, has been randomly subjected to both verbal and physical abuse over the years that congratulating him would be tantamount to making jest of him. If I could recollect vividly, previous occupants of that office had never come out smelling like red roses. They were dabbed with the toga of partiality, partisanship, betrayal, treachery and outright stealing of electoral mandates by aggrieved politicians and the voting public. Not even Mahmood’s predecessor, Prof. Attahiru Jega, escaped the tar brush of being a biased umpire despite being credited with organising arguably Nigeria’s best elections in 2015. That is the way the cookie crumbles here because our brand of politics gives no room for losers. If there are any, they hardly lose fairly and freely. By the way, why should they accept defeat with a deep sense of philosophical equanimity when the contest has always been between winners? Engrained in the DNA of a Nigerian politician is a jot of suicidal optimism that blinds him to the reality of an imminent loss and that is why someone must take the bullet when the obvious happens. Most of the times, the likes of Mahmood and his predecessors become the scapegoat of the deep-seated antagonism that follows every electoral contest.
And so, it does appear that the narratives are not about to change as Nigerians begin yet another match towards electing new leaders in today’s Presidential and National Assembly elections nationwide. It may be true that the real combatants in the bid for The Presidency are the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressive Congress and the serial presidential candidate on different political platforms, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, the man in the eye of the storm is no other person than Mahmood who is yet to recover from the deadly punches unleashed on him by political heavyweights from all sides of the divide after the decision to shift the election by a week. In short, his travails accentuate my belief that it is pointless envying anyone who willingly accepts to mount the saddle. To be candid, he was at his wit’s end in a spirited attempt to defend the indefensible in the days leading to today’s election. For a man brimming with indescribable confidence about the unimpeachable preparedness of the electoral body to go on with elections as scheduled, it was pitiable watching him on television struggling to itemize the ‘logistical reasons’ that led to the midnight decision to leave the electorates drying in the sun. He cuts a pathetic image lamenting how a number of unforeseeable acts, which were not helped by the criminal activities of arsonists and saboteurs, conspired together to truncate the electoral body’s vows to deliver on its mandate.
For them, Mahmmod could as well take his truckload of excuses to the marines. The abruptness with which the postponement was announced provided a window for politicians and their league of irascible supporters to unleash a harvest of venomous rant on Mahmood. One was lost amid the flow of punches and sadistic tales woven round the neck of the electoral chief. In a swift reaction, Atiku’s camp said it was able to foil the attempt by the Mahmood-led INEC to rig the elections for the APC, jazzing up their story with the salacious anecdote about how the supplier of the Electronic Card Readers was the same person contesting for a senatorial seat on the platform of the APC in Niger State. Well, it didn’t take long for the APC to link the cancellation of the election to a carefully orchestrated collaboration between the leadership of INEC and the PDP to rig Atiku in by hook or crook. Others said it was a ploy to disenfranchise millions of voters who had travelled to their various villages to effect a change of governance at the centre. With the cancellation, they reasoned that Mahmmod was merely playing by the books of the APC as the disenchanted millions of voters do not have the means to travel home for the election today. And you ask: how did they know the mindset of these voters? Don’t expect any answer. It is all within the realm of political conjectures and permutations by politicians with benumbing optimism!
Mahmood’s fate, I must note, was not helped by the fact that some of his men displayed an atrocious sheer lack of capacity in handling the task before them. Like one of its national commissioners pointed out, it would have been disastrous had the election commenced as scheduled last Saturday with INEC’s ‘sensitive materials’ flown to the wrong destinations while some allegedly ended up in the hands of the wrong persons. In a country where trust is abysmally in short supply and where loyalty to the state can be bought at the price of a plate of pottage, it is not surprising that certain unpalatable events were unearthed in the course of the week. The lesson in all this is that nothing has changed in the way we play politics here. Make no mistake about it, cheap lucre is at the core of our electoral despondency. Desperate politicians would stop at nothing to buy victory. The signs are ominous with a frustrated President threatening a shoot-at-sight order on ballot box snatchers. Even at that, nothing suggests that the herds of political jobbers would not stake their lives and dare the authorities. The reason for this is simple: service for the general wellbeing of the people is not at the heart of our political ambition. What propels this madness to win at all cost is greed. That is what drives the passion in addition to an assurance that victory ensures an uncommon access to the national treasury where one can have a big bite of the national cake for personal aggrandizement. In anyway, culprits hardly get punished and those that get caught always suffer the full wrath of our laws with a slap on the wrist!
You know what amuses one in all this? The fact that Mahmood easily became the punching bag through which Nigeria’s perennial sore losers can ventilate their convoluted angst. He was practically their toothpick. I saw some presidential candidates, who couldn’t muster up to 10000 votes, threatening fire and brimstone over what they perceived to be the disenfranchisement of their supporters across the nation due to the cancellation. These were candidates no one knew were in the ballot paper or the mushroom parties they belong to. I saw veiled anger and the cascading dramatics being put up by the representatives of the two leading parties and I laughed. They huffed and puffed. I saw as Mahmood shifted uncomfortably on his seat as he was being buffeted with questions by politicians and journalists alike. Of course, they were right when they questioned his competence having used over three years to prepare for an election that ended up being canceled few hours to the commencement of accreditation and voting. It was understandable that he needed to be tongue-lashed for swimming in a lake of self-confidence when everything pointed to the fact that other extraneous factors could derail even the best of plans. So why didn’t he have an alternative plan? Has he identified the treacherous staff within? If yes, what is he doing about it in order to avoid a repeat of the bribe-for-vote scandal of the 2015 general elections? Is he still as surefooted as he was on his avowed determination to deliver a credible, free and fair election?
Like I said in the opening paragraph, I have been privileged to be on the same table with this man a number of times interrogating the electoral process. In all those encounters, Mahmood comes across as a man who knows his onions and the challenges before him. He never failed to remind us of the nuances of politicians who, more often than not, play to the gallery in outright display of political buffoonery. He knows that regardless of who wins this election, he would be at the centre of voracious attacks. Already, he has tasted a dose of it with what happened at last Saturday’s press conference where he battled to explain why the election was canceled. He stood out like a sore thumb that would throw spanners in the works of politicians who have never hidden their character as sore losers. He knows he has taken up a thankless job in which he could be devoured by the hawks and hyenas of the power struggle. Yet, he needs not to be bothered that much. His predecessors suffered the same fate and they lived to tell their stories. For Mahmood, the saying that conscience is an open wound aptly comes to mind. Let the umpire be guided by his conscience in his action and inaction so that he can be at peace with himself after all this storm. He needs it just like his predecessor, Jega, needed it some four years back. May Nigeria succeed.