The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Inec

  • There are ‘issues’ to address, says Jega

    INDEPENDENT National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof Attahiru Jega yesterday admitted that there are ‘issues’ to be addressed, particularly with the nation’s voters register but that nobody set out to deliberately disenfranchise anybody.

    Represented by the National Commissioner in charge of Legal Matters, Mrs. Thelma Iremiren, at a retreat on Electoral Matters organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters in collaboration with the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), in Calabar, Cross River State, he said said “I concede that we have issues which we need to address and I think everybody is quite disturbed that at this time we are still having issues with voters register. But I want to say without any contradiction that it was not deliberate to disenfranchise anybody”.

    The two day retreat, which began yesterday, is coming at a time when the nation’s electoral fortunes have just taken a deep plunge following a dismal performance by the electoral umpire in last week’s governorship election in Anambra State, which it declared inconclusive. But notwithstanding the huge deficit in the nation’s electoral fortunes, Jega said the commission is working assiduously to deliver a credible general elections in 2015.

  • ‘Now you can go to court’

    ‘Now you can go to court’

    There are very few options for redress open to victims of electoral rape of the variety that just played out in the botched Anambra gubernatorial poll. Through the years people have come to see that lashing out in anger by torching the homes of opponents and offices of the bungling Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is counterproductive.

    That leaves just one route open to democrats: the courts. INEC officials have been quick to remind the All Progressives Congress (APC) and others calling for the cancellation of the election to take their agitation to the tribunal.

    Those who think things are going their way have also quickly endorsed the shambolic election as exceptional, cynically advising the aggrieved to “go to court.” On the face of it this sounds like reasonable advice. But it is cold comfort to the traumatised.

    We keep moaning about how expensive our electoral processes are, yet we never stop doing things that make them more costly. Justice anywhere in the world is not cheap. When candidates set out to retrieve their stolen mandate they know only the best and most senior legal minds would do. That battery of Senior Advocates hunched over court pews never comes cheap.

    Another of our singsongs is about how corruption has eaten up the society. But we remain blinded to how the incompetence of the electoral umpire creates a lucrative litigation industry and keeps the wheels of graft turning. How?

    Corrupt politicians who spend a fortune to win in the courts will recover their outlay from the system one way or the other. Even those who are not venal will look for creative ways of recouping their investment – like awarding themselves salaries and allowances that will make you eyes swim.

    Those who are quick to point the disappointed in the direction of the courts are not really interested in truth, fairness or justice. They are only concerned with sustaining their power grab by any means.

    They know that, in a sense, the court is like a cul-de-sac. It is like telling people to go to hell because, truly, wading through our judicial process can be hellish – sometimes cases take years to resolve.

    Even the introduction of the 180-day time limit for resolution of electoral disputes is no guarantee that a candidate will get justice. Occasionally mandates are restored but in lots of cases justice is not done. Technicalities and the sheer difficulty of putting together compelling evidence often get in the way.

    The judiciary is no better or worse than any arm of government or institution in this country. The same shortcomings you find in the executive and legislative branches are replicated in the justice system. If people say ministers and lawmakers are helping themselves to the nation’s wealth, judicial officers are equally being accused of corruption.

    In the end we are stuck with the judicial system that we have – its condition notwithstanding. Those who have grievances would have to take their chances and hope that their fortunes would be similar to those of Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers and Olusegun Mimiko in Ondo State.

    But should we continue to tolerate the crimes and incompetence of INEC just because we have the option of the courts? Why can’t we just conduct proper polls like Ghana, South Africa etc?

    Time and again it is the same complaint: irregularities, logistics chaos, late starts, dodgy voters’ register and the like. It was that way in 2003, 2007, 2011 and will be so in 2015. The Anambra election was an exercise in just one state. Even if the elections were held in a ward these same issues would be thrown up.

    It is curious that our people show so much competence and ability in other areas of life, but when it comes to organising elections even the best of us end up looking like dummies? We all know that conducting these polls is not as complicated as building a nuclear reactor. So what on earth is going on?

    On June 12, 1993, Nigerians voted in elections superintended by Professor Humphrey Nwosu’s defunct National Electoral Commission (NEC). Till date that remains a watershed in our history – hailed as about the freest and fairest polls ever conducted in these parts.

    They were successful largely because Nwosu introduced innovations that emphasised transparency. The Open Ballot System allowed people to see how candidates had performed. They readily accepted the outcomes because the results were declared before their very eyes.

    However, we know that no matter the arrangement you put in place, there are Nigerians who will always try to subvert things. In Anambra a senior INEC official has been undergoing interrogation for colluding with unnamed politicians to rig the polls.

    Such characters keep popping up election after election because they never get punished for their crimes. Until the prosecution of electoral cheats is well celebrated, and people realise that there’s a steep price to be paid they will keep trying to game the system.

    The other leg of this is our continued acceptance of the incompetence of electoral officials after every disastrous outing. Were some of these people to be working in the private sector they would have been fired long ago. You don’t compensate failure with long service award. Those who presided over the logistics disasters of the last two electoral cycles need to be shown the door for the health of the system.

    When we begin to pay a price for our actions our elections would be transformed.

  • Anambra as 2015 rehearsal

    Anambra as 2015 rehearsal

    We should expect more of such in Osun and Ekiti before the ‘Tsunami’ in the general elections

    Nigerians leapt for joy when Prof Maurice Iwu, the immediate past chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was removed in April 2010 and the incumbent, Prof Attahiru Jega, nominated by President Goodluck Jonathan to replace him on June 8, 2010. The only record we have of Iwu is that he was a bad electoral umpire. Indeed, if ever there was any election he conducted well, it must have been by mistake. Attahiru Jega, on the other hand, has (or is it now had?) a better track record. His activism and integrity as President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and also as an opponent of the Ibrahim Babangida regime stood him out as a dependable fellow for the INEC job. Most stakeholders readily supported President Jonathan when he nominated the professor of political science as INEC boss.

    So, unlike Iwu, millions of Nigerians placed much hope on the Jega-led INEC. But what happened in Anambra State last Saturday must have been making many of them wonder whether such hope is not misplaced. The Anambra governorship election has thrown up the question of whether we can ever get elections right; it is not just about whether Jega can get it right. Indeed, we would be making a big mistake if we want to narrow whatever happened that made the election inconclusive, to Jega alone. Everything was wrong with the poll. It brought out, once again, the worst in us. There was so much security presence; at least 21 INEC commissioners shifted base to the state for the election even as Prof Jega himself temporarily relocated to Anambra, to underscore the importance of the election.

    Yet, no one who wants to be honest can say that the exercise was free or fair. We are yet to know the successor to Peter Obi, the state governor, who also allegedly played a questionable role in the poll as he did in the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) election in May, which will be disappointing, if true, especially as Obi himself is a beneficiary of the rule of law and due process. It would be disappointing therefore if he sold his conscience for a pot of porridge; or, as some will say, for filthy lucre. It had long been speculated that the ruling party in the state, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is in some unholy alliance with the Presidency which had assured that APGA would be allowed to win the governorship in return for the governor, Mr Obi’s support for the President. And, in fairness to Mr Obi, he has remained an obedient servant to the core, and demonstrated this partly with his support for the President’s candidate in the last May Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) election, Governor Jonah Jang, who eventually lost the election to the incumbent NGF chair and Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, in spite of the massive backing he (Jang) had from the Presidency and the PDP. It is being projected that the south west states where some of the governorship elections would be held between now and next year are the ultimate targets. Anambra was only by the way.

    Now that INEC is saying total cancellation of the poll is beyond it despite its unpardonable defects, to the courts we must turn. We should not be slaves to laws we made supposedly in our own interest. We should refuse to be stuck with an election that was badly flawed as the governorship poll in Anambra.

    Unfortunately, failure to get it right in Anambra has grave consequences for our political process. There are governorship elections in at least two other states – Ekiti and Osun — for instance, before the next general elections in 2015. One does not need a soothsayer to know that it can only get worse in those states, given the desperation of those who think they can do and undo in the ruling party. As a matter of fact, but for their desperation, arising partly because of the crises in the party, that seem intractable, there would not have been the kind of embarrassment we had in Anambra that the national Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wants us to pass for credible election. Nigerians may not know the colour of credible election because it has almost not happened in the country since the June 12, 1993 presidential election, but they know what flawed elections look like. It is what they see whenever we have elections here.

    But what makes the coming elections particularly frightening is that whereas Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, as president in his time declared that the 2007 elections would be a ‘do-or-die affair’, the incumbent has not said any such thing. But we do not need a body language reader to tell us that his body language points in the direction of desperation to ‘capture’ the south west states. In the Obasanjo years, the PDP was not as fractured as it is today. Yet, when Obasanjo met a brick wall in Lagos, for instance, he as a soldier knew what to do: he quickly beat a retreat because he knew the implications of pursuing such blind ambition in the state. The Jonathan administration is not likely to beat such retreat; it is not within its ken to even understand the implications. Moreover, the government has gone away with many imponderable crimes that it can safely presume that it can always get away with anything; anything, including blue murder.

    It is true that the ruling party now seems to have realised that people will easily suspect if it imposed its candidates as winners in many of the states where elections are being held or would be held, its new style is to sponsor candidates of other parties considered fairly strong in those states to contest against the party the ruling PDP does not want. That was the strategy in Anambra. And it was borne out of mischief not large heart on the part of the PDP. Many people, including the candidate of the PDP in the election, Tony Nwoye and his father could not vote because their names were missing on the voter register, yet, the party’s national working committee curiously said the election was credible and peaceful. Nwoye had barely two weeks to campaign, yet he was given the second position. The PDP, characteristically, could not even be truthful over little things as it claimed the irregularities identified by everyone else were mere ‘perceived hitches’. This was the same election that INEC which conducted it condemned as a farce.

    The summary of my piece is that the Jonathan presidency is no respecter of public opinion once it has made up its mind, and this is where I have my worst fears for this democracy. Nothing happened in Anambra that had not been predicted as the PDP game plan; is it not astonishing that this did not make the people behind the mess in the state to retrace their steps? But they were emboldened because, with the ruling party, you can commit any crime, provided it is for the sake of the party, nothing will happen; no one will call you to order. Indeed, this is why I said having credible election in the country is not something for Jega alone, Nigerians must be prepared to insist on their votes counting; they must be prepared to resist impostors. Above all, we need structures that will endure. Jega can only try; but where those who think he is the problem could be right is that he has a choice; he should know what to do if people without credibility want to tar his with mud. The way things are going, he will be demystified sooner than later.

  • Anambra supplementary poll holds Nov 30 – Jega

    Anambra supplementary poll holds Nov 30 – Jega

    Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Attahiru Jega Saturday announced November 30, 2013 for Anambra supplementary election.

    Jega, who confirmed that the Returning Officer declared the poll inconclusive admitted that the election “was not the best by the commission.”

    He regrets irregularities encountered during the exercise.

  • INEC summons REC to Abuja

    INEC summons REC to Abuja

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has summoned the Anambra State Resident Election Commissioner (REC) Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukaogu to Abuja to explain his role in the inconclusive governorship election.

    He has been accused of allegedly assisting the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to gain dominance over the opposition parties.

    The election has been condemned by the international community, election observers and civil rights groups, following massive irregularities.

    The Nation learnt yesterday in Awka that Onukaogu was summoned by INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega.

    When The Nation called INEC’s spokesman in Awka, Mr. Frank Egbo, he refused to pick his calls.

    But a senior official, who did not want to be quoted, told The Nation that the REC was summoned by INEC to attend a meeting, possibly for a date for the supplementary election.

    The source said: “I don’t think the REC was summoned to Abuja to explain his role. He was called for a meeting with other officials to choose a date for the supplementary election.”

    According to the source, the REC could not be blamed for what happened last Saturday. He might have been faulted in one way or the other, but to say he received gratification to help any party is what I cannot confirm.”

    Onukaogu, it was gathered, left Awka yesterday.

    Newly-promoted Assistant Inspector General of Police and former Commissioner of Police in Anambra State, Ballah Nasarawa, has been transferred to Zone 9 Umuahia as the new AIG.

    A.U. Gwari from Borno State, commissioner of police in Zamfara State, has taken over from him.

  • Anambra poll: INEC summons REC to Abuja

    Anambra poll: INEC summons REC to Abuja

    The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has summoned the Anambra State Resident Election Commissioner (REC) Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukaogu, to Abuja to explain his role in the inconclusive governorship election in the state.

    Onukaogu has been accused of helping the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) to gain dominance over the opposition parties during the election.

    The Anambra governorship election has been widely condemned by the international community, election observers and civil right groups, following the irregularities that marred the exercise.

    However, The Nation gathered on Thursday in Awka that Onukaogu had been summoned by the INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, to come and explain his involvement in the matter.

    When The Nation put a call across to the commission’s Public Relations Officer in Awka, Mr. Frank Egbo, he refused to pick his calls, neither did he call back.

     

  • Anambra 2013: Between expectations and reality

    The just-ended but inconclusive governorship election in Anambra State is arguably the most newsworthy event in Nigeria today and has dominated the landscape in the last quarter. The buildup was particularly captivating despite its many features of intra- and inter-party petty squabbles. As enthralling, too, was the field of competitors, so variegated that the voters must have had a hard time making up their minds on whom to root for. It was really a drama-fest which lived up to its billing, as would be expected of any political contestation in the storied state.  It was little surprise then that the theatre continued after what was a largely peaceful voting process, with doubts still lingering long after similar processes elsewhere would have produced a clear winner.

    There is hardly a national consensus on what to make of Anambra State, elections and all; nor can there be, considering the range of events that have shaped it among the comity of states in Nigeria. The impressions that easily come to mind do the state and its people no favours, sometimes because critics lose sight of its essentially cosmopolitan disposition: a melting-pot of cultures and a potpourri of unregulated socio-economic ventures.

    Despite a few distinguishing sharp practices in the business landscape, however, no one can argue about the endowments of this south east state in human and material resources. It will be impossible to find any polity that has contributed as much as Anambra State in the Nigerian project, especially in earning the nation plaudits before the international community in politics, sports, academics or entrepreneurship.

    The generation of the great Zik of Africa dominated politics. Emmanuel Ifeajuna, Okalla, Onyali, Mikel Obi, among many others, illuminated sports. Kenneth Dike, Chike Obi, Emeagwali and others set the pace in academics. Sir Odumegwu Ojukwu was the first Nigerian millionaire. Today there are dollar-billionaires in Cosmas Maduka, Prince Arthur Eze, Cletus Ibeto, Obianodo, Innoson Chukwuma to talk about as leaders in corporate Nigeria.

    Enter INEC, the Independent Electoral Commission, with its embarrassing spasms of inefficiency. As always, the electoral umpire brought discomfiting mixes of their own in avoidable controversies. If the body could not acquit itself well in a single election in a single state, the expectations for 2015 should be left to the imagination, for now.

    That INEC disappointed most observers by its shoddy performance in what could have been a hitch-free electoral exercise is not the news. No amount of casuistry or rationalizations could detract from the legendary underwhelming performance the commission has willingly imposed on itself. The surprise is that anyone expected any form of improvement, based on the Electoral Commission’s gladly earned labels – compromised, mischievous, subpar, name it. Their performance in the election was the low point. On that score it would be appropriate to declare that INEC was the only loser!

    As a contestant in that election, I was elated that public issues for once became relevant. It is unheralded that candidates were literally compelled to canvass practicable solutions to social problems. Copious social contracts became articles of faith, debated with fervor and condour.  Everyone in rallies and the multiple debates based their request for public acceptability and the electorates’ votes on their blueprints. Quite frankly, every attempt to bring the core needs of society to the fore became a celebration of the electorate, now wooed with a superfluity of road maps and manifestos. It is amazing that action plans and deliverables could be bandied with such seriousness in Anambra State of all places. For me that represented a significant departure from the past. A quantum leap, looking back on this democratic journey!

    By and large, the almighty INEC failed, woefully in some cases, when it was easier to succeed. The claims of disenfranchisement of many eligible voters are real and offered opportunities for bitter losers to lay their claims for a rejection of the entire process. But, even then, that is not enough reason not to notice other subtle details that swung it for the runaway leader All Peoples’ Grand Alliance, APGA.

    No one bothered to take a cue from what happened the last time around. Experience counted for much of the outcome of this election, as for the last one won by Peter Obi. While other parties were busy squabbling over candidacy, lofty programs, recruitment of campaign managers etc., APGA invested rigour in the basics: motivating (perhaps inducing) their supporters to verify and secure their voting eligibility. Newly eligible voters were encouraged to register and enlist their willingness to vote. It was a superiority of strategy that caught everyone napping. Only eligible voters could exercise their franchise, anyway!In combat parlance, APGA secured its position!

    Credit goes to Governor Peter Obi and his foxy think tank. They may not have had the most impressive debates or even campaign sallies; but they sure knew their way around the electoral business, including its legalities. And legalistic brawls! Against this background it appears increasingly futile in my view for any sensible candidate to seek to multiply their losses by engaging APGA or its candidate to post-election contests. Victory has been won, Pyrrhic or not. It is time for us to count our losses and get on with life. There will definitely be another day, if only people will learn to be patient! This, I reckon, is not going to be easy, not after all the toil, wastages, hope, adulations, endorsements, titles, prophesies and affirmations. Yet this is the path of honour!

    More germane for now is for society to be on its guards in demanding its rights to good governance. It is pointless erecting obstacles or living in denial, or spattering bad blood. All who lost like me should congratulate the winner, line up behind him to move things forward. There is a great difference between losing and losing out. If Anambra State benefits from all the great milestones projected in the buildup, then everyone has won. The winner too should be magnanimous in victory. The problem is always with the entrenched winner-takes-all mentality. There is nothing wrong in asking fellow contestants over to contribute ideas on how to help society master its many problems. A post-election dinner with candidates will be another pleasant novelty!

    Failure of any kind leaves a lump in the throat, especially when expectations are lofted so high. But even in the colossal failure such as we just had lessons abound which, if cerebrally analyzed will stand us all in good stead. With all modesty I quote myself in my publication of October 11, 2013 in the Nation Newspaper:  “for the avoidance of doubt, the due diligence process preceding successful gubernatorial candidature is no stroll in the park. Anyone who has scaled the many hurdles en route: packaging oneself; surviving intraparty intrigues, funding self-projection with so much to dust up; winning primaries; passing fastidious INEC and security scrutiny, deserves respect and should be accorded recognition…Finally, the rigours of voter endorsement, genuine qualifications, certificates and CVs to plead, affidavits sworn to, declarations to be made, and the logistics of voter romance and several intangibles, are not everyday events and should not be dismissed with a sleight of hand…”.

    Every candidate, therefore, deserves respect and recognition. Beyond  “ the fawning, mealy-mouthed ‘supporters’ or the hubbub of illegal sirens, the culture of ‘rice and kerosene politics’, Anambra State has won, andshould be given a chance to move on from INEC’s mea culpa, despite personal feelings.

    INEC was INEPT, but life goes on.

     

    Mazi Austin Nwangwu  is a candidate of CPP in Anambra State 2013 governorship election

  • Anambra: INEC not responsible for observers’ detention – Jega

    Anambra: INEC not responsible for observers’ detention – Jega

    The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said on Thursday that the electoral body was not responsible for the arrest of some observers during the November 16 governorship election in Anambra.

    Jega, who was represented by Prof. Mohammed Kuna, stated this at a lecture entitled: “The Road to 2015 Elections; Prospect and Challenges” in London.

    It would be recalled that some observers, including former FCT Minister Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, were detained during the elections which INEC later declared inconclusive.

    “I don’t know under what basis Mallam Nasir el-Rufai went to Anambra State, and the commission has no hand in it.

    “There are procedures for accrediting observers; they are usually briefed and trained ahead of the exercise.

    “And after the elections, they submit their report,” Jega said while answering questions from participants.

    He attributed challenges to free and fair elections to include the attitude of some political elite.

    “Politicians are not election observers, if the parties involved refuse to abide by the law that will pose a problem,” the News Agency of Nigeria quoted the INEC boss as saying at the forum.

    Jega, who expressed concern over irregularities in the election, said the commission had launched an inquiry to ascertain the cause of the problem.

    “We have summoned our officials; we want to have a comprehensive understanding of what took place.

    “We had adequate logistic in place, deployment of electoral materials were done in time, so what happened?”

    According to Jega, a better understanding of the challenges in the Anambra election will guide the commission in 2015.

     

     

  • INEC’s great shame

    By now, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) under the leadership of Prof Attahiru Jega is expected to know better when it concerns elections. Elections are no small matter in this country. They are seen as war by other means by our politicians, who go to any length to ensure that they win. When former President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke about a ‘’do or die’’ election, he knew what he was saying. Baba was telling us the uninitiated that it is not the best candidate that wins an election, but the one that is ready to play dirty.

    By his statement, he was telling us that other extraneous factors come into play in deciding who wins an election. If the contestant is in power as we have seen in recent times. the contest is a walk over. Where other contestants see evil being perpetrated during the election, all he sees is a well organised election, even when many voters are disenfranchised. Our politicians fight elections with all they have. They make use of money, men and materials.

    Those who don’t have money are ready to borrow, with the hope that on winning they will repay the debt in tenfold. By now, Jega and his men should have become wise to the ways of our politicians, but it seems he has learnt nothing from all the elections he has so far conducted. Jega has integrity, he has honour and he is well respected as a man of principle. These are attributes that a man in his position should have. But what is the essence of having these qualities when they cannot come into play when it matters most : election period.

    It is during elections that the strong character of an umpire should stand him in good stead. It is during such period that the world should know the umpire as a no – nonsense person. An umpire who will look the contestants in the face, no matter who they are, and tell them that this is a contest in which the people’s votes will determine the winner, no more, no less. Of course, without saying so, we know that elections are won by the highest number of votes.

    The Electoral Act puts it succinctly : ‘’In an election to the office of the president or governor whether or not contested and in any contested election to any other elective office, the result shall be ascertained by counting the votes cast for each candidate and subject to the provisions of Sections 133, 134 and 179 of the Constitution, the candidate that receives the highest number of votes shall be declared elected by the appropriate returning officer’’. Experience has shown that the problems of our elections come from the electoral officials.

    In most instances, these officials are compromised and they do everything to favour the one paying them. Having spent three years in the system, Jega cannot claim ignorance of how our politicians use his men to do their bidding. Jega may be honest and sincere but can we say the same of his men? With what happened in the Anambra State governorship election last Saturday, there is no doubt that Jega still has a lot of house cleaning to do, if he wishes to walk the streets with his head held high after leaving the INEC job.

    What he should know is that there are many among his officials who will do anything to soil his hard – earned name for a mess of porridge. He is the only one that can stop them from doing so by making a scape goat of those black sheep. He cannot wait until these people bring shame to him during elections before he moves against them. Anambra is one state and if INEC cannot handle election in only one state, can it be trusted to hold free and fair elections nationwide in 2015. The Anambra election did no do INEC’s image any good. It was a disaster of an election.

    Having seen the handwriting on the wall early in the day, Jega should have moved swiftly to stop the election. It was a miscalculation on his part to have waited until the exercise was over for him to tell us that there is nothing he can do. He can do a lot. The election was ‘’inconclusive’’ long before the returning officer, Prof James Epoke, declared it so on Monday morning. The election was bound to end up that way when thousands of voters were disenfranchised. It was at this stage that Jega should have stopped the election if he was truly for a free and fair exercise. He had all the opportunity in the world to do that, but he lost it.

    Should we be made to pay the price for this error in judgement? The electorate should not made to pay such price by foisting a fait accompli on them. Jega and his men should carry the can for their shoddiness. Throwing the book at us that INEC can no longer do anything about the election after the declaration of result is bunkum. This is the more reason why he should have acted fast since he knew that INEC’s hands will become tied once the returning officer releases the final result.

    INEC is looking for an easy way out by asking the aggrieved to seek redress in court. This is the style of our politicians who rig elections and wait for their opponents to challenge their ‘victory’ at the tribunal. We should not allow INEC to get away that easily without clearing the mess it created. It is sad that an election in just one state ended like this. Can INEC be trusted with the 2015 general elections?

     

    The possessed governor’s convoy

    Big men in our country like to move in style. They go about with a retinue of security aides, who clear the road for them and prevent people from getting close to them. These overbearing guards act as if they are possessed. Whether the big man is a politician, a businessman or a musician, they are noisy in their public movement. On such occasion, a lot of damage is done as we have witnessed in Kogi State Governor Idris Wada’s case.

    A former pilot, Wada moves on ground as if he is flying. When his convoy passes by it does so with jet speed. His convoy does not care about other road users. Does it even care about its master? The drivers do not. If they do, they would not have driven the way they did last year that led to an accident in which Wada broke a leg. His Aide – De – Camp (ADC), Idris Mohammed, died.

    Having recovered, he has gone back to his old way of speeding as if he is in a race. Last Tuesday, his convoy was at it again. It was involved in a fatal accident with a vehicle conveying some Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) officials to Kano in Banda village, on the outskirts of Lokoja, the Kogi State capital. The lone casualty was former ASUU president Prof Festus Iyayi. The driver, according to sources, did not stop to see the damage he caused. He sped off like a mad man. Really, if the drivers of these convoys are not mad will they drive the way they do? Why should a governor’s convoy be the one involved in fatal accidents virtually all the time?

    Are these convoys not subject to traffic rules? Shouldn’t there be a speed limit for them? Does being a public officer confer on one the power to drive recklessly on the road? Shouldn’t these convoys show respect to other motorists? Since Iyayi was killed in that unfortunate accident, we have not heard about the arrest of the driver. Are these convoys above the law? Does it mean that a convoy can just kill and go? We cannot afford to continue to lose people to avoidable convoy accidents.

    All that is required to prevent such accidents is to ensure that the drivers are sane while on the road. This is where the police and the road safety come in. These institutions have an enormous role to play in calling these convoys to order while on the road. If the police and road safety can harass other motorist why should they shy away from doing their jobs when it concerns convoys? Tall order, eh!

  • Ngige: how poll was rigged

    Ngige: how poll was rigged

    INEC to police: probe Anambra electoral officers

    Some lurid details of the fraud in last Saturday’s Anambra State governorship election were laid bare yesterday.

    One of the major actors in the election, which was widely condemned as “flawed” and “shameful”, described the election as a “disaster”.

    Dr. Chris Ngige, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, said: “We have on tape a policeman thumb printing for APGA and INEC officials running away with election materials.”

    Ngige was angry as he spoke at a press conference in Awka, the state capital. He said: “This INEC used students instead of members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to starve us of election materials. All the electoral officers were all compromised, like the one in Idemili North who deliberately acted on the orders of INEC and APGA.

    “Students of Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka here were used as poll clerks just to find fault in APC and to favour their lecturer, Dr. Nkem Okeke, who ran as deputy to the APGA candidate in the election.

    “Much more astonishing is that they wore NYSC uniforms because of the election and when they are taught how to perfect fraud, somebody will tell Nigerians that this country will be good. This is the disposition of the personnel that came to work in the election.”

    Ngige urged INEC chairman Jega to call for the list of the Adhoc staff who worked during the election. “I do not want anybody to favour me or my party APC. Apart from the people from Calabar, every other person that worked during the election had affiliation with APGA,” Ngige alleged.

    Ngige said APC members had computed that over 600,000 people were denied their voting rights, adding that the 210 units being allocated by INEC to them for the “so-called” supplementary election were not enough.

    He added that the 16 local government areas being claimed by INEC as places where elections were cancelled was not true. APC, he said, knows that election did not take place in 20 local government areas.

    Ngige said: “INEC on Sunday came up with what it called supplementary election. The votes allocated to APC during the so-called election on Sunday were fake because we did not participate.

    “Our stand is clear. The election was fraught with intimidation, with thuggery, with disenfranchisement of our voters and total partisanship by the electoral body.”

    He was disappointed in the system.

    Said Ngige: “If it were a bazaar, it would have been a different thing and APC would have prepared for it, but we were told by INEC and the President of this country, Goodluck Jonathan, that it would be free, fair and credible. But it was not the case.

    “Because they told us that they were ready for the election, that was why we conformed to it because we thought that those errors and mistakes had been corrected in the voter register, without knowing that it was a deceit.”

    In his view, “the election was a systematic way to deal with the opposition parties in this state, especially APC, and the same thing happened in 2011 during my senatorial election.”

    He blamed it all on Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Prof. Chukwuemeka Onukaogu, who accused of adopting “the same tricks he used in 2011 by adopting his APGA system to dislodge Ngige and APC.” “To my mind, the election was flawed ab-initio,” Ngige said.

    He added: “I am a statesman in this country. I have never gone to INEC to seek for favour. For Jega who everybody regards as a man of honour and integrity to sit back and allow his office to be messed up by those without honour, I’m really amased.

    “Jega is an activist like myself and I do not support injustice. I’m injured and pained that this kind of atrocity is happening in his time and I also have difficulty in absolving him. What has happened in Anambra State is a disaster.

    “I am sad for my country. I have lost hope in the entire process. People’s hopes are being dashed. I’m not desperate to become a governor. I have been there before now. The people of the state have lost hope in INEC,” Ngige said.