Anambra 2021: Matters arising
It’s more than likely that the next Governor of Anambra State will be the person declared by Supreme Court whether or not he is the person who garnered the most votes and was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Unfortunately, the precedent set in the Supreme Court judgment of the Imo State […]
It’s more than likely that the next Governor of Anambra State will be the person declared by Supreme Court whether or not he is the person who garnered the most votes and was declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Unfortunately, the precedent set in the Supreme Court judgment of the Imo State election case means that “winning” the election has nothing to do with polling the highest number of votes!
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Anambra State Chairman is demanding fresh elections on the grounds that the yet- to-be-concluded one is a “big time electoral fraud and malpractice”. He made it clear that his party “will not accept the outcome of this particular election”. It’s difficult to understand why any rational person will not accept the outcome of elections in the South East in which the APC isn’t declared winner. All said and done, there is no reason why the majority of indigenes in any southeastern state would vote for an APC administration which has marginalised them.
Indeed the APC-controlled federal government’s policy towards the South East has been an unmitigated disaster. President Buhari has unapologetically denigrated them, and ongoing military operations have caused collateral damage to property and lives, both of which are causes of the APC’s waning rather than growing support after six years in office. While calling for the cancellation of the elections, APC officials made unsubstantiated claims that the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) rigged the election “in connivance with corrupt -minded INEC officials”. Paradoxically, the comments of Anambra APC leaders are a serious indictment of their party which appointed the INEC Chairman, authorised expenditure of billions to purchase appropriate technology to conduct free, fair and efficient elections, while it is they who are complaining about irregularities, and being roundly defeated at the polls.
There can never be perfect elections anywhere but INEC is surpassing itself in continuously squandering money introducing technology which does nothing to improve voting processes or collation. Their latest gadget called Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was introduced to replace the much criticised Smart Card Reader (SCR) which proved to be anything but smart! The sole purpose of the SCR was to authenticate every Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC). The BVAS supposedly authenticates fingerprints and facial details in addition to PVC’s. It comes as no surprise to anyone except INEC officials that such a system will be time-consuming and hardly likely to operate efficiently in the Nigerian environment. Even a well-known political personality such as the current Minister for Labour and Employment had to spend over one hour battling with the new-fangled technology before he could be accredited. INEC will again be expected to spend billions purchasing another new equally ineffective and inefficient technology before the 2023 general election! Those supporting the quite ridiculous claim that the introduction of BVAS was done to intentionally disenfranchise over 200,000 voters, simply refuse to recognise INEC’s legendary inefficiency. It’s not difficult to decipher where this far-fetched claim emanates from.
In the APC primaries, the winning candidate polled over 300,000 votes, but in BVAS-controlled election proper, the party scored less than 50,000. It still remains a mystery why all the people who allegedly voted in the APC primaries were nowhere to be found. Unfortunately for the APC due to the use of BVAS rather than card readers which facilitated voter fraud, the total vote cast for all the parties so far is slightly over 200,000. As is usual in Nigerian elections, some political actors who knew they were not going to win spread false information to purposely heat up the polity. Luckily, the Centre for Transparency Advocacy a Civil Society Organisation which monitors elections averred that there was no evidence of any sort to substantiate claims that there was bloodshed; or that soldiers tried in any manner to influence the outcome of the election; or that policemen carried ballot papers to hidden locations; or that there were indiscriminate arrests or that INEC had pre-written results.
As is becoming habitual these days, the Anambra elections attracted predictions from popular self-anointed “Men of God” who choose to refer to such predictions as prophesies. A particular Prophet whose operations appear to be based upon World Wrestling Federation (WWF) stunts and modern dance steps, “prophesied” that the election wouldn’t be held because of killings, shootings and violence. Thankfully, the election was held and was relatively peaceful. Another vociferous “Man of God” said Charles Soludo who appeared to be coasting to victory would not become the next governor. This prophesy may still come true because there is litigation on the horizon and these days, Supreme Court judgments do not seem to be constrained by logic or strict adherence to jurisprudence. Those who are celebrating because they “prophesied” that APGA would win should put it down to correct analysis of the issues on ground rather than any “revelation” from above!
As for the long suffering Nigerian electorate, Anambra proved that they are not yet tired of collecting money to mass vote for whosoever is paying. Years of experience have taught them that politicians really don’t give a hoot about them, and are not constrained by any conscience to fulfill their election promises once elected.Therefore, their only guaranteed “dividend of democracy” is the money they collect for selling their votes. It’s important that the Anambra election is concluded peacefully and with dispatch and all litigation concluded before the current governor’s tenure expires in March 2022. There is no denying that what the South East has gone through in the last six years is humiliating and the state governors and federal legislators with the exception of Senator Abaribe kept quiet as if nothing is happening. This is what has led to the rise of militant Igbo youths. A new political leadership is required in the South East to bring the youths on board, end agitations for self-determination, and deal with issues of marginalisation and all other matters arising.