2023: Will INEC live up to public trust?

The cancellation of 240 polling booths, the other day, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has raised serious apprehension about the neutrality of INEC in the conduct of the 2023 general elections. The burning question is, can INEC be trusted to conduct a free, fair and credible election?
Since the election is a make or mar historic event, is INEC prepared to leave a positive or negative outcome? Can INEC be able to redeem its name as an INDEPENDENT national electoral commission? Is INEC conscious of the fact that the success or failure of the elections rests squarely on its shoulders? Does the commission know that it can save this country by doing a good job or plunge Nigeria into chaos by taking sides?

Does the INEC chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu, a cerebral PhD holder from Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, know that his name, reputation and integrity are at stake? Does he know that he can only prove his integrity by conducting a credible election without leaning to any party, religion or sectional interest no matter what? Does Professor Yakubu know that it would amount to total failure and disappointment if, at his exalted academic level, status and learning, he allows lesser minds to sway over him in the name of politics, when he is supposed to be an icon, an oracle to direct how things should be done?
Does Professor Mahmood Yakubu place any value on character, virtue, integrity, honesty, uprightness, probity, rectitude and honour, which are the essence of education and learning? Professor Yakubu should realise that he is handling a daunting task that would make him to be numbered among the saints in humanity or be damned forever as a villain who failed his generation.

Amid the turmoil, shenanigans, name calling and blackmail that go with elections in Nigeria for which the politicians are known, there is need to remind INEC that the success or failure of the election depends largely on it. Just like a referee in a crucial football match is at liberty to conduct his job in a free and fair manner without showing partiality to any of the two teams, INEC has been foisted with the task of conducting this election and it is at liberty to make it a historic laudable event or mess it up by playing partiality, which would be dangerous.

Will INEC be fair in an election where the President is a Fulani with a Fulani INEC chairman and another Fulani presidential candidate. It would be unfortunate if INEC throws caution to the wind and plays partiality to favour anyone.

It needs to be emphasised, that the fate of Nigeria is hanging in the balance and as far as this election is concerned, it is in the hands of INEC. If INEC draws a line and vows never to compromise, come what may, the right thing must be done and the winner must be declared irrespective of ethnic group or pressure or monetary inducement, then Nigeria would be saved. Otherwise, INEC will bear the blame. Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, Is it good for Pilate’s name to be mentioned anytime the death of Jesus is remembered?

Since 1999 when this democratic dispensation birthed, it is generally believed that all the elections have been rigged in favour of selected candidates and Nigerians had tolerated the ugly development. But things have changed. Nigerians are fed up. The suffering, pain, hunger and abject poverty, lack of means of survival that worsened in the run up to this election have changed the mindset of an average Nigerian. Those still working with the old mindset are living in the past and have themselves to blame.

Consequently, it needs to be stressed that there can be no rigging of election without the cooperation and collusion by INEC. All elections are rigged courtesy of INEC. This is because INEC is in full control of all the levers used to conduct and declare election results. INEC controls all the election staffs both full-time and ad-hoc. INEC mans the server where all results are collated before declaration. As a matter of fact, the final stage of election rigging occurs at the server. Once the server is manipulated to give a pre-determined outcome, a loser is there and then declared winner and vice versa.

But prior to the election proper, there are certain actions that INEC takes that raise eye brows. The alleged disenfranchisement of voters is part of it. The unequal demarcation and allocation of polling units to states and local government areas is also part of it. The cancellation of 240 polling units is absolutely not in good faith. A close look at the units shows that polling units are cancelled in areas that cannot be said to be in crisis.

Since 2011 following the launching of the vicious Boko Haram in the North-East, elections were held in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa despite the crisis. At the peak of the insecurity in the North-West, elections were held in Zamfara, Niger, Kaduna, Plateau and other states in the north ravaged by bandits and Boko Haram.

The South-East is peaceful when compared with what is happening in the north. If elections can be held in the north despite the scale of insecurity, there is no reason why election cannot hold in the South-East.

When over a hundred (100) polling units are cancelled in Imo State alone, how many more are left?
Granted there are pockets of disturbance in Imo State with concentration in Orlu Zone, particularly Orsu Local Government; that does not warrant the cancellation of polling units even in Owerri with little record of disturbance. The action of INEC is therefore, needs to be revisited. INEC must play a positive role for that is the only way to guarantee a positive result.