Curious travail of INEC Chairman, CBN Governor

As in ‘Alice in Wonderland’, it is getting ‘curiouser and curiouser’ that a few weeks to a critical general election, the Chairman of the Independent National Election (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu appears to be in the eye of some storm. He is being distracted and can be removed from office the way some powerful cabal members removed the then Chief Justice of the Federation, Hon Justice Walter Onnoghen a few days to election in 2019. And strangely, at the same time, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) appears to be in trouble and is running from pillar to post to save his job.

Curiously, the authorities in Nigeria appear unperturbed by the travails of these two significant public officers at this time. What is more curious, the most organised and consistently credible intelligence agency in the country, the Department of State Security (DSS) is involved in the points at issue – especially the travail of Mr. Godwin Emefiele. Strangely enough, the consequences of the distractions caused to the two officers at this time are not usually on the front pages and prime time in the mainstream media. It is also incredible that even those who are campaigning to be elected president next month are not drawing attention to the fact that some strange forces are working hard in the courts to ensure that INEC, the only body the law authorises to conduct the elections may be prevented from conducting the elections for May 29 to remain sacrosanct. I am disturbed that people are not talking and raising alarm at this time that some forces have been granted illegal access to the confidential file of the INEC Chairman at the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and some of the items therein are being used to prosecute the INEC Chairman in open courts. This was the way the same strange forces appeared like a thief in the night in 2019 against Nigeria’s Chief Justice and even the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo then said that development was curious and the president was not aware of the Code of Conduct Tribunal’s case against Justice Onnoghen.

In 2019, it all began as a joke and the artful prosecutors who knew what they wanted clinically executed their plan: removed our CJN through an Administrative Tribunal without any recourse to the Constitution on how to remove Nigeria’s Chief Justice. They ensured that Justice Onnoghen would not preside over 2019 election petitions against PMB’s second term. They got him to resign on April 5, 2019. The heavens didn’t fall. I have been writing on this dark side of our history.
The powerful forces are on the march again for #2023 elections. I have been pondering on the correlation between the strange arrest bid and possible prosecution of the CBN Governor by the DSS instead of the Police or the EFCC and Attorney General of the Federation and the 2023 elections. I haven’t established that correlation in this our wonderful country of anything-is-possible. But then we should be concerned by the timing: just a few weeks to crucial elections. The made-to be distracted CBN governor is implementing a strategic currency change monetary policy at the moment. And so even if the authorities in the country do not like the implications of the deal at this time, is there no way of settling this with the CBN Governor behind the scenes without humiliating and harassing the Governor who can no longer preside over meetings openly and peacefully at the moment?

As I was saying, this is a question time. Why are the elders of the land and even people who are exerting energy and spending time and money on campaigns not disturbed by the fact that the elections they are prepared to face may not hold after all? Aren’t they concerned by the way some dark forces are hell-bent on ensuring that the current Chairman who has been harping on the efficacy of using technologies for the 2023 elections for electoral purity may be removed? Should we hazard a guess that some of the candidates would like the INEC to be disrupted a few weeks to the national elections? Why do the authorities in DSS think that they don’t owe the people clarity and indeed thorough explanation why they are linked to the travails of CBN Governor they keep asking the courts to allow them to prosecute? Why are they also being wrongly linked to the INEC Chairman’s probe at this critical time?

It is gratifying that the DSS had at the weekend clarified that it had no case in court against the Chairman INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu. Dr. Peter Afunanya, the spokesman of the security service who clarified the development at the weekend warned against plots to undermine the Service. The DSS spokesman was reacting to the reports on an order of the FCT High Court, which barred security agencies including DSS from arresting the INEC chairman. The origin of the current development: Justice M. A. Hassan, on Wednesday, January 4, refused the application seeking to remove the INEC Chairman from office over an alleged false asset declaration.
The judge held that Prof Yakubu’s asset declaration was lawful, valid and in compliance with the law. The suit filed by Somadina Uzoabaka (not DSS) had wanted the court to issue an order compelling the INEC chairman to recuse himself from office pending his probe by security agencies. The secret police warned against plots to distract or undermine the service and other security and law enforcement agencies from undertaking their constitutional roles.
It also assured Nigerians and the international community of its commitment to the maintenance of law and order, including an accomplishment of a free and fair 2023 election as pledged by President Muhammadu Buhari.

In October last year, there was a report that the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) alleged that there was a plot to remove the INEC chairman ahead of the 2023 general election. The coalition had in a press conference in Abuja on October 12, claimed that the move was being hatched by politicians to undermine the polls. The coalition had then added that there was a grand plot by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deactivate the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) from its server during the 2023 general elections.

The Coalition’s spokesman, Ikenga Ugochinyere, who disclosed the plot in Abuja, then alleged that there was immense pressure on INEC by some highly placed politicians to compromise the 2023 polls. Ugochinyere, who vowed that the opposition political parties would resist any attempt to conduct the 2023 general elections without BVAS and electronic transmission of results, said highly placed politicians in the country were jittery and uncertain of the 2023 electoral trajectory. Part of his words: “They are afraid of INEC using BVAS and transmitting results of the 2023 polls electronically. And the only way for them is for INEC to stop its use in the polls and part of the plan is to threaten to remove the INEC Chairman and national commissioners in the event that they insist on BVAS and electronic transmission of results for the 2023 polls”

As I was saying here in November last year, before anyone could understand the implications of the alarm raised by CUPP on those who are said to be afraid of BVAS and the INEC, it was discovered that one citizen Nwankwere Morale Chinwen had in August last year year filed a 3-page suit before the Federal High Court, Owerri, seeking to stop INEC from using the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) in the 2023 general elections. I had noted then that it was again curious why another Arthur Nzeribe would be emerging from the same Imo state where it all began in 1993 as if it were a joke and ‘Hope 1993’ was eventually buried by dark forces behind the then Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) the late Authur Nzeribe established in Abuja, our Abuja. The ABN we didn’t take serious then used the Courts in Abuja to confine the June 12 election gains to the dark side of history as an inglorious Interim National Government (ING) some elders are also calling for today, was mysteriously formed.

And now to the brass tacks, the DSS parades a very solid Public Affairs Department established by the regime of Col Kayode Areh (rtd) (then DSS DG)as a fall-out of the demonisation of the strategic intelligence agency by the dreadful military administration of the late General Sani Abacha. This is a democracy and one critical element in a democracy is civic education, which empowers citizens to depend on information for informed decisions. Which is why the logo of ‘The Washington Post’ caries this classic: ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’. And so here is the thing, the Office of the Citizen should not be kept in darkness about what is happening to the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Chairman of INEC expected to conduct critical elections including a presidential election early next month. We need to know why the institutions that have some primary responsibility for dealing with allegations against the CBN Governor and INEC Chairman such as the police, the EFCC, ICPC, CCB and the Office of Attorney General are not overtly involved at this time. These questions come as we recall the ghastly invasion of the official quarters of some Supreme Court and Appeal Court justices by security and intelligence agencies – just before the strange trials and removal of Justice Onnoghen in April 2019. We are on the march again. I think the Department of State Security (DSS) is a strategic and serious institution of governance and security of the state. It shouldn’t be dragged again into pre-election politics that can lead to negative perception that emerged after the fall of Abacha’s repressive regime. They should guard their reputation jealously as they have denied involvement in a plot to remove the INEC Chairman. This digital media age isn’t a time to just issue statements denying involvement. There should be sanctions to those who unworthily link the DSS to sabotage of state matters such as elections. We the people deserve to know what is going on. It is gratifying to know that we have the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture. The ministry can help in getting the public to know who leaked the file of the INEC Chairman to private citizens to go to court as they did to Justice Onnoghen before 2019 elections.

We need to know what is happening to our INEC Chairman and CBN Governor a few weeks to national elections. This isn’t a defence mechanism for the two officers. They don’t enjoy immunity and I believe that they should face consequences of their actions as public officers. We just need to know why those who want the prosecution of INEC Chairman have had to wait till a few weeks to elections before striking on the public officer’s lack of qualification to hold his office. Even the office of the Chief Executive of the Federation should not allow citizens to doubt the sanctity of May 29, 2023 at this time.