Edo State is in the whirlwind of electioneering, as it is set to elect a successor to Governor Adams Oshiomhole, whose eight-year tenure expires on November 12. The poll, billed for September 10 is, therefore, another test case for the people, the true kingmakers in a democracy, and the Independent National Electoral Commission. The electoral umpire’s preparedness for elections in the country has always been suspect. It should use the assignment to open a new page in discharging its statutory role.
Already, 19 candidates have been cleared to contest the poll; among them are the candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Godwin Obaseki, and his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart, Osagie Ize-Iyamu – the leading contenders. A total of 1,924,072 voters have been registered for the poll, with the addition of 132,559 voters captured during the continuous registration campaign. There are 2,627 polling units spread across the 18 local government areas of the state.
The election is one of those staggered in the country in the wake of the massive electoral heist of 2007. This explains why the stakes are high. But it hardly justifies the belligerent rhetoric that has characterised the build-up to the ballot.
INEC has expressed concern about this. The Resident Electoral Commissioner, Sam Olumekun, had to summon all the candidates to a meeting recently, to avoid the current sparring spiralling into violence that could ultimately jeopardise the election. According to him, no matter the extent of readiness of INEC, there cannot be any conduct of a free, fair and credible governorship election once there are serious security concerns. The REC only stated the obvious; it is a point underscored by the rescheduling of the National Assembly and state legislative elections in Rivers State, as the INEC office in Khana Local Government Area was bombed in July by hired political thugs.
Commendably, INEC has compiled a list of the flashpoints in the state and handed it to security agencies for monitoring. The delisting of 3,000 names from the voter register over the malfeasance of double registration is also laudable. This Machiavellian design springs from the well-entrenched perversion of democratic values; and viewing of public office as an avenue for personal aggrandisement, instead of service to the people. The parody should give way to reason.
An objective assessment of the candidates’ qualities and their party manifestos is seminal to a wise choice at the polls. This is the principle that guides the electorate in enlightened democracies. Sadly, the story has been different in Nigeria since 1999. As a result, base sentiments such as ethnicity and religion often influence voters’ choice. The Edo electorate should rise above these drawbacks.
Indeed, INEC is being closely watched by political observers. Earlier governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states, after the 2015 general election, and the supplementary ones in Rivers and Imo states ended inconclusively. The incongruity has not given the new INEC leadership a good image. In fact, some stakeholders argue that it bodes ill for the 2019 elections. The Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC should work assiduously to ensure that the Edo election is not tarred with such a brush by failing to be on top of issues that are squarely under its control.
But instead of being miffed by concerns about inconclusive polls, INEC sees it as a sign that elections are now tightly being fought or a measure of their credibility so far. Yakubu emphasises that every vote must be made to count. “There has been a revolution in our elections since 2015, particularly the introduction of technology, but we have not come to terms with this reality,” says Yakubu. This manifests in the snatching of ballot boxes, ballot-stuffing and violence often witnessed, the major causes of inconclusive elections, according to the INEC boss.
No doubt, INEC is empowered by the Electoral Act to cancel election results marred by irregularities and violence. It should not waiver at all. For instance, where the number of votes cast exceeds the total number of accredited voters in any polling booth, returns from such a unit cannot stand. These vices could be minimised in the Edo election, if INEC gets it right in logistics, including movement of electoral materials on time to the polling centres. The shortage of materials and compromise by its officials have also sullied elections since 1999. It has taken the commission four years to prepare for this assignment; therefore, it has no excuse not to deliver.
Besides INEC and the electorate, the security agencies, especially the police, must be above board. Those who may try to undermine the integrity of the election should be arrested, prosecuted and convicted in line with the law. However, this role cannot be discharged by the kind of compromised police that supervised the discredited Edo 2007 election. Their role in that electoral debacle was, to say the least, unprofessional and disgraceful. This is evident in a146-page report by a Technical Working Group set up by the National Human Rights Commission that studied the conduct of the 2007 and 2011 polls. It stated that the Election Tribunal discovered that “the evidence of the witness is that police officers were, in fact, doing the shooting, the thumb-printing or the ballot-stuffing.”
If all the stakeholders – INEC, security agencies, candidates, political parties and voters – play their roles creditably, a new template for elections thereafter would have been set in the country.
