By IKENNA ELLIS EZENEKWE
Nigeria, the largest democracy in Africa, conducted its Presidential and National Assembly elections on February 25, 2023, and has scheduled its Governor and State Assembly elections for March 11, 2023. However, the outcome of the presidential elections became highly controversial, resulting in outrage within the opposition and general population.
There were 18 political parties presenting candidates for the presidential elections. Of the 18, three were the major contenders: Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate of All Progressive Congress (APC), who scored 8,794,726 votes and won 12 states; Atiku Abubakar, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who scored 6,984,520 votes and won 12 states; and Peter Gregory Obi, candidate of the Labor Party (LP), who scored 6,101,533 votes and won 11 states plus the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
These results and numbers have been disputed ever since they were announced. A groundswell of Obi supporters—the so-called “Obidients”—and Atiku Abubadikar’s “Atikulants” are still calling for redress in court.
“Nigerians have lost confidence in the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), ” said Chief Timi Frank, a Nigerian-based political activist and former deputy national publicity secretary of the APC. “His words and his promises mean nothing. He has started again by promising free and fair governorship and State Assembly elections but Nigerians are no fools because they know he will do exactly the opposite. Prof. Yakubu has shown himself to be a practical disgrace to Nigeria and has brought shame, disgrace, and embarrassment to Nigerians in the global community.”
He made these remarks while calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack the chair of INEC. “The failed February 25, 2023 voting exercise brought grim repercussions. Before February 25, 2023, the excitement within the youth population was significant, reaching a record-breaking voter registration of over 12 million. However, after the February 25, 2023, exercise, the excitement waned and turned into apathy, distrust, and anger,” said Frank.
“The 2023 general elections were expected to usher in a much more improved and digitized electoral process in Nigeria,” said Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani), chair of the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), who was an election observer in the February 25, 2023, presidential elections. “It is in this regard that INEC received an unprecedented whopping sum of 355 billion Naira ($473 million) to conduct a credible election. Despite this humongous financial commitment, and the incredible support received from the international community and civil society organizations, INEC failed to deliver on a straightforward mandate of meeting the expectations of Nigerians.”
Olisa Ezea, a prominent youth leader based in Lagos State, the commercial capital of Nigeria, who heads the Eastern Nigeria Youths Association [ENYA], told the Amsterdam News that this election was his first, like millions of other youth voters who participated in the 2023 election for the first time. He said, like other youths, he was angered by the process and conduct of the election after having encouraged his members to actively participate in the process. “I will never repeat such a mistake. Our votes don’t count in this country. With fraudulent elections like this, they are wishing for anarchy,” he said.
This new development comes against an already divided Nigeria that has been managing to heal the wounds from past religious and tribal clashes between regions in the country. In the almost eight years of Buhari’s administration, Nigeria witnessed the bloodiest period since the Nigerian military invasion of Biafra in July of 1967, where 3 million people were reported dead in two and half years. The Buhari years reopened wounds and fault-lines. Fulani militia and other tribal agitators such as the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and the Odudua movement were activated and operational.
Managers of the Nigeria electoral process find themselves at a sensitive juncture where the fear of ethnic agitations and religious terrorism has become a concern.
Firebrand ethnic organizations have already joined forces. Two of the major apex socio-cultural organizations in Nigeria—the Ohanaeze Youth Council under the leadership of Comrade Igboayaka and the Yoruba group, Afenifere, under the leadership Pa Ayo Adebanjo—have aligned to reject the presidential election results. They refused to recognize Tinubu, the declared winner, as president-elect.
Igboayaka urged the chair of INEC to tell Nigerians about the deal he struck with the APC and its presidential candidate, Tinubu.
“The fraudulent election conducted by Prof. Mahmood under the watch of President Buhari is an invitation to anarchy. It is our believe that Prof. Mahmood deliberately caused the malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and stopped the transmission of results in order to perfect his dirty deal with Bola Tinubu,” said Igboayaka.
Published reports indicate the INEC chair had knowledge of what transpired in the failed election. During the build-up to the presidential election, the INEC chair transferred a certain Chidi Nwafor out of the INEC headquarters in Abuja and reassigned him to a desk as an administrative assistant at an office in a rural part of Nigeria.
Nwafor is the IT expert credited as the developer of the BVAS used by INEC to accredit voters and upload results to the INEC web portal. His alleged refusal to reprogram the BVAS to compromise the presidential elections was his offense. Adding gravitas, Femi Odubiyi, a former commissioner of Science and Technology to Tinubu while he was governor of Lagos State, was used to replace Nwafor. Odubiyu took over the ICT facility in INEC and became responsible for jamming the network that halted transmission of the presidential election results.
Some religious leaders have called for calm.
Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, the sultan of Sokoto State and chair of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, appealed to presidential candidates who lost to accept the outcome of the February elections in good faith and to encourage and preach peace and stability among their supporters. He asked that politicians stop any acts that could disrupt peace among the people of Nigeria.
Also calling for calm was Adekunle Thomas, pastor of Jesus Palace Church in Ilorin, Kwara State. He advised politicians to embrace peace before the March 11 elections. “Whatever may be the outcome of the forthcoming election, let us embrace peace and not instigate any violence by our actions or utterances. Nigeria’s unity should be the priority. Say no to violence and embrace peace. Politics is not a do-or-die affair. No need to shed blood because of any politician. We can only vote and pray for a better Nigeria after the election.”
By the Grace of The Almighty Creator, Maharaj Ji, vibrating through me as The Satguru Maharaj Ji, I would like all Nigerians to thank the Creator they are serving, be it Olorun, Chineke, Tamuno, God, Allah, Oyame, Krishna, etc., for the peaceful outcome of the Nigerian Presidential Elections which took place on February 25, 2023 and which Senator Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu was elected as President-Elect for winning the majority votes and was therefore issued with the Certificate as the overall winner of the elections to become the next President Federal Republic of Nigeria come May 29, 2023.
This is good news for all Nigerians, particularly the ordinary man on the street, and the elites and stakeholders of this great nation, Nigeria, for being able to organize credible and free elections supervised and observed by Elders from the African Union without any large violence. We are indeed very grateful to President Buhari for fulfilling his promise.
By the Grace, am asking that all the contestants who lost the elections should accept the verdict without rancor and hatred if they believe in the Nigerian Project instead of using the junk press to try to manipulate and confuse the people to oppose the peoples mandate given to the most experienced, socially coherent, flexible and undoubtedly the most de-tribalized among all the contestants, hence his victory came as a surprise to assure Nigerians that the Creator loves them and has brought Asiwaju as a step forward from the already worsened economic, political and social situation towards transforming the country into a booming economy.
The INEC has explained, expressed and has educated the Nigerian People on their working dynamics leading to the execution of the presidential elections and therefore there is no need to manipulate the people through the junk press to create hostilities among the people who have already made their decision to try a fresher and activist who has been fighting for freedom, equity, justice and liberty.
Therefore taking a look at the contestants, you will easily deduce the fact that they cannot win elections in Nigeria for the time being because they are not patriotic and are very juvenile in politics unmindful of the history of pre Colonial Africa and Post Independence Africa, odawise Atiku will not be the one to break Nigeria’s zoning policy on rotation of the Presidency between the North and South and to worsen his case, he became confused and went wild decimating other tribes against the North saying that the North does not need a southern President and that the North should not vote for the Igbo and Yoruba, Ijaw, to mention but few, on top of many alleged wrongdoings he was accused of during his tenure as vice president that are yet to be addressed. As regards the third person who scored the third highest number of votes, apart from support from ignorant hungry Nigerians, particularly the youths who are not cared for and are bereft of our history and can be bought over with money, plus the fact that they don’t have a good picture of his past performances, the world is surprised how the man who wants to rule Nigeria cannot stop the ongoing sit at home on Mondays and also cannot actively engage the authorities to review the closure of all Police formations in the southeast area in order to checkmate the unconfirmed pogrom of our teenagers who are heavily manipulated not only to believe that nobody loves them in Nigeria and so must fight for freedom from unknown invading forces just like the same way the youths now branded bandits in the north are being educated that if you die fighting a non-believer of Islam, you will enter heaven if you get killed. There is also the unconfirmed Radio biafra dishing out toxic news to all in the world creates doubts in the ordinary Nigerian about the alaigbos intentions since the demand for equity has to be done with clean hands, Otherwise the reverse will create barriers for future presidential aspirants from the southeast. So lets start to build bridges, now that the LIGHT is in Africa to lead us through.
I WOULD THEREFORE ASK THAT ALL THOSE WHO LOST OUT INCLUDING ATIKU AND OBI SHOULD NOT WASTE MONEY TO GO TO COURT BUT FIRST CONGRATULATE PRESIDENT-ELECT TINUBU AND ALSO USE OR DIVERT SUCH MONIES FOR LITIGATION TO PROVIDE MORE CLASSROOMS AND CHAIRS FOR SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES IN THE FEDERATION. My love and blessings.