By Ben Okoro

This is a salute to Obidients and the impoverished citizens who want relief from the suffering and hardship brought upon us by the Buhari administration. Even with the massive manipulation of the results by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in favour of the All Progressives Congress (APC), performance by “the people” who want to take back the country, was quite impressive at the Saturday, February 25, 2023 presidential polls. The stolen mandate needs to be taken back in a peaceful manner.

INEC prevented direct upload of results from the polling units to their server as required by the Electoral Act and adopted manual collation of the results. This deviation from the process gave room for them to manipulate and alter the original results from the polling units in favor of the APC candidate. Other tactics adopted by INEC included allowing the accreditation of under-age voters in the Northern parts of the country, and the non-inclusion of the logo and/or label of the Labor Party (LP) on ballot papers in some polling units across the country. Also, the poor execution of logistics on the day of the election did not show improvement from the 2019 federal elections.

INEC’s performance last Saturday, was a gross failure and a demonstration of incompetence by Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of INEC. The sheer magnitude of the failure by the institution is not something we can just wish away by saying that “no election is perfect” or to just say “go to court” if you don’t like the outcome. So many citizens have been disenfranchised and their rights infringed upon by these acts of INEC.

Despite assurances by the police and the military about their preparedness for the elections, it appeared that the security agencies looked the other way at some of the polling units only to wake up to their duty after the deed had been done. There were violent attacks on voters and polling unit officers, ballot box snatching as well as voter intimidation at some polling units by thugs employed by desperate ‘monitricians’ notably in Lagos and Rivers States. This is quite condemnable.

The photograph of bloodied Efidi Bina Jennifer, a victim of electoral violence in Surulere, Lagos was appalling. She was on queue to perform her civic duty with blood dripping from her face after being stabbed twice on the face. By that singular act, Bina symbolized the struggle for democracy. Shamefully, a spokesman of the establishment was on CNN a few days ago to lie about the incident, claiming that it happened in another state in the South and not in Lagos. Haba!

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu promised Nigerians last November that results for the 2023 elections will be uploaded from the polling units and will be viewed real time on INEC’s server. He assured us that the elections will be the best ever in Nigeria. But contrary to this, it turned out to be the worst in all aspects one can think of. The INEC Chairman and all the Electoral Commissioners should be immediately investigated, and if found culpable, relieved of their duties for failing Nigerian citizens.

Obidients and all impoverished Nigerians should remain calm and go about their normal businesses in a peaceful and lawful manner while the LP takes actions necessary to remediate the situation. Violent protests should be avoided as these can easily lead to unintended consequences. Don’t go low by getting into abusive arguments even when provoked. This is not about tribe. It is about the survival of the poor masses and the need to rescue Nigeria from the pit of mis-governance.

Thank you for the wonderful performance in the elections. Let’s keep the momentum going.

Okoro, a Social Critic writes from Lagos