When Senate President
David Mark was reported, sometimes last year, as having said that
elections were not even on the table “because we are at war”, some of us
believed he was flying a kite just to see how high it would be allowed
to go. Faced with a nationwide outrage, he quickly withdrew the remarks
claiming he was quoted out of context.
Then a couple of weeks ago, Sambo
Dasuki, the National Security Adviser, went to London to tell the
international community that INEC was not even ready for the elections,
as it was yet to distribute even half of the permanent voter cards (or
PVCs), it was clear that something evil was in the offing. Now we have
seen how that independent election umpire was blackmailed into
cancelling elections a week to the scheduled date just because the
ruling party is scared. Little wonder then that most people are crying
foul. The ruling credo of the cabal in Aso Rock seems to be this: if the
people are unlikely to vote you back, then to hell with elections!
Exactly why are President Jonathan and
the ruling PDP scared of the elections? (Forget those briefcase
”parties” that pocketed large sums to call for a shift, as all of them
put together would never get even 10 percent of the national vote).
Would the ruling cabal even allow any election to take place, or would
they get the NSA and military chiefs to come up with another excuse come
March 28?
To be frank, it would have been
difficult for Jega and INEC to take the risk of going ahead with the
14th February date. It is quite conceivable that some rogue elements
within the ruling cabal could have staged some bombings, and even
engineered enough chaos, to render the results inconclusive, and turn
round and blame Jega for ignoring “security concerns”.
But what exactly is the game plan? To
buy time for Jonathan and the PDP or what? Their sorry record of the
last six years cannot be corrected in six weeks. Their propaganda may
have more time to sink in to those already convinced that there is no
alternative to what is now going on. However, many Nigerians have
already made up their minds, and are hoping for something different.
Corruption, cluelessness and callous disregard for people’s general
welfare cannot be fixed in six weeks. In any case, the nation is already
divided between those that are beneficiaries of the massive graft,
nepotism and ethnic politics of this administration; and those of us who
have had enough.
Or should we all be naive enough to
listen to the security argument? If the government could not deal with
Boko Haram in six years, what guarantee do we have that it could do so
in six weeks? What has changed now? Is it the political resolve? If so,
then the government is guilty of lying to us all these years and
handling these insurgents with kid’s globes. If it is new and better
weapons, then the critics have been right all along, and most of the
allocation for equipment, arms and ammunitions had hitherto gone
elsewhere. By the way, of the 8,500-strong African Union force to deal
with Boko Haram, how many are we really contributing that the military
would threaten INEC that it has no extra men to put on standby and
assist the police in case of any emergency. Even if it is true that the
army has devoted 15,000 men in the North-East to fight Shekau’s ragtag
bunch, it still has over 70,000 more, and could have spared some of them
for a few days to help with the elections.
Someone sent me a comment by the
activist Shehu Sani, which seems apt here. He wrote: “in the midst of
bombs, bullets and apprehension, successful elections took place in
Pakistan, Columbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Ukraine, Lebanon, Syria,
and the DRC” and so we should ask ourselves, why not here? Can the
military not mobilise to secure 14 local government areas (out of our
774), but instead used that as the excuse to browbeat INEC into shifting
our scheduled nation-wide elections? Could the government be hoping
that our neighbours would liberate these 14 LGAs so it could take credit
for such a feat?
President Jonathan is asking us to take
the shift “in good faith”; but why are Nigerians sceptical? It is simply
because we have been told too many lies. How many times have we heard
that some “Chibok girls” have been freed? How many times have they
“killed” Shekau? How many deadlines had the Chief of Defence Staff Alex
Badeh given for ending the insurgency? What of the ceasefire accord(s)?
While we should give our military all
the support we can because most of them have performed gallantly and in
our best interests, we are apprehensive that most of the top brass are
so grateful to be appointed that they seem to be more loyal to the
powers that be than to the nation itself.
More disturbing is the fact that the
social media, and even well established news sources too, have been
awash with allegations and conspiracy theories. Some say that the plan
is to ensure that there is no election if it looks, as it presently
does, that Jonathan is likely to be kicked out. Others even claim that
the administration and the hawks of the ruling party are shopping for an
“agreeable” judge that would disqualify General Muhammadu Buhari, even
if chaos would ensue. The price tag is said to be some two billion naira
and a safe exit to Dubai for the chap. Yet others claim that we will
soon see an all-out plot to discredit Jega and force him to resign so
that they can have a more pliant INEC chair (some names are even being
brandied around) so that the elections could be rigged in favour of the
incumbent. Indeed some even quote from the Facebook entries of some
Jonathan spokesperson that they will never hand-over to Buhari, but
would even prefer some military chap as an interim leader.
My advice to Nigerians is simple; fear
not. No extra-constitutional transfer of power is possible. That would
be treason of the highest order. No one would dare attempt that. March
28 would be the day Nigerians re-invent themselves and drive fear into
any non-performing government because we would re-energise our belief in
ourselves, and restore our confidence in democracy. Let us be patient
and not give anyone any excuse to scuttle that day of promise.
Politicians must know from that day that they can be thrown out whenever
they fail to deliver; that democracy is truly about accountability to
the people.
- This Piece was written by Sanusi Abubakar/Daily Trust
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