In about two years from now, Nigeria will be gearing up to hold another general election to elect leaders into various governmental positions – from the Presidency to the local government level. This ritual is buried in the constitution of the African giant – to hold a general election every four years.
Come 2027, Nigerians will be given another chance to decide their destiny – either to continue to recycle the ‘cabals,’ or give the nation a new facelift by electing fresh hands and minds that could possibly turn the tides around in favour of the masses as against what is currently obtainable where the totality of the tides are against the masses.
While 2027 is still quite a long time from now, it has become imperatively germane to harp on whether there is a need for the nation to spend billions or even trillions of naira on another shambolic election whose results would have probably been written long before the Election Day.
Recall that the body in charge of elections in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said the federal government released N313.4 billion for the conduct of the 2023 general elections. The commission, in its 2023 General Election Report, said that out of the N355.b approved for the conduct of the elections, the sum of N313.4 billion was released. According to the report, based on the key activities in the approved Election Project Plan for the 2023 general election, INEC proposed a budget of N305 billion for the conduct of the elections.
The breakdown of this amount showed that the commission asked for N159.7 billion for electoral operations; N117. 3 billion for electoral technology; and N20.4 billion for electoral administrative costs. It also showed that N7.4 billion representing 2.5 percent of the election operation, technological, and administrative costs was set aside for unforeseen electoral expenses.
Remarkably, despite spending such a humongous amount, INEC conducted an election that the European Union described as ‘eroding voters’ trust. The reasons for this summation are not far-fetched – they are visible to the blind and audible to the deaf.
It could be recalled that with its two major technological innovations – the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the Results Viewing Portal (IReV) – which it consistently vowed to deploy during the elections to end the era of election rigging in Nigeria, the commission was able to secure the confidence of the various political parties and their candidates, the media, civil society organizations (CSOs), security agencies and the international community.
Also, with the signing of the Electoral Act 2022, INEC had what it took to conduct a transparent, free and fair election and on February 7, 2023, the Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu stated in the commission’s official media handle, @inecnigeria, that “let me once again reassure Nigerians that there is no going back on deployment of BVAS for voter accreditation.
“There is no going back on the transmission of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in real-time on Election Day.”
But the rude shock came on election day when the commission set the future of Nigerians ablaze by failing to use these technologies.
Afraid of what the future holds after INEC’s repugnant action in the poll, beleaguered Nigerians turned to the judiciary to remedy the situation – only to be served a ‘hot breakfast’ laced with Cameroon pepper. Today, the judiciary is ranked the most corrupt body in Nigeria.
With the INEC, judiciary, military, and other relevant bodies in the pocket of the government of the day, it would be foolish to conduct another election without a law that mandates the INEC to electronically transmit results from the polling units into the dashboard where the world can monitor the results live from the comfort of their homes – recent results from the Edo and Ondo governorship elections are a testament that urgent decisive actions must be taken.
More so, it will also be foolish to spend trillions of naira on another election if Nigerians are not ready to liberate themselves from the shackles of the crop of ambassadors of poverty who currently occupy the nation’s leadership positions.
Even though he is one of them, the recent remarks by former Minister Rotimi Amaechi that Nigerians have short memory and that they are not ready to die or sacrifice to defend their votes, further corroborates my longtime pain.
“The politician is there in Nigeria to steal, maim, to kill, to remain in power. If you think Tinubu will give it to you, you are wasting your time”. As disdainfully insalubrious, lugubrious and sardonic as that statement seems, it is the reality.
If Nigerians were not in love with their oppressors, the recent disturbing revelations by Amaechi are enough to cause uproar to rejig and send a strong message to the President and his recycled caucus.
You wonder how a nation that is blessed with bright minds who are making waves across the globe is being ruled by a crop of failed, stone-hearted, inept, wicked, self-centered, power-drunk, not-qualified individuals who came to power on the trajectory of bribery and manipulations.
With the current inflation masterminded by the government of the day and looking at what was spent on the 2023 election which was prior to the casual removal of the fuel subsidy by the junketing President, it denotes that Mahmood and his men at INEC would need at least a trillion naira to conduct the 2027 election.
If Nigerians are not ready to sacrifice and die to defend their votes, if they’re not ready to abruptly terminate their romance with their oppressors, if the electoral body is not rejigged to flush out those currently running it, and if no law is enacted mandating INEC to electronically transmit the results from the poling unit into a live dashboard that the world can watch, it will be meaningless, worthless and foolish to stage another show of shame and waste resources in the name of an election.
On this premise, I recommend that if the above conditions are not met before 2027, the money budgeted for the general election should be shared among Nigerians and then allow Tinubu to do his second term without any election.
Stanley Ugagbe is a Social Commentator. He can be reached via ugagbestanley@gmail.com
