Over the years in Nigeria, the youth has never picked interest in the affairs of governance, either by contesting for public positions or by taking part in the electoral process. They were ignorant of how this decision impacted even their personal life.
Issues bordering on employment, education, housing, and other social interventions, should be the primary responsibility of the government and the exclusion of the youth or their laisser-faire attitude has not pushed the government to take their responsibilities seriously.
A few months ago, a wave of political consciousness took over the political arena in Nigeria, and the youths in their numbers expressed interest in who governs them and they rallied around their preferred candidates. For the first time, the majority of the Nigerian citizens are genuinely out with a unified front to fight and rescue Nigeria. We saw Nigerians sacrificing for candidates as against the normal where candidates induce people to get them involved in their political agenda.
Such passion and fire could only be sustained should the government conduct a free, fair, and transparent election.
The just concluded presidential election of 25th February 2023 fell far below expectations and was not conducted to reflect the aspiration of the majority.
Regardless of the INEC pronouncement of the President-Elect, the empire could have done so much more, to truly appear to be transparent and unbiased. Why do I take this position?
I for one have never voted and never had I imagined I would ever vote in a system that is so corrupt, with an electoral institution that is known for rigging the outcome of an election. This time was different. We were all, in more precise words, I was deceived to believe that the just concluded election would be different, for I was told the result from the polling units would be made public in real-time, to be viewed on the INEC portal worldwide.
I believed completely that it was deployed in Osun State and the outcome was impressive that whatever the shortcomings back then would have been improved upon before the general elections. On this ground I and so many Nigerians trusted the system and backed our various candidates, hoping that our vote would count.
My deepest pain remains the simple fact that INEC not only emotionally traumatized a huge number of Nigerians, but the shock that such impunity and reckless actions could still manifest in this modern and technological advance era. From the start, logistics posed a huge problem for an election that took years to budget and plan for, that alone was a red flag.
The most troublesome and heartbreaking act by INEC was that the only reassuring process that would have guaranteed transparency was truncated, and no effort was made to restore the promised system.
The transmission of presidential results from the polling unit as promised was never done. Let’s take a step backwards; three different elections took place on the same day and same time. I want to believe that INEC made provisions for separate servers to store data for the different elections that took place on that 25th to accommodate the over 176 polling units.
The results for the national assembly were duly transmitted without a hitch, that’s to say the server or whatever technology that was deployed was up and running and possibly overheated but still accepted all entries in those categories.
The same could not be said of the presidential election where the BVAS rejected the result uploads from all polling units. Let’s just assume that after counting, some polling units were able to upload and probably the system heated up and crashed. But am sorry that was not the case. The system that was designated for the presidential result rejected all inputs nationwide. This fact was known by all Nigerians and I strongly believe that the Electoral Commission should have a procedure to escalate incidents in the field especially when it has to do with operations and guideline compliance. Such a huge setback was recorded and a huge component that would determine the transparency of the election was missing, yet the electoral empire deemed it worthy to announce a President-Elect under such circumstances.
At this juncture, I found it pertinent as a Nigerian that loves Nigeria to direct my curiosity to the all-mighty electoral institution (INEC)
Were you aware before and during the collation of results that the BVAS failed to upload the presidential results? If yes what did you do about it?
The collation of presidential results was done manually, how did you ensure that the voters’ wishes were protected between the polling units till it gets to the collation centre in Abuja?
Is there any possibility that the results could have been altered, given the heavy human dependence that could easily be influenced or intimidated?
The BVAS and the uploading of the result straight from the polling unit are the futures that distinguished this election from every other election ever conducted since the return of democracy in Nigeria.
The introduction of this technology was basically to end the irregularities that have bedevilled manual collation. The most confusing part is that I need answers to this to understand why you were in a rush to announce the outcome of an election that fell short of a standard you set yourself.
I want to know if no provision allows you to make an independent finding as your name implies. Heavens wouldn’t have fallen should you demand some days to look into all the issues raised, by so doing, you would have reassured us of your commitment to be just and unbiased.
Just as I am ashamed to be called a Nigerian, bear in mind that millions more are silent but could respond differently. The conduct of INEC has confirmed to the world that Nigeria is a country where honesty is a rare commodity, a country where a common man has no say or value, and a country where our citizens will never be taken seriously outside the shores of this country.
My heart is broken, and I pray to find consolation along the way but most importantly I pray that in my lifetime I witness Nigeria heal and take her rightful place in the League of Nations.