INEC Playing Ethno-Religious Script By Polycarp Onwubiko

The painful logjam in the planned conduct of the February 14 and 28, 2015 general election did not come

as a surprise to realistic observers of the parlous state of affairs in most of the public institutions in Nigeria. I predictably like a seer expressed my reservations when Professor Attahiru Jega was appointed the chairman of INEC due to my age long painstaking and discrete observations that hardly any northern Moslem has ever lived up to the billings and solemn expectations of Nigerians across religious divide in sensitive public positions. It is very sad that these ethno-religious champions have chosen to elevate ethno-religious extremism above the strict demands of official assignments. Their stock in trade has always been to scheme and install their people in sensitive positions irrespective of their mental, academic and psychological disposition. This searing and debilitating malady has been at the root of weak public institutions and retrogression in the apparently accursed country with no prospect of meaningful or sustainable socio-economic and political growth and development in the country.

My predictive reservation came to fruition during the registration of eligible voters. Failure of the INEC Chairman to reorganize the lopsided postings and deployment of staff in the departments whereby the staff from the northern part of the country monopolized sensitive and top positions, signaled his mindset and direction as ethno-religious bigot.

When the press confronted him on the abnormality with respect to the concept of Federal character he snobbishly waved the matter aside saying that it was what he met on ground.  In other words the concept of federal character principles in distribution of positions enshrined in the Nigeria Constitution could go to blazes, as it were. Of course, such issues are normally rectified if it has to do with the northern interest but if it is the southerners, strenuous effort would be made to bury it.

The sign of bias in the election processes was observed during the voters registration just in line with the age-long scheming to get the presidency back to the north; not the Christians in the north but northern Muslims. It was agonizing that a simple duty of Voters Registration was brazenly bungled and fumbled in the southern part of the country while it was perfectly done in the northern part, even minors were allegedly registered contrary to the electoral law. In spite of the fact that the projected annual budgets of the INEC were always met by the federal government, shameful stories of shortage of working material were told in the south during the Voters Registration exercise. Consequently, many eligible voters in the south were not registered due to shortage of working materials, a deliberately induced bungling. It was not surprising that similar bungling and fumbling was observed in the printing of the Permanent Voters Cards (PVC), distribution of PVC which was brazenly tilted in favour of the northern part of the country even in the north east region where people were displaced due to the rampaging northern political and Moslem religious- backed Boko Haram insurgency. An aggrieved Christian indigene was reported to have revealed that the PVCs were not distributed to people rather INEC handed the bulk to the religious and political leaders which is against the Electoral Act. But in the south one is not allowed to collect for his wife or husband.

It is incontrovertible to assert that the postponement of the February 2015 election is purely a divine intervention period!  The Almighty God, going by His mysterious ways used the intractable insecurity jinx from where Prof. Jega’s brazen intrigues due to ethno-religious bigotry and lamely supported by the spineless and apparently itching-palmed and tongue-tied INEC commissioners from the southern part of the country who compromised their assumed integrity, were exposed. The International Crises Group (ICG), a non-governmental organization who had a glimpse of the intrigue and subterfuge warned that “Nigeria may be heading towards volatile and vicious general election next year.” This is because people would naturally react violently when the planned sophisticated rigging unfolded and the bubble burst.

Professor Jega, contrary to his acclaimed integrity at his appointment, has behaved true to type ostensibly to favour a northern presidential aspirant thus throwing patriotism and institutional integrity to the dogs. While sounding boldly and exuding confidence on the ability of the largely compromised electoral body to conduct the general election on February 14 and 28 due to the perfected vile and vicious strategy, he demonstrated his woeful ignominy to the efficacy of the solemn prayers and sublime supplications of Christians in the country. The Bible enjoins heaven-bound Christians that their God is never late in any complex and manipulated situations and intrigues as he can perform stupendous miracle at the nick of time.

The sublime issue is peace, stability, love, patriotism and good governance in our beloved country Nigeria. It does not matter who wins the presidency; PDP’s –Dr Goodluck  Ebele Jonathan (GEJ) or APC’s- General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) since both of them mean well for Nigeria and it is the belief of all Nigeria that none of them needs electoral sleaze to win the presidential election any time it is convenient for a repackaged INEC to conduct free and fair election from now to August 2015. There is no doubt that GMB has been endeared to many Nigerians due to the massive image laundering and repackaging by his handlers- wearing suit, Igbo and Yoruba traditional attires. Therefore, it is plain sadism and naivety on the part of Prof. Jega to sound loud and clear that he was ready to conduct election in February when over 900,000 applicants for electoral duty have not been trained; over 30 million PVCs are yet to be imported from China, talk-less of  the arduous task of distribution to the over 23 million registered voters in the southern part of the country, having favoured the north in craftily handing the bulk of (not distribution) of PVCs to only God knows political and traditional chieftains, millions of eligible adults in the south begging to be registered, most electoral materials are not yet printed,  supply of fake thumb printing  ink, Card Readers not been test-run and likely to be malfunctioning and rural and remote areas/battery problems, non printing of Voters Registers, transfers of registered voters not attended to, registration of voters not being a true reflection or strength of the eligible voters in the south, registration of minors in the north. All these are manifestation of partisanship, ethno-religious intrigue and induced ineptitude of Professor Jega with the brazen acquiescence of the unconscionable commissioners from the southern part of the country who wallow in super luxury.

If stark reality could be reckoned with in the INEC’s monstrous, monumental and brazen manipulations and shameful scorecard, the handover date should be shifted to October 1, 2015. The intervening period of 7 months will enable a repackaged INEC with new helmsman and commissioners to cleanse the Augean stable and midwife an election before August 2015 which will be comparable to general elections in saner polities and civilized democracies. The necessary amendments of electoral law and the fundamentally flawed 1999 constitution should start immediately since peace, stability and unity in the country transcend every other legal shenanigan to hand over power on May 29. The so called May 29 as Democracy Day is the brain wave of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who does not hearken to popular rational opinions that October 1^st should be the Democracy Day.    

Mr. Onwubiko is an author and public affairs commentator, and wrote from Awka, Anambra State.