Socio-cultural Consequences
(Negative) Of 2015 Presidential & National Legislative Elections In Nigeria
Part
One
(Democracy,
Security & Civil Liberties, Onitsha Nigeria, 30th March
2015)-As Nigeria, Nigerians and the international
community await the official results of the referenced crucial polls in
Nigeria, the leadership of International Society for Civil Liberties &
the Rule of Law in Southeast Nigeria, being the rights based
organization in Nigeria that had earliest entry into the 2015 general polls’
advocacy in the country including the just held segments; and having made
our position, observations and reservations publicly known; has resolved to
take a critical look at the socio-cultural consequences (negative) of the
polls’ management and conducts under the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) headed by Prof Attahiru M. Jega. The grand aim is geared
towards making them an eternal reference point in contemporary election
industry in Nigeria and beyond as well as to ensure their proper remedies to
avoid transforming into widespread post election violence and wanton
calamities. We also wish to ensure that they are not repeated in the country or
any part thereof in subsequent polls.
Highlighted
Failures Of The Referenced Polls’ Management Under INEC:
1.
Perceived introduction of ethnicity and religion by INEC and other key
electoral actors into the National Register of Voters particularly as it concerns
registration of voters and distribution of permanent voters’ cards
2.
Gross lopsidedness in the distribution of PVCs, which optimally captured
the two dominant tribes of Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba and minimally captured the
Igbo tribe and ethnic minorities particularly those originated from or resided
in the former’s home areas.
3.
Existence of informal policies in the country’s election management that ensure
uneven and discriminatory electoral demographic congregation and aggregation of
citizens of voting age as registered voters instead of formal policies that
will ensure non discrimination on the basis of sex, tribe, religion or place of
origin. These informal policies also encourage and ensure voters’ suppression
and cleansing particularly among Igbo and ethnic minorities of southern and
northern extractions. This is in addition to failure by INEC to take into
account the pluralistic and multi ethno-religious composition of the country
and need to ensure multi ethno-religious electoral policies and actions.
4.
Manifest desperation by some electoral top shots to appropriate the presidency
to the north at all costs using ethnically cleansed national register of voters
and lopsided appropriation of permanent voters’ cards as well as adamant
refusal to allow the use of temporary voters’ cards, which would have leveled
up the referenced gross lopsidedness between north and south with over eight
(8) million northern PVCs advantage over the south.
5.
Historic introduction of electronic poll manipulation into the national
register of voters using segregated electronic voters’ cards and card readers.
6.
Creation of special polling units for the northeast Muslim IDPs without
recourse to amendment of the 2010 Electoral Act.
7.
Segregation and denial of voting rights to over three million registered voters
of northeast, northwest and north-central origin and residency displaced by
Boko Haram and Fulani jihadist insurgencies.
8.
Systematic and politically conceived uprooting and pogrom targeted and carried
out against minority Christian populations in the northeast and the
north-central zones using the instruments of Boko Haram and Fulani Jihadist
insurgencies for the purpose of forceful religious conversion and cleansing as
well as political enslavement.
9.
Displacement and psycho-physical eviction of over three million Igbo natives
particularly traders in the northeast, the northwest and the north-central
zones using ethno-religious group violence including religious fundamentalist
insurgency; for the purpose of ethno-religious cleansing and political
enslavement.
10.
Use of majoritarian political suppression to
contest and wrestle power off other federating partners perceived to have
lesser populations with the incumbent headship of Nigeria’s presidency as the
target; thereby questioning, threatening and undermining their
socio-ethnic existence and identities.
11.
Reversion to and resurrection in 2015 polls of old political slaves and
political masters governing style in Nigeria; a political deal of the old
Hausa-Fulani and Yoruba power equation; designed to make other federating
partners in Nigeria political slaves to the former.
12.
Rejection and cancellation by leading political actors of Hausa-Fulani
and Yoruba extractions of fair and equitable rotational presidency among the
six geo- political zones and preference by the referenced of rotational
presidency between north and south for the purpose of ensuring exchange of
presidential power between the two at the expense of other federating partners
in Nigeria.
13.
Manifest partisanship of the CSOs with dominance in the Southwest leading to
their leprous attachment with a leading opposition party in Nigeria and their defensive
and protective relationship with INEC.
14.
Clear shift in the public opinion whereby INEC in Nigeria is no longer accused
of hobnobbing with the ruling federal party but with the leading opposition
federal party.
15.
Disenfranchisement of and denial of voting rights to 12.4 million registered
voters majorly of Igbo and minority extractions in Nigeria.
16.
Inability and somehow deliberate refusal for political reasons to capture at
least five million citizens of voting age belonging to pastoral and sedentary
Igbo natives in Nigeria; likewise hundreds of thousands of minorities of voting
age during voters’ registration exercises in Nigeria.
17.
High incidence of under-age voting and registration of hundreds of thousands of
under-age voters in the north as registered voters for the purpose of shoring
up the northern voting population and maintenance of the age-long officially
hyped population superiority of the north over the south.
18.
Introduction and monumental failure of the electronic card reader technology in
the 2015 polls in Nigeria.
19.
Official promotion of primordialism and clannishness in Nigeria’s 2015 general
polls leading to political campaigns and voting centered along ethno-religious
lines.
20.
General failures on the part of INEC in the 2015 general elections’ management
starting from voters’ registration and revalidation including voter’s card
transfer, printing, use and issuance of permanent voters’ cards, refusal to
allow temporary voters’ cards for the purpose of voting, safety and theft of
permanent voters’ cards, perceived introduction of ethnicity and religion in
the PVC distribution, procurement, use and management of electronic card
readers, woeful failure of the card readers in polling stations, inadequate
dissemination of public information, pride and inferiority complex on the part
of some INEC’s top tops leading to failure in electoral policies and actions of
the Commission, non-neutrality, rushing and mastication of ICT and rustication
of manual or alternative technology, non admission of faults and mistakes on
the part of INEC’s top management, disenfranchisement of 12.4 million
registered voters without reasonable, excusable and legal grounds, among
others.
Signed:
Emeka
Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
International
Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law
+2348174090052
Uzochukwu
Oguejiofor, Esq., Head, Campaign & Publicity Department
Chiugo
Onwuatuegwu, Esq., Head, Democracy & Good Governance Program
How INEC bungled the 2015 elections
![How INEC bungled the 2015 elections]()
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on
Monday, March 30, 2015
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