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Article: Nigeria’s Ruling Elite Shown the Red Card, By Soji Apampa

Nigeria’s Ruling Elite Shown the Red Card, By Soji Apampa

For acting in wanton disregard of and with total contempt for Nigeria’s citizens, a red card has been issued to the ruling elite by the people proving that “The Power of the People is Greater than the People in Power – (Author Unknown)”. Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday announced the results of votes cast on March 28, 2015 by Nigerians to elect a new President. For the first time since 1999 when the People’s Democratic Party of Nigeria (PDP) came to power boasting they would hold on to power for 150 unbroken years, they have not only been challenged for such hubris, but they have actually been beaten. They were completely overrun, not by the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), but by their real nemesis, the people.
Some have argued that the results, as astounding as they may be, still fall short of expressing the total and complete will of the people. There are suggestions that results announced for Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Plateau, and Nassarawa States, for instance, have severely understated the true will of the people. Indeed there are allegations that through electoral corruption, the ruling class has tried to counteract what should otherwise have been a landslide victory for the people. Indeed the UK and US Governments in the course of watching the historic event put out a brief but worrying statement which included the following: “…So far, we have seen no evidence of systemic manipulation of the process. But there are disturbing indications that the collation process – where the votes are finally counted – may be subject to deliberate political interference.” What then will it take for Nigerians to express their collective will and have that faithfully translated into their chosen course for the country?
In 1993, for the first time since 1960, there was a general feeling that across the entire nation, by Christians, Muslims, Northerners, and Southerners alike, Chief Moshood Abiola had been elected President of Nigeria, only for that election to be annulled by the ruling elite through the military administration of General Ibrahim Babangida. In January 2012, another massive expression of the will of the people was witnessed when millions of Nigerians took to the streets in what was reminiscent of the early stages of the Arab Spring to protest the massive corruption being perpetrated by the ruling elite in the name of fuel subsidy payments. This won negotiations between the ruling elite and so-called representatives of the people: Hocus, Pocus and Hey Presto the process was subverted and the opportunity to change course slipped away from the people once again. Now in 2015, it appears the people decided Enough was Enough and the sick, able-bodied, elderly, young and so on turned out en-masse again and watched carefully but patiently over a process that could so easily have eluded them.
The Chairman of INEC insisted, to the chagrin of the ruling elite, that card readers should be used in order to ensure that biometric confirmation would be used to weed out irregularities at the polling unit. However, with results collated at ward level, and then across 774 Local Government Areas, there were at least 774 chances an Electoral Officer could go rogue and permit political interference at a collation centre. INEC must never be seen as a monolith that can speak and act with one mind. This is too great a risk for the people and so rather than join forces with the ruling elite who were screaming and kicking for the elimination of technology, the answer seems to lie in ensuring INEC employs even more technology: throughout the entire electoral process and not just for voter administration and accreditation on the day ballots are to be cast.
The former minister, Godswill Orubebe engaged in a very disgraceful tirade against the INEC Chairman, seeking to cast aspersion on the integrity of the entire process. One of the issues he raised was the fact that the opposition APC seemed to be displaying results that were too close to the official version being declared which erroneously led him to conclude that INEC was partial towards the opposition. What the unfortunate spokesman for the PDP seemed not to have realised is that the APC had a proper situation room set up and their returning officers were transmitting actual results from the field live as it happened, giving them the capability, with basic modern technology, to have a fairly accurate overview of what the results looked like as soon as the final vote was counted. What he may also not have realised is that this attention to detail on the part of the APC is what has assisted them in the past to tender admissible evidence in the election petitions where they believed the polls had been manipulated. By the way, the APC running mate is a Professor of Evidence and was central to the successful strategies implemented by the APC in past election petitions.
What will it take for Nigerians to express their collective will and have that faithfully translated into their chosen course for the country? Employment of card readers in all elections, transmission of results directly from polling units to a central database updated live and fully transparent to the people as results are transmitted, with drill down capabilities allowing results to be viewed on the fly at collation levels: state, senatorial district, LGA, ward and polling unit. This is the recipe for repeating this historic victory by the people when April 11, 2015 comes. In the meantime, election petitions should be entered into by all aggrieved parties as there is more than enough evidence out there and on social media capturing actual results.
Soji Apampa, the co-founder of The Integrity Organisation, can be reached at Twitter: @sojapa, and email: soji.apampa@integritynigeria.org.

http://blogs.premiumtimesng.com/?p=167218 

 

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Buhari’s Victory Rekindles Hope, Redefines Ethnic Regions, By Steve Ayorinde

 Buhari’s Victory Rekindles Hope, Redefines Ethnic Regions, By Steve Ayorinde

After the last few days of fever-pitch, vociferous campaigns and apprehension, it all ended on a good, albeit dramatic, note.
Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections turned out to be Nigeria’s watershed poll ever. An opposition party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), which emerged out of a merger of four parties just over a year ago, defeated the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with a comfortable margin. The APC has now produced a President-elect – Muhammadu Buhari – whose trajectory is a case-study in resilience and forbearance. Buhari, who ruled Nigeria as a General between 1983 and ’84, is celebrated for his uprightness. He is now an example of not giving up on personal ambition, for being elected President at 72 after three failed attempts.
America’s Abraham Lincoln used to be the global reference when it comes to focus and resilience in political goal attainment. But his case was different. Lincoln suffered several defeats at state and federal legislature elections and a Vice-Presidential nomination before being finally elected President in 1860. Buhari, on the other hand, ran three times and lost against three different people – Olusegun Obasanjo (2003), Umaru Yar’Adua (2007) and Goodluck Jonathan (2011), only to bounce back four years later, amassing a spectacular display of goodwill to defeat the same incumbent who won in 2011.
Not only will Buhari assume power on May 29, he will also be sitting as a President with the assurance that APC has already secured majority seats in the upper and lower federal legislative houses. If the new administration wants to hit the ground running and secure notable early-wins, it will surely need a cooperating parliament, whose majority it has already secured.
But by far the most remarkable development surrounding Buhari’s victory was the spirit of showmanship displayed by President Jonathan who scored a first by conceding defeat and calling Buhari to congratulate him even before the final result was out. Jonathan’s action, irrespective of what might have led to it, was statesmanlike and served as a good example to the rest of Africa where a sit-tight syndrome is still rife. By that singular act, Jonathan has earned the respect of many Nigerians and the world.
By conceding defeat in an election that has succeeded in introducing the card-reader technology, Jonathan has avoided the path of dishonour toed by Laurent Gbagbo, the former Ivorian President who lost the Presidential election in 2011 to Allasaine Qattara but refused to hand over power until he plunged his country into a five-month violence. Gbagbo was eventually disgraced out of office and is now on trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Holland. His wife, and a few others who were part of the bloodletting of four years ago, was recently sentenced to a 20-year jail-term in Abidjan.
Jonathan did not also behave like Mrs. Joyce Banda who lost Malawi’s presidential election in March and attempted to annul it with a promise that she would not participate in the rescheduled election. She was overruled by the court. She refused to concede defeat or attend the handing-over ceremony to her successor, Peter Mutharika. She simply quit.
Banda’s story was similar to Jonathan’s. She became the Malawian president in 2012 after her boss, the President, died in office. Although she was popular abroad as an advocate of women empowerment, cases of corruption and ineptitude marred her reign. While Jonathan lost to the man he defeated four years ago, Banda was defeated by the younger brother of the man she succeeded.
Unlike Ivory Coast and Malawi, Nigeria’s story is a good narrative for Africa and the rest of the world, with Jonathan already following the footsteps of General Olusegun Obasanjo and General Abdulsalami Abubakar who handed over power willingly and are celebrated for it both at home and internationally. Although he will be leaving a bruised economy and mismanaged resources, hope lies in Buhari’s vaunted integrity and the strong team of technocrats he is planning to bring on board.
Returning to greatness isn’t so much about scare resources as it is about the sincerity of those at the helm of affairs and the political will to stem the tide of malfeasance that pervades the seat of power. This is the edge that Buhari obviously has, as a leader who is neither looking for material gains nor for vainglory and, more importantly, as one who intends to lead by personal example. He is already aware of the enormity of the assignment, as he alluded to the people’s huge expectation at his Chatham House, London address.
He need not stretch himself thin. He should stay with what he has promised – the four cardinal points of change: he should fight corruption and reduce profligacy in government; he should ensure security and finish off the Boko Haram; he should ensure stable power and social infrastructure across the country, and then boost the economy in a manner that more jobs will be created, investors will return in huge numbers and stabilise the educational system that breeds ill-equipped graduates and suffers perpetual disruption.
However, as Nigeria celebrates change, the reality that shouldn’t escape us is the inadvertent return to the old three-region structure. The Babangida administration might have envisaged the six geo-political structures as a way to redefine the country along cohesive lines and redistribute wealth. But Saturday’s election was a clear return to the old North, West and Eastern regional structures.
Majority of Nigerians simply voted along ethnic lines with the Yoruba Nation, the old Western Region, emerging as the new bride that determined the fate of the other two.

http://blogs.premiumtimesng.com/?p=167221
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