Of course, there is nothing negative that has not been said or written about the stewardship of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu.
Many describe him as a man who betrayed the Nation.
It is more remarkable that he is a professor of history. Some persons believe he has put his name in the history of Nigeria with the February 25, 3023 election.
Will he be remembered for good or will his descendants in years to come feel bad about his role in the election. All of that will be decided by the court soon enough for all to know.
Manual Result Delivery
Meanwhile, opposition parties that lost to the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) believe he will be on the dark side of history.
They claim he played a catalytic role in the disruption of what was envisaged as a smooth Nigerian renaissance.
The Yakubu-led INEC did not keep its promise of using the BVAS machine to upload the results of elections from polling boots.
Instead, they delivered results more via manual processing. That alone, makes the process questionable.
In fact, there are several Nigerians who believed Yakubu in his repeated assertions that votes would count that trooped out in larger numbers to polling units to vote.
The gist has been told of a lady abroad who took three trips from her base to vote in Nigeria.
She first came to register for a PVC. Then came a second time to pick it up, and then made a third trip to be part of the presidential election voter.
There were many other Nigerians in the country who took journeys to distant places where they registered to make their votes count.
This election also recorded a record number of first-time voters who believed Yakubu’s promise that votes would count.
Yakubu And Recent History Of BVAS
These enthusiasm rode on the back of Professor Yakubu’s assurance that the BVAS would be used to upload results from the polling units.
The crucial fact is that by uploading election results at the polling units, the system circumvents the axis of evil at the collation centres where the manipulations of votes is done.
Yakubu and INEC commissioner for information, Festus Okoye, repeatedly assured Nigerians on this point.
But as we now know, a “technical glitch” occurred on election day, disrupting the upload.
This technical glitch had been feared last September or so when Dr. Oby Ezekwesili in a tweet observed the reposting of the top IT staff by the INEC management.
Ezekwesili at that time wondered why those who had managed a successful process with the BVAS were being reposted. Now we know.
However, in the midst of the outrage the situation was already whipping up, the commission proceeded to announce results.
Upload of that results was still ongoing five days after the election, bringing to light insinuations of a script to deceive Nigerians.
Takeaway From February Election
The takeaway from the development is that we must begin to look forward to a system that puts the hope of the country beyond the foibles of an individual.
Many established democracies do not have the kind of centralised money-gulping election management body as we have in Nigeria.
We must do away with the system of an individual taking the responsibility of recounting the votes that have been cast and counted by the people in a unit.
We should look forward to a system as in the United States where communities and local authorities take charge of their votes and cascade it upwards towards larger constituencies independent of a money gulping bureaucracy as we have in INEC.
Also Read: Tinubu’s Victory: Ohanaeze Backs Peter Obi’s Court Moves
There should be no need to have a situation where the head of the electoral body would sit in judgment and preside over a perfunctory drama on national television.
Other Beneficiaries
Going that way as in America would also not just do away with INEC, but also the hangers on such as the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC and other NGOs who are said to depend on patronage from the election management body.
Was anyone shocked that many IPAC members were about the first to prod Professor Yakubu to go on with his night duty last Tuesday after controversies arose on the malpractices.
Many of them who have no electoral stake are simply maintained by the election management body for such public relations jobs, as they are doing presently.
Also Read: Election: Ohanaeze Makes U-turn, Begs Tinubu To Favour Ndigbo
Also, people have expressed shock that Professor Yakubu forged ahead to declare the results in the wee of the night.
They claimed that the decision to work in the dark was to ensure there would be no protests after the result was declared.
Will the truth come to light about the real role of INEC in the presidential election? The Judiciary is expected to, by power of checks-and-balances give reassure Nigerians that they could still trust INEC and put the name of Professor Yakubu in the right place it should be in the nation’s democratic history.
