The intrigues trailing the 2023 presidential election is at fever pitch even as Nigerians turned out enmasse to exercise their franchise based on the assurances by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that their votes would count in deciding who becomes the president of the country.

The election had come with apprehension, anxiety, and tension across the length and breadth of the country. From Maiduguri to Enugu, from Sambisa to Agenebode, Warri to Kaura Lamoda, the anxiety was palpable.

The election literally seperated spouses, friends were divided, brothers, sisters and relatives were at dagger drawn over the choice of candidates to support in Saturday, February 25 poll. Like in the past, the entire country was divided along religious and tribal sentiments, and never in the recent presidential election in the country was the country set against itself than in the build up to last weekend’s presidential election

There was despondency and anomie at every part of the country and as days zeroed into hours and minutes for the political future of the country to be divided, many banked on the promises and assurances by the INEC to deploy tested and trusted electoral technologies especially the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) among others.

More and more assurances and reassurances came from the electoral umpire that the vote of Nigerians will count and banking on that promises, the youths and the old men denied themselves comfort, stood on voting queues for hours on end to be accredited and vote for candidates of their choice.

Permutations and calculations in favour and against the candidates, majorly the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and what political pundits tagged the game changer, the Labour Party (LP) heightened the hope and enthusiasm of the massive Nigerian electorate.

The d-day, Saturday February 25, was just like any other day. However, hours into the commencement of the voting, there was unfolding of admixture of anger and joy. Reports of voter intimidation, aggression, electoral malfeasance, vote buying, protests, malfunctioning and snatching of BVAS, underage voting, terror attacks, destruction of voting materials, insufficient materials, alleged aiding and abating by the security agents, and ultimately alleged clinical rigging of the poll in some states dominated the poll.

To some, preliminary reports show that the electoral umpire has monumentally failed to live up to the expectations of many Nigerians in many ways, yet to others it can pass for one of the best elections conducted.

The commission in its admittance was explicit in agreeing that teething challenges of poor logistics, perennial insecurity across the country, malfunctioning and snatching of BVAS and many more characterised the poll.

There were also dastadly attacks from bandits, Boko Haram insurgents, political thugs and vote buying from desperate political actors and according to the commission, they combined almost in equal proportion to attempt to discredit the poll.

Apart from the challenges the commission enumerated that characterised the poll, delayed arrival of materials and delay in commencement of the election, the protests from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) corps members and members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in reporting and conveying materials to polling units are also part of the poll. 

Announcing that security agents were able to recover three out of the about 10 snatched BVAS machines and restore sanity in some of the areas attacked, Yakubu said: “Let me inform Nigerians about how the election processes have gone, the challenges we have encountered and the measures we have taken to address these challenges.

“From our situation room, we have been observing the processes nationwide and have been receiving reports from state offices. As Nigerians are aware, the prevailing context for the conduct of the election is challenging. But there is also a sheer determination on the part of the commission to ensure that the elections hold under a free, fair, credible atmosphere.

“As most Nigerians are aware, this is the first time since 2011 that a general election has not been postponed as scheduled. It is part of the commission’s determination to ensure that we will continue to do what is right.

“So far, so good, and generally speaking, the BVAS deployed nationwide for the first time has been functioning optimally in most parts of country.

“We hear less and less of complaints about the functionality of BVAS than we hear about other processes. Based on the reports we have received from various states of the federation, and our offices in the Federal Capital Territory, some challenges were identified; one of which is the inability of the commission to open the polling units at the appointed hour of 8:30am in number of places. Some of the polling units opened late.

“Some of the reasons we could not open the polling units on time is first the perennial problem of logistics in spite of our best effort. I think in 2023, we have conquered the challenge of getting election materials to various locations, yet, there have been complaints here and there,” he admitted.

Yakubu however noted: “But generally speaking, we have delivered the hundreds of millions of ballot papers and result sheets that were supposed to deliver for the election. Another contributory factor to the late opening of the polling units is actually the perennial security in the county.

“For instance, we couldn’t deploy early enough to Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger States. Bandits launched an attack not necessarily on INEC officials but in the area. So on the advice of the security agencies, we tarried a while. But I am happy to say that we were able to deploy to that location and voting is ongoing as we see.

“Similarly, in Oshimili LGA of Delta State, thugs attacked a polling unit and two BVAS machines were lost in the process. But again, determine that election must continue, we were able to replace the stolen BVAS machines, reinforce security and voting continued in that location. Similarly, in Sabana LGA of Katsina State, thugs attacked one voting location and snatched six BVAS machines.

“We also lost three BVAS machines at Anyamelu in Anambra State but we have recovered from all these loses because we have contingency arrangements to respond to any such attack.

“Again, we were able to recover BVAS machines and reinforce security for voting to continue in that location. Happily, the security agencies have recovered three of the BVAS machines while three are still held by the thugs.

“So in these locations, the target of attack was actually the BVAS machines, no longer the ballot papers or ballot boxes but the BVAS machines. But, in the two instances, we did wherever we can to continue with the process. But there are also other complaints we heard from some political parties about the shortage of polling agents,” he admitted.

Shortly after his confession, when election results started trickling in, it brought temporary excitements to some electorate which turned into despair with the unconfirmed results from the northern parts of the country. The favourable and unfavourable polling units results complicated the situation.

The joy in some quarters had turned to despair following allegations of clinical and brazen alterations of polling units results. And as some electorate were trying to absolve the pains and agonies of the speculation of alterations of the results, parties issued threats and counter threats of their readiness to reject and or accept the result of the polls.

For the Labour Party, after threatening fire and brimstone over the refusal of the electoral commission to upload polling units results real time, they faulted the process of collating the result declaring that it will challenge the outcome in court.

The party in a statement on Sunday issued by the National Secretary, Umar Farouk Ibrahim said: “Recall that all parties signed the Peace Accord twice before the eyes of the world. Now is the time to abide by the terms of that accord and show love for country over and above personal ambitions. 

“We have all campaigned hard and strong. The Nigerian people have listened to all of us and made their decisions. Now is the time to hear the voices of Nigerians as the results are released and not our own voices. The body officially designated to reflect the voices of Nigerians is INEC.

“No party can bully them by threats to do its own bidding. Neither will the APC be cowed into silence by this disgusting antics of the opposition parties. We call on the International observers and friends of Nigeria not to be distracted, but to focus on the process as it unfolds,” the statement read.

The position of the LP was very mild compared to the warning by the ruling party to both LP and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) not to set the country on fire with their utterances.

In a statement, the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Festus Keyamo, lamented that the parties threatened fire and brimstone if their own version of some concocted results are not announced in a bid to be the judge, jury and executioner in the elections. 

They noted that they have played up some isolated incidents of violence in our strongholds with tons of videos of massive electoral malpractices to rile up their supporters against the country

Titled opposition parties must conduct themselves with decorum not to overheat the polity, the statement read: “Our attention has been drawn to some incendiary comments by spokespersons of the opposition parties, notably the PDP and the LP regarding the yet-to-be-announced results of the elections that held on Saturday.”

“Some of them have threatened fire and brimstone if their own version of some concocted results are not announced in a bid to be the judge, jury and executioner in this elections. 

“Similarly, to rile up their supporters against the country, they play up some isolated incidents of violence in our strongholds, whereas we have tons of videos of massive electoral malpractices like violence against non-LP supporters, forcing and guiding women and children to thumb-print ballot papers for LP and massive thumb-printing of ballot papers by both PDP and LP supporters in some parts of the country.

“In addition, in one breath, one of the spokespersons of the PDP complained about a certain headline in a newspaper about early results, yet in condemning the newspaper, he also makes unfounded claims about the yet-to-be released results. 

“On our part, we have decided to be calm to await the official announcement of the results and to pursue any grievance (if any) in a lawful manner. But we shall not sit back and allow such unguided comments to gain grounds in order to foist a particular narrative on our citizens and the international community,” the APC PCC noted.

Regardless of how tensed the situation might be, the reality is that all eyes are now on the electoral umpire to decide the trajectory of the political future of Nigeria with the authentication of the collated results.

Source: The Sun