Atiku and the PDP should proceed  with the challenge

Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and PDP presidential candidate in the 2019 Presidential election

By EMMA OBUNIKE NWOSU

The purpose of an election is to identify service team members (not lords)to be entrusted with the running of the society, by the will of the people freely exercised. The probability of utmost good faith (and, consequently, service delivery)between those elected and the people, will be higher where the election is credible than where it is not. It is in this sense that credible election is seen as the foundation of democracy, accountability and prosperity. A credible election is one which is impersonal, orderly and transparent in process and in participation; in which the voters are adequately informed, educated and empowered to freely choose candidates (without undue influence) and in which the outcomes reflect the expectations of the majority. Coups d’etat, as we have had, can never pass for credible election!

The February 23, 2019 Presidential election is too riddled with ‘coups’ and cannot stand, in spite of all the effort to polish it. There were many instances of militarization, intimidation, disenfranchisement, vote-buying, underage voting, manipulation of numbers and double standards, etc. It is worse than every national election ever held in Nigeria. The nearest in chaos is that of 1964 general election during which the Action Group and its supporters in the Western Region were besieged and emasculated by Federal Government forces, with fake results issued from various constituencies. That mayhem of an election (and the subsequent upheaval)was the last straw that precipitated the January 15, 1966 coup d’etat by zealous army officers who moved (in their own way) to save the country from the delinquent political class. In the aftermath was a counter-coup, a Civil War, the bastardization of the federal fiscal regimen and there treat in the momentous economic and social advance of the regions of the federation, to this day!

The events leading up to the Presidential election of February, 23, 2019 are analogous to the ones that lead up tothe 1964 general elections. In particular, all the institutions of state were captured by the ruling party, to do their bidding and, especially, to suppress the opposition. This was made more obvious, among others, by the pattern of President Buhari’s appointments, his refusal to endorse the amendment of the Electoral Act (designed to improve the credibility of the 2019 elections)and his premeditated suspension of the Chief Justice of the Federation, on trumped-up charges -ahead of the inauguration of post-election petition tribunals and post-election trials – obviously, with the intention to cling to power, head or tail!

Allowing that ‘Animal Farm’ election of  ‘might’ to stand can only guarantee that future elections would geometrically get worse to the demise of Nigeria. Since we cannot entertain another military intervention and would not let our country perish, it is to the judiciary that we must turn to teach our leaders and politicians that state institutions are not their private property but belong to the people in general whose will must be allowed to prevail in a democracy. That is the only way left to correct their delinquency and to rebuild our electoral process and democracy. Forget Nigeria soon if that election goes unchallenged!

Those appealing to emotion or blackmailing the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate in that election, to let the result be, instead of addressing the issues at stake, are either ignorant or mischievous but are the true enemies of Nigeria. Anyway, Atiku Abubakar has come a long way as a credible democrat and cannot now abandon us in the lurch. His presentations would elucidate the impunity that characterized that election and enable the judiciary, the last hope of the underdog, to save the situation and to send a strong signal against future impunity so that sanitization can earnestly begin.

There is no basis for forbearance. Everything that happened was premeditated from the beginning of Buhari’s government and not accidental. Anyway, in all his failed bids for the Presidency, Buhari never failed to charge any opponent to the judiciary. It is his turn to be charged. Moreover, his administration has no redeeming feature: Nigeria is worse, on all parameters, today, than when he took over in 2015. In particular, the economic outlook has become grim. All the more incensing is his apparent readiness, in the manner of medicine after death, to sign the Electoral Act Amendment only now, after the system has been abused in his favour with theextant defective Act!

In many states, figures of votes cast do not add up. For example, about two million votes were cast in Kano State, which is twice the number of votes cast in Lagos State with comparable census and voter populations. The votes cast in Kaduna and Katsina states, which used to be one state, total more than the votes cast in the whole of the South-South, not to talk of the South-East! Borno State that is under the siege of Boko Haram almost recorded more votes than the whole of the South-West!Ironically, the regions of the North-West and North-East are the most ravaged by insecurity and poverty under the All Progressives Congress (APC) government. Meanwhile, in the governorship election, we have seen the PDP running so neck-to-neck with the APC in many of the North-West and North-East states that the deviation from the Presidential election results cannot stand!

Let the do-gooders go and rest. Let Atiku Abubakar and the PDP ignore their ignorant and mischievous ranting and proceed with the challenge of President Buhari’s re-election in order to save our democracy!