• Call for probe of the commission
The presidential election of 2023 may have come and gone, following the declaration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election in the wee hours of Wednesday morning, but the reactions of Nigerians over the conduct of the election have continued to reverberate across the country. The election also would go down in the annals of the history of the country as the most shambolic election ever, even though it was keenly contested. It was such an election that brought the Nigerian youths together across all divides, in their quest to be part of history and to also have a country to be proud of. The winner of the poll, understandably knows the mood of the nation and may have to save the country from the imminent danger it faces. The wrongs in the society need to be corrected, going forward. The international observers who monitored the elections picked holes in many areas where the commission was found wanting, given the fact that many Nigerians, old and young, who turned out in their millions, like never before, to vote for the candidates of their choice were denied of their rights. The INEC boss, Professor Mahmood Yakubu in one of his many appearances on television, talking about the elections promised Nigerians that the 2023 general elections was going to be the best and that he would not disappoint the country one bit.
That, all he asked for, in terms of naira and Kobo were expressly provided by the federal government is enough reason why many questions are being asked today where things went wrong after the heavy financial and emotional investments by everyone concerned in the elections. Information have it that almost a trillion naira was allocated to the INEC for this exercise, making it the most expensive election ever undertaken in the history of Nigeria. That over 93 million Nigerians, according to INEC, registered and less than 25 million participated in the election is also a cause for concern for future elections if adequate explanations are not given to Nigerians by the commission why it was so. People thought the game changer, as promised by the umpire, INEC, was the uploading of the results from the polling booth to the INEC server and viewing of the results on IREV as was the case in Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and other off season elections in the country. Yet, all the guidelines, unfortunately, were not followed. The implication therefore is that the acclaimed democratic gains, which the country has made in the last twenty-four years in deepening democracy may suffer serious setback if steps are not taken to right the wrongs, associated with the just concluded elections.
The long and short of the matter is that INEC has disappointed Nigerians after promising to deliver free, fair, transparent and credible election. Rather than resolving issues bedeviling the country for many years through credible elections, INEC has created doubts in the minds of the people and society, which would take some time to address. However, since we do not have to cut off the nose to spite the face, Nigerians should move on, and not resort to self-help since there are institutions of government saddled with the responsibility of looking into matters of this nature. Because the trust quotient of INEC is very low in the eyes of the people, we call for forensic audit of the commission to ascertain how it spent the funds allocated to it. Somebody should give account of why logistics failed in this exercise. However, we have a compelling duty as citizens to keep Nigeria together. Calm should be maintained at every quarter. This is the only country we have as our own. We must not pull it down. The presiden-elect should be magnanimous in victory and eschew discrimination of any kind!
