ELECTIONS: Nigeria is still pursuing shadows, by Tonnie Iredia

In less than 4 months from now, Nigeria will hold its 2027 general elections; yet, not many would believe the assurances by the electoral body that the process will be free and fair. No one can blame the doubting Thomases because the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC is notorious for not keeping its word. Just before the last general elections in 2023, INEC told the nation that it would premise its operations on modern technology: indicating specifically that there would be both manual and electronic collation of votes etc.

But it neither kept the promise nor did it present a posture of an organization that meant what it previously promised. It did not even convey any iota of remorse for misleading people. If therefore some people have continued to reject the results of many segments of the election, it is not because such persons are bad losers, instead it is because our elections are intrinsically incredible.

It is simplistic to argue that after the highest court of the land has determined a case, it should be rested. However, to abide by a verdict of the Supreme Court because one believes in the rule of law does not mean that every such case was persuasive or seen by everyone as real justice. For example, there is a particular governorship election where our apex court had ruled that the correct candidate of the winning party was candidate A.

On its part, INEC eventually declared candidate B as the winner. But our courts disagreed, recounted the votes and gave victory to candidate C. The case was further compounded by the fact that in the end, the recount turned out to have more votes than voters.

To start with, how was candidate C able to contest an election that the court had earlier recognized candidate A as the lawful contestant of the same party? Again, why did the same court accept to recount the votes at the instance of candidate C? Answers to these questions would establish clearly that credible elections are different from those for which people work to the answer while leaving substance to pursue shadows.

If we want to stop pursuing shadows, the first thing is for INEC to do something about politicians within its fold. As referees, all persons within INEC are by our constitution not allowed to be partisan. They must therefore be above board like Caeser’s wife.