INEC had four years and significant resources to prepare for elections which are the bedrock of democracy but again signally failed to discharge its simple duty in the full glare of the watching world.
Millions of Nigerians, though starved of cash from a government-inflicted bankruptcy, trekked and waited in inclement weather to exercise their right to self-determination from ruinous, criminal governance only for their votes to be abducted by “unknown gunmen.”
For the first time in decades, Gen. Buhari is not trying to thrust himself into power so it was expected that he would superintend a free and fair election but alas he didn’t.
Buhari had declared over 20 years ago that “we must never again allow an infidel rule over us.” His promise/threat was fulfilled when both major parties fielded non-infidels as candidates – one presidential candidate from his paternal Fulani stock and another VP from his Kanuri maternal side.
Yet even with this assurance of another Muslim Muslim succession after eight years through the main parties, they didn’t have the decency to conduct a reasonably proper election process.
What the watching world sees is the rank incompetence, impunity and criminality of the Giant of Africa’s elections. This is emblematic of what passes for governance in Nigeria every other day!
Given the numbers of observers of multiple nations present, it seems the westerners are here to have a good laugh at the brazen corruption while the Africans are here to understudy how to rig elections to share when they return to their countries.
Until we begin to arrest and prosecute perpetrators of election crimes, we cannot end this cycle of mass crimes against the citizenry.
Election-stealing offenses are the gateway crimes to looting the nation’s commonwealth. We must stop it from the incipient stage.
There must be an end to such wanton abuses of the electoral process otherwise “those who make peaceful change impossible, make violent change inevitable” will become a reality.
The only good legacy Buhari had left to leave was to midwife a decent election process. Yet again, he is failing humanity and history when he had no reason to.
Nigeria’s misruling class should be careful to note that citizens are hungry and therefore not escalate that to anger as that will have disastrous consequences.
Emmanuel Ogebe, Esq
International human rights lawyer and Diaspora Election Monitoring Observatory