I don’t agree that the admittedly flawed 2023 presidential election should be cancelled as requested by some people. Decapitation is not the right cure for a nagging headache. In spite of its imperfections, the rule of law is still the most civilised way of resolving any dispute known to man. So, no matter how aggrieved one is, the sanest thing to do is gather evidence to substantiate one’s allegations and approach the courts.
I confess that I am one of those who thought that polling units results are, as described by JS Okutepa SAN, “The pyramid upon which other results are built”. I had therefore expected that as soon as the polls ended and the results declared, such results would be uploaded on INEC servers or portal immediately or, at worst, soon after.
Apparently, for some reason which the forthcoming legal battles will unearth, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, did not live up to its promise. As a Nigerian, I feel utterly ashamed that we bungled this straightforward assignment before the whole wide world.
Emotions are understandably high. However, we have to allow reason to prevail by coming to terms with what has happened and fashioning out a peaceful way of resolving the issue. Bola Tinubu did not declare himself president-elect. It was INEC that bungled the sacred duty entrusted to it. The fact that both Atiku Abubakar of PDP and Peter Obi of Labour Party have taken their grievances to the courts, should bring down the tension a bit.
I have heard insinuations about how our courts have become cash-and-carry outfits. I consider such aspersions unfair and unwise. Why would any sensible person urinate in a well from which he hopes to drink? Whatever our misgivings, let’s give the courts a chance to rescue our politicians from themselves. Without the courts, dog would literally have been eating dog by now. So, let the discontented approach the temple of justice with absolute trust.
There are loads of video and audio clips making the rounds all over again. This time, many of them are simply focussing on the next round of elections and whipping up ethnic sentiments to win converts. The focus is no longer on party programmes but on ethnic baiting. The results of the presidential elections have given parties an indication of their strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps because it is rather late in the day to correct their perceived weaknesses, some have resorted to hate-vending.
My fear is that an ethnic war in a place like Lagos will just destroy the gains the city has made over the years. Some people are hell bent on setting the Yoruba against the Igbo as if the governorship election is a tribal warfare between the two groups. This kind of slant didn’t rear its head during the presidential elections. If it did, it was subliminally managed. On social media, for example, I am appalled that young people who haven’t taken their time to understand what happened in the past are flaunting all sorts of half-truths and outright falsehoods to create a wedge between Yorubas and Igbos. And some supposed senior citizens are cheering them on!
Discerning commentators have been warning the Igbos living in Lagos not to bite the bait as it is all premised on the fabled knee-jerk reaction of Igbos to any sort of challenge. The truth is that the all ethnic nationalities have the good, the bad and the ugly among them.
Some of the primitive sentiments expressed by the mostly faceless Turks behind the hate messages are too incendiary to share here. (I insist that the social surveillance role of the media should take the front seat at times like this.)
A fence-mending Igbo and newspaper columnist, Dr Ugo Egbujo, has been trying to pour oil over troubled waters by debunking the propaganda that Igbos don’t support anyone outside their ethnic group. Said Egbujo:
In 1999, the Igbo voted for Obasanjo en bloc
Obasanjo is Yoruba
Obasanjo lost Yorubaland but scored 85%+ in Igboland
In 2003, the Igbo voted for Obasanjo
Obasanjo scored 95% in some Igbo states
Obasanjo defeated Ojukwu in Igboland.
In 2007, the Igbo voted for Yaradua
Yaradua was Hausa-Fulani
Yaradua scored his highest percentage votes in Igboland
In 2011, the Igbo voted for Jonathan
Jonathan is Ijaw
Jonathan scored 95%+ in Igboland
In 2015, the Igbo voted Jonathan
Jonathan scored a higher percentage in igboland than the South-South Region
In 2019, the Igbo voted Atiku
Atiku is Fulani
Atiku scored a higher percentage in Anambra than Adamawa
In 2023, the Igbo voted Obi
Obi is Igbo
Once the Igbo voted Obi, they became ‘bigots’
Once the Igbo gave Obi what they had given Obasanjo, Yaradua, Jonathan and Atiku,
Igbos became ‘criminals’.
Nigeria, we hail thee!
On the other end of the spectrum is one nameless goon who widely circulated his video clip in which he was revving up Igbos to be prepared for war if that was what the Yorubas wanted. There are so many crackpots out there! They are not thinking of the implications of their utterances, only the ‘recognition’ that comes with 60 seconds of infamy.
Another strand of rumour-mongering passed off as ‘Breaking News’ rudely popped up on my phone the other day. The screaming post said a battalion of herdsmen was waging battle against farmers around the Owo area of Ondo State. The post went further to say that the locals should drive out foreigners from their midst before further damage was done. A couple of phone calls later, I wondered why anyone would just concoct a fable and pass it on as ‘Breaking News’ in the combustible environment we are in at the moment. Such stories are going round with the intention of inciting indigenes against non-indigenes.
This primitive and xenophobic disposition is very un-Yoruba-like! In ages past, the Yoruba have fought many civil wars among themselves before they emerged as a nation. No, these bush tactics are an affront to Yoruba civilisation.
The fact that this campaign of hate coincides with the electoral season is significant. If the security agencies are alive to their duties, they must have, by now, compiled a long list of ethnic bulldogs to prevent a needless bloodbath. If they do nothing, the stream of brotherhood may be poisoned and erstwhile neighbours may become sworn enemies as happened in Rwanda.
I have been to the Kigali Genocide Memorial at Gisozi, Rwanda, the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi. It is a grim reminder of what hate can cause. The systematic killing of 800,000 Tutsi people started with a campaign of hate which snowballed into targeted killings when a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down.
The genocide spread throughout the country with shocking speed and brutality, as ordinary citizens were incited by local officials and the Hutu Power government to take up arms against their neighbours. Hating Tutsis was considered nationalistic, if you were a Hutu. Just the way some people are euphemistically baying for blood now without bothering about how it will all end. They can’t even be bothered that their own tribesmen and women are also making a living in other parts of Nigeria and would be sitting ducks if things degenerate to “an eye for an eye”.
Anyone who still doesn’t know what an unspeakable horror genocide is should watch the film Hotel Rwanda. The Nigerian Civil War, horrific as it was, didn’t come anywhere near the Rwandan genocide in sheer savagery and bestiality.
Ethnic baiting was the same tool used by Adolf Hitler to unhumanise Jews and proclaim the superiority of the Aryan race. The result was a horrific genocide designed to eliminate European Jews. Many of the perpetrators of that dreadful crime were eventually brought to justice by the global community. There is no statute of limitation on horrors like genocide. In May 2020, one of the financiers of the Rwandan genocide, Félicien Kabuga, now 90, was arrested in Paris, 26 years after the crime. There can be no rest for the wicked.
Back to the presidential elections. What we require to put the matter to rest is a forensic audit of the entire process and the tools used. In this wise, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, will serve the same purpose that the Video Assistant Referee performs in soccer. Like the VAR, the BVAS has the power of recall. How many people were accredited? How many voted? What were the scores? Check all that against the original result sheets signed by all party agents. Aha!
Do you see why an audit is better than cancellation?
- Wole Olaoye is a Public Relations consultant and veteran journalist. He can be reached wole.olaoye@gmail.com, Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: woleola2021
