The much talked about 2023 General Election has come and gone, but the ripples it generated still linger. The performance of two key stakeholders, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security agencies, led by the police, also contributed to the final outcome of the election.
The performance of the police and its sister security agencies was, to say the least, less than satisfactory as the election was riddled with violence, resulting in the killing and maiming of innocent Nigerians.
In fact, one prominent feature of the election is violence. Although efforts were made to curtail the outbreak or threats of violence at some polling units across the country, they were largely unsuccessful since the security agencies were overwhelmed.
Many innocent Nigerians including policemen lost their lives while many others received varying degrees of injuries as a result of the violence that characterised the election in places like Lagos State, Kano and some states in the South-East.
After the Presidential/ National Assembly elections, the State House of Assembly elections took place in all 36 states, while there were 28 governorship elections as eight other states follow different timelines due to various court rulings.
The elections took place against a backdrop of economic hardship exemplified by sharpened fuel and cash shortages and a volatile security environment in many states across the country with cases of violence resulting in multiple fatalities.
The expectation of Nigerians for a well-managed election, ahead of the February 25 polls, was dashed by INEC’s failure to transmit the presidential election results from the polling units to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (Irev).
This flaw led to a tangible public disappointment and concerns about increasing voter disillusionment.
In its report on the election, a foremost election observation group in Nigeria, The Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) said the March 18th Governorship and House of Assembly elections were characterised by violence and suppression of voters.
A copy of the TMG report, signed by its Chairman, Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani) and made available to journalists noted that suppression of voters, violence, vote trading, padding, among others, marred the polls.
According to the group, “in the build up to the elections, there were reports of voters’ suppression and intimidation with threats of consequences as issued by well-known loyalists of some highly ranked politicians in the country”.
Rafsanjani said the failure of the security operatives to apprehend and prosecute issuant of such threats, further emboldened them to unleash mayhem on citizens on Election Day.
Rafsanjani said that TMG’s observation of the elections across the country spotlighted the issues of deployment of logistics, voter suppression, low turnout of voters, electoral violence, citizens and security agent’s engagement, functionality of the BVAS and IReV system, electoral security and vote buying.
INEC did well in terms of promptness of its staff and availability of equipment at the polling units on the day of election.
During the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections, THEWILL observed that the INEC officials and materials for election arrived safely and on time in most polling units across the country. With this development, enthusiastic Nigerians praised INEC for improving on previous elections as they were quickly allowed to cast their votes and return to their residences, with reports that the BVAS worked seamlessly and accreditation was done without unnecessary delays.
Confirming this in its report on the election, the European Union (EU) Election Observation Mission to Nigeria’s 2023 conceded that INEC introduced some corrective measures ahead of the polls, such as ensuring a timely delivery of sensitive materials, as well as introducing the use of election technology, but it criticised the electoral body for “lacking transparency”.
EU Mission’s Chief Observer, Barry Andrews, expressed worry that obstruction and organised violence prevented voters from freely expressing their will and voting the candidates of their choice, despite efforts by civil society to promote democratic values and standards in the country during the governorship and state assembly elections.
Andrews said that on Election Day, there were multiple incidents of thuggery and intimidation, which interrupted voting in various locations, primarily across the South but also in states in the North.
He said: “There were reportedly some 21 fatalities. In polling units in several states, violent incidents targeted voters, INEC personnel, citizen observers and journalists”.
The EU Observer Mission said it was particularly concerned that thugs “serving different interests” were used to “stop voters from expressing their free will” stressing that, “ At least five incidents were reported of journalists from well- established media houses being attacked or obstructed from their duties. It said most incidents were recorded in Lagos and Kano States.
EU Observers singled out Lagos and Kano states as the worst-hit by violence during the polls, while vote-buying was witnessed in some other parts of the country.
Andrews said, “Public confidence and trust” in INEC were “severely damaged” on February 25 due to lack of transparency and “operational failures” in the conduct of the Presidential and national assembly elections, noting that the polls revealed systemic weaknesses in the country.
The Mission also tasked the country to work hard to address the challenges confronting the electoral system in the future.
Andrews acknowledged that voting started on time with INEC ad-hoc officials “present and ready to serve the voter,” but he condemned what he described as disruption of voting by “multiple incidents of thuggery and intimidation of voters, polling officials, observers and journalists.
“There were no significant irregularities observed related to underage voting, presentation of PVCs and the accreditation of voters with BVAS. The BVAS was not functioning properly only in two of 183 observed polling units,” he stressed.
On incidents of “misuse of administrative resources” by politicians and their cohorts, the Mission decried how such resources were channeled through “various financial and in-kind inducements to voters”, giving an undue advantage to the party in power.
Andrews also said there was a “clear underrepresentation” of women as candidates, which demonstrated a “stark lack of internal party policies to support constitutionally prescribed inclusion” – contrary to Nigeria’s international commitments to eradicate discrimination against women.
“The extremely low level of women’s candidacies and consequent concerns for an expected low return of female representatives follows dismal outcomes for women in the national assembly elections. The lack of representation highlights an abject failure of political parties and lawmakers in the states, contrary to international commitments and the Constitution, to confront obstacles to meaningfully progress equal representation for an entire half of the population of Nigeria”, he said.
Speaking on People With Disability (PWD), Andrews said, “More than a third of polling units observed during voting were inaccessible for persons with reduced mobility, while in almost all polling units there were no assistive devices for visually impaired voters. Similarly, the protocols for prioritising vulnerable persons, including pregnant women, were not followed in more than a quarter (43) of observed cases.”
Speaking on how the Resident Electoral Commissioners in Abia and Sokoto were removed and replaced by Administrative Secretaries, the EU Observers said: “INEC has the power to delegate to and withdraw powers from the RECs but cannot legally dismiss these presidentially-appointed officers. This exposes systemic weakness in the electoral institutional design that obstructs fostering professionalism and trust”.
The EU Observer Mission also frowned at the way and manner the electoral umpire communicated with the public.
It said, “INEC communicated the postponement via a press release, without offering the opportunity for a press conference where media and stakeholders could ask questions.”
Parties Performance
Before the general election, four political parties- PDP, APC, LP and NNPP were tipped and considered as front runners. The election results had however shown that only three, APC, PDP and LP are in top form.
In the presidential election, the ruling APC through Asiwaju Bola Tinubu won the highest number of votes and was declared the winner of the election, having also achieved the required spread of 25 per cent in 24 states.
Tinubu scored 8,794,726 (36.61 per cent); Atiku Abubakar of the PDP scored 6,984520 (29.07 per cent); Peter Obi of the Labour Party scored 6,101,533 (25.40 per cent) and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP scored 1,496,687 votes (6.23 per cent).
The elections in Kebbi and Adamawa States were declared inconclusive.
The APC won in 15 states, PDP in nine, LP in one. The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) won in Kano state.
APC had seven state governors re-elected. They are: Inuwa Yahaya (Gombe), Mai Mala Muni (Yobe), Abdullahi Sule (Nasarawa), Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos), Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq (Kwara), Babagana Zulum (Borno).
The ruling party also secured wins for eight new candidates: Uba Sani (Kaduna), Bassey Otu (Cross River), Mohammed Bago (Niger), Umar Namadi (Jigawa), Ahmed Aliyu (Sokoto), Dikko Radda (Katsina), Hyacinth Alia (Benue), and Francis Nwifuru (Ebonyi).
Two PDP Governors – Seyi Makinde (Oyo) and Bala Mohammed (Bauchi) – secured re-election.
Seven first-term governors were elected on the platform of the PDP. They are: Kefas Agbu (Taraba), Caleb Mutfwang (Plateau), Peter Mbah (Enugu), Umo Eno (Akwa Ibom), Siminialayi Fubara (Rivers) and Sheriff Oborevwori (Delta).
PDP’s Dauda Lawal unseated Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle, while Abba Kabir of the NNPP unseated the APC in Kano State.
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
