INEC has fallen! The result of this election does not matter any more to me and I can bet it is the same for millions of Nigerians. Nigeria has indeed fallen. The country we fought so hard to protect whatever integrity it had left, is again at its lowest in the eyes of the world. We are now the joke of the world courtesy of Professor Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC chairman. He stabbed us where it really hurt most, the middle of our very fragile hearts.
A day before the election was officially postponed, a friend of mine, who is coincidentally a key contractor of INEC, hinted that the election would be postponed because of logistic issues that had overwhelmed the electoral umpire.
“INEC is in trouble. Everything about the election has gone wrong, from the quantity of electoral materials that they ordered to the distribution of the materials have become a nightmare. I hear the Air Force messed up the distribution of materials. The elections will have to be postponed as it cannot hold this Saturday as planned,” the individual said. “God forbid”, I replied. “It is not possible. I have spoken to some senior government officials and to some people close to the PDP campaign. This election must hold o. Everyone is ready for Saturday. A postponement will cause a devastating blow to Nigeria’s reputation, one it may never recover from,” I added. “You go see. It is a shame, but you know every info I have given you has been on point,” the businessman said.
At about 3am, just five hours to the official commencement of the vote, Yakubu would eventually confirm what we had dismissed as a rumour, by announcing the bizarre postponement during a press conference after a marathon meeting. The damage that Mr. Yakubu inflicted on Nigeria and Nigerians is unquantifiable. INEC’s credibility and integrity is again on the chopping line.
The big question is: How does INEC protect the integrity of sensitive electoral materials that were distributed to some Electoral Officers in states that had successfully mobilized for the election before the cancellation?
How it intends to reinvent itself and win back the people’s trust entirely depends on the integrity of the general elections. In the meantime, Professor Yakubu must step down from his position immediately, so that his replacement can be appointed from within the commissioners in the agency.
*** The author, Austyn Ogannah is the Publisher of THEWILL. Follow on twitter @ogannah
