A
large number of Nigerians heaved a sigh of relief in the morning of
Sunday, August 10, 2014, when the Returning Officer of the
just-concluded Osun gubernatorial election, Professor Bamitale Omole,
announced that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC,
Governor Rauf Aregbesola, had won the election with a wide margin.
They
were happy not because the candidate of their choice won, but because
of what they thought might have happened, had the result been otherwise.
The APC leadership had threatened fire and brimstone should Aregbesola
lose the election.
The National Chairman of the
APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, threatened that his party would form a
parallel government if the polls were rigged against its candidate. The
candidate himself called on his followers to challenge the security
agents deployed to supervise the election with any means (including
charms) available to them.
The party’s National Publicity
Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, accused the Federal Government, the
Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and the security forces
of plans to collude and rig the election in favour of the candidate of
the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Together, they accused President
Goodluck Jonathan of “militarising” the Osun election to secure victory
for his own party.
The truth is that, contrary to this narrow and
self-serving posturing of the APC leadership, President Jonathan had
the broader and noble national agenda of reforming the country’s
electoral system and cleansing it of all the negative tendencies that
have given it a sordid image. It is a known fact that since political
independence, elections in Nigeria have been plagued by fraudulent
practices, ethnic and religious crises, violence, killings and
assassinations, etc.
There are millions of Nigerians still alive
today who witnessed the violence that erupted, following the elections
of 1964 and 1965, the Western Regional crises and threats of violence in
other parts of the country, all culminating in the first military coup
of January 15, 1966, which subsequently gave birth to more coups and
counter-coups until the new democratic dispensation.
In spite of
our launch into democracy, the elections of 1999, 2003 and 2007 were
severely marred by unprecedented electoral violence, fraud,
ballot-stuffing, intimidation and killings. Even the 2011 elections that
brought President Jonathan into power were not violence-free. There
were destructions and loss of lives and property in Bauchi, Akwa Ibom,
Kano and other parts of the country. The peak of it were the
post-election riots in some parts of the North, resulting in the death
of over 800 people, including 37 youth corps members.
Understandably,
President Jonathan has taken electoral reforms as a priority in his
administration’s transformation agenda. His main goals are to evolve an
electoral system that is manned by qualified, competent and efficient
personnel, enact electoral laws and guidelines that are beyond
manipulation and conduct elections that are free, fair and credible.
By
so doing, the President hopes to create in Nigerians confidence in the
nation’s electoral system. When, in acting capacity, President Jonathan
appointed Professor Attahiru Jega as Chairman of the INEC, he knew where
he was going. Since then, he has, through the National Assembly,
effected necessary amendments to the 2010 Electoral Act to seal up
loopholes and take care of areas that were subject to abuse.
Having
strengthened the administration, skills and personnel of INEC,
President Jonathan turned his attention to the actual conduct of
elections. His slogan of “one man, one vote, one woman, one vote, one
youth, one vote”, has become an unequivocal message to the nation’s
political parties and, indeed to the entire political class, that from
now on, election rigging would not be tolerated. And for those Nigerians
inclined to violent conduct during elections, the President’s
exhortation is yet another dictum that “his political ambition is not
worth the blood of any Nigerian.”
However, fully aware of our
history of electoral violence and the dangers posed by troublemakers and
political thugs who abound in our society, President Jonathan’s policy
is to ensure effective policing of elections through combined
police-military operations. Like most developing nations of the world,
Nigeria’s internal law enforcement institutions are yet to be fully
developed.
Compared to the nation’s population and geography, the
Nigeria Police Force is inadequate in manpower and equipment.
Consequently, its operations in civic functions call for the support of
other security agencies, especially the military. Experience has shown
that joint operations, involving personnel from the police, military and
other security agencies have been very successful in resolving
situations of insecurity, civil disturbances, violent protests or such
occasions as elections where peace may be under threat.
Starting
with the Edo State governorship election of 2012, President Jonathan has
effectively monitored all the elections conducted under his
administration. While police officers monitored closely what was
happening at each of the polling booths, the military stayed around on
the streets, just in the event of…
It was an arrangement which
Governor Adams Oshiomhole welcomed rather enthusiastically when he said:
“The army is here to deal with troublemakers. The only people who need
to be worried are those who want to cause trouble.”
President
Jonathan’s security arrangement has also worked effectively for the
governorship elections of Ondo, Anambra and Ekiti states. Now, it has
not failed the people of Osun State. And behold, the APC has been the
greatest beneficiary, among the political parties.
Those who
criticise the President’s security deployment as unnecessary
“militarisation” of elections are not only unfair but also mischievous.
John Udumebraye is a Political Analyst based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
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