April polls and INEC’s 35 percent voter turnout.

Ikechukwu Amaechi 08055069065, ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com 
 

I  had wanted to comment this week on the laughable, albeit, hypocritical lamentation of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) apparatchik over the rebellion in the House of Representatives which consigned the party’s zoning formula where it rightly belongs – the dustbin of Nigeria’s political history. 

If any issue in recent times had highlighted the two-facedness that reigns supreme in the country’s political space, it is the zoning controversy. This is a policy that most people agree was, perhaps, the most altruistic that ever came out of the ruling party. Giving the primordial tendencies that fan the embers of the centrifugal forces pulling our disparate ethnic nationalities ever apart, it was one policy that could assuage the anxiety of the contending forces and minimise tension.

But the policy was sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. Those who urged caution, including the former national chairman of the party, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, were called names and severely punished. Now, the chickens, to borrow a cliché, have come home to roost with the rebellion in the House of Representatives and PDP leaders, including the President are lamenting.

But that will be a topic for another day.

When I set out to write the two-part serial on the April elections titled, “In defence of Buhari,” I had no doubt whatsoever in my mind what the reaction of some Nigerians would be.

In a country where cringing hypocrisy had not only become an art, but also a booming industry, I knew the flaks would come from the vocal minority who claim to be the only patriotic Nigerians when their actions are informed by their insatiable quest for filthy lucre.

What I didn’t know, however, was that I was going to be vindicated so soon, and guess what, from the unlikeliest of quarters – the selfsame Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). I will come back to this shortly.

Suffice it to say that when I wrote the article, my goal wasn’t necessarily to disclaim Jonathan’s victory. I had argued here before the polls that the Presidential election was his to lose. Buhari lost when he was betrayed by the leaders of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) who went into an alliance with the PDP, a party they would haul over the coals when such rhetoric enhances their grip on power in the Southwest but collaborate with unabashedly when their selfish political interests are served. With former President Olusegun Obasanjo successfully putting a knife into what used to hold the North together and the calculation of the North Central political leaders that the political interest of their region will be better served if they align with political forces in the South, Buhari was out on a limb politically.

But the fact that Jonathan won an election he was expected to win did not make it free and fair. Again, I wanted to put a lie to the malicious tale that Buhari was behind the unfortunate post-election violence that claimed many innocent lives in the North, lies peddled by those who should know better.      

Now, every well-meaning Nigerian should take umbrage at the post election violence and the killing of innocent people. But I insist that we would have had the same violence in the South West if the ACN had lost the election and there was the perception among its supporters that the party was rigged out. The same thing would have happened in the South South if there was a perception that the election had been rigged in favour of Buhari.

Now, the question remains whether there is any reason to believe that the votes were manipulated? My answer remains yes. Some of the votes said to have been scored by some of the contestants in certain states and zones were simply unbelievable. The figures were bogus.

And I have been vindicated. INEC, the electoral umpire that claims to have conducted the freest and fairest elections ever in Nigeria admitted last Thursday what every honest Nigerian already knows – that only 35 percent of the about 70 million registered voters took part in the last elections. Prof. Attahiru Jega, INEC chairman, who made the disclosure through the chairman, INEC Board of Electoral Institute, Prof. Lai Olurode, at a workshop on voter apathy where the Friedrick Ebert Stiftung Foundation gave a report of its research on the elections said the poor turnout of voters was at variance with the belief that they showed much enthusiasm during the polls.

“That there exits voter apathy in Nigeria is no longer contentious,” Jega said. “Voter turnout in the just concluded general elections had provided a scientific and empirical evidence of the existence of voter apathy and disinterestedness of sections of the electorate in elections. The National Assembly elections, the Presidential election, the gubernatorial and state assembly elections concluded in April showed that voters’ turnout hovered around 35 percent. This ugly scenario has implications for popular participation and governance.” 

Yet, this is the same election where the same INEC announced a result which claimed that in a state like Imo where 1,611,715 registered to vote, that over 1,406,289 actually voted in the April 16 Presidential election and out of this number, 1,381,357 voted for President Goodluck Jonathan alone. 

But what happened in Imo was not an exception. The declared results in almost all the states were at variance with the actual votes cast by the electorate. So, how does INEC explain these massive votes given the reality of the 35 percent voter turnout?

Let me state for the umpteenth time that the April polls were fundamentally flawed and cannot be used as yardstick for determining whether Nigeria had indeed turned the corner in electoral matters. While those whose narrow political interests have been served by the outcome of the elections are ululating, there is need for caution. 

The danger we face when we decide to call a spade a hoe because it is ours is that if ownership changes tomorrow, for whatever reason, the new owners may fall back on the precedent to taunt us all, which is exactly what has happened with the PDP zoning formula in the House of Representatives.

But it is not enough for INEC to tell Nigerians that only 35 percent of registered voters actually voted in the April polls. Jega should go a step further to tell Nigerians and indeed the international community why, when it mattered most, the Commission decided to ignore its “scientific and empirical evidence of ... voter apathy and disinterestedness of sections of the electorate in elections,” to announce results that claim over 80 percent  voter turnout.