Polls’ Shift: Why Nigeria’s Social Contract Must Not Be Endangered
That Professor Attahiru Jega-led Independence National Electoral Commission (INEC) had postponed the all-important April General Polls, which now hold on April 9 (national legislative polls); April 16(Presidential); and April 26 (Governorship & state legislative) may not be surprising to critically observable minds in and outside Nigeria, but what is factually irreconcilable, disturbing and shocking are the unquantifiable losses incurred by Nigeria and Nigerians during the April 2 botched national legislative polls. The failure of the polls’ preparations in which the Commission was given every human and material supports so requested, including borrowings from internal and external sources so as to enable the it conduct successful and credible voter registration and polls for Nigeria and Nigerians outside any excuses such as the ones leading to the postponement of the national legislative polls ,in the middle of same penultimate Saturday, as well as the re-scheduling of the presidential and the governorship/State legislative polls is the grand-undoing on the part of the Commission.To ensure no excuses from the Commission, the Federal Government of Nigeria had provided it with over N200Billion (about $1.5Billion) since 2009, in terms of budgetary and supplementary budgetary allocations, so as to enable it prepare for, and conduct these sets of elections. The constitutional requirements, as per the number of the Commission’s National Commissioners and States’ Resident Electoral Commissioners were also met. This is not to mention a multi-billion naira worth of grants and development assistance from some foreign donor bodies.
Also, a critical overview of the Commission’s handling of the botched polls , leading to the shifting of the entire exercise clearly showed that mounting shortcomings dwarfed the botched polls’ conduct apart from the said dearth of sensitive electoral materials in “many parts of the country”. For instance, the Commission failed woefully to adhere strictly to the times fixed by it, that is to say, time for accreditation (8: a.m. to 12:noon); thirty-minutes break(12:noon to 12:30p.m.); and voting time (12:30p.m. downwards). From reports across the country, many INEC’s substantive and adhoc staffers made it to the polling centers as late as past 10.a.m. while in some centers; no single staffer of the Commission was sighted as at past noon. There was no report of any polling center in Nigeria being empty, meaning that voters’ turn-out was very impressive.
Even if the sensitive electoral materials were to be sufficiently available, a good number of registered voters would have been disenfranchised owing to the stringent conditions introduced for the voting process and the magisterial conducts of many staffers of the Commission, especially those that arrived their duty posts very late. For instance, a good number of registered voters were shut out and denied accreditation once it was past 12: noon, on the grounds that “accreditation ends by 12: noon”, even when it was indisputable that the Commission’s staffers in those polling centers arrived as late as 11:45a.m. Also, if these two sets of national legislative polls had gone ahead in the events of these gross shortcomings, many voters would have been disenfranchised and many popular contestants denied an opportunity of emerging victorious because in legislative polls, spread does not count but highest number of lawful votes cast for a particular candidate counts. The express implication is that assuming , for instance, in the Anambra East and Anambra West Federal Constituency, things worked out favourably on the now botched national legislative Polls’ day in one of the two LGAs, and failed in the other, either of the candidates that got higher votes would have scaled through at the expense of the other disenfranchised LGA and its voters.
It is not enough to announce the shifting of the polls and new dates for same. The ability to surmount the man-made problems inherent in the botched exercise is a major task on the part of INEC. Another very difficult task is how to bring back the disenchanted, insulted, and disappointed and provoked Nigerian voters, who defied all odds to troop out en mass in the country’s 132,000 polling centers on the botched polls’ day, back to the voting fields. Especially, when they are to elect a set of leaders, most of who hardly remember their social welfares when elected and sworn-in. The great Nigerian voters may have trooped out en mass penultimate Saturday, not because those to be elected are keepers of the social contract, but because “nature abhors vacuum”, just like a society without law is deemed chaotic and riotous. Ordinarily, the great Nigerian voters may not border to elect 1,685 people that will occupy top elective public offices in Nigeria, comprising: one president, one Vice president, 26 governors, 26 deputy governors, 109 senators, 360 House of Reps members and 1,152 House of Assembly members, who, alongside their over 3,800 “concubines” (Judges, Ministers, Commissioners and other designated senior aides), will annually pocket over N1.2Trillion from Nigeria’s commonwealth, leaving the remaining 150million Nigerians in abject penury.

Emeka Umeagbalasi is Chairman, BOT, International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Onitsha, Nigeria