With broken hearts and ready PVCs
Nigerians can’t say they are surprised by the election postponement; surely shocked and disappointed but not taken unawares. INEC has proved in recent times that conducting elections is no mere feat and twice elections have been inconclusive in Rivers and one or two other states.
I was among those at the fore-front of calling for the heads of a few online media channels that had broken the news that INEC was postponing the polls. It seemed like fake news and many were under the impression that it was politicians and political parties at it again, spreading fake news; to unbalanced their opponents or gain some kind of advantage by discouraging and disenfranchising ready and committed voters. INEC commissioner for voter Education at around 11.45pm, did deny the news and reiterated that elections were holding as planned. From then on, the landscape was slippery and no one could stand with a definite position as to whether the poll was taking place or not. Some persons placed calls to INEC-monitor and emergency dedicated lines and were still assured that elections were taking place. The fact that INEC commissioners were holding a meeting into the night of an election eve wasn’t any brow-raiser, but the attendant opposing news, breaking a postponement was what made the meeting suspicious. We were glued to our TV screens and our media pads, on a vigil for the most legitimate bit of information we could get. Most of us had situation rooms even before the elections started; seeing that the situation at hand wasn’t going to allow for any situation rooms the next day. The @inecnigeria handle was silent and that was half assuring, but then, the other social media outlets like Sahara, kept tweeting the same news of the postponement over and over again, almost 3 times within the space of an hour. The unforgivable thing was that, how come online media outlets knew about the postponement and yet INEC didn’t give an official position up until 3am? Shouldn’t there have been an earlier release, then followed up by the short speech by the INEC chair?
Corpers slept on the floor at INEC offices nationwide and it appears they are one of the groups that were most hit by the development. So many travelled via international flights into the country to exercise their voting rights. Domestic flights were over booked and many joined the millions of road travellers who were getting back home to vote. People paid for hotels and for food and fuel and all other arrangements to make sure they were ready to vote tomorrow. Saturday was Sallah and Christmas all rolled into 1 day and there was no wedding whatsoever planned to hold on Nigeria’s D-day!
INEC has come out to apologise which is in order and to do more of so won’t be an entirely bad idea too. It has also assured that security or other fears of the corruption or penetration of sensitive election materials aren’t the reasons of the postponement. This is refreshing as we all hope that elections are conducted peacefully, freely and fairly. The snag however is that candidates and political parties are going to lose time and voters.
The allegations and claims making the rounds that INEC has been compromised, or that Buhari is manipulating INEC are all in bad taste, unsubstantiated and the purveyors of these claims should even be penalised. Heating the polity is only to the advantage of unpatriotic elements who do not believe in one Nigeria and do not want to see to its progress and development. Irrespective of party affiliations and candidate choices, INEC is run by Nigerians and we must all collectively rally to support the electoral body to see it carry out its mandate of conducting elections. If INEC succeeds, Nigeria succeeds, if it fails, Nigeria fails. We remain broken hearted that our date with 2019 was cancelled on ‘date-night’, but our love for Nigeria keeps us engaged to our PVCs which we earnestly wait to use to impress upon the whole world that our democracy has come of age and we are capable of running our elections.
Tahir Ibrahim Tahir, Talban Bauchi