RIGGING OF 2019 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

Sonnie Ekwowusi calls for vigilance during the Presidential election

What is giving the Presidency and the President Buhari camp so much hope that Buhari will be declared winner of the 2019 Presidential election despite the fact that he has plunged the country into a huge mess? Rigging. Except the forth-coming Presidential election is rigged in favour of President Buhari he will fail miserably at the polls. This is the subject matter topping public discourses these days. Most Nigerians are concerned that the 2019 Presidential election might be rigged in favour of Buhari. If you have not been following the conversations I suggest you do so. In the print media, on social media, in market places, in beer parlours, in offices, in sports and recreational centres and other public places conversations are raging on the possibility of rigging the 2019 Presidential election in favour of the incumbent president. In his article on the back page of this paper last Tuesday Reuben Abati excited many readers. He opined that considering that Abubakar Atiku (who has now wisely picked Peter Obi as his running mate) is a much more fancied candidate than Buhari the only option left for Buhari in order to win the Presidential election is to indulge in rigging. Incidentally the aforesaid Abati’s article has gone viral. It is being read and discussed on social media.

So, the fear that the 2019 Presidential election might be rigged in favour of Buhari is real. Not imagined. The fear is reinforced by the fact that Buhari has become a huge liability to the APC. Prior to 2015 Buhari was perceived as the man who could reorder Nigeria. But today he has become the disorder himself. This is a notorious fact requiring no proof. Even Buhari’s lovely wife Aisha has since passed a vote of no confidence on her husband. Besides, most Nigerians are simply fed up with Buhari. As a result they feel that he should give another person a chance to excel where he has failed. Owing to the incessant killings of the indigenes of North-East by the Fulani herdsmen most voters in the North-East will not vote for Buhari. Except INEC decides to allocate free votes to Buhari in Southern Kaduna, no indigene of the area in his right senses will vote for him. Ditto for the indigenes of Benue State. Why? Because Benue State has become the killing field of the Fulani herdsmen murderers. I do not foresee many voters in Adamawa, Taraba, Nasarawa, Kwara, and Plateau States voting for Buhari for obvious reasons. Neither will voters in Sokoto, Zamfara, Southern Borno or the Chibok area be keen on voting for Buhari. Yoruba land at the moment is divided over Buhari. It is not unlikely that reprisal voting might be recorded against Buhari in the Yoruba swing states.

Except Buhari rigs his way in Igbo land he will get little or no votes there. Why? Because he has thoroughly humiliated the Igbos. Buhari vowed to punish the Igbos for not massively voting for him in the last presidential election. And he is indeed punishing the Igbos. For instance, he had denied Igbos juicy political appointments. He has desecrated Igbo land with pythons. Buhari went as far as sending military pythons to invade and damage Igbo land in what was tagged Operation Python Dance 1 & 11 (Egwu Eke 1 & 11). The first invasion took place from November 28 to December 27, 2016 in the five South East states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. The second python invasion occurred from September 15 and ended on October 14, 2017 in the same five Igbo states. Despite the stiff opposition to the invasions, the pythons did incalculable damage in Igbo land. The video clips of the invasions show that several civilians were either murdered or badly injured or publicly flogged or harassed or hounded by the pythons during their various sting operations. If not that the Presidential election is approaching Buhari was even

NIGERIANS WHO MONITORED THE OSUN STATE GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION ARE STILL QUESTIONING THE INDEPENDENCE, IMPARTIALITY AND TRANSPARENCY OF THE PROF. YAKUBU-LED INEC

contemplating sending Python Dance 111 (Egwu Eke 111) to do more damage in Igbo land. Therefore, no sane Igbo man or woman will vote for Buhari in next year’s Presidential election.

The deduction from the foregoing is that Buhari is not a saleable candidate anymore. He cannot win any free and fair Presidential election. The only way he can win is through scientific rigging. The scientific rigging that occurred in Edo, Ekiti and Osun governorship elections are indications that the 2019 Presidential election might be rigged in a similar manner. Nigerians who monitored the Osun State governorship election are still questioning the independence, impartiality, transparency of the Prof. Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC. The people were shocked that after the State Returning officer Mr. Joseph Adeola Fuwape allegedly received a telephone call from highest quarters he announced that the Osun election was inconclusive. Therefore INEC needs close monitoring from now until the 2019 elections are over. The Oxford dictionary defines rigging as managing or conducting something fraudulently so as to gain an advantage. Therefore election rigging means election fraudulently conducted to the advantage of the rigger. Which means that rigging of an election goes beyond snatching of ballot boxes or other electoral malpractices and gerrymanderings committed at the polling booths or some other places on Election Day. Election rigging is the manipulation of the whole electoral process to the advantage of a particular candidate or a particular political party. This manipulation often goes on undetected. It starts at the voters’ registration exercise. Once the voters’ registration list is fraudulently procured, the elections conducted with it are bound to be tainted by fraud. Right now we don’t even know whether the voter registration list that would be used by INEC in conducting the 2019 elections is the true list or fake one. We don’t even know the part of the country in possession of the largest quantity of PVCs and how they would use them to rig the 2018 elections. I am aware that many eligible voters do not even have the PVCs with which to vote in 2019, meaning that they have been disfranchised. What are the true identities of the INEC personnel appointed by Buhari to conduct the 2019 elections? It would require the utmost degree of impartiality, honesty and integrity on the part of INEC officers especially the Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC) and Electoral commissioners, to conduct the 2019 Presidential election efficiently, honestly and impartially. But unfortunately many INEC officers will not be unbiased umpires in the conduct of 2019 elections. Some are secret card-carrying members of some political parties. Others are on the pay-roll of some political parties.

Therefore perpetual vigilance is called for as the Presidential election approaches. Certainly a compromised voters’ registration list begets a compromised election. Worst still, a compromised INEC begets a compromised election. It would be fool-hardy for the PDP to assume that it will win the Presidential election by the fact that it is presenting Atiku-Peter Obi ticket. The APC has not stopped boasting of its rigging machinery. Buhari is a bad loser. The last time he lost the Presidential election he threatened violence. Therefore he will do everything possible to ensure that Atiku does not defeat him in the forth-coming Presidential election. Mind you, the tussle between Buhari and Atiku is more than an electoral tussle: it is a tussle of pride; a tussle for supremacy. Buhari is no pushover. He could do something before the election to win cheap popularity. For instance, he could secure the release of Leah Sharibu to win last-minute approbation. Therefore it is not over until it is over.