By Tonnie Iredia
The July 14, 2012 Governorship elections in Edo
State, were reportedly overwhelmingly won by the
incumbent Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
According to the election results, the Governor won
in all the 18 Local Government Areas of the State.
Some discerning minds that were described at that
time as cynics were however unsettled because of
reports of the role which money played in the
process. Many members of the main opposition
party-the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) allegedly
sold out while the law enforcement agencies were
said to have been overtly partisan.
Even some politicians in the uniform of Chiefs
reportedly assumed the role of canvassers on
account of material benefits like Jeeps. Expectedly,
everyone ignored the cynics because the results
showed that the Governor defeated his opponents
and their sponsors even in their own polling
booths.
When therefore, a local government election in the
state was fixed for April 20, 2013, everyone
expected the ruling party- the Action Congress of
Nigeria (ACN) to once again, use its incumbency
and the acclaimed popularity of its Governor to
trounce the opposition.
Some analysts even introduced the symbolism of
football into the issue by predicting that the
election would take the form of a football match
between Brazil, the acclaimed best football playing
nation and one of the poorly rated countries. In
other words, ACN was generally expected to
trounce its opponents the way Brazil would
humiliate a weak team by putting up a transparent
superior performance that would make her record
as many as 7gooals to nil.
The world would however, be obviously and
exceedingly shocked to hear that Brazil won the
game just because the match officials –all of them-
appointed by the Brazilian Football Association,
arrived late to the pitch only to record more goals
than were scored during the match which lasted far
less than half the prescribed regulation time.
This strange scenario appears to be what played
itself out last week Saturday, when the ACN
appointed election officials put on the toga of the
infamous defunct Federal Electoral Commission
(FEDECO). The latter was the nation’s electoral
body which was disbanded 30 years ago, after it
conducted the 1983 general elections which saw
the ruling party- the National Party of Nigeria(NPN)
winning more votes than were available as well as
emerging victorious in centres were elections did
not hold.
From the testimony of Independent observers,
materials for the Edo local election got to polling
stations in Benin City-the state capital as well as
the operational headquarters of the electoral body
as late as between 4 and 5pm. Whereas the
lateness warranted the postponement of elections
in such polling stations, the electoral body was able
to ‘conduct’ elections in other polling centres –
some of them over 100 kilometres from the same
Benin City!
So many bizarre tales concerning the poor show
donot deserve a recount here. Even if youths who
ceaselessly protested many days after the event
were sponsored to do so, we need to remember
that in the last 5years, Edo citizens have been
adequately schooled by their government on street
protests. In addition, the contributory negligence of
the election administrators justified the protests.
The immediate issue before us now, is not in
earnest, the suspected case of partisanship of the
electoral body, but the proven case of its
constructive inefficiency- a charge that would have
similarly been sustained if the opposition party- the
PDP that is now crying foul was the one in
government. Of course, a PDP government would
have also employed the Electoral Commission as a
tool of election rigging.
Indeed, there is no difference between the ACN and
the PDP particularly in Edo State. As the Publicity
Secretary of Edo PDP testified the other day on
national television, majority of ACN members
defected from the PDP obviously taking along with
them, the rigging expertise they garnered from
their old party
The Edo State “Independent” Electoral Commission
performed woefully and ought to be dissolved
without further delay. This is necessary because
unlike what happens in other climes where bodies
which fail in their assignments resign, the edo
electoral body will not of its own quit because it is
not in the character of Nigerian public officials to so
act.
The Commission cannot even apologize for the
lapses because they were deliberate. The pain in all
of this for the citizenry is that once again, we are
unable to conduct free and fair elections- a feature
which has characterized every Nigerian election
even before independence notwithstanding the
encomiums being poured on the current
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Perhaps, political violence and the snatching of
ballot boxes may have reduced but those are not
enough to bestow free and fair elections on our
nation. Nigeria needs to move with the times and
adopt current best practices in election
management. For instance, the conduct of an
election ought not to be premised on faulty
statistics.
In 2010, INEC organized a voters’ registration
exercise. Till date, those that were captured as
prospective voters by its temperamental “DDC”
machines are yet to be issued with proper voters’
cards. The Commission has also not been able to
revise the register since then.
Consequently, some registered voters who have
since died are still listed in the register making it
obvious that every election that has been held
since then has been based on inaccurate figures.
Similarly, many citizens who were unable to
register in 2010 as well as those who have since
attained the voting age after the 2010 exercise
have been disenfranchised in every election held
between then and now including the recent edo
local elections.
It is inappropriate to describe as successful,
elections in which some persons who are qualified
to participate are officially but inexplicably
excluded. It is worse to condone elections marred
by avoidable lapses like shortage of materials or
late arrival of election personnel and materials to
voting centres. In every Nigerian election, these
vices partially manifest in one form or another of
the FEDECO ghost. It was however, the full ghost of
FEDECO that resurrected in Benin City, Edo State
on Saturday, April 20, 2013. It is a shame.

New PDP system...now they are proud of rigging election in the past cos most of their members are now ACN..so am a ritualist and then made up my mind to join better people with saint opinion! Any problem with that?

@OP, do you mean CAN or ACN ? Ok, heard there have been protests in Benin after the last lg elections

All of these confirms that the one man one vote mantra being mouthed by Oshiomhole is just empty rhetorics. It also confirms that when it comes to election rigging, ACN is not so different from the PDP. In actual fact, the quality of elections conducted by Jega's INEC is better than the ones conducted by any of the SIECS.
Oshiomhole was one of the vociferous critics of the proposed constitutional amendment that wants to place LG elections under INEC control and scrap SIECS. It is now apparent why he wants to control the SIECS.

All of these confirms that the one man one vote mantra being mouthed by Oshiomhole is just empty rhetorics. It also confirms that when it comes to election rigging, ACN is not so different from the PDP. In actual fact, the quality of elections conducted by Jega's INEC is better than the ones conducted by any of the SIECS.
Oshiomhole was one of the vociferous critics of the proposed constitutional amendment that wants to place LG elections under INEC control and scrap SIECS. It is now apparent why he wants to control the SIECS.