The President of Nigeria, Muhammad Buhari was seen by Nigerians as being neutral before and during the 2023 general elections moreover as it concerned the Presidential election. Many saw him as not supporting the election of his party’s man, Bola Tinubu. This feeling of Buhari’s neutrality was borne out of his approach towards the campaign rallies of the party’s candidate, Bola Tinubu. He was scarce at the rallies as he never came out loud to support him.
Another pointer was his naira reprint policy which was seen as a ploy to check vote buying and rate of violence before, during and after the elections. His packaged neutrality was felt more when he insisted that votes must count and made calculated moves that seemed to reflect an order marched with swift action. In fact, it never occurred to most Nigerians that all these were a ploy to subtly favour the APC.
Buhari played the card of neutrality just to pave the way for his party’s presidential candidate, while he’s on the other hand seen as being transparent and a democrat. Buhari wasn’t any neutral. He supported Tinubu in secret. He only dribbled the mental optics of most Nigerians who had begun to forgive his past misgivings of leadership weakness and dotted silence when all that mattered was his voice to nip certain ugly things in the bud in the interest of the country and her citizens.
From the time of primary election to the time of election proper, Buhari stood silently strongly with Tinubu. He wanted him in the first place to pick the APC’s presidential ticket, hence his malignant silence all the while the exercise lasted. Tinubu won the ticket without encountering strong opposition in the APC which Buhari in a normal political circumstance could have spearheaded. It was as though he was exclusively destined to get the ticket in the glaring face of the odds that circumvented his aspiration.
Buhari was in full support of the Muslim-Muslim ticket that Tinubu ran with Shettima, his deputy. He was never at any point opposed to it. Many guessed that he was not at home with it, hence his presumed neutrality. Again, Buhari ordered the Naira reprint in favour of Tinubu and APC, his party against what many took it for. I got information that more than half of the N400billion that was minted was reserved for Tinubu and was given it on time. This source revealed that Tinubu shared the money on time to the APC governors and governorship candidates to help them fill up the voids that the scarcity of the new naira notes must have created. This manifested in the later ability of the APC elements in all the states to share money on the day of election and days preceeding it. One would wonder where they were able to source the money from when it was very difficult to withdraw N5000 in a day. The remaining cash from the N400B was kept unshared to the banks so that the opposition elements wouldn’t source money to be able to pursue the APC’s vote buying spree.
That was succinctly carried out and the target speedily achieved without opposition. While the opposition political parties were happy that Tinubu was not going to have the money to share, the APC’s in-house structure was laughing at their ignorance. While Nigerians were busy guffawing over the gaffes of Tinubu, the APC was at the other end laughing aloud knowing full well that the end was going to justify the means. And in the end, it was justified not minding that the party didn’t win the election in truth and in all fairness. Opposition forces didn’t see this coming. It came to them as shock.
All the APC’s structures were united in the task of delivering the party’s presidential candidate either by hook or by sinker, ignoring the loud hues of Nigerians and the international community. INEC was on the other end making vainglorious assurances it knew it was not going to fulfill. Yes, the idea of BVAS remains a nice one, but did INEC allow it to have a smooth sailing? Your guess is as good as mine. INEC in concurrence to the plans of the APC played along by not making use of the BVAS as planned. INEC hastily announced Tinubu winner of the election even when he didn’t win two-third of votes cast in the FCT which the electoral act succinctly captures and makes compulsory. The electoral act wasn’t drafted without the knowledge and concurrence of the INEC. The act as amended states that for a presidential candidate to be declared winner, such a candidate or the political party on whose platform he or she contested must have two-third of total votes cast in twenty four states and the FCT in its/their favour. This simply means that a prospective winner should be able to win two-third votes cast in Abuja the FCT. Tinubu didn’t win that in the FCT. While he got 19%, Atiku Abubakar of PDP scored 16% as Peter Obi of the Labour Party scored 61%. Was INEC not aware of this before declaring Tinubu the winner? Even if it wasn’t aware of it, I am sure that its attention was drawn to it by lawyers and other learned Nigerians. INEC’s insistence on declaring Tinubu winner justified the suspicion that was rife it actually isn’t independent as its name suggests.
In a shocking manner, the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu roared that anyone the outcome of the election didn’t please should seek redress in the courts. Was going to court easier than INEC doing the needful and right thing at that point tension was high and nerves frayed? Where was INEC rushing to? Who was it working hard, boycotting due process to satiate at that dire time in the democratic history of Nigeria? Why was Mahmood too quick to refer aggrieved parties to court instead of addressing their complaints that seemed to point toward the right things that INEC refused to do? Like an event recaptured in predestination, the INEC’s server into which the results of different states so far collated be transmitted became ineffective and nothing done to alleviate the mishap. One needed not to wonder why the INEC’s national headquarters’ Director of ICT was transferred to Enugu State to man an administrative office and a Yoruba man immediately appointed to replace him. This means that INEC ab initio had a concrete understanding with the APC top brass to rig the election. Although Nigerians complained about the sudden staff reshuffle at the time, they moved on bearing in mind that nothing was going to happen as the BVAS was going to prove that ineffective. Indeed, BVAS would have done that, but did INEC make use of it in counting and collating the results?
On a final note, Buhari played a senior man’s trick on Nigerians and members of the opposition. His calculated silence and inactivity before and during the elections were a ploy to veer off the focus of Nigerians and the international community from the fraud that was being fashioned by his political party under his very rapt attention and knowledge. It is, therefore pertinent to say at this point that Buhari played a criminally smart card on everyone who expected a perfect or near-perfect electoral exercise.
INEC in short failed the world. It proved Nigerians right who argued that the elections were going to experience unprecedented rigging tactics. This was what happened on the 25th of February, 2023 and 18th of March, 2023. Nigerians will never forget in a hurry how Mahmood Yakubu, Muhammad Buhari, CBN 
and the APC collectively failed the entire world and Nigerians in particular when their proof of difference and change mantra were needed the most!
-Nwoba Chika Nwoba.