This post reflects on the lessons learned from the 2023 General Elections In Nigeria
▪︎Nwoba Chika Nwoba.
The 2023 general elections in Nigeria may have come and gone, but the history, wounds created won’t be erased in a short while. For me, it’s a bittersweet episode full of lessons.
One of such lessons is the demystifying of the erstwhile Northern Nigeria’s voting prowess shrouded in somewhat crooked understanding. The deployment of the Bimodal Voter Verification and Accreditation System (BVAS) machine helped in checking and tracking what used to be the Northern Nigeria’s voting magic. It’s at the presidential election that I learnt the entire Southern Nigeria almost has equal voting strength as the North.
The multi million figures we used to hear harvested from each state of the core North didn’t reflect this time irrespective of the high turnout of voters. The BVAS eluded the manipulative tendencies that used to give the North undue prospects and regards as the powerhouse of the votes that determine who becomes the president-elect.
I will not write off the glaring fact that the elections conducted so far in 2023 witnessed massive rigging which didn’t emanate from field politicians, but from the electoral umpire itself – INEC and its agents. INEC failed the Nigerian people after giving them mind-blowing assurances of free, fair and most credible elections in the annals of electioneering democracy in Nigeria. Everyone thought it was going to happen as assured, not knowing that the party in power had a different scheming with the electoral umpire.
If the BVAS technology was optimally made use of by the INEC as they should have done, the outcome of the polls would have reflected the will of the people at the different stages of the polls. Rather than use the BVAS and playing the game by the INEC’s constitutional rules, the INEC and its drivers played the ostrich and gave victories to parties not deserving of such. The masses wailed and protested to rooftops, but INEC wasn’t moved. It went ahead to hastily announce a presumed winner, Bola Tinubu of the APC.
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In the electoral act as amended, a presidential candidate has to win in 24 states and the FCT, but such wasn’t recorded of the APC. INEC with the speed of light declared the party winner in the face of obvious irregularities brought to their own knowledge. The same thing happened at the other elections. Citizens lost interest and trust in the INEC, thereby ignoring the governorship and House of Assembly polls that took place concurrently on the 18th of March, 2023 in most states of Nigeria.
What seemed to be more shocking was the role of the INEC in making the entire process a child’s play. Most of the INEC’s returning officers seized the opportunity and haunted for financial gratification from agents of the political parties in power which they got in plenitude. Only in two or four states did the story change.
The rest of the states were a cash cow for the INEC agents and returning officers who are university Professors based in Nigeria. The outcry for change in leadership and improved process into better democratic practice didn’t get into their heads even as they later become the worst hit of the huge adverse effects, resulting in them embarking on months-long industrial action.
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It’s, therefore pertinent to assert that the 2023 polls didn’t do better than what it used to be in the past irrespective of the huge financial commitment pushed into it and the laws enabling the INEC to deliver transparent polls. As a person, one of the significant lessons I learnt from the entire process is the unmasking of the North’s theatrical voting advantage over the South which used to scare the South and weaken their urge to participate in the electoral process. By 2027, it’s all right to believe that the South if they can come together in one voice and action can produce a President, either a new person or continuity for the one already on seat as it would please the tribunals.
