J G Nkem Onyekpe

J G Nkem Onyekpe

Because flawless elections are an aberration in Nigeria many think we  should  continue to rig elections with impunity. This intellectually and morally wretched category of people maintain  that litigation cannot cause any reversal of the  declaration of  Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as the winner of the February 25, 2023 presidential election.

The two major opposition  parties, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and the Labour Party, LP, the  Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, local and international observers, eminent  Nigerian personalities, electoral officials, the voters themseves, etc, have alleged  that  the election was marred by massive rigging, grand corruption, pervasive  violence, and partisan exclusion of selected parts of the country from voting. The Independent National  Electoral Commission,  INEC, in charge of elections is said to have carried out its electoral work  without the application  of some of the fundamental  and clear provisions of the electoral laws  of the Nigerian State.

Besides, the declared  winner of the presidential election, Asiwaju Tinubu, did not win up to one-quarter  of the votes cast in the Federal Capital  Territory, FCT, Abuja, a requirement  that is clearly  stated in the Electoral Act. The opposition  parties, the PDP and the LP, have embarked on  litigation. Leading members  of the political and business elite and different interest  groups have continued to congratulate  Asiwaju Tinubu on his declaration by the INEC as president-elect in spite of the fact  that the outcome  of the election is a subject of litigation.

Is it not against common sense for any responsible citizen or group to congratulate the main beneficiary of an elections that is a subject of litigation  and that has ignited protests and has the potential  and capacity to  ignite and sustain more protests in its aftermath? One would have expected that  those in jocundity of celebration with the  declared winner would have exercised  some caution and circumspection, that they may not run into the difficult  problem of how to congratulate any of the other contestants, Abubakar Atiku, Peter Obi, or Rabiu Kwakwanso tomorrow  after they have congratulated Bola  Tinubu today.

Yes, I began my comments with the characterisation  of those who are already dancing for or with Bola Tinubu as  intellectually and morally wretched people.

The intellectual  thinks for society, his concern is about how society can make progress by moving  from “what is” to “what ought to be”. No intellectual qua intellectual, who is thinking  for the good of society, can afford to rigidly hold the position  that, because in Nigeria litigation  does not or rarely changes  the outcomes of elections as pronounced by the electoral body, then the polity should not be bothered about the way it organises its elections and the legitimacy of their outcomes or the  lack of legitimacy.  Concerning  the morally  wretched, they are unscrupulous people  who, in all they do, are primarily driven by what they estimate and expect as their personal gains. This is the category of people  who think the good and progress of society  should be subordinated to personal interests.

As far as they are concerned , morality  exists  only in the lexicon  of self-righteous mortals. And so, as they parasitically benefit from the abuse  of the state and society through the  rigging of elections and the emergence of the fittest by  Machiavellian and  Mephistophelean methods and tactics,  they mock the believers and advocates of due process and  those disadvantaged and harmed by the abuse  of the state and society and their defined laws and challenge them to  approach the courts of law. Dead as they are in their arrogance, they would always chastise their opponents: We will meet in court! But the  question is:  Whose  court?

JGN Onyekpe, PhD; fhsn.

Department of History and Strategic Studies,

University of Lagos, Akoka.