The returning officer’s power of veto – By Evaristus Bassey

I do not think there is any single event in our entire history as a nation that has capacity to bring down morale and corrupt morals as much as the conduct of the just concluded 2023 elections, especially with regard to the presidential elections. I recall a story told about an encounter between a wealthy man and a poor homeless man. The wealthy man saw a poor homeless man cold on the streets without a winter jacket and promised to bring him one as soon as he got home. On getting to the house, he became distracted and forgot. The following day as he remembered and rushed to the scene, the man had died of cold, with a note saying that while he hadn’t any coat and no hope of one, he could survive the cold, but the promise of a coat gave him hope and made him lose his coping capacity. The wealthy man could only shed tears of regret.

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As Nigerians we could live with the electoral shenanigans that were characteristic of Nigerian politics in the past. We lived through the electoral heists of Obasanjo. Rigging in the form of massive thumbprinting of ballot papers, confiscation of the form EC8, ballot snatching, voter intimidation was all normal. Political parties rigged where they were strong, and because the PDP had the wider spread, they rigged the most. Even as they rigged and declared themselves winners, it didn’t go too far from people’s expectations. We always knew PDP would win the presidential elections because they were actually the only party with national spread, while other parties would secure the governorship in states they were stronger.  In 2015 even though rigging took place, when Buhari was declared winner, it didn’t differ too much from people’s expectations. The APC propaganda machine had worked quite well in casting President Jonathan’s government as clueless, and people desired a change. When in 2019 Buhari was again declared winner, since it was a contest between two extremely corrupt parties, many Nigerians didn’t care about the outcome, as it was already expected that Buhari was no Jonathan and wouldn’t leave the seat without completing eight years even if he had only one vote! Many Nigerians gave up on any fair electoral processes, especially as Buhari refused to sign the revised electoral act that would introduce more technology and limit human interference. And then suddenly Buhari signed the electoral act 2022 and INEC began raising our hopes to high heavens with BVAS, real-time transmission of polling unit results to the iREV and so on.

We were on our own minding our business when INEC brought all these innovations into the electoral process and inspired confidence in the system, leading to a tsunami of citizen participation.  Youths especially saw the 2023 elections as an opportunity to take back their country. When Peter Obi ported to Labour Party and declared for the presidency, millions of youths and other well-meaning Nigerians spent their own funds canvassing votes for the Labour Party believing that their votes would count. Many shows of strength were conducted by the youths with many organizing rallies across Nigerian cities.

Citizens participated so much because all genuine change must begin from the electoral process. Democracy thrives when citizens possess the ability to change their rulers. Millions of citizens genuinely believed that INEC would be neutral, and that they were in control of this change especially with the available technology, only for us to be scammed by INEC, with Prof. Mahmood as the poster boy of entrenched vested interests! Without a basis for the announcement, Mahmood went ahead to declare a winner, not minding all that he had said through public engagements and all that is written down as guidelines for the elections! The iRev as a control measure against fake results was completely ignored, as collation was based on tamper-able result sheets! The very reason the iRev was established, so that polling unit results would be transmitted in real time and used as a basis to check our unscrupulous politicians and their agents who would mutilate results, was totally ignored for the presidential elections. By making the declaration Prof. Mahmood proved that whatever votes citizens cast didn’t matter, as he had the power to proclaim a winner with or without the collation of results!

What played out on March 1st, with the announcement of a winner in the presidential election by the chairman of INEC who is the national returning officer simply shows that the INEC chairman is more important than all the voters combined. It simply shows that the returning officer has veto powers and once they make an announcement, only a court of law can reverse it. Those who are conscious of this fact will continue to abuse it, because they have been shown the way by the chairman of INEC Prof Mahmood.  This was the route the APC wanted to take in claiming victory in Adamawa gubernatorial elections. They knew that all one had to do was make sure an announcement was made. Once that was done, the rest would be history, because the Nigerian system allows inauguration into office even when a petition is pending. And when an official is sworn in, they are sure to use all the instruments of state and especially their access to resources, to secure themselves on the seat. Besides, the mindset of the average Nigerian is such that they start tilting to the powers that be and begin to appeal to the one who had suffered injury to let go and live to fight another day, a day that often never comes.

Unfortunately for the APC in Adamawa, either they were just testing the waters, or they weren’t aware of the law, they went for the wrong official. By law the resident electoral commissioner (REC) is never the returning officer. No matter how much he may have been bribed to make such a pronouncement, it immediately became obvious that it was null and void. Atiku Abubakar may also have leveraged his influence to ensure that the right thing was done. Otherwise, I am afraid that if that took place in a state where there wasn’t such a prominent figure, the APC government would swear in the usurper as governor and find their way to legitimize it in court since our courts are errand boys of the executive. Imagine that the APC in Adamawa were able to get hold of the returning officer and entice or intimidate him to making such an announcement without a basis! By now Binani would be parading herself as governor-elect, and many citizens would be deferring to her as such! Political parties must be on the lookout because this might well be the new playbook; just get hold of the returning officer, ensure they make the announcement even without any basis, and then get sworn in and fight it out in court! Day by day the APC government descends to new levels of low and puts it out there that integrity is nothing.

So, in the eyes of the public, the 2023 presidential elections did not meet the standard of substantial compliance. Unlike former elections where they were contests between greedy politicians, the 2023 presidential election was a contest between vested interests and the Nigerian people. A great ulcer has been seared in our hearts and it will never heal until justice is done.

Let it be known that we have nothing against the president-elect. If he emerged through a transparent process, we would have nothing against him no matter what his character is perceived to be. But because we were so fooled and taken for a ride by INEC, we will keep pressing until justice is done.

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