It was certainly bound to come to this. I refer to this week’s press statement by the Department of State Security (DSS) warning those engaged in any agenda to truncate the country’s ongoing democratic process to desist from their plans or face the full wrath of the law. While it is better late than never, the security agencies ought to have taken steps much earlier to respond to persistent threats against the country’s peace, unity and stability in the aftermath of the recently conducted February 25 and March 18 this year. Those protesting against the outcome of the elections claim that they were rigged and that their candidate, Mr Peter Obi,actually won the presidential election.
Ironically, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who took part in the election and came second, also claims that he was the victor in the polls. So which of them actually won the election? Acting in accordance with the law, Atiku and Obi have filed suits with the Election Petition Tribunal challenging the emergence of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu as President-Elect while lawyers in the Tinubu camp have also filed counter appeals defending the credibility and integrity of the elections and the legitimacy and legality of the President-elect’s victory. This is surely as it should be. There will surely be interesting legal fireworks in the days ahead with the court room as battle ground.
But then, if the separate filing of suits at the Federal High Court against the outcome of the February 25 Presidential election, indicate Atiku and Obi’s faith in the constitutional process, why are they, Obi in particular, not reigning in their vociferous supporters? This question arises because the utterly needless protests by the Obidients especially are getting more and more volatile by the day. How do you, for instance, explain a group of protesters going to the Defense House in Abuja and pleading for the military to take over the reins of power all because their candidate did not win the election?
This shows the level of desperation and despair of these protesters and their sponsors. It is obvious that Obi, Atiku and their followers will only accept the outcome of an election in which they win. That is not the spirit of democracy. But then, it is dishonest and hypocritical for them to be in court challenging the outcome of the polls while at the same time not restraining their supporters from demonstrating on the streets and threatening to unleash mayhem and violence.
By the way, it is difficult to understand why those protesters against the outcome of the election, who took their demonstrations to the Defense House pleading for a coup to overthrow the current government, did not have their identified leaders arrested and prosecuted. Those reckless and irresponsible youths who sought to lure the military to return to power are clearly blissfully ignorant as regards the history of their own country quite apart from the fact that they committed a treasonable act with such brazenness and impunity and, amazingly, got away with it.
They are most likely too young to appreciate the grave damage done to the country during the over thirty years that the military was in power at various times. Even many of the challenges we have to cope with today have their roots in the military era when successive military regimes claimed at inception to be on a corrective mission but ultimately left the country in worse shape than they met it. The era of perceiving the military as a modernization and transformational force because of its perceived institutional characteristics of discipline, effectiveness, a modern outlook, strict adherence to a defined hierarchy among others is dead and buried. Let its soul continue to Rest In Peace.
No less reprehensible is the call in some quarters for the outright cancellation of the elections and the constitution of an interim government after which fresh polls will be held. The interim government idea was sown when former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in the night of February 26, tried unsuccessfully to get President Muhammadu Buhari to terminate the process of collation of votes and conduct a fresh election. Obasanjo made this call when it was apparent that the candidate he backed, Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), was not faring well in the polls except in the South East where he had bloc votes.
A number of others later further echoed Obasanjo’s call for an interim government. The pertinent questions are: how interim will interim be? Who will determine the duration of such an interim administration and once it becomes well entrenched in power, what guarantees do we have that it will abide by preceding agreements ? In any case, what would be the legal foundation for this interim government? Can anyone find anywhere in the constitution where an interim government is provided for? The Constitution does not even provide for the conduct of referendums.From where then would this interim government’s derive its legitimacy? From which source will its authority flow? Will it be from Obasanjo’s whims and caprices?
It is to President Muhammadu Buhari’s great credit that he has kept his focus singularly
on ensuring a successful transition to the next administration. Had he been keen on continuing in office, albeit unconstitutionally, he could have seized the opportunity to heed calls for the abortion of the elections and installing an interim government which he could insist on heading for at least two years in the first instance. Is that not the kind of games that most African leaders play with the fates of their people? But Buhari is of a different breed. In his commitment to democracy, he belongs to a nobler class.
In asking for the annulment of the election, which was what Obasanjo essentially wanted, the Ota farmer probably does not want Buhari to follow in his footsteps as a General in power who handed over to another elected administration and office in accordance with the Constitution. This was the feat which Obasanjo performed in 1979 when he had voluntarily handed over to a democratically elected government, a rarity at the time and retired to his farm. Thus, since then he has been basking in the glowing radiance of international adulation as a global statesman. This is the kind of international honour and admiration that will come the way of Buhari if he stands his ground and hands over to the next administration as the Constitution demands. Obasanjo apparently doesn’t want this.
Those who talk glibly and cavalierly about an interim government have obviously not thought deeply about the idea. They have not told us, for instance, who will choose the members of such a government. They have not cast their minds back to 1993 when the election of the late Chief MKO Abiola was annulled by the military and this had hazardous consequences for the nation. For close to five years there was a protracted pro-democratic struggle in which many people lost their lives, many their limbs, others their businesses. The physical, emotional and psychological scars are still evident in many of the pro-democracy activists who gave their all for the freedom we enjoy today. Why should anyone want us to travel that path again? It simply makes no sense.
The ongoing strenuous attempts to delegitimize the elections by some sections of the political class aided, most unfortunately, by sections of the media can only ultimately fail. This is because, beyond arbitrary declarations, such as Papa Ayo Adebanjo’s claim without an iota of proof that Obi won the presidential election or Mr. Akin Osuntokun’s assertion that the LP had over 1 million votes in Lagos in the presidential elections. All of these claims should be subjected to legal interrogation as the aggrieved parties pursue their cases in court. But even as they do so, they have the responsibility of halting the demonstrations on the streets by their supporters.
Even if fresh elections are held today, the outcome is unlikely to depart much from the pattern seen on February 25. The legitimacy of the election is further reinforced by the fact that the APC also had the majority of governorship, Senate as well as House of Assembly seats. The party’s performance in the governorship and Houses of Assembly, elections of March 18 only demonstrated, once again, the electoral strength of the APC.
It is interesting that while the PDP and LP are preparing to pursue their cases in court against the outcome of the Presidential election, the elected Senators and House of Representatives members of both parties have joyously collected their Certificates of Return
from INEC. Yet, it was the same election being legally challenged by Obi and Atiku which held on February 25, that produced the Senators and members of the Houses of Representatives of both parties. It is simply ridiculous and illogical.
If the outcome of the presidential elections are for any reason cancelled except through a judicial pronouncement, it will be difficult to hold any elections in the future as losers will simply cause hysteria, incite utmost violence as well as sponsor daily protests to delegitimize the election and get it aborted. It is my view that rejecting the outcome of an election and calling on citizens not to recognize the winner is dancing precariously on the cliff edge of treason. It is unlikely that the security agencies will sit back and allow this to happen.
