Adamawa Abracadabra: Another Exercise In Desperacy, By Tunde Abatan
The Adamawa governorship re-run election has come and gone. But not likely to go easily is the momentary trauma and high wire politics and desperacy.
In spite of the final result and eventual declaration and award of the coveted seat to incumbent Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP, the election has cast a strong doubt on and put to test its integrity and exposed it’s vulnerability to internal and external sabotage.
Already, INEC has more complaints to carry on its shoulder than an additional but avoidable action which has further questioned it’s capacity of it’s hierarchical system to stay above board.
It is a pity that a body still battling with novel instrument -the Bimodal Voters Registration-BIVAS introduced to curb electoral malpractices could be enmeshed in internal procedural sabotage.
BIVAS, to all intent and purpose remains a check against rigging and importation of ghost to vote during election.
But our politicians legendary tricks of circumvention are not rare to find as voter suppression to by-pass BIVAS has replaced the rigours of rigging.
Tales of this abound across the length and breadth of the country.
Back to the Adamawa drama, suffice to say that it has exposed the underbelly of our institutional frailties as the activity of Hudu Ari, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC in the state has shown.
That he could breach the institutional electoral process first by assuming a role not assigned to him as Returning officer, shows he is consumed by desperation to usurp another person’s role.
Second, that he deliberately breached the process since the collation of the result is evidently midway to being completed is a clear demonstration of evil intent to subvert fairness which he swore to use his office to ensure.
If it is true Aisha Dahiru, the beneficiary of the electoral heist is not involved in the conspiracy to abort the peoples will, then the REC probably needs to be re- examined psychologically both to unravel his inner minds in order to determine the immediate cause of what prompted his solo action and to reveal unseen powers behind his action .
His action, without mincing words obviously bothers on desperacy to achieve a pre- determined goal.
Is he moved by ethnic, religious or other unknown prejudice such to warrant risking his career and dent his name?
Could he have been possessed by a raw determination to determine who rules Adamawa or acting on the promptings of yet unknown forces whose interests Binani’s election will serve?
Again, it is also necessary to measure the promptness of the mob which assaulted INECs returning officer, Professor Muhammadu Mele who eventually gathered the pieces of what is left of his gut and with INEC management concluded the collation.
The Adamawa mob also confirms two things. one, that Binani though has proved a factor to be reckoned with having come second in same election in 2019, has less popularity than the governor who she wanted to unseat.
If she had the courage to wait for a second time to make history as first elected female governor, shouldn’t she have waited for four more years to defeat a new successor to Fintiri who would’ve finished his second term.
Does her action also meant that most of President Buhari’s followers in All People’s Congress, APC, seems not to share his record in perseverance having tried in vain three times before his fourth attempt got him the elusive prize?
Yet, another salient factor is that Fintiri’s re-election could not be divorced from influence of Abubakar Atiku, the presidential candidate of PDP who must have fought tooth and nail to retain his state after losing at the federal ?.
By scoring 430,861 votes to 398,786 which represents a vote margin of a little over 32,000 votes, it means that both Fintiri and Binani had muscle to pull in Adamawa .
It means what is required is resilience and more determination for the opposition represented by Binani to upturn the apple cart.
Why then is Ari so desperate to terminate the process midway and declare an inconclusive collation as the final result?
Yes, both Muhammadu Yakubu, the INEC chairman and President Buhari who approved Aris suspension and trial has done well, Yakubu must be acknowledged as not covering his men’s lapses when he ordered police to step in and arrest Ari.
To prevent a re-occurrence of the ugly Adamawa show of shame, the federal government and by inference INEC, must help ensure diligent and painstaking investigation and prosecution of Ari and what he represents if lessons must be learnt from the fiasco.
INEC as an institution has a big task of institutionalizing integrity in it’s operations not minding the fact that it is a creation of the Nigerian system.
The obvious fact that integrity and good governance in the polity could only be attained by a clean and righteous body, means that hope for a better Nigeria lies in the process of the emergence of its leaders.
This burden lies on INEC and it’s observance of its institutional framework.
