By Jibrin Ibrahim
On Wednesday, the Attorney General of the Federation
and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Bello Adoke, issued a press statement about
the case instituted by his ministry seeking to stop INEC using the permanent
Voter cards (PVCs) for the forthcoming elections.
It was 'Sahara Reporters', the online publication that
blew the whistle on the plot by the Federal Government to scuttle the use of
PVCs and compromise the integrity of the elections. In his press release, the
Attorney General of the Federation confirmed that his office had in fact
carried out the act but he was not aware of the action by his office and he did
not authorize the said action. He blamed his staff for sending the affidavit to
the court without first clearing with him:
“I wish to state that the Officers did not avail me
the opportunity of perusing or vetting the Affidavit and Written Address before
they were filed. The practice in the Federal Ministry of Justice is for the
Attorney General of the Federation to be availed copies of all Court Processes
prepared in reply to suits against the Office and his opinion first had to be
obtained especially in sensitive suits such as the one in question before such
processes are filed.” He promised that the court processes would be withdrawn
and his guilty staff would be queried.
With the whole country, and indeed the world focused
on the PVC question, I find is very strange that the Ministry of Justice would
proceed with such a politically sensitive case without their minister being
informed. As the Minister of Justice must be assumed to be an honourable man, I
believe him.
I would however advice that he should henceforth keep
a close eye on what is going on in the Ministry of Justice in spite of the fact
that they are all busy on the campaign trail.
Using the Ministry of Justice to scuttle the use of
PVCs through the judiciary would be a grievous abuse of the powers of
incumbency and we as citizens should be concerned that such a case even arose
in the first place. The PVC and card readers have become the key issue about
the forthcoming elections. The sheer number of cases in the court spearheaded
by agents of the Federal Government reveals that there is deep concern and even
panic within the ruling party about the impact of these tools. The question is
why this fear.
The PVC and card readers have been developed to do two
simple things, which should please all democrats. The first is to authenticate
that the voter who turns up with a PVC is indeed in possession of a valid card
and that the card is issued to him through a verification of biometric
features.
The second is to keep an accurate record of the total
number of people who had been accredited to vote and voted so that the numbers
could not be changed subsequently.
The card reader
has the capacity to keep such numbers and transmit them directly to INEC
headquarters. These features are pleasing to all democrats because they
significantly improve the integrity of the electoral process. Why then are some
people so opposed to their use?
To understand the dynamics, let's look at the
percentages scored by presidential candidates Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck
Jonathan in the states where they were the most popular in 2011. Candidate
Buhari scored the following highest votes caste in percentages – Bauchi 82%,
Borno 78%, Katsina 72%, Zamfara 67%, Niger 65%, Sokoto 62% and Gombe 60%.
Candidate Jonathan scored the following highest votes – 99% of total votes cast
in Abia, Anambra, Bayelsa, Delta, Enugu, Imo and Rivers States, incredible
percentages. We now know that since the 2011 elections, almost five million
names – 4,841,861 millions multiple registrants have been removed the list and
had not received PVCs.
This means, the
total number of voters in all states were inflated in 2011 and claiming that
99% of that total inflated number actually all voted is a clear indication of
inflation of voters in some States.
Those demanding that we revert to the use of the
temporary voters card therefore do so with the full knowledge that it provides
room for inflating votes.
If INEC is so determined to use PVC and the card
readers, it is precisely because they want to close loopholes that can be used
for rigging.
Since certain elements realized that the real purpose
of the PVC and card readers was to frustrate the activities of election
riggers, there has been a campaign of calumny against INEC and particularly its
Chair, Professor Attahiru Jega.
There has been lots of speculation and kite flying
about the necessity to send him away on pre-retirement leave before the
elections.
Clearly, for those engaged with the practice of
electoral fraud, the beginning of wisdom starts with understanding what he
stands for. There were assumptions that his often-repeated words of “free, fair
and credible elections” were merely a slogan. Now that they realize it's for
real, they are after him with a vengeance.
The good thing is that Nigerians now realize that the
real reason for the campaign against PVCs and card readers is to produce
electoral outcomes other than that determined by the votes of the people. We
cannot allow this to recur in our country.
Nigerians most be concerned about the ways in which
the Presidency is over-reaching its power and abusing its incumbency to ensure
that there is no level playing ground for the forthcoming elections. I have in
this column addressed the problem of the unfair use of security agencies
against political opponents a number of times.
There is a raging debate about the way in which the
military have been used in the June Ekiti elections and the imperative of not
allowing such abuse of incumbency to recur.
The blatant
lack of neutrality relative to the use of the police to harass and intimidate
opposition party leaders is a cause for concern.
We all have a stake in deepening and not scuttling our
democracy.
The Presidency should se itself as a stakeholder
in building and consolidating our democracy.
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