2023: Legitimate Expectations on Governorship-Assembly Elections in Kebbi State
By Abdullahi Usman
As the nation inches ever closer to the conduct of the eagerly awaited 2023 Governorship and State Assembly elections, billed to hold in under 24 hours, on Saturday, March 18th, 2023, it behoves on each and everyone of us to do all we possibly can to ensure that we deliver a peaceful, free, fair and credible election to our state and its people at all levels in the vote counting and results collation and declaration.
The results of our Governorship and all 24 State House Assembly Constituency elections must equally be allowed by all parties in the race to be, and remain a true reflection of the preferred choices of the Kebbi electorate, as freely expressed by the voters at their respective Polling Units across the state, without being tampered at any level, from the Polling Unit, all the way to the Ward or State Constituency, Local Government and State levels.
To this end, it is imperative that we all pause and reflect on the following responsibilities and corresponding obligations of each of the underlisted entities and individuals, which is by no means exhaustive:
*A*. All political parties on the ballot in the Saturday, March 18th, 2023 elections, along with the candidates they are sponsoring for the respective elective offices to be contested for, owe the state and its people a duty to deliver a peaceful and crisis – free election. This, is by way of ensuring that their members and supporters behave in a peaceful, orderly and responsible manner before, during and in the immediate aftermath of the scheduled elections.
On no account must the personal ambition of any individual or candidate on the ballot be allowed to result in the needless shedding of blood of any person in any part of the state.
*B*. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on its part, must ensure that adequate voting materials of all categories, both sensitive and nonsensitive, are appropriately distributed to all the Polling Units and Collation Centers at all levels in the state, in line with the established requirements of each of them, with no incident of shortages whatsoever recorded at any point, and at any level.
*C*. The INEC Kebbi State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), all 21 Local Government Electoral Officers (EOs), the entire Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs) and Presiding Officers (POs) must also ensure that the distribution of these election materials in item (B) above is be done timeously, such that no incident of the kind of the needless delayed commencement of the voting process we witnessed during the February 25 Presidential and NASS round of elections will be repeated on election day in any part of the state.
*D*. All Polling Units should, therefore, expectedly open early enough to ensure that the simultaneous accreditation and voting process commences at the appointed time. This will avoid the compelling need to extend voting into the late hours of the day to make up for lost time on account of such late commencement of voting, which is often a recipe for the willful disruption of the voting process, along with the resulting destruction of voting material by sponsored trouble makers.
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*E*. The state government and all participating political parties, along with their respective sponsored candidates in the elections, must endeavour to rein in their supporters and/or political thugs to ensure peaceful conduct across all the PUs, in line with the Peace Accord they each signed and committed to in the build up to the elections. This is with a view to ensuring that the voters are not intimidated or influenced in any way during the voting and counting process. Security agencies must be on standby to promptly nip any potential threat to the peaceful and orderly conduct of the process in the bud, as provided by law.
*F*. In addition, the state government and all the political parties mentioned in item (E) above must also rein in their supporters and/or political thugs, with a view to ensuring that they do not interfere at any level of the counting and collation process, either to favour their own party/candidate, or disfavour another party/candidate.
*G*. All valid votes cast must not only be counted and recorded for the political party they have been cast for, but must equally count in the final determination of the eventual winners of all the elections, from the Polling Units all the way through to the different levels of collation at the Ward, LGA and State levels for the Governorship election, and up to the respective Constituency level for the various House of Assembly or legislative elections.
*H*. We do NOT want to have a repeat of the infamous #Marafagate attempted disruption of the electoral process witnessed during the first round of elections, and will be doubly alert to monitor and deal with any such or similar incident this time around. Let the votes be counted and collated as they should, and the eventual winner declared on the basis of the vote count alone – whoever that winner might possibly be.
We should not be deceived into repeating the error of judgment of believing that we can deliver the type of Kebbi State ‘Independent’ Electoral Commission (KESIEC) – conducted election results in a national election conducted by a totally different election management body.
Finally, we need to be very conscious of the provisions of Section 120 of the Nigeria Electoral Act 2022 dealing with Dereliction of Duty by electoral officials, which is hereby reproduced below, at all times and must consciously do all we can to avoid running foul any of its provisions:
*Section 120 Nigeria Electoral Act 2022*
*Dereliction of Duty*
*(1)* Any officer appointed for the purposes of this Act, who without lawful excuse commits any act or omits to act in breach of his or her official duty commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of N5 00,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both.
*(2)* Any polling official who fails to report promptly at his or her polling unit on an election day without lawful excuse commits an offence of dereliction of duty and is liable on conviction to maximum fine of 14500,000 or imprisonment for a term of
12 months or both.
*(3)* Any polling agent, political party or party agent who conspires to make false declaration of result of an election commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a maximum fine of 14500,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months or both.
*(4)* Any person who announces or publishes an election result knowing same to be false or which is at variance with the signed certificate of return commits and offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of 36 months.
*(5)* Any returning officer or collation officer who delivers or causes to be delivered a false certificate of return knowing same to be false, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a maximum term of three years without an option of fine.
*(6)* Any person who delivers or causes to be delivered a false certificate of return knowing same to be false to any news media commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of three years.
Allah SWT Ya ba mu ikon kiyaye wa, and May Allah SWT grant us a peaceful, credible, free and fair election in the state and all across the country.
– Abdullahi Usman
(Friday, March 17, 2023)
