Those who welcomed his appointment with optimism and enthusiasm were enamoured by the performance of Mahmood’s predecessor, Attahiru Jega, and had hoped he would carry on with the fine legacy of the bespectacled professor of political science.
Yesterday, Yakubu Mahmood stepped down from his position as chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), bringing to a close his decade-long stewardship. May Agbamuche-Mbu has been appointed as the acting chairman of the electoral body. The verdicts on Mahmood’s time as the helmsman of INEC are as diverse as the number of controversial elections he oversaw. During his time as the chairman of INEC, the judiciary became a critical part of our electoral process and the inalienable rights and the ability of the people to vote for their leader were considerably eroded as the judiciary became the selector of leaders.
The appointment of Mahmood as INEC’s chairman was greeted by optimism and cynicism in equal measure. He had come to office at a time when the wind of change in Nigeria’s socio-political landscape had swept the All Progressives Congress into power and made the late Muhammadu Buhari the president. Those who welcomed his appointment with optimism and enthusiasm were enamoured by the performance of Mahmood’s predecessor, Attahiru Jega, and had hoped he would carry on with the fine legacy of the bespectacled professor of political science. Cynics saw him as uncharismatic and lacking the discipline and determination to implement radical reforms that would change the commission, deepen our electoral process and strengthen our democracy.
It, however, did not take long for disappointment and doubt to creep into the minds of those who were imbued with optimism, confidence and satisfaction when Mahmood became the chairman of the commission. Under Mahmood, every general and major election further widens the gap of distrust between many Nigerians and the ruling class. It has deepened their disillusionment with liberal democracy and plunged the citizenry further into the abyss of electoral discontent and in turn, led to widespread voter apathy during elections.
During his time, a lot of laws were passed to reform the electoral process. Technology was introduced to enhance election credibility and transparency. But these reforms, while laudable and probably well-intentioned, have not in any way achieved the objectives that many stakeholders, especially the electorate, desire, largely because they are being sabotaged by the very people who are supposed to use them to improve the conduct of elections. If anything, these reforms and changes they brought have worsened our electoral process.
In May, INEC announced that it would be establishing a dedicated Artificial Intelligence Division within its Information and Communication Technology Department. This is not the first time INEC has announced an infusion of technology into the electoral process to enhance electoral credibility and strengthen the nation’s democracy. However, with each introduction of new technology comes a reversal of previous gains made by the commission. So much so that one cannot help but begin to wonder if these much-touted technologies are designed to improve our elections or make them worse.
In the build-up to the 2023 general election, the commission talked a good game about how the transmission of election results electronically would enhance election transparency and address rigging, as voters would see the election results in real-time. It made quite a song and dance about how the Bi-Modal Voter Accreditation System and the INEC Result Viewing Portal are not scams but game changers. In fact, the enthusiasm and Zeal shown by many, especially youths, towards the 2023 elections were fuelled by the commission’s assurance to use the BVAS and IREV efficiently to ensure that the people’s vote count and their will are not subverted.
After repeatedly assuring the populace that it was for the election, the first sign that the commission was not going to make good on the promises came on the day of the presidential election, when it announced that there had been a glitch and that the uploading of election results to the IREV would be impossible. Interestingly, senatorial and House of Representatives election results, which were held on the same day, were successfully uploaded to the IREV. Needless to say, the development left many hitherto upbeat and enthusiastic voters deflated and forlorn.
Under Mahmood, politicians willfully and brazenly violated the electoral acts without any sanction or punishment. One of such blatant disregard for electoral law is the commencement of political campaigns and electioneering before elections. The 2027 general election is still some sixteen months away, but the posters and billboards of the ruling party, especially those of President Bola Tinubu, already dot many parts of the country, especially the Federal Capital Territory.
Recently, Mahmood Yakubu, bemoaned the electoral body’s inability to go after political parties, candidates, and their supporters who engage in premature campaigns ahead of elections. He cited the lack of clear punishment in the 2022 Electoral Act for anyone who commences political campaigns before the time permitted by the law.
Even if the Electoral Act does not explicitly state what punishment should be meted out to people who breach the political campaigns timeline, INEC cannot be totally absolved from the violation of Section 94(1) of the 2022 Electoral Act, which prohibits campaigns earlier than 150 days before polling. The commission has conducted itself in a manner that weakened its position as the nation’s sole conductor of federal and state elections. It has repeatedly acted in ways that undermine its authority by succumbing to the nefarious antics and inordinate ambition of feral politicians.
The commission itself, in recent years, has consistently chosen not to follow electoral guidelines put in place to ensure elections are fair, transparent and credible. It has frequently flouted its own rules and watched on as perverse politicians hijack the electoral process and determine the outcome of elections while the will of the people is effectively subverted. Despite the embarrassing and disgraceful conduct of these elections, INEC gleefully affirmed the predetermined outcome and declared it to the consternation of the public.
In recent governorship elections, the commission refused to deploy its result viewing portal, where voters can check the number of votes cast at each polling station in real time, and in instances where it used it, the results uploaded on the IREV were vastly different from those which were declared at the collation centre. Also, humongous votes were turned in in places where voting was disrupted by thugs and voters were not allowed to exercise their franchise.
To better understand how the impunity and lawlessness of politicians are aided and enabled by the commission, when these atrocious and perverse elections are challenged in court by those who are at their receiving end of such troubling spectacle, instead of using the opportunity to assert its influence and leverage the court to correct its mistakes and punish those who undermine the electoral process, INEC, under Mahmood, tacitly supports the side who ran foul of the law and desecrate democracy and frustrate the case of the losing side. In fact, it totally transfers the burden of proving election malpractice, irregularities and rigging to the petitioner without providing the sensitive election material claimed to have been used to conduct the election.
INEC can’t claim it lacks power to punish those who are violating the political campaign law when it has shown repeatedly that it is incapable of adhering to the rules, regulations and guidelines guiding the conduct of elections in the country. The commission has opened itself up for ridicule by venal politicians; it has let politicians arrogate to themselves the power to determine how elections will be conducted. It lay slavishly on the ground and let politicians run roughshod over it.
This and many more uninspiring and troubling occurrences are what the commission was synonymous with under Mahmood. When the genuine chroniclers of our rough and tumble history write about Mahmood’s time as INEC Chairman, they will not have a hard time coming to a verdict about how his stewardship did little to advance the democratic cause in Nigeria and left the nation’s democracy in a worse situation than he met it.
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