By Rayyanu Bala
The tension which the Postponement of Feb 16 general elections raised as well as the controversies the Postponement generated are not unexpected. There is no how you can postponed an elections that people are well prepared for and expect tension not to rise. Equally, there is no how you can postponed an elections where one party in the contest is doing everything possible to undermine the process and expect the atmosphere to go calmly without controversies, without allegations and counter allegations and without conspiratorial theories. Yes the Postponement came to many with rode shocks. Many have invested much to see that they discharge their franchise only to wake up with the Postponement. However, my concern and indeed, the concern of many is not about the tension the postponement generated, my concern and the concern of many is the conspiratorial theories that trails the postponement. Indeed, chief amongst these conspiratorial theories are issues bothering on ‘compromise’ by some electoral officials and sabotage of electoral process. Many mainstream and online newspapers carried reports regarding these ‘compromise’ and Sabotage of the electoral process which the Chairmen of INEC Prof Muhamoud Yakubu himself admitted in his press conference that there was an attempt to sabotage the process. According to some of these conspiratorial theories, the sabotage was designed to give the opposition PDP an advantage over the governing APC. There was also a report which fingered one INEC federal commissioner as been the brain behind this attempt at sabotaging the electoral process, causing logistic problems that prompted the postponement of the elections. However, whether these media reports were true One or not, the bottom line is, all controversies, allegations and counter allegations and the conspiratoral theories points to one fact- the desperation of PDP to return to power. In one of my write ups which appeared in Nasarawa Eye Newspaper (vol. 1 No 45) of February 6 – 13, 2019 which also appeared in some social media outfits entitled: ‘PDP’s desperation and our nascent democracy’ I emphasize that since Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lost the 2015 election to the
All Progressives Congress (APC), palpable desperation to return to
power has enveloped the PDP right from day one. I noted that
‘the intrigues surrounding the resignation of Ahmed Adamu Muazu as the
party’s national chairman and the emergence of former governor of
Borno state, Alhaji Modu Shariff as the caretaker chairman of the
party as well as the intrigues and maneuvers which trailed Sheriff’s
ouster from office via a Supreme Court judgment, all point to the
desperation on the part of the PDP to return to power in 2019′
Other signs of desperations of the PDP to return to power which I stressed in the write up includes among others, series of pronouncements which they (PDP) consciously
or unconsciously made at various fora regarding their commitment to return to power at all costs. I further qoated where Uche Secondus expressed the preference of PDP for a military regime than Buhari’ s administration’. I further highlighted in the said write up: ‘All these to say the least are part of desperation for the PDP to return to power. And more than anything, these desperations are indeed, serious threat to
our democracy’
I also reasoned that ‘For a party that was in power for 16 solid years and in
less than four years, the party is
saying a military regime is better than civilian rule? Clearly, this
level of desperation to return to power by the PDP and the unsavory
comments from its leaders, if not checked, would lead to something
untoward’ I then averred that ‘There is an urgent need for our security agencies to keep an
eagle eye on the PDP against any eventualities that may perhaps come
out of their desperations’
To all discerning minds, the postponement of Feb 16 general elections, can not in any way treated outside the desperation of the PDP to return to power. The revelations trailing the postponement of the election are mind boggling and a further confirmation to what I have said in my write up about the desperation of the PDP. As we prepares for the reschedule 23 elections, I still like to emphasize that our security agencies must be on alert to nip in the bud any untoward thing that might likely come out of the PDP’s desperation. President Muhammadu Buhari’s instructions to security agencies on election riggers was apt. We must do away with ballot snatching and election rigging in our polity. And after the elections, as the President said, INEC must explained to Nigerians what really necessitated the Feb 16 election postponement.