Waheed Alabede
Judging by the news making the rounds, one might begin to suspect that some forces are hard at work to derail the 2019 elections. It seems they are bent on taking advantage of President Muhammadu Buhari’s unwavering and consistent belief in the independence of INEC.
The president has always expressed his desire to deliver free and fair elections. The purpose of this discourse is to explore the intention of the president vis-a-vis free and fair elections. Also, pronouncements and actions of the president over the last few months will be reviewed.
The actions and pronouncements of President Buhari make it crystal clear that he is committed to credible elections. He had on many occasions perspicuously affirmed his commitment to this truth. On February 18, after a NEC meeting of the ruling party, the president declared: “I will never use my powers to rig election. I don’t need to.”
If his statement isn’t enough, the president’s actions regarding INEC are indications of the fact that the ‘I’ in INEC stands for ‘Independent’. The president has provided INEC with all the essential resources needed to conduct free and fair elections. Other than providing election necessities to INEC, the president has also abstained from interfering in the affairs of the commission. Although, INEC has made important decisions that many consider detrimental to the president’s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), he has not shown any inclination to interfere in the affairs of the commission.
According to a comment posted on Twitter by Amadi Chima, a supporter of Mr. Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), who also happens to be an independent election observer, INEC is acting independently. To buttress his point, INEC has refused to list the candidate of APC in River State on the ballot for the February 23 election. INEC has also disallowed an APC candidate in Zamfara State. Despite the fact that the APC chairman, Adams Oshiomhole insisted that the candidates be allowed on the ballot, the president has refused to influence INEC’s decision.
Is this possible under a president who does not respect the independence of INEC? Nigerians would remember that former President Olusegun Obasanjo would have been involved by coercing INEC to list the candidates. The 2003 and 2007 elections conducted under the former president had been adjudged the worst by local and international observers. The irony is that the same Obasanjo is now accusing President Buhari of planning to rig the election. Obviously, Obasanjo cannot be taken seriously on a matter like this.
There is no need for President Buhari to rig the election because he has good reasons to be optimistic. Both the president and Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo have campaigned in all the 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, as well as doing house-to-house campaign by the VP. It is not unexpected that a man who was the victim of the PDP rigging machine in 2003, 2007 and 2011 will not want to build on the 2015 election that thwarted riggings in most part of the country.
Being a victim of an election that was only befitting of a pre-literate society might have helped strengthen President Buhari’s sincerity of purpose in organising credible elections. The president has also earned the trust of the people especially his supporters in the way he has conducted himself in office despite the challenges he inherited.
Some may see the slow pace of economic growth as a negative on the president’s record. Many have come to term with the fact that the slow growth was due to the recession of 2016, which was in turn caused by the mismanagement of the economy between 2013 and 2014. Economic decline was experienced in May 2014 after the oil price crashed from over $100/bbl to less than $60/bbl. By the time the president took over in 2015, oil was selling below $30/bbl. The forex reserve, which would have been used to make up for the short fall in oil revenue, was already depleted by then from its high of over $60 billion in 2009 to less than $28 billion in April 2015.
The president instituted many policies geared towards improving the economic condition of all Nigerians. In the past, economics policies were often targeted at those at the top of the economic ladder with no long-term improvements in the lives of the masses. For the first time, President Buhari is including the poor and middle-income earners in economic development programmes. The anchor borrowers’ programme is a great example of the government policies that have endeared President Buhari to the generality of Nigerians. About 70% of Nigerians now engage in some form of farming as a source of income. Majority of these farmers live in the rural areas and have largely benefited from the anchor borrowers’ programme.
The anchor borrowers’ programme has benefited about 1.5 million people with jobs out of which 250,000 are direct farming jobs. The programme was created to alleviate the difficulties small farmers experience when accessing credit facilities. The interest rate on the loan is lower than that of commercial banks, because it is tied to MSME development fund. So, why would the president rig elections when he is aware that these farmers and many other Nigerians will vote massively for him?
The farmers are not the only group of citizens who will be returning the president to Aso Rock. He has earned the trust of the electorate by succeeding where others failed. Some of the achievements of the government are in electricity generation capacity, which is now at 7,000 mw and the distribution capacity of over 5,000 mw. The current administration is succeeding in fixing the bottleneck that has plagued the power sector for generations. Buhari has heavily invested in infrastructure. He is executing infrastructural projects at a rate that confounds even the critics of the administration. Pensioners are for the first time getting paid their entitlements after years of neglect. The ex-Biafran soldiers and policemen, Nigeria airways and NITEL pensioners have all benefited from the commitment of the Buhari administration to clearing pension arrears. Home-grown, school-feeding programme has benefited roughly 9.3 million children; it has created jobs for about 100,000 cooks in almost 50,000 school; jobs were also created for thousands of other support personnel such as transportation providers, farmers etc. Also, some of the visible infrastructural projects are the 2nd Niger Bridge, Lagos-Ibadan and Enugu-Port Harcourt expressways, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Abuja light rail system, Nnamdi Azikiwe Mausoleum etc. This is not to suggest that there is no room for improvement, but the achievements recorded so far are better than the 16 years of PDP.
To further strengthen the economy, the plans of the government are to add more than 1,000 mw of electricity generation capacity annually for the next four years, provide training for 10 million Nigerians to update their skills, anchor borrowers scheme for one million farmers, provide N500 million for the technology and creative sector to create youth job in technology. And for more on the future goals of the administration, one can get the Next Level plan and Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) documents for details.
While there is a need to improve on the security situation in the country, what obtains now is an improvement compared to the pre-2015 regime. If Buhari wins re-election, he should work towards a legacy of putting Nigeria on the road to peaceful coexistence. The sincerity of the president in tackling the variety of complex issues in a nation like ours has earned him the trust of most Nigerians, who will troop out to re-elect him. President Buhari does not need to rig election; he is already winning.
Alabede, a political, economic and financial analyst, writes from Lagos.
