By Gidado Ibrahim
The idea of Election Observer Mission is one of the best ever muted because it promotes healthy growth of democratic process. Following the end of World War II, the international community formulated the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) which made democratic principles a foundation of the new prevailing system.
It proclaimed: “The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of the government, and this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.” Hence, the Election Observer Missions was born.
However, this is supposed to be carried out in reference to the sovereignty of individual nations because every clime has their cultures, civilisations and diverse peculiarities. But in recent times, these so-called advanced economies have craftily leveraged on Election Observer Mission to discredit the electoral processes of most developing economies, thereby opening their leaders up for manipulation and fictitious and dubious sanctions.
It is regrettable to note that the recent reports by the European Union Observer Mission (EU EOM) to the 2023 general elections in Nigeria is nothing short of brazen display of Eurocentric arrogance. The report shows utter assault on the country’s national sovereignty and peculiarities. The EU EOM reports is mischievously crafted to weigh opinion against the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led government, and possibly to influence the presidential election petitions court’s judgement. But their tricks are dead on arrival.
Credible organisations, including the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) which is made up of renowned and senior legal practitioners, also monitored the elections, deployed adequate observers to every nook and cranny of the country, and had released reports that gave nothing less than over 90 per cent success to the elections and INEC itself.
The technology-aided 2023 general election were the most transparent and best organised elections since the return of civil rule in Nigeria. This position is validated by all non-partisan foreign and local observers such as the African Union, ECOWAS, Commonwealth Observer Mission, and the Nigerian Bar Association.
Unlike the EU election observer mission that deployed fewer than 50 observers, the NBA that sent out over 1000 observers spread across the entire country for same election gave a more holistic and accurate assessment of the elections in their own report.
NBA, an organisation of eminent lawyers and an important voice within the civic space, reported that 91.8 per cent of Nigerians rated the conduct of the national and state elections as credible and satisfactory. Any election that over 70 percent of the citizens consider transparent should be celebrated anywhere in the world.
In any case, no election anywhere is ever perfect, judging by the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections in the United States, the fulcrum of democratic evolution. So, for the EU election monitoring group to breathe down hard on Nigeria, or use the Europe’s over 250 years of democracy as a yardstick to judge elections in Nigeria amounts to insensitivity of the highest order.
Up till today, we are yet to hear the EU election monitoring mission chastise the US over the rancourous way its 2016 and 2020 presidential elections were conducted. Why the sledgehammer on Nigeria? Our democracy should be allowed to evolve at its own pace.
Superimposing hook, line and sinker the European systems and democratic values on Nigeria is the greatest disservice. It won’t be wrong to insinuate that the EU election monitoring report is akin to the biblical ‘hand of Esau and the voice of Jacob.’ The report is predetermined and aimed at tarnishing the free-will thousands of Nigerians trooped out to express on February 25. The election that produced president Bola Ahmed Tinubu might not be perfect but it is certainly a great stride for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
As a country, we have put the elections behind us. President Tinubu is facing the arduous task of nation-building, while those who have reasons to challenge the process continue to do so through the courts. In just one month in office, Nigerians appear satisfied with the decisive leadership of President Tinubu and the manner he is redirecting the country to the path of fiscal sustainability and socio-economic reforms.
The EU and other foreign interests should be objective in all their assessments of the internal affairs of our country and allow Nigeria to breathe. Like the 2016 and 2020 US presidential election, which tongues are still wagging till today that there were stolen, Nigeria is an evolving system. We have room for improvement.
Besides, Nigeria is a huge country. It is unfortunate that the EU election observer mission based its judgment on incidences from less than 1,000 polling units out of 176,000 polling units to condemn the entire election. This is a clear case of Weaponisation of International Instruments/Protocols. It is indeed very unfortunate.
Sadly, the EU election observers closed their eyes and ears to the huge impacts the introduction of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) had on the credibility of the 2023 election. BVAS helped a great deal to reduce the cases of manual manipulation of figures. We can beat our chest to say the 2023 general election is the freest and most credible in the country since the advent of the current democracy in 1999. The reason for the foregoing conclusion can be premised on the diverse political gains made by smaller political parties.
Before then, presidential and governorship election had always been a straight contest between the two dominant political parties, All Progressives Congress (APC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the case of the last polls. But this time around, because of the transparency introduced into the electoral process, smaller parties have made tremendous gains.
For instance, since the Labour Party was formed in 2002, it has never won any position. But in a historic precedent, Labour Party won six senatorial seats and 34 in the House of Representatives in the just concluded federal legislative elections, making it the third most popular party in the 10th National Assembly.
What kind of leap does the EU mission want? What is their interests? Is it a case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it? It is certainly so because it is preposterous and unconscionable that in this day and age, any foreign organisation of whatever hue can continue to insist on its own yardstick and assessment as the only way to determine the credibility and transparency of our elections.
For observer Missions to continue to enjoy credibility and trust, its operations must be restricted to the original purpose. The weaponisation is an instrument for narrow interests. If not checked, it is capable of eroding its acceptability. EU election observer mission is a bad example of what the original intent of the protocol represents.
Let me sound it clear to the EU Election Observer Mission that Nigerians are not gullible and, therefore, are not disconcerted by its report on the last elections in Nigeria. Instead, they are educated enough to sense that the EU is trying to push an imperialist agenda with the hope of influencing Nigeria’s political economy. The good news however is that the citizens already know that with what he has done so far to hit the ground running, President Tinubu has no reason to let Nigeria’s democratic system fail.
– Ibrahim is director, Communication and Strategic Planning of the Presidential Support Committee (PSC).