Nigeria In the last few days since the gubernatorial elections I have engaged myself in a sober reflection on the state of affairs in this land called Nigeria…I have also been tied to my dictionary, the thesaurus and encyclopedia, doing a research on what constitutes rigging, electoral violence, and a free and fair election. For the victorious, it has been by all means necessary, in Borno, the ANPP Governor won and all the State House seats were captured and I mean that word captured by the ANPP men. In Jos, it was a tsunami slide for the PDP, I am still trying to figure out how PDP outsmarted Bafarawa in Sokoto and dealt Buhari a blow in Katsina, and yet could not handle Orji and Tinubu in Abia and Lagos respectively.

The drama in Kano continues as I pen this essay, while I find it amusing how a character like Akala would win an election, much more Andy Uba. In Edo, the fire continues, we saw the abracadabra in Ondo. I am aware of several States were party logos were missing on ballot papers, other parties were not even on the ballot paper. And we hear people say that the election was free and fair, may be we need to redefine the word free and fair within the context of this election, in 24 States already the results have been rejected by the opposition…though I must quickly point out several cases were the opposition rigged as much as the ruling party but it was just a matter of the battle of riggers and the better rigger won, in a State the SSS caught an opposition leader that had boys thumb printing in his house.

Yours sincerely could not vote, more so if the Senate President was not able to cast his vote, and that of the President nullified, who then am I, besides let us not forget that in the Senate President’s place in Enugu, a Minister cast his vote and referred to the election as free and fair yet that Minister’s father did not vote due to all the reasons this election failed. In places, new polling units surfaced, in others shortage of electoral materials, in another it was simple the more you look, the very little you could see and discern. Voting took place in Adedibu’s house, in Jos, the Deputy Governor candidate visited by the Press at about 2.00 in the afternoon on election day was sleeping… because mission was already fiat accompli. In Bauchi we that for the masses who stood by their votes, even to the point of embarrassing the sitting Governor Mauzu, everywhere that PDP lost was almost free and fair, but where it won was not, what a strange nation and people we are. In Abia for every 1000 ballots thumb printed people were paid N10,000.00. It was simple a better rigger that won.

Cars were burnt, houses razed down, lives lost both innocent and guilty. With another three days to the Presidential bearing any postponement, it has been the parley of the credible and the ‘in’credible between Buhari and Atiku. Where are we really heading to? Also in the state of violence, mass rigging and all the mess that characterized the last Saturday polls, I noted that there was a voter apathy cut across all the States of the Federation as a lot of people believed that this election was already won and lost. The Security operatives, Police, SSS and Army help and caused havoc in places, in this I mean they were places were if not for their presence, while in others the were escorts for ballot thieves and with no shame carried out their task to the fullest. While Adedibu has been celebrating, Bode George succumbed to the fire and ‘rigging power of Tinubu. Mixed grill of an election but certainly we did not fare well.

In the elections INEC also showed that they were ill prepared although I accept that we could not have been guaranteed a 100% success at the conduct but from what we got, much was certainly desired than the rubbish we got in places. Interestingly and on a comical note before the protest that came later from the Vice President Atiku, in separate television interviews he used the phrase “so far so good” in referring to the election on Saturday, same phrase that Obj used and for the President and his party it remained so, although they did not get it free and fair in Kano, In Bauchi, In Abia, in Lagos, in Enugu, Edo and many more places, the PDP proved that its rigging machinery is still pretty much intact. Money changed hands, violence flowed freely from South to West, East to North and for what it is worth I believe lessons were learnt, the election tribunals would be busy, in Minna the ANPP asked their supporters to be calm, and I think that should be the spirit because Nigerians cannot keep a pattern of a peaceful revolution as a result of this, so let us just believe that the Judiciary will not let us down. Ngige will be in court, maybe Adams Oshimole, and may more, but even if the President says it is a do or die affair, let us prove him wrong, let only the PDP die, not life lost is worth all this.

I only hope and pray that the new Governors will have the will to tackle the issues, the new States House of Assembly will do their duty. We hope we have had enough of the godfather, mother and son arrangement. This elections is all about change, if at the end a year from now most of us critics are not ‘resting’ then sadly we will have to accept defeat. Let us not forget that everyone cannot win too and that there is space for strong and purposeful opposition that make the holders of power function correctly. The Presidential election has been won and lost and this may sound defeatist but the truth is that except the opposition can get its act together, come together as one to fight a common enemy, PDP will have it her way. It is election by all means rigged so let the better rigger win or alternative.

Robot  Villager

# 1 Nigeria In the last few days since the gubernatorial elections I have engaged myself in a sober r...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 18.04.2007 09:26

ocnus  Villager

# 2 It is clear that the elections were rigged. I have not found a Nigerian anywhere who did not believe that the elections were going to be rigged, after all the nonsense with INEC and the rumpus over Atiku and the banning of candidates. So, why is everyone surprised that the elections were patently rigged? Is there a Nigerian on the face of this earth who believed that it would be otherwise? The Nigerian political classes are thieves and bandits, greedy thieves and bandits, without the faintest appreciation of what democracy actually means. Where's the surprise that the election was unfair? Posted by ocnus| 18.04.2007 10:07

katampe  Villager

# 3 =ocnus;169404>It is clear that the elections were rigged. I have not found a Nigerian anywhere who did not believe that the elections were going to be rigged, after all the nonsense with INEC and the rumpus over Atiku and the banning of candidates. So, why is everyone surprised that the elections were patently rigged? Is there a Nigerian on the face of this earth who believed that it would be otherwise? The Nigerian political classes are thieves and bandits, greedy thieves and bandits, without the faintest appreciation of what democracy actually means. Where's the surprise that the election was unfair? Oyinbo man , I have also asked my people why they are exhibiting surprise. Do you have suggestions on how we can move our country forward? You see that Obasanjo that the west crowned and courted is a political 419. How do we rubbish his image in the west ? What can we do so the west know he his a thief? I am waiting for suggestions Ocnus Posted by katampe| 18.04.2007 11:13

ocnus  Villager

# 4 I have no panaceas, but I shall try to make some modest suggestions. You don't have to worry about Obasanjo's image in the world. Nobody thinks he is anything better than the Nigerians think of him. The press and other media is attacking him from all sides in the US. Canada, Australia and Europe. They are frustrated as well as offended because they believed that he was better than he turned out. Western politicians are also thieves and bandits and were willing to overlook Obasanjo's faults because he was anti-communist, anti-fundamentalist, and marginally better than Sani Abacha. I have known him for a long time and served on the Africa Leadership Forum with him. He was not always this way. Many of those in the West remember how he was, his skills and dedication and the struggle to get him out of Yola. They have overlooked what was becoming patently obvious until Obasanjo rubbed this mess in their faces. If I had to suggest an answer to the dilemma I would stress that the seed was planted when the Supreme Court and the National Assembly willingly looked the other way when Obasanjo, in clear violation of Article 138 of the Constitution, named himself as Oil Minister. There was no fuss; no challenge; no real opposition. That put economic power in the hands of a man with political might and ambition. The legislative powers were shown to have condoned this type of behaviour; indeed were 'settled'. That is when the rot set in. If he could not be constrained by a clear violation of the Constitution, then what other action would he have to commit to become subject to legislative or judicial censure. If there is any lesson in this for the future, the Nigerian populace must insist on a strict adherence to the law and the Constitution. Without that, all is up for grabs and negotiation. The rule of law is the rock on which the new Nigeria can be founded and it is the responsibility of Nigerians at all levels to insist on it in city, state and national politics. The first delict should be punished and not alowed to fester. Nigerians are well-educated, articulate and politically aware. It is not for me to tell them what to do. My only suggestion is that somehwere along the line someone should actually enforce the law before it has to go before the Supreme Court. Other than that, we oyinbo strangers can only look and wish you well. Posted by ocnus| 18.04.2007 11:37

katampe  Villager

# 5 =ocnus;169423> I have known him for a long time and served on the Africa Leadership Forum with him. He was not always this way. Many of those in the West remember how he was, his skills and dedication and the struggle to get him out of Yola. They have overlooked what was becoming patently obvious until Obasanjo rubbed this mess in their faces. Thanks Ocnus, I am sure you knew him when he was already forty. There is a common saying that a fool at forty is a fool forever.Obasanjo has always been this way.If he was not a fundamentalist , how come he sired many kids? How come his moral uprightness was never questioned? Have you read Wole Soyinka's account of his encounter with Obasanjo during the Nigerian civil war in his latest book? His people knew him and that was why he lost massively in the first election, even in his ward. Who knows Obasanjo better than his people? You guys can leave us now, you created part of the Obasanjo persona. Remember he was busy gallivanting the whole world to court his Oyinbo friends while he rubbished and abused his elders, pastors and killed his own people at home. The friendship of Oyinbo people made him bolder by the day.The friendship that made it possible to restructure the Nigerian army. Ocnus, you can just watch now. What I am asking is how do we get rid of this man and his legion of followers steeped in the nuisance political culture that has come to define Nigeria, how can Nigerians in diaspora frame the debate on Obasanjo that it would better resonate in Washington and in Downing Street. Don't be coy about this, many Nigerians would welcome ideas. Posted by katampe| 18.04.2007 12:03

ikechiji  Villager

# 6 Fellow Nigerians, I've done a bit of background research and have come up with a relatively inexpensive way to validate the results of the elections. 1) During the appeals process, the election tribunals/judiciary should request for INEC to transfer custody of all the ballots to either the courts or CBN. 2) Randomly select 10% of the wards in each State for validation. 3) Scan all the ballots in each of the selected wards using inexpensive PC scanners in the presence of all the party agents and court officers. 4) Make CDs of all the scanned ballots in the presence of all the party agents and court officers and electronically sign each CD. 5) Have two to three independent labs run inexpensive PC-based fingerprint technology to verify non-duplicative fingerprints. Fingerprint matching software are relatively cheap ( e.g. < US$10k at http://www.neurotechnologija.com/verifinger.html ). The parties can also purchase and run the software themselves. 6) Elections will be declared to be valid if there are no non-duplicative fingerprints in all the randomly selected wards. Allowing 10s per scan, 1 million ballots can be scanned in 2800 hrs. With 100 scanners, one can scan 1million votes in 28hrs. Since we are only scanning 10% of the votes in each state (e.g. 200,000 votes in Rivers), the entire scanning process should take no more than 6 hrs for Rivers State and less for all the other States. The VeriFinger software can match 40,000 fingerprints per second so the analysis time would be quite short. Since Iwu loves electronic data capture and voting, I am sure he would love electronic validation of the results. Is INEC up to the challenge? Odego Posted by ikechiji| 18.04.2007 14:51

bobonice  JJC

# 7 I agree with you fully on the need to verify the thumb prints using the same technology Iwu so much loves. But, whooosie.... am sure he will resist any attempt at that because he knows how much deception went into the resort to the use of the DDC equipment, the aim being to confuse Nigerians. I however believe that no matter how long it takes, some of the rigged elections will be reversed by competent courts if their recent land mark decisions are anything to go by. But, come to think of it, if the Presidential elections are nullified for any reason after 29 May 07, how would another election be conducted? Is it likely to be by the National Assembly members who may have stolen their own mandates too?Dont forget that there is hidden agenda to position Obj's daughter-Iyabo as the next senate president.(national character). My major problem with Nigeria which has been pointed out by another contributor is that no Nigerian politician is clean enough to probe another. It would only result in a similar situation like the obj/atiku's show of shame. Maybe God will save the country one day, but for now, their is a deep rot in the system which the current set of politicians cannot deal with. I rest my case Posted by bobonice| 19.04.2007 07:04

katampe  Villager

# 8 =ikechiji;169470>Fellow Nigerians, I've done a bit of background research and have come up with a relatively inexpensive way to validate the results of the elections. 1) During the appeals process, the election tribunals/judiciary should request for INEC to transfer custody of all the ballots to either the courts or CBN. 2) Randomly select 10% of the wards in each State for validation. 3) Scan all the ballots in each of the selected wards using inexpensive PC scanners in the presence of all the party agents and court officers. 4) Make CDs of all the scanned ballots in the presence of all the party agents and court officers and electronically sign each CD. 5) Have two to three independent labs run inexpensive PC-based fingerprint technology to verify non-duplicative fingerprints. Fingerprint matching software are relatively cheap ( e.g. < US$10k at http://www.neurotechnologija.com/verifinger.html ). The parties can also purchase and run the software themselves. 6) Elections will be declared to be valid if there are no non-duplicative fingerprints in all the randomly selected wards. Allowing 10s per scan, 1 million ballots can be scanned in 2800 hrs. With 100 scanners, one can scan 1million votes in 28hrs. Since we are only scanning 10% of the votes in each state (e.g. 200,000 votes in Rivers), the entire scanning process should take no more than 6 hrs for Rivers State and less for all the other States. The VeriFinger software can match 40,000 fingerprints per second so the analysis time would be quite short. Since Iwu loves electronic data capture and voting, I am sure he would love electronic validation of the results. Is INEC up to the challenge? Odego I think yours is a great idea, if the scanners can capture finger prints , and a finger print matching software is used to investigate duplicate finger prints. If the processing times for data capture and verification are as you proposed, we might be close to eliminating rigging. Do you think it is not better to fly the ballots overseas for processing ? My point is , at points within the decision chain , i.e. points in the process where people have to report findings there could be falsification of findings. How can we isolate or determine the critical points of the process, so we can better monitor those points from abuse? Could we have the electronically signed copies of the CD's flown overseas instead to crosscheck the findings done in Nigeria? Maybe, we fly one to the States and another to Britain. Ikechiji, over ... Posted by katampe| 19.04.2007 07:36

ikechiji  Villager

# 9 =katampe;169605>I think yours is a great idea, if the scanners can capture finger prints , and a finger print matching software is used to investigate duplicate finger prints. If the processing times for data capture and verification are as you proposed, we might be close to eliminating rigging. Do you think it is not better to fly the ballots overseas for processing ? My point is , at points within the decision chain , i.e. points in the process where people have to report findings there could be falsification of findings. How can we isolate or determine the critical points of the process, so we can better monitor those points from abuse? Could we have the electronically signed copies of the CD's flown overseas instead to crosscheck the findings done in Nigeria? Maybe, we fly one to the States and another to Britain. Ikechiji, over ... Katampe, No approach is foolproof especially with technology. There are issues with chain of custody of the ballots, scans, etc but in this case the "independent" courts will be acting as umpire. If the ballots can be scanned in front of court officers and agents of all the political parties, and a court officer maintains custody of the original ballots and electronic scans we are half-way there. Electronic data can easily be transferred a multitude of ways. The political parties can also independently verify the results. At the end of the day though, I think the problem is more of the will than the way. Ikechiji Posted by ikechiji| 19.04.2007 09:36

katampe  Villager

# 10 =ikechiji;169628>Katampe, No approach is foolproof especially with technology. There are issues with chain of custody of the ballots, scans, etc but in this case the "independent" courts will be acting as umpire. If the ballots can be scanned in front of court officers and agents of all the political parties, and a court officer maintains custody of the original ballots and electronic scans we are half-way there. Electronic data can easily be transferred a multitude of ways. The political parties can also independently verify the results. At the end of the day though, I think the problem is more of the will than the way. Ikechiji I understand what you mean, but as humans we can at least try. For example, we haven't made adequate use of our religious institutions well enough.With them as representatives of the parties (where some parties do not have the financial wherewithal to appoint agents) we can at least expect some fair amount of honesty and credibility.The churches/mosques would be enrolled in the election monitoring and ballot clarification exercise as volunteers. If the critical points center on the custody of ballots, scans, etc., then involvement of representatives of religious institutions would further give credibility to the exercise. Mind you, I am not against the courts having overall responsibility. I think the involvement of institutions within the society that we still consider reliable might be necessary. I think your idea is part of the ideas we can start to develop online through joint efforts and critique, we can even develop a flow chart on how it might work to enable people subject it to critique that might on the long-run produce a reliable and workable program of activities involved in the ballot finger print verification exercise. I think the will would be there when the process is available, people are aware /informed, and it is made simple as ABC. Posted by katampe| 19.04.2007 10:07