Nigeria held one of its most competitive presidential elections on February 25 across all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, after which Tinubu was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
However, the manner in which the elections were conducted has come under heavy scrutiny and criticism, with the opposition challenging the process and outcome in court.
Although the country’s last presidential elections were arguably the most competitive, it also recorded the lowest turn-out – only about 25. 2 million total votes were cast, even though INEC said it had distributed 87 million Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).
Many have attributed the low voter turn-out to the late arrival of officials and election materials, inability to get accredited, voter suppression, voter intimidation and a cash crunch that had lasted more than a month.
In an open letter to US President Joe Biden, Chinamanda said the electoral commission reneged on its assurance to Nigerians as contained in the recently amended 2022 Electoral Act and failed to upload results of the presidential election in real-time, whereas, results of the National Assembly elections which were held at the same time were easily uploaded.
“Some electoral workers in polling units claimed that they could not upload results because they didn’t have a password, an excuse that voters understood to be subterfuge,” she said.
“Voters compared their cellphone photos with the uploaded photos and saw alterations: numbers crossed out and rewritten; some originally written in black ink had been rewritten in blue, some blunderingly whited-out with Tipp-Ex.
“The election had been not only rigged, but done in such a shoddy, shabby manner that it insulted the intelligence of Nigerians,” the writer added.
According to her, it came as a surprise when on March 1, the US State Department congratulated Tinubu, after noting that some of the parties had expressed frustration about the manner in which the process was conducted and the shortcomings of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation Systems (BVAS).
“American intelligence surely cannot be so inept. A little homework and they would know what is manifestly obvious to me and so many others: The process was imperiled not by technical shortcomings but by deliberate manipulation,” she said and urged President Biden to distance himself from the position taken by the US State Department.
“Has the United States once again decided that what matters in Africa is not democracy but stability? The battle for influence in Africa will not be won by supporting the same undemocratic processes for which China is criticized.
“Congratulating its outcome, President Biden, tarnishes America’s self-proclaimed commitment to democracy. Please do not give the sheen of legitimacy to an illegitimate process. The United States should be what it says it is.”
Chinamanda reiterated that Nigeria was a symbolic crucible of Africa’s future, and a transparent election will rouse millions of other young Africans who were watching, and who long, too, for the substance and not the hollow form of democracy.
If people have confidence in the democratic process, it engenders hope, and nothing is more essential to the human spirit than hope.
She warned: “Lawlessness has consequences. Every day Nigerians are coming out into the streets to protest the election. Rage is brewing, especially among young people. The discontent, the despair, the tension in the air have not been this palpable in years.
“The smouldering disillusionment felt by many Nigerians is not so much because their candidate did not win as because the election they had dared to trust was, in the end, so unacceptably and unforgivably flawed”.
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