By Sam Amadi
A ruling party at the center is the one with the greatest incentive and capability to rig election.
It was the same with PDP.
APC, please guarantee free and fair elections in Edo. Election observation is nonsense in Third World country.
It’s President Buhari, as Commander-in-Chief, that has responsibility to ensure fair security services for elections and independent regulation by INEC.
The US has threatened visa sanction for those who rig Edo and Ondo elections. This should extend to INEC Chairman and top officials who fail in their job; and most of them have woefully failed in their job.
But the threat is no enough.
Visa refusal for the US will not be enough deterrence as long as Europe and Dubai (especially the latter) is available to these criminals (yes, criminals, because election rigging is high crime).
We need a collective refusal of visa by all European countries plus Dubai for this to bite.
Sadly, Trump has marginalized the US and lost global leadership to mobilize global visa ban to these criminals who have frustrated economic and social development in Nigeria through incredible elections.
Nigeria is now a pathetic and failed country. The only prospect of its retrieval from the dustbin of state failure hangs tremulously on the edge of fair and free elections. Free and fair elections don’t necessary produce democracy or development.
But as democracy scholar, Adam Przeworski rightly observed, elections are conflict avoidance and conflict resolution mechanisms. Where they are credible, they allow for orderly change of leadership with the added advantage of entrenching innovation and accountability.
So the gravest enabler of State failure in Nigeria is an electoral system that has become criminality.
The truth is that Nigerian electoral process is a criminal process.
That’s why more self-confessed criminals are winning elections in Nigeria. In Edo they will be on full display on both sides.
Everyday, the electoral process becomes more criminalized such that only higher cadres of criminals will have the skill-set and immorality to win elections at the polls or at the court.
So, Nigeria has little prospect. And the army of election observers and monitors will not help you.
Those are jobbers earning their living. Except President Buhari receives courage, sincerity and honesty to stop those who will rig Edo and Ondo and other elections in Nigeria, there’s just little or no hope of escape from complete state failure.
So, you know who to hold responsible for rigged elections in Edo.
Amadi, PhD, teaches Law at the Baze University, Abuja.
