Audit, don’t cancel!, By Wole Olaoye

What needs to be done is a forensic audit of all processes and tools used. In this way, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will serve the same purpose as the Video Assistant Referee in football. Like VAR, BVAS has the power of recall. How many people are accredited? How many did you vote for? What is the score? Check all about the original result sheet signed by all party agents.

I do not agree that the admittedly flawed 2023 presidential election should be annulled, as some have called for. Decapping is not the right remedy for headaches. While imperfect, the rule of law is still the most civilized way to resolve disputes known to man. So, no matter how much you suffer, the best thing is to gather evidence to prove the allegations and approach the court.

I admit that I am one of those who think that the result of the polling unit, as explained by JS Okutepa SAN, “The pyramid on which other results are built”. I therefore expect that once the polls are over and the results are announced, the results will be uploaded on the INEC server or portal immediately or, at worst, immediately after.

Apparently, for some reason, which will be revealed in the coming legal battle, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did not fulfill its promise. As a Nigerian, I feel ashamed for doing this simple task before the whole world.

Emotions are known to be high. However, we must allow reason to win by coming to terms with what happened and creating a peaceful way to resolve the issue. Bola Tinubu did not declare himself the elected president. It was INEC that violated the sacred duty entrusted to it. The fact that Atiku Abubakar of the PDP and Peter Obi of the Labor Party have taken their grievances to court should ease the tension.

I’ve heard jokes about how our courts have become cash-strapped outfits. I think that aspersion is unfair and unwise. Why would a wise person urinate in a well that is expected to drink? Whatever our misgivings, let’s give the courts a chance to save our politicians from themselves. Without judgment, dog would have eaten dog by now. So, let the disaffected approach the temple of justice with absolute trust.

There are plenty of video and audio clips making the rounds again. This time, many are only focused on the next round of elections and fueling ethnic sentiments to win converts. The focus is no longer on party programs but on ethnic bait. The results of the presidential election have given the party an indication of its strengths and weaknesses. Perhaps because it is too late to correct their perceived weakness, some have opted for hate-vending.

I fear that ethnic wars in places like Lagos will only destroy the gains the city has made over the years. Some people really want to set the Yoruba against the Igbo, as if the governorship election is a tribal war between the two groups. This kind of tilt is not the back of the head during the presidential election. If so, it subliminally arranges. On social media, for example, I am shocked that young people who do not know what happened in the past, are spouting all half-truths and outright lies to drive a wedge between the Yorubas and the Igbos. And some senior citizens who are supposed to be cheering him on!

On the other side of the spectrum is one nameless goon who circulated a video clip where he urged Igbos to be prepared for war if that is what the Yorubas want. There are a lot of crackpots out there! They don’t think about the implications of what they say, just the ‘recognition’ that comes with 60 seconds of infamy.

Wise commentators have warned Igbos living in Lagos not to burn the bait, because it is all based on the knee-jerk reaction of Igbos to any challenge. Basically all the ethnic groups in the country have good, bad and ugly.

Some of the primitive sentiments expressed by the mostly faceless Turks behind hateful messages are too much to express here. (I insist that the role of social media oversight should take a front seat at a time like this).

Igbo columnist and fence-mending newspaper, Dr Ugo Egbujo, has tried to pour oil on troubled waters by refuting the propaganda that Igbos do not support anyone outside their ethnicity. Egbujo said:

In 1999, the Igbo voted for Obasanjo en bloc
Obasanjo is Yoruba
Obasanjo lost Yorubaland but scored 85%+ in Igboland
In 2003, the Igbo voted for Obasanjo
Obasanjo scored 95% in some Igbo states
Obasanjo defeated Ojukwu in Igboland.
In 2007, the Igbo voted for Yaradua
Yaradua is a Hausa-Fulani
Yaradua got the highest percentage of votes in Igboland
In 2011, the Igbo voted for Jonathan
Jonathan is an Ijaw
Jonathan scored 95%+ in Igboland
In 2015, the Igbo voted for Jonathan
Jonathan scored a higher percentage in igboland than the South-South Region
In 2019, the Igbo voted for Atiku
My heart is Fulani
Atiku scored a higher percentage in Anambra than Adamawa
In 2023, the Igbo voted for Obi
Obi is Igbo
After Igbo people voted for Obi, they became ‘bigots’
After the Igbo people gave Obi what Obasanjo, Yaradua, Jonathan and Atiku have given,
Igbos became ‘criminals’.
Nigeria, we salute you!

On the other side of the spectrum is one nameless goon who circulated a video clip where he urged Igbos to be prepared for war if that is what the Yorubas want. There are a lot of crackpots out there! They don’t think about the implications of what they say, just the ‘recognition’ that comes with 60 seconds of infamy.

Another strand of rumour-mongering died as ‘Breaking News’ rudely popped up on my phone the other day. The screaming post said a battalion of herdsmen is waging war against farmers around Owo area, Ondo State. The post goes on to say that the locals should drive the foreigners out of the center before further damage is done. A couple of phone calls later, I wonder if people will just concot the tale and pass it on as ‘Breaking News’ in our combustible environment at the moment. Such stories are told with the purpose of educating the natives against the non-natives.

The fact that this fierce campaign coincided with an important election season. If the security agencies are alive to their duty, they should now come up with a long list of ethnic bulldogs to prevent unnecessary bloodshed. If we do nothing, the flow of brotherhood can be poisoned and neighbors can become enemies, as happened in Rwanda.

This primitive and xenophobic character is very un-Yoruba! In the past, the Yoruba have fought many civil wars among themselves before they emerged as a nation. No, these bush tactics are an insult to Yoruba civilization.

The fact that this fierce campaign coincided with an important election season. If the security agencies are alive to their duty, they should now come up with a long list of ethnic bulldogs to prevent unnecessary bloodshed. If we do nothing, the flow of brotherhood can be poisoned and neighbors can become enemies, as happened in Rwanda.

I have arrived at the Kigali Genocide Memorial in Gisozi, Rwanda, the final resting place for more than 250,000 victims of the Genocide against the Tutsi. It’s a grim reminder of what hate can do. The systematic killing of 800,000 Tutsis began with a fierce campaign of targeted killings when a plane carrying Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down.

Genocide spread throughout the country quickly and violently, as ordinary citizens were encouraged by local officials and the Hutu Power government to take up arms against their neighbors. Hating Tutsis is considered nationalist, if you are Hutu. Just the way some people are euphemistically baying for blood now without bothering about how it will all end. They can not even be bothered that tribesmen and women themselves also make a living in other parts of Nigeria and will be sitting ducks if it is degenerate for “an eye for an eye”.

Anyone who still doesn’t know what an unspeakable horrifying massacre is should watch the movie Rwandan hotel. The Nigerian Civil War, as horrific as it was, did not come close to the Rwandan genocide in its brutality and brutality.

Ethnic baiting was the same tool used by Adolf Hitler to destroy the Jews and assert the superiority of the Aryan race. The result was a horrific genocide designed to wipe out European Jewry. Many of the perpetrators of these heinous crimes have finally been brought to justice by the global community. There is no statute of limitations on such horrors as genocide. In May 2020, one of the financiers of the Rwandan genocide, Félicien Kabuga, now 90 years old, was arrested in Paris, 26 years after the crime. There is no rest for the wicked.

Back to the presidential election. What needs to be done is a forensic audit of all processes and tools used. In this way, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) will serve the same purpose as the Video Assistant Referee in football. Like VAR, BVAS has the power of recall. How many people are accredited? How many did you vote for? What is the score? Check all about the original result sheet signed by all party agents. Aha!

Do you know why an audit is better than an annulment?

Wole Olaoye is a Public Relations consultant and veteran journalist. He can be reached at wole.olaoye@gmail.com, Twitter: @wole_olaoye; Instagram: wolula2021