April 2007 Election: Is The Vote In Void?
The 2007 election in this nation of about 140 million people fell below acceptable standards. The system had failed the Nigerian people. The mood after Nigeria’s 2007 election was that of anger and dejection. Many felt we missed another opportunity to create and foster an acceptable democratic tradition since the elections were massively rigged even in the face of million of dollars spent by the Independent National Election Commission (INEC) on ICT infrastructure to ensure transparency in the voting process. I was snapped. My thumbprint was scanned. I was even asked to verify if the information in the system about me was correct. I didn’t know that all those exercise were mere waste of time. The man that was declared winner in my ward could never have won for the simple reason that he never came to campaign in this area. He was not known and we could never have voted for a spirit. But INEC and their computers said we voted for a spirit.

Right now, I am confused to dictate the direction we are going. In those days when I was tender, everything politics was military; by the time I was graduating from the university, Democracy came in shape. Despite all the sacrifices laid to enthrone this rule, today again, Nigeria’s democracy turns critical. The April 2007 elections alone were supposed to foreclose that we are moving higher, step on the people’s government ladder and at the same time, create a more conducive environment to resolve our overdue conflicts as well as strengthening its credentials as a pacified nation, generated serious new problems that may be pushing it further towards the status of a ruin nation.

Owing to what we had passed through, in the past; -tyrant government brutalities, we were not expecting the vote to flaw since unanimously we booted the military government away. Yar’Adua Government quite good, but the pain is the process it went to emerge. The masses were not siding third term agenda nor Obasanjo’s “fox” mentalities but were longing to wish any regime that defame “Obasanjo-ness” in our presidential affinity either by name-dropping or by failed contracts. Because election’s vote in Africa's number one crude oil producing country, and the world's seventh largest exporter, was supposed to usher in a new era and not Obasanjo linage in rule. We felt the first democratic transition in the country's history since independence 47 years ago could be that of April 2007, but were aggrieved over the outcome. Nigerians were eager to see one elected civilian president peacefully handing power over to another duly elected leader after decades of military rule. But it looks as if our latest, disputed experiment with democracy could end up with a legal challenge in court.

The declared winner and the president of this nation, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, assumed the leadership on 29 May last year with less legitimacy than any previously elected president and so with less capacity to moderate and resolve its violent domestic conflicts. He should act urgently to heal wounds, redress electoral injustice and punish the most grievous voting frauds, including those by officials of the agencies directly involved in administering the elections. To salvage his government’s legitimacy, he needs to pursue policies of inclusiveness and restraint in relation to the opposition, accept the decisions of the tribunals (including the Supreme Court if need be) reviewing the petitions of defeated candidates, and embark on a vigorous electoral reform program.

But Buhari, considered the leading opposition presidential candidate, had run against President Olusegun Obasanjo in the 2003 election, has not accepted the results of the April 2007 election calling on the authorities to probe Olusegun Obasanjo. Another rival and former vice president Alhaji Atiku Abubakar described it as "the worst election ever in Nigeria, claiming that the government had "no alternative than to cancel the election altogether, rejecting it outright! There was even criticism from within Obasanjo's ranks. Senate President Ken Nnamani, the third most senior government official, said widespread irregularities would leave a "legacy of hatred and a crisis of legitimacy for the winner.




A late start on Election Day was caused by the last-minute printing of fresh ballots to include the name of Atiku, the ex- vice president. Atiku has for the past two years been locked in a political feud with Obasanjo. He stood as an opposition Action Congress (AC) presidential candidate in that election. But before then, the Supreme Court overruled a decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify Atiku from the race. The ex-vice president was facing corruption charges that the INEC disqualified his candidacy. The decision left just 48 hours to print 65 million new presidential ballots including Atiku's name in South Africa. The ballots had to be flown to Nigeria and distributed to more than 100,000 polling stations across the country, amidst crumbling infrastructure.

After the presidential vote, Nigeria's Election Chairman Maurice Iwu declared that INEC deserved to give itself a huge pat on the back. He attributed an emergency and a resounding response to the emergency at his own best; He bragged that no other country in the world could do it better. He claimed that INEC were able to print 65 million ballot papers in three days, had them flown into this country and distributed for an election.

But many Nigerians feel it was much too early for Iwu to congratulate himself and his devious INEC instrument. We argue that all the fuss and bother, and delay in distributing ballots, might have been avoided in the first place had the INEC done its homework. INEC in Iwu’s platform argued that the corruption charges Atiku faced automatically excluded him from running and, so, left his name off the ballot. Some say the electoral commission was pandering to political pressure from ex-President Obasanjo to keep Atiku from running. Atiku and Obasanjo have been at loggerheads since the ex-vice president opposed moves to extend the ex-president's tenure past the constitutional two-term limit, breaking ranks with the governing People's Democratic Party (PDP). What came to be known as the "third term" bid failed after Nigeria's Senate threw out the ruling party's proposal to amend the constitution?

As a result, Obasanjo was forced to bow out of office after the elections last year. The ex-president was reportedly furious, and he and his thwarted supporters labeled the ex-vice president a political traitor. Atiku claimed he was the target of a witch-hunt by Obasanjo and his presidential entourage. Observers say the ex-president tried every possible maneuver to exclude Atiku from the presidential race. The ex-vice president said the corruption allegations he is facing are trumped up, politically motivated and engineered by Obasanjo. The contention between Obasanjo and Atiku has poisoned the political waters leading up to April 2007 presidential vote and the National Assembly elections, as well as state government polls held earlier last year.

The elections, in the view of Nigerians and the many international observers alike, were the most poorly organized and massively rigged in the country’s history. In a bitterly contentious environment, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo and his cohorts in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) acted with unbridled desperation to ensure sweeping, winner-take-all victories, not only in the presidency and federal legislature but also in state governorships and assemblies. Characterized as a “do or die” battle by Obasanjo, the campaigns and elections also witnessed extensive violence; including over 200 people were killed.

The European Union, who had 150 observers monitoring Nigeria's presidential and legislative elections, agreed that the poll have fallen far short of basic international and regional standards for democratic elections and cannot be considered to have been credible. Several candidates are speaking out in protest amid concerns that Nigeria's presidential election April 2007 was flawed.
The Initial results, which came in that Sunday night, gave an early lead to the ruling party's candidate, Umaru Yar'Adua. Already the two main opposition candidates, the ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and former military ruler Muhammadu Buhari, have indicated that they want the vote scrapped. Balloting was held Saturday after a two-hour delay, but polling stations in some parts of the country took many hours longer to get up and running. There were reports of violence in some areas. Buhari contended that the results in INEC's Forms EC8 (A) and EC8E (the presidential election results sheets from the states and the final results) were arbitrarily assigned without any election at the base.


Atiku and Buhari have deemed the poll deeply flawed and have called for a new election. It was impossible to use the result from half the country to announce a new president, because voting was delayed for hours and did not happen at all in a number of areas. Buhari said that the INEC awarded the electoral victory in favour of the PDP, Umaru Yar'Adua and Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan. He claimed the proof bias in INEC, acting through its staff and agents, by showing that wherever anything was done wrongly, it was done in favour of the assumed winners. As well as the proof that the voters' register was so irregular that even photos of children featured in many, and that some were in foolscap sheets.

But it was not technology that failed Nigerians as the song among the folks tend to suggest. It was the people entrusted with the task of ensuring that Nigeria had an honest vote count that ensured that technology was used to achieve ulterior motives. There is increasing consensus on the big positive change ICT could impact on Africa’s budding democracy. But the debate has remained on how fast and to what level African governments want ICT to promote democratic diffusion. Those in governments have come to accept that ICT could improve how people relate to the government and how they participate in governance. But only few governments appear ready to invest the required willpower beside the financial commitments.

For instance, in Nigeria’s last election, over $200 million was spent on deploying ICT in ensuring a more accurate election process that would ensure that as many people as possible exercise their franchise in urban, rural and very remote communities. With massive cases of fraud, rigging, false representation of results, that election has remained one of the worst ever in Nigeria’s recent history.

A damning report by the EU - Economic Union - Election Observer Group has affirmed the election as a sham. Besides, about 8 governors, more than 45 legislators at state and national levels have had their elections quashed by election tribunals to underscore the massive fraud of the 2007 national and state elections. The nation’s $200 million went into purchasing no less than 10,000 laptops and PCs for field election workers and other electoral officers to help in the collation of results. The money also covered software for fast, seamless collation; scanning and visual hardware to take record of voters’ thumbprints as well as provide snapshots of each voting adult to be fed into a central database accessible for collation processes.

The systems with electoral staff in scattered locations were connected to a central server at INEC’s head offices in Abuja and other capital cities through another major connectivity contract awarded to Reltel Wireless, a Lagos based telecom company. Reltel was assigned the $50 million task of providing links through VSAT and landline backbone, were feasible, to all of INEC’s systems or local networks. The whole idea was to link all of the NEC’s local networks as well as provide a robust framework under which election data from different locations could easily be accessed. The country has never implemented an ICT project of such magnitude for its elections and so there was high hope that the 2007 election would be the freest ever.

Ironically, it turned out to be the worst. As Abubakar Rimi, politician and former governor of Kano State, put it, technology is only a part of it, as critical as technology is to great changes; people remain the most fundamental of all the factors. "People would use technology for good or manipulate it for a pre-determined selfish result. In Nigeria’s case, they didn’t allow technology to work well. It was manipulated for an already designed selfish end that was injurious to the health of the nation." Rimi was one of the founding fathers of the country’s main political party, the People Democratic Party (PDP).

We have always believed that technology could help in achieving credible elections. We were open to implementing some ICT initiatives to get better results. During previous election elections, INEC use to embark on massive computerization as the beginning of those steps needed to make the job easier and better. But you can’t always rule out the human factor. The argument has never been whether or how ICT can be integrated into election or the entire democratic process, it is getting the genuine commitment among stakeholders particularly those in government to initiate ICT strategies for social and economic development that would allow truly elected leaders to emerge. In Nigeria’s case, even President Musa Yar Adua, who emerged as the president elect, to put it another way, the greatest beneficiary of the sham election, has not only accepted that the elections were marred by irregularities but he has already constituted a panel to provide solutions to building a transparent and sustainable electoral culture.
The Nigerian president is not unmindful that he may have his own election quashed by the election tribunal. He has severally affirmed to allow the rule of law to prevail and has giving hint that he would be willing to step down and allow another presidential election to take place if the tribunal so rules.

But the democratic process is not only about elections, it is also about social awareness and greater participation among the people in having a say in governance. In spite of its shortcomings, the last election offered a beautiful and practical exposition of the power of ICT in popular participation. More credible statistics put the number of PCs at just about 1. 9 million PCs with less than 45% connected to the Internet. But during the elections, they provided an effective window to share thoughts on candidates, election and other social issues among more than the eight million people that have access to the Internet in the country. It may be a small number out of 150 million people but they represent an increasing number of major stakeholders that are contributing to national think and sharing opinions on issues in Nigeria as they concern the common people.

After the elections, many made more critical with participation of people like Segun Adeniyi, who is the president’s spokesman. Adeniyi, journalist and former editor of Thisday (on Sunday), joined the debate on why the Mr.President chose to implement the court order reinstating Peter Obi as governor of Anambra State.Obi went to court asking that his removal by INEC was illegal and that the fresh election that brought in Andy Uba as new governor was illegal. The court granted his prayers, which were speedily implemented by President Yar Adua even though Obi was from an opposition party.

Widespread electoral malpractice and the staggering scale of falsified results were possible because of serious shortcomings within the regulatory agencies, most notably the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Vigorously manipulated by the presidency, INEC virtually abdicated its responsibility as impartial umpire. Inefficient and non-transparent in its operations, it became an accessory to active rigging. Similarly, the massively deployed police and other security services helped curb violence but largely turned blind eyes to, and in some cases helped in, the brazen falsification of results.

INEC declared a landslide for Yar’Adua with 70 per cent of the votes, to 18 per cent for Muhammadu Buhari of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP). That victory is bitterly disputed by many Nigerians, however, including broad-based labour, religious and civil society groups. It has pushed the country further towards a one-party state and diminished citizen confidence in electoral institutions and processes. Most ominously, it has undermined Nigeria’s capacity to manage its internal conflicts, deepening already violent tensions in the Niger Delta and refueling Biafran separatism in the ethnically Ibo south east. It has also badly damaged the country’s international image and Obasanjo’s legacy as a statesman, thus diminishing their credibility to serve as leading forces for peace and democracy throughout West Africa.


Yar’Adua, though prudent, was sworn into office amid subdued protests but he faces a giant challenge to pull Nigeria back from the brink of chaos, and he begins with his reputation grievously wounded by the process that brought him to power. During his inauguration, Yar'Adua said he would not use the excess crude account to fund the project. A committee was set up to find means of funding the project which the government believes is vital and relevant if the dream of realising the seven-point agenda of the administration is to be achieved. With the emergence of the former Katsina helmsman, the era of unconstitutionality seems buried as things are now done under the rule of law and due process. The presentation of the 2008 Budget to the National Assembly by the president, according to political commentators, is a clear sign that the present government is committed to the rule as enshrined by the constitution.

The evolvement of measures to meet the interest of the downtrodden and the reversal of certain policies undertaken in the previous administration reveal Yar'Adua as a new dawn for ensuring development for Nigeria. One of the greatest achievements of Yar'Adua, according to political pundits, is the respect for the rule of law. According to former Senate President Ken Nnamani, the absence of dictatorship and not the presence of infrastructural development is the true definition of development.

Though infrastructure plays a vital role, Nigerians must see the absence of tyranny and dictatorship as a refreshing welcome to the dividends of democracy. Political observers may be tempted to castigate the government for being slow in taking decisions to improve upon the lives of Nigerians. But the recent decision of the government to lift the ban on the importation of cement is a clear testimony that the government is committed to the improvement of the lives of the common man by ensuring that issues that relate to the welfare of the masses are looked into and if possible reviewed to advance the interest of the poor.

The lingering power sector that has consumed a lot of money in the past eight years is set to be looked into. Going by the pronouncements of top government officials, the government hopes to announce a state of emergency in the power sector in February 2008. The essence is to ensure that the problems of the sector are assessed holistically and measures rolled out to combat the incessant problems of the nation's power sector.

Recently, an American company was invited by the government to commence discussion on how to move the Nigerian power sector. Realising that government cannot alone shoulder the responsibility of resuscitating the energy sector; the Yar'Adua government is considering engaging international companies to take part in developing the sector for development. Having commenced discussion on how to fix the power sector, it is expected that the eggheads of the administration will come out with the structural blue print on how to finally resolve the lingering power sector crisis.

The Yar'Adua government has turned around the supply of refined petroleum products in the country. Before the emergence of the government, it was a recurring phenomenon for citizens to experience shortage in the supplies of these vital products. When Obasanjo less than 48 hours to his exit jacked up prices of petroleum products to N75 per litre, the country was literally set ablaze by the anger of the citizenry. But after several days of intense negotiations with labour leaders, the prices of the products were reviewed and since then the government has not reneged on its promise to ensure adequate supplies of the products in the market. The seasonal shortages of fuel that is the normal trait of the yuletide season has been a forgotten issue as Nigerians are now assured of fuel at all times.

The government's handling of the fuel issue is a plausible feat when viewed against the rising trend of crude in the international market. During the previous administrations, Nigerians were always told to brace up for higher prices of fuel products if there are rising prices of crude oil in the world market. Despite the rising crude price that was almost over $100 per barrel in the world market, prices of petrol products remain stable throughout the year. In a bid to ensure that Nigerians enjoy fuel produced from its refineries, the Yar'Adua government has given its commitment to the resuscitation of refineries.

For now, the administration has promised that the Kaduna Refinery and the Port Harcourt Refinery are due to commence operations at the end of the first quarter. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation whose unbundling process is being handled to pass on to the National Assembly for legislations is being refocused to achieve its objectives. Once the refineries become functional, the government would have saved several billions of naira used to subsidise the products for Nigerians.



The current attempt by the government to reform the electoral system through the setting up of the panel headed by Retired Justice Mohammed Uwais, former Chief Justice of Nigeria reveals the passion with which the Yar'Adua is concerned in evolving a fair and equitable system that will deepen Nigeria's electoral system. It is hoped that at the end of the day, Nigerians will be better off and the prospects of democracy enhanced for the sustenance of constitutional government for the country.

There is no gainsaying the fact that those who had initially doubted the capacity of the Yar'Adua administration in improving the lot of ordinary Nigerians and moving the country forward are having a second view. Having watched the administration in the last eight years or so, not a few Nigerians are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the country. Having wobbled and experienced an era of tyranny as exemplified by the Obasanjo years, Yar'Adua's administration is set to commence a healing process and restore the dignity of man and respect for the rule of law. If the past is anything to go by, then Nigerians can safely hope that at last a people-oriented government has finally emerged to combat the multifarious problems plaguing them.


L.Chinedu Arizona-Ogwu
Founder: Nigeria4BetterRule
Writes from Oyigbo; Rivers State
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