Emmanuel Aziken
Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, arguably the most stoic political canvasser in Edo State since the advent of the Fourth Republic was there sitting with Senator Monday Okpebholo, the victorious candidate of the APC, the day after the contentious governorship election last September.
Ize-Iyamu’s role in the emergence and victory of Okpebhelo had been partly clouded by the enchanting dances and vituperations of the comrade-governor turned senator, Adams Oshiomhole during the campaigns. Ize-Iyamu’s decision based on his network in Abuja that the APC ticket had been zoned by powers in Abuja to Okpebholo was the trigger that swept many other APC aspirants to submit to Okpebholo.
Willy-nilly, as Pastor Ize-Iyamu and Okpebholo, reportedly another man of God in his own right, soaked down their election victory, few kilometers away, another man of God was looking up to heaven as to why his own revelations on the Edo election went awry. Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, the famed senior pastor at Trinity House, Lagos was definitely looking up in askance.
On that Sunday, September 22 he was definitely not winning souls for Christ having seen his only brother lose the Edo election. In solidarity with his sibling on election night, while other men of God elsewhere prayed for God’s presence in the Sunday services ahead, Pastor Ighodalo was by his brother at the INEC collation centre. They were at the Aduduwa, Benin City INEC Collation Centre to physically challenge what was alleged as the ongoing rigging scheme at the collation centre.
The PDP has since claimed that they were leading before their agents were allegedly chased away from the collation centre and results allegedly rewritten. AN ASIDE: Eight years earlier when IzeIyamu flew the flag of the PDP, the same night magic occurred at the same collation centre when political part agents of opposition parties were chased away. The following morning the tension in Godwin Obaseki, the APC candidate and his agents was eased as the disrupted collation resumed.
Eight years later, Obaseki was now on the other side and his bold but seemingly foolish attempt to storm the INEC collation centre turned into an embarrassment when he showed himself to be a general with few commanding officers. But how the two pastors, Ize-Iyamu and Ighodalo are going about guiding their followers on the truth about the Edo election is an amazement that only heaven can behold. Heaven regularly looks down in confusion when election cheats in Nigeria go for thanksgiving as many are wont to. However, it is gratifying that this malaise is not total.
A governor confided in your correspondent how he allowed the State Independent Election in his state to do its work and for the first time the opposition party won a number of seats, albeit councillorships. What counted for this governor was that he has through good works galvanized the electorate to himself. However, the drama of pastors taking opposite sides in the very dirty process called election in Nigeria brings to fore the charge from Paul, the Apostle who wrote his audience in Galatia to avoid groupings, factions and sects (Galatians 5:20). The spiritual darkness in the world that has been made more gloomy by the evil of election manipulation was what made the Prof Attahiru Jega-led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to recruit academics and notably, professors as election returning officers at the beginning of the last decade.
At that time, the sight of university vice chancellors and other academics reeling out election results added some measure of integrity to the process. They were indeed, generally applauded. However, as is generally reported the present leadership of the commission has taken that esteem of the academia to the mud. Professors who generally should profess the truth of their various disciplines have let the nation down with their public emissions of electoral garbage. Professors who ordinarily should bring qualitative reasoning to fore by projecting practical conclusions have been turned into channels for transmitting rigged election results. How a professor would return a result with near 100% voter turnout is indeed befuddling.
In several elections conducted by the present leadership of INEC, we have seen returning officers churn out results that were collated outside the guidelines. They have almost in all cases waived aside the regulation that provide for a review. Why professors refuse to give heed to judiciousness during elections has brought despair to champions of academic reasoning. It is saddening that the leadership of the commission which fully lost its moral bearings after the technical glitch saga of 2023 has failed to address these issues.
After the election frailties of the 2023 General Election, the election management body instead of purging itself of the identified malfeasances came out with a sanctimonious arrogance that failed to explain the technical glitch on the IREV portal on which it had priorly claimed was the game changer. That smug haughtiness is what is seen in the refusal to review the wrongs during the election process. It is for this reason that your correspondent advocates that the election laws be altered to put INEC on the spot in defending the election results it declares. By that, a measure of sanity will be brought into our elections.
