#BlogFeature - What Free And Fair Election???

Here's an article by someone whom I would like to keep anonymous for now for security reasons. It highlights a bit of what transpired during the past presidential election in Nigeria. Kindly read and share because you never know just how far this might go in getting the change we seek.

Thanks.

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I'm just like a man who ate, wiped his mouth and started cursing the one that brought the food. Still I shall talk.

After all the stern warnings from our training officers like "be careful oo. If you are caught, you will go to court, you will go to jail. INEC is not worth risking your freedom for..." They also told us to abandon the box if we sense any threat to our lives but assured us that they have brought serious security into the State. We went to election not knowing what to expect. 

The whole electioneering process was tedious and slow. At a point the people started agitating and we explained to them. You know, I was even convinced that this whole thing was going to be at least 80-90% fair. The card reader picks your data  and sends directly to INEC National database. We then check through the manual database(register) for the your data and ink your finger for voting. During voting,we also check for your name in the manual database and ink your finger a second time with a different colour of ink so you won't come back again to vote.

Such a foolproof process. And I believed if there was going to be any rigging, it would have to come from the top.

Then we started receiving reports. The ink was washing off. Our fellow Corp members from other units were attacked because their card readers weren't working. Others were attacked because their register was fake, the original had been taken by a certain political party.  The women we told to come back by 1pm to vote would ask us if that's when they will collect their rice and money. One man trying desperately to talk to me because he thought I was the Presiding Officer. An announcement that went round the units that at least 200 of each category of the ballot papers be returned to our Supervising Officers (if we you understand the implication).

During the election, we worked as a team. When we discovered that some of the people were too old to see or not literate to be able to read out the names of the different political parties, the officer at the voting point would ask for their party and direct them accordingly. One agent of a certain political party agitated at first. But when he realised that most of the people we were helping were voting for his party, he became very happy. 

One funny thing - that certain political party did  thorough grassroot campaigning. By the time we got there by 7:30am in the morning, the people were already waiting for us. Old men were struggling with young people to cast their votes. Sick people, very old people, partially blind, all of them struggling to vote. 

When our Presiding Officer saw how we were helping the old ones to properly cast their votes, the agent of that certain political party quickly mobilized him. He started directing voters at the other voting point to vote for that certain political party. Eventually, that certain political party won. We were all given appreciation envelopes by that certain political party whether you worked for them or not. I called my colleagues from other zones and states, we were all given the same amount. They planned well for the election. They planned well for us.  They planned well for Nigeria. That certain political party.

But please, don't tell me about a free and flawless election.