A wRECk for all seasons

History has a way of repeating itself. When you think it’s curtains effectively on a particular trend, it shows up again, although in a different context and, perhaps, the strangest of circumstances. That was what happened recently with the rogue declaration of a winner in the Adamawa State governorship poll by suspended Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) Hudu Yunusa-Ari.

Barrister Ari made his way into the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) collation centre in Yola early on 16th April to declare All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed, popularly known as Binani, as winner of the governorship supplementary election held on 15th April. The electoral commission had conducted the supplementary poll to determine the winner after the main election held on 18th March ended inconclusive owing to cancellation of results in polling units where there was over-voting. Prior to the election being declared inconclusive, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate and incumbent Governor Ahmadu Fintiri was in the lead by polling 421,524 votes, as against 390,275 votes recorded by his closest rival, Binani. That lead widened marginally in early returns from the supplementary poll that saw Fintiri netting 4,085 votes more from results of 10 polling units announced on election day out of 69 polling units where the election held, while the APC candidate added 3,128 votes to her tally.

Ari’s self-assigned task of calling the election on Sunday morning was beyond incongruous. The State Returning Officer, Professor Mohammed Mele, had adjourned collation of results till 11a.m. on that day, for which reason many stakeholders including election observers, party agents and journalists covering the process had recessed. But the REC entered unheralded into the collation centre at about 9a.m. and returned Binani as winner, despite that collation of results from outstanding polling units was pending. Accompanied by then state Commissioner of Police as well as operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Ari read from a prepared speech by which he returned a winner mid-collation! Few media cameras were on hand, and footages showed him being confronted following his declaration by persons believed to be party agents present in the collation centre. The encounter got heated to the point that one of the men made a grab at Ari’s cuffs, which he jerked away as he was ushered out of the collation centre by security men.

Events unfolded rapidly thereafter. Professor Mahmood Yakubu-led commission in Abuja overruled Ari’s declaration as “null and void” and accused him of being a meddler who made a call that was by no means his to make. The commission also summoned the REC to Abuja, but later reported that he spurned the summons and wasn’t responding to calls, and neither were his whereabouts known. Meanwhile, it suspended Ari and referred him to the Inspector-General of Police for investigation and possible prosecution, and as well requested the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to “draw the attention of the appointing authority to the unwholesome behaviour of the REC for further action.” Although it initially shelved the collation following Ari’s meddling, the electoral body restarted the process a few days later and the properly-designated returning officer, Mele, declared Fintiri re-elected with 430,861 votes on Tuesday, 18th April. Before that final resolution, tempers threatened to boil over in the Northeast state. On the heels of Ari’s declaration, soldiers were deployed on the streets to forestall a breakdown of law and order amid fears of possible outbreak of civil unrest. Governor Fintiri gave a press briefing where he vowed to resist any attempt to abort the people’s will. Senator Ahmed (Binani) addressed a press conference of her own where she accepted the purported victory; and when INEC overruled, she insisted on defending her ‘mandate’ and took recourse to the judiciary to seek to overrule the commission. She has since withdrawn the suit, though.

At government level, there were as well measures taken. President Muhammadu Buhari, as the appointing authority, approved Ari’s suspension and ordered his probe and prosecution as necessary by the police. He also directed the security agencies whose officials kept Ari company at the collation centre to investigate those officials and mete out sanctions as may be warranted. For their part, the police confirmed having initiated the process of bringing the suspended REC to account. INEC National Commissioner Festus Okoye fuelled curiosity about the man when he declared his whereabouts unknown, but he deftly left what to do about it to the police. “That is the responsibility of the Nigeria Police. If they feel that his presence is absolutely needed during the investigation and he is nowhere to be found, it is their prerogative and discretion to declare him wanted,”  he said on television.

“Whatever motivated Ari to make his pitch…must be hugely compelling, because he wittingly made a wreck of his RECship and career”

Whatever motivated Ari to make his  pitch on 16th April must be hugely compelling because he wittingly made a wreck of his RECship and career. It was like premeditatedly putting the flame torch into a house you built. He is a barrister-at-law and an alumni of the prestigious National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies. It is common knowledge that only people who’ve made a mark in their career or public service ever get nominated to attend that institute. Besides, he was only late last year appointed to the electoral commission as REC, meaning he had more than four years to go in his tenure that was potentially renewable for another five years. Let’s not talk now about good name, which age-long wisdom teaches is more precious that silver. Yet, he knowingly fed all that to the bonfire!

And not that it was for a cause that had a fighting chance of survival. As an electoral commissioner and lawyer to boot, Ari is well familiar with the legal framework providing for only the person designated as returning officer to call an election. He was not the returning officer for the Adamawa poll and he knew his own job description as REC different from that of the returning officer. Moreover, the Electoral Act (Amendment) 2022, in Section 65 (1) now empowers INEC to overrule any declaration and return “where the commission determines that the said declaration and return was not made voluntarily or was made contrary to the provisions of the law, regulations and guidelines, and manual for the election.” Before that insertion in the 2022 amendment, Ari might have hoped that his declaration could momentarily hold up until subjected to review by an election tribunal or court of competent jurisdiction through petitioning. But not with the new amendment that strengthens the commission’s hand to rebuff rogue returns, and Ari knew that too well as an electoral commissioner and a lawyer. Still, he went ahead with making a return mid-collation. It couldn’t be worse were it by bewitchment.

What’s history got to do with these? The last time RECs called governorship polls was before the 2011 general election. Part of the motivation for shifting to academics was the 2009 Ekiti State governorship re-run between Engr. Segun Oni of the PDP and Dr. Kayode Fayemi of then Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) that was held up by momentary resignation of the state REC, Mrs. Ayoka Adebayo. Results from Ido-Osi and Oye were highly contentious in that election and then 74-year-old Mrs. Adebayo threw in her quit letter, saying she could not work against her conscience to make an orchestrated return. But she got coerced out of resignation, following which she declared Oni as winner of the poll and asked whoever was dissatisfied to go to court. In October 2010, however, Justice Ayo Salami-led appeal court panel overturned that verdict in favour of Fayemi, with harsh words for the REC who was accused of colluding in the plot to rig the election, and for then INEC Chairman Professor Maurice Iwu who got slammed for doing a shoddy job of the re-run poll. That debacle partly informed the decision by Professor Attahiru Jega-led INEC to start using academics as state returning officers. By his pitch, Ari hacked back to pre-reform days without statutory or moral basis. He should answer for gratuitously re-enacting inglorious history.