The 2023 general elections have come upon us. With bated breaths, Nigerians waited for it. Some had the conviction that it would come while a large chunk of others believed the elections would not see the light of day. While the country was divided as to whether there would be elections or not, the major players of that political process kept their eyes on the coveted prize and refused to be distracted by the cacophony of noises going on around them. But why did many conclude there would be no elections? From which crystal ball did they draw that conclusion? The following is what City People found out.
According to political pundits, the rise of insecurity in some parts of the country was perhaps the major reason many concluded the elections may not hold. The spate of killings up north by bandits and heardsmen and the mindless activities of the IPOB in the South East also helped in painting a gloomy of the 2023 general elections. On a daily basis, in the North East, Boko Haram and bandits were taking turns to strike. Scores of lives were lost on a weekly basis while hundreds were kidnapped and ransomes demanded. Those who were lucky were released alive while dozens of others were killed even after ransome had been paid in some cases.
Simultaneously, as many were being slaughtered up North, same gory scenes were taking place in the south east. Two hydra headed monsters had taken the south east captive – the dreaded IPOB group agitating for a Biafra nation and the other monster called ‘unknown gunmen’. They were spreading fear and terror in the south east and were doing a good job of it. The situation, according to analysists, could force the federal government’s hands and make them cancel the elections, citing the fact that it could put the lives of many Nigerians at risk. This development also meant that very few people would have the courage to come out and vote under such circumstance. But it was when IPOB added the burning down of INEC offices and destruction of sensitive voting materials to their itinery that everyone realised they meant business. They also started attacking INEC officers, leaving several of them maimed in the process. And it was clear from that point that as far as the elections were concerned, things may not go as planned.
City People also found out that many Nigerians didn’t trust the north to be willing to relinquish power to the south. This is because there appeared to be a lot of dissenting voices coming from some quarters in the north, confirming that indeed, if the north would hand over power to the south, it would be done reluctantly. Grudgingly. Some are of the opinion that the presidency never wanted Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC to win the party’s primary. But the man emerged the APC presidential candidate against all odds. And from the moment he picked up the party’s presidential ticket, he had had to contend with all sorts of impediments thrown at him. According to a political pundit, “when it became clear, that going by the momentum with which Asiwaju was moving he was the clear favourite to win the presidential elections, the northern powers that be became jittery. They could see Tinubu was moving at the speed of a moving train ready to crush anything standing in it’s way.
One of such is the scarcity of fuel that has been lingering for some months now and the scarcity of cash owing to the naira redesign policy of the CBN. It will be recalled tht a few weeks ago at a rally in Abeokuta, Ogun State, the APC presidential candidate exploded when he said that the ongoing fuel scarcity and scarcity of naira being experienced by Nigerians was orchestrated by some powerful elements within and outside the Aso villa. The idea was to make people become so disenchanted with the federal government and subsequently vote against the APC and Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. If information reaching us is anything to go by, Tinubu is atarting to enjoy the sympathy of the people and may end up pulling in millions of sympathy votes at the end of the day.
The current unpopular policy by the CBN to redesign the naira has done far more harm than good. It left the people impoverished and totally frustrated. That frustration soon metamorphosed into intense provocation, triggering many cases of break down of law and order across the state. Angry and frustrated customers attacked the staff of various commercial banks and damaged a lot of banks and ATM machines as well. There were reports of some banks that were even set on fire. There was simply no way any meaningful elections would’ve been held under such circumtance if things had continued unabated.
Another major reason why many concluded there would be no elections was the reluctance of the CBN led by the now very popular CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, to release money to the INEC to begin preparations towards carrying out its electoral duties. It was even more shocking when Nigerians learnt that, days before the election, INEC was yet to receive the money it requested for to execute the elections. It just didn’t seem like CBN had any plans to release money to INEC and that if it would release money at all, it didn’t plan to do so in good time. And there was simply no way INEC would be able to get its logistics all across the federation in place if it didn’t have the resources needed.
The conclusions grew stronger by the day. More and more people began to believe and insist that the federal government was not ready to conduct any election. The general notion was that, owing to the twin scarcity of fuel and new naira notes, which was beginning to look predetermined by the government, the government was waiting for chaos to erupt in several parts of the country to have enough reason to halt the election. But it was not supposed to end there. The likes of APC top shots like Governor Nasir El-Rufai, Femi Fani-Kayode and others have come out to declare that there were powerful forces within the Buhari led government who are bent on scuttling the elections and setting up an Interim National Government because it was looking more and more likely that Tinubu would emerge winner. And they didn’t want that. They wanted a northerner to succeed Buhari not Tinubu, and so, they were already looking in the direction of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. But if they couldn’t manipulate the elections to favour Atiku by getting the electorates frustrated with APC over new naira notes and fuel scarcity, then an Interim National Government was their last resort. So, the talk about a possible ING became so rife that everyone began to believe it was a possibility. That the federal government released an official statement stating clearly that it had no such plans and that there would be a seamless handover from President Buhari to a new democratically elected president did not assuage the fears of the people. They didn’t believe the government.
It must also be recalled that several pastors had warned that there would be no elections. When asked to reveal whom God had told them would emerge President, some of them often responded by asking,’do you think an election will take place in the first place because I don’t see any elecvtion happening.’ This was the position of several prominent men of God. Even Pastor Adeboye of The Redeemed Christian Church of God also said he was yet to be told by God that there would be an election. There were so much uncertainties everywhere and the horizon didn’t just look good for any proper elections to take place. Nobody was sure anymore what could happen next. Only the President and a powerful clique round him knew what was in the offing. They were the only ones who knew what awaited Nigerians.
-WALE LAWAL
(08037209290)
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