In his birthday goodwill message to General Buhari last December when he clocked seventy-two year of age, Mr Aniebo Nwamu in his Sunday column of the leadership newspaper, had advised Buhari to commence the training of 240,000 trusted people that will manned the polling unit for him come February for the national poll. He said each of such person should owned a phone and be traceable. All of those people should also be placed on salary, he opined.
Anybody who knows the rigging DNA of the PDP would not take this advice lightly. If you have ever witnessed the PDP rigging methodologies, you would never rely on the strength of the goodwill you as a candidate enjoy from people to win election. Because while candidate of opposition toil day and night convincing people to vote him or her, the PDP’s arithmetic’s is how to rig. The PDP’s rhesus factor is rigging. Which is why even in area of its strong hold, they still go on to rig to prove the stuff they are made of.
PDP’s book of rigging would make a best seller any day. First, you are invited. But if you can’t be bought over, you are intimated. If that fails too, on the day of election, the police and army would lead a group of thug to chase you away from the polling booth where they would make away with the ballot box. The boxes are taken to designated PDP member’s house to be stuffed with thumb-print ballot. Such PDP stalwarts’ houses where illegal thumb printing and ballot box stuffing take place in my Kogi central senatorial district of Okene are referred to as INEC II. If there are no ballots to stuff box, thugs are led to vandalize voting materials-ballot, boxes and associated sheets, especially in opposition stronghold. If it happens your ballot box was able to make it to the collation center, agents are denied access to the collation centre and then the figures manipulated. This last method was widely employed in the 2011 general election which sold the dummy to observers that the election was free and fair.
I recall that in 2003, when the PDP was determined to rig out Audu Abubakar of the then ANPP (I have no iota of sympathy for him anyway), the votes which were brandished even before the election commenced was nearly the same figure announced by INEC for the PDP candidate Ibrahim Idris. PDP also ‘recruit’ polling booth agents for opposition parties. It is not uncommon to see therefore, that supposed agent of opposition party comes out to denounce it after election.
So, the Aniebo’s advise is not only timely and necessary, but it is an obligation that Buhari, the All Progressive Congress and all those who want change should take seriously. But here, I would add that the 240, 000 people should not just be any 240, 000. It should be 240,000 people with name recognition. It should be 240,000 that the PDP cannot chase with thugs; it should be 240,000 people that the PDP’s police and soldiers would not and cannot intimidate; it should be 240,000 people that can access all levels of vote collation.
It should not be volunteers who have no any form of protection; it should not be someone who is doing it for the love he or she has for Buhari. Because in past elections, many of us have risked life defending his candidature out of sheer love for and the belief in him. We have been threatened for standing for a candidate whose party does not even know you exist. For this, there was a level to which you can operate as there is no guarantee for you that the party of the candidate you are defending would even stand for you while you are defending its candidate. The PDP having realized that many of us were doing an Ajayi job capitalized on that to intimidate, threaten and rig elections.
That is why I am suggesting that the likes of Col. Hameed Aliyu, Col. Jafaru Isah, Nasir El-Rufai, Outgoing governors like Tunde Fashola, Rotimi Amaechi, Aliyu Wammako, Speaker Aminu Tambuwal and their likes who are no candidate in the February 14 election should stand as polling booth and collation centres agents. Yes, polling booth agents. Again, get me right, I mean polling booth agents. With these men, PDP will still try hard to agitate its hormone of rigging into action, but it will be too difficult.
Men like these would not stand speechless while PDP agents are forcing unenlightened village men and women to ‘pless’ for ‘umblella’ (with permission for reproduction from Patience Goodluck Jonathan). Men like these can escort the ballots to and access all levels of vote collation. Recall that the level of collation was the game changer for PDP in the 2011 election. After they had allowed the votes to count at the level of polling booth because voters were determined, they awaited the opposition at the collation center to manipulate the figures. It was at the collation center that many agents who were escorting the ballots were denied access by the PDP’s Nigeria police and army. But, with the caliber of people I have listed, the vote can be defended at any level. Even if the vote goes to tribunal, these are men who can articulate points. These are men who can come out as witness without any fear of being intimidated afterward. The protection which voluntary and non-descript polling agents were not guaranteed was a contributing factor why oppositions even found it hard to bring witness to election tribunal in past elections. That is why men of caliber who already have protection should be polling booths and collation centers’ agents.
At this point in time which many of us have further resolved to save the nation from abyss, there is no sacrifice that is too much, there is no task that is belittling and as such all wisdom must be deployed. To be forewarned is to be forearmed.
A.S. M. Jimoh (anehi2008@gmail.com or on twitter @anehi2008)
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