By Donu Kogbara

NIGERIAN politicians never cease to flabbergast me. Apparently, General Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) intends to vigorously contest the presidential poll results in 11 states – Abia, Imo, Ebonyi, Enugu, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Bayelsa.

Pastor Tunde Bakare, Buhari’s running mate, has been quoted as saying, at a press conference in Lagos last weekend, that because the declared voter turnout in these states was unnaturally high (99% in some cases) – that is, much higher than the national average (roughly 52%)– malpractices such as “fraudulent thumbprinting and stuffing of ballot papers” had clearly taken place.

Bakare rounded off his complaint by saying that “the inevitable reasonable conclusion from the incontrovertible facts is that no credible elections took place in the South-South and South-East zones and that…the results were deliberately falsified in favour of Dr Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP…[and were] unfair and unjust [and] a subversion of the popular will of the electorate”.

To cut a long story short, Bakare has called for an independent enquiry because he believes that if the allegedly concocted votes are deducted from the overall figures, it will be revealed that it was Buhari, not Jonathan, who won.

If truth be told, I have quite a lot of respect for Bakare and Buhari because they both strike me as men who are not greedy or undisciplined. But they are really annoying me at the moment; and I urge them to accept defeat graciously!

I am not naive enough to imagine that there was absolutely no rigging in the South-East or South-South. We all know that the Nigeria of today would not be the Nigeria of today if every single election was completely free and fair.

Most Nigerian politicos -whether they be Northern or Southern, Christian or Muslim and in office or in opposition -cannot resist the temptation to manipulate electoral outcomes in areas where they wield influence.

Even if the Pope decides to stand for election in Nigeria and begs his followers to let justice be done, they would ignore His Holiness and do all sorts of dubious things in his name…in the hope of gaining big benefits if their candidate wins.

And let’s face it: Most Nigerian candidates are not the Pope! Most are deeply dodgy and desperate to cling to – or acquire – power. Most are obsessed with the financial perks that flow from power. And I am sure that malpractices will continue to tarnish Nigerian elections for the foreseeable future.

But gradual improvements ARE creeping up on us. So many people, including foreign observers, are saying that these 2011 elections have, despite flaws, been better than previous elections. And the question I want to ask is this:

Can the CPC folks say, hands on hearts, that malpractices were restricted to the states that they lost? A European broadcaster friend of mine decided to base himself in Kaduna on April l6,  the day of the Presidential  election. And he was appalled by the large number of obviously underage voters he spotted at various polling stations. When he approached these kids, they told him that they were pro-CPC but flatly refused to tell him how old they were.

To be fair, Bakare has suggested that the independent enquiry be extended to the zones in which he and Buhari triumphed – the North-West and North-East.

But I don’t know why Bakare is going down this path because if results across the nation are forensically examined, it is not only the PDP that will be exposed for cheating in certain places. Other parties – ACN, ANPP, APGA and the CPC itself – will also not come out of any such investigation smelling of roses.

And I’m not just urging Bakare to let sleeping dogs lie on the grounds that people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. I am also saying that Jonathan would have won in the South-South and South-East ANYWAY, even if PDP supporters in these zones had not engaged in any malpractices.

What’s the point of complaining for the sake of complaining? In a profoundly imperfect society like ours, people should only formally challenge results if they or the candidates they are backing stood a chance of winning in the first place.

In my senatorial district, the PDP guy – who was declared the winner of the National Assembly election that took place on April 9 – is being challenged by the ACN guy who was allegedly trounced at the polls.

A dispute like this makes sense to me because it revolves around two candidates who both have lots of local fans and are strong in different ways. One is a seasoned government official who has vast resources at his disposal. The other is a distinguished and genial doctor who represents change. And it’s not inconceivable that the ACN guy was the real winner of that election…and only “lost” because he didn’t belong to the party that controls our state.

But Buhari doesn’t have a significant number of fans in the zones he is complaining about and never stood a chance of beating Jonathan in the Niger Delta or Igboland, partly because he didn’t bother to do much campaigning in these areas; partly because he (foolishly, in my opinion) didn’t choose an Igbo or South-South running mate and partly because Jonathan has an inbuilt natural advantage in these parts of the country, which are, basically, his home turf.

I am from Rivers State. So is Dame Patience Jonathan. And most Rivers indigenes genuinely like the First Lady and were eager to support her husband.

It is the same story in our next-door state of Bayelsa. Jonathan has not yet fulfilled his potential as a national leader, but almost every Bayelsan I know is mega-proud of this unique son of their soil who has reached such heady heights; and they were never EVER going to vote for anyone else. And it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that the voter turnout in Bayelsa was unusually high.

The entire Niger Delta region is awash with passionate Jonathanists who had become accustomed to marginalisation and never, until recently, thought that they would live to see a man from an oil-producing area achieve such prominence.

For many of us, the new status quo is a miracle and dream come true.

It also doesn’t surprise me that Jonathan did so well in Igbo states because Igbos are, despite occasional tensions between them and us, our  neighbours, relatives and in-laws. Lots of Niger Deltans have Igbo mothers and extended families.

Lots of Niger Deltans – Ikwerres and Ikas, for example, have Igbo roots and Igbo names. In some Niger Delta communities Igbo is a lingua franca.

Nigeria has not yet become the kind of intellectually sophisticated place where people vote for unemotional reasons. So, given that Buhari excelled in his own ethnic heartlands, can he and Bakare please get real and calmly accept the fact that Jonathan also excelled in his own ethnic heartlands…and spare us tedious grumbles that make them sound deluded, curmudgeonly and out of touch?