On Saturday, 6 January 2018, the seemingly unending national shame of Local Government elections, conducted by so-called State INDEPENDENT Electoral Commissions, continued unabated in Delta State.

LG polls to be held in Lagos State today

It is true that the embarrassment of a party winning all or nearly all of the seats in state-conducted elections cuts across the parties: the party in power in a state sees it as the very definition of democracy not to “concede” a single seat to the opposition.

And so it was that the Peoples Democratic Party government of Delta State improved on its 2014 performance when it declared all of its candidates winners and swore them in without result sheets and other voting materials that should attest to their “victory,” the same having been destroyed or confiscated by irate voters in many polling units.

This time, fake election materials were distributed while numerous units did not even have the courtesy of phoney result sheets. There were, of course, the traditional evils of ballot snatching, instigated violence and intimidation, late and/or inadequate ballots, the curious unavailability of returning officers, etc.

In Oleh, headquarters of Isoko South LGA, voters stoutly resisted this mockery of “grassroots democracy,” a notion to which our politicians never tired of paying lip service by refusing to vote. Curiously, in some units, armed youths believed to be working for PDP chased away voters where their candidate seemed assured of defeat, then proceeded to destroy election materials, as was the case at Unit 7, Ward 1.

The argument over fake materials and absence of result sheets in my Unit 6 polling station resulted in a scuffle that put an end to voting. Reports from polling units throughout Isokoland corroborated the fiasco I witnessed. For instance, in Owhe-Ologbo, Isoko North LGA, the fake ballots were shredded and strewn like confetti in the streets. So brazen was the sense of outrage that in Ughelli North, voters incensed beyond measure set fire to the offices of the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC). Throughout the state, the shame was on full display with only minor variations.  Photo and video evidence of the current episode of the unmitigated mockery of democracy have gone viral on the Internet.

It is true, however, that in a handful of units, too few to change the general character of the charade, genuine materials were delivered and voting took place, as in Otor-Owhe Ward where the APC  councillorship candidate was declared the winner. But such instances are a ruse to confer legitimacy on an exercise irredeemably tainted by official sabotage and violence.

Even then, tragedy was only fortuitously averted when the same DSIEC officer who had been recorded on video declaring the winner proceeded to alter the result to suit the PDP candidate as soon as the majority of the winning candidate’s supporters had danced out of the collation centre. The Delta State government has predictably gone ahead to declare the elections free and fair in all but two LGAs and awarded its chairmanship candidates victory. By the time this article is printed, a similar “landslide” victory will have been awarded to the PDP’s councillorship candidates.

The stomach-turning contempt for the will of the people as the basis of government has got to the point where all but the incurable cynic is sick and ready to vomit on the head of anyone who can find a reason to defend this outrage. A look at the declared results of the chairmanship elections (see page 10 of Vanguard, 8 January 2018) showing the PDP always falling short of 100% victory by minute fractions raises the question why they even bother to fake legitimacy. Surely, no sensate being can be fooled by such blatant forgery? Are we truly beyond shame and remorse in this matter of LGA elections? And become utterly remorseless about burning billions of naira in pre-determined elections, thereby enraging the electorate and endangering lives and property? Is nothing sacrosanct anymore in our quest for irresponsible power? The boast used to be: whether you vote for us or not, we shall win. Now it is, whether you vote or not we have already won!

Evidence of the voters

By the evidence of the voters’ resistance during the Delta LGA elections, the message is loud and clear: the people will no longer accept the states’ assault on democracy. I call on His Excellency Governor Ifeanyi Okowa to respect the fundamental right of the good people of Delta State to freely choose their municipal government representatives. He should, and must, be willing to allow the LGA election be a referendum on his much-trumpeted achievements in the past two years.

If he considers himself a democrat more than a politician, then he must cancel the sham of 6 January and announce a new date within three months for genuinely free and fair elections. Before then, however, DSIEC must be reconstituted to guarantee its impartiality, principally by including representatives of all registered political parties, civil society organisations, and a chairman and secretary nominated by a body outside the state government.

It is no defence to answer that the practice of wholesale rigging of LGA elections cuts across all the parties. There must be a point where we say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. Let this be that point and let Delta State be the Big Heart” (as its motto proudly proclaims) of democracy by being the light-bearer to election-tormented Nigeria. I call on Dr Okowa, as I called on his predecessor Dr Uduaghan in 2014, to be a hero of democracy by respecting the right of the people to self-determination, especially at the much-abused “grassroots level” of our government. I declare that were I the governor, I would practise what I preach.

Ogaga Ifowodo is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), a failed aspirant for the House of Representatives during the 2015 General Elections and represents Delta State on the Governing Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission.