As we near the end of this series, what all these shortcomings proves is that INEC on many occasions do not have the right leadership capable of appreciating the crucial duties of their exalted role in the nurturing of fair, non-partisan administration of democracy and they have dragged the Courts down these paths of inglorious failures. A combination of disregard to the rule of law and the suppression of the will of the people is a potent concoction that has bred mistrust and division within the communities in this Country.

We must bear in mind that in almost all of the times, INEC has been responsible for drawing up its budget. In most cases the Federal Government stated that INEC received the funds it asked for. So, it cannot be claimed that INEC were hampered by funds. It is apparent that they have been bereft of ideas, unwilling to work hard and learn, and unwilling to change. Politicians, too, must share in this blame for fostering an atmosphere of corruption, manipulation, and disregard for the very systems meant to safeguard democracy. Their actions have often undermined the integrity of democratic institutions, as they manipulate electoral processes, bribe officials, and influence outcomes to serve personal or party interests rather than the collective good. Instead of upholding the principles of transparency and accountability, many politicians have contributed to a culture where laws are bent to favor the powerful, and public office is seen as a means to enrich oneself rather than to serve the people. This has eroded public trust in the democratic system, as citizens see their votes being tampered with, their voices silenced, and the rule of law selectively applied.

Below is a table of fundings given to INEC to run elections in Nigeria since 1999.

S/N YEAR AMOUNT IN (N) AMOUNT IN (US$)

1. 1999 1,500,000,000 68,524,440
2. 2003 29,000,000,000 254,385,965
3. 2007 45,500,000,000 379,166,666
4. 2011 111,000,000,000 735,099,337
5. 2015 108,800,000,000 546,733,668
6. 2019 242,200,000,000 794,098,350
7. 2023 305,000,000,000 685,393,258

Source: ChatGPT.

I am presently unable to get figures for pre-1999. However, the data above are enough to illustrate the points I intend to make here.

The increase in expenditure over the years could be attributed to an increase in the population of registered voters. This may not be the sole reason because political violence over the years has drastically suppressed voter registration and participation as well. With the exception of 1993 and 2003 voter participation had typically been below 60%. If the events of last year were anything to believe, the use of BIVAS demonstrated that the stuffing of ballot boxes and falsification of results through arbitrary allocation of votes to meet the number of registered voters in some wards during past elections accounted for voter turnout in excess of 50%. In 2023, with the use of BIVAS only 29% of the registered voters participated in the general elections. What this means is that:

• People register but do not eventually turn up to vote. Why go through the registration exercise only to skip voting?
• In a country of 223million, only 43% of the people are interested in their civic duty.
• Of the registered voters, only 29% of those showed up to vote. That is a figure of approximately 28m.
• Our current leaders were chosen by 28m in a country with at least 160m adults of voting age.
• One would then ask; given the absolute lack of infrastructure, social and medical services, is it worth our while to spend upwards of US$28 per voter every 4 years, for a vote that did not count as we all could bear witness to the widespread fraud that characterized every election?
• Can we find better ways to allocate and spend these funds for the benefit of the people?

As we look back on the journey our nation has taken, it becomes increasingly clear that the promise of democracy has, in many ways, failed us. The vision of a Nigeria where the people would have a voice, where elections would reflect the true will of the populace, has not materialized. Instead, we find ourselves in a system that is deeply flawed, plagued by corruption, and increasingly detached from the aspirations of ordinary Nigerians Democracy, as we have practiced it, has not brought the peace, prosperity, or unity that we hoped for. Instead, it has often been a source of division and conflict. Elections, which should be a celebration of our collective will, have too often turned into battlegrounds for the powerful and the privileged. Votes are bought and sold, elections rigged, and the will of the people be wantonly subverted by those with the means to manipulate the system. The judiciary, once thought of as a beacon of hope for justice and fairness, has been corrupted, becoming a tool in the hands of rogue actors in all spheres of life, and especially by the politicians to legitimize their hold on power.
Taking a deep dive into our nation today, it is crystal clear what we are practicing is not democracy. The grifting, arrogance, and neo-colonialist attributes of the political class visited on the rest of us, all evils recognized as the death knell of the First Republic, have not abated. If anything, they are worse now. In a situation where the political class does not actually need our votes to win elected office you cannot expect them to work towards the wishes of the people. There are no ‘peoples’ that deserve any rendering of stewardships. They never hold townhall meetings to interact with their constituencies. Their legislative tasks are their own personal agenda.

As I sit here today, I do not know who my Senator is, neither do I know my House of Representative member, nor my local government chairman. I did not see anyone of them in a campaign rally. I did not see any manifesto from anyone of them. None of them has ever met with me to find out what I would want done by my representatives. They would not ask me because they do not need my vote to be in power. As an elder statesman, a retired captain of the construction industry, an environmentalist activist of international standing, I believe I would be able to proffer advice on certain issues, most especially on what the people need. Our agenda, the community’s needs should be their agenda. Not their own perception of what we need.

This country cannot survive this chaos in our daily lives. The country is going bankrupt, and it is dragging the states down with it given that we operate a unitary system of government at the Federal level. Every month, the states wait in line to share money from the Federal Government, yet we haven’t used this money to generate additional wealth and services for the people. How can anyone explain that in Delta State with abundant oil and gas resources we cannot generate our own electricity? A state with a seaport and inland water ways has no functioning industry. This is symptomatic of the waste and low productivity that exist in other states. I will dwell a little bit more on this issue because we are about to repeat the same failed economic processes that have defined our past. Recall that when oil was discovered in large quantities, we abandoned all other sectors of the economy to focus on oil and gas exploitation. Unfortunately, we did not even do that properly to capitalize on our unique position in West Africa to maximize the income from the resource. We built refineries with low capacities to serve ourselves only. Yet the ECOWAS market all around us and beyond were importing fuel from other sources. We built the natural gas trains that produce Liquified Natural Gas that we export to Europe, but our local and regional gas markets are untapped. Why have we not been able to pipe domestic gas to major cities in the country in all these years? Why are we not selling gas to Niger, Benin Republic, Cameroun, Ghana, Dahomey, and Burkina Faso?

Presently we are in the process of developing the Lithium mines and rare earth metal mines to exploit these newly discovered minerals. I am sure we are all eager to export them as ores. This thinking if true, is archaic. That is old school. These metals are used in the production of batteries and chips used in the IT industry. These are components that are built into electric vehicles, ships, airplanes, and space ships. America and China are in fierce competition over which one of them shall dominate the world in the production of electric vehicles and computer chips. Yet, here we are trying to sell the metal ores and the mines.

Meanwhile, our population is burgeoning, and the youths are unemployed. If we build factories that produce batteries of every type and computer chips, we will provide employment to our people and maximize our earnings exporting chips and electric vehicle batteries. That is what a progressive nation will do. Let us stop giving away our resources only to turn around to hunt for foreign exchange which is needed to procure the end products of these resources. What is wrong with us? We must think big now; this is the 21st Century. Taiwan makes chips for the world market. Why not Nigeria?