Nigeria’s Own Margaret Thatcher
By Tahir I. Tahir Talban Bauchi
Edo polls has come and gone and not surprisingly, APC won. Yes, APC! If governance is detached from reality, elections are not. Edo had a PDP governor that denied 14 lawmakers their seats in the state assembly and blatantly refused to swear them in. He disenfranchised them and their constituents. He had a long running battle with the Oba of Benin. He was estranged from his own APC and eventually PDP godfathers. He was in another war of attrition with his deputy governor. He was usually on a war of words with the previous APC administration. Edo was led by a governor whose main preoccupation was not governance, or delivering dividends of democracy to his people. It was all about him, his office and whosoever is blindly subservient to him. All the people and all the forces he fought, including erstwhile governor of Edo and now Senator, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, were summoned by a conjuring, to visit their vengeance on him, alongside the people of Edo State. From now on, Local govt autonomy and other similar laws and policies would be unclouding our judgements and directing our attention more to the states and to the grassroots, where governance is supposed to thrive. Massive resources are being expended at the subnational level without anyone giving a hoot. Edolites did this time. They voted their reality and decided they’ve had enough of a government with too much fisticuffs and nothing to hand to them other than that.
I came across a very interesting conversation on the Edo polls as Mr. Seun of channels tv interviewed the resident electoral commissioner of INEC in charge of Edo State, Prof. Mrs. Rhoda Gumus. He was quite respectful of his guest, unlike the normal Seun ‘debates’. I mean, she’s a Professor and an elderly one at that. Her reputation precedes her and I’m guessing Seun must have had a hint of that. He ran so many questions as usual and her responses were quick, specific and incisive. He asked if she would rig the elections for 1 billion naira and she said, “in Nigeria, people know everything about you from your place of work, and they know if you’re approachable for corruption or rigging, so nobody dares approach me with money”. Prof. Gumus is very reputable and is a stickler for standards and due diligence. It was more than obvious that she had built a ‘name’ with her career. One of proper conduct and great moral standards. She gave insights as to how she’s been working with the electoral officers to make sure everything was functional and in place. She vowed to do the right thing and was clearly speaking as an authority, there at INEC. Seun, was more than convinced by her vows and her preparedness. “There is nothing I will see going wrong Seun, and I won’t stop it or correct it, and I assure you I am in charge of the elections in Edo.” “You’re our Margaret Thatcher it seems”, Seun responded.
Well our Margaret Thatcher has delivered as promised, a good outing of INEC at the Edo polls. It’s an election that is easy-peasy to monitor. Violence and mayhem as characteristic of Nigerian elections did not answer their role calls in Edo. People were hungry to vote. Vote they did and the results are out for all to see. To Davido, INEC is the most dangerous institution as his party was being walloped. But in his home state where he won courtesy his uncle, INEC is the most functional institution in our nascent democracy. When you win, you have to be humble in victory and when you lose you have to be gracious in defeat _ Christopher Earle. Edo polls was free and quite fair.
We must have strong people manning even stronger institutions. As common social media parlance says, “we all know what we are doing”. Prof. Gumus had built a reputation and it was crystal clear to everyone at INEC. Most likely, she was specifically chosen for the off season elections. More than likely she was in charge as ordained by faith. One would imagine what the foul and manipulative cries of sour losers would do to the Edo polity. The havoc would be unquantifiable. Elections were duly covered in real time and the BVAS as well as the IREV were proficiently deployed. It is hard to cry foul at all. We need more of Prof. Gumus’ to ‘Thatcher’ us into line. All the officers knew who they were working with and they knew that rigging and all of its attendant practices would not be condoned.
Congratulations to Edolites, congratulations to APC, and congratulations to Senator Monday Okpebholo. Last but not the least, congratulations to Prof. Rhoda Gumus for a job well done.
Nigeria’s Own Margaret Thatcher