Last Saturday turned a day of disappointment for Nigerians. If there were those not disappointed, they masked it. INEC was the fall guy, as everyone blamed it, for failing to organise the presidential and National Assembly elections it scheduled. Speaking on Channels Television that day, Orji Udemezue, a public affairs commentator warned that the nation may have lost about $1.5 billion dollars.Orji calculated on a national GDP of $450 billion per annum. For a nation struggling to exit recession such a huge loss is a cause for worry. As expected, fingers are pointing at INEC, with some calling for the resignation of the chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakubu, for what they perceive as the gross incompetence of the organisation he heads. In his briefing, the INEC chair noted that the postponement arose principally from logistics nightmare.He reported that because of limited transportation options, the commission had to rely on road transport once air transport was made impossible by bad weather. He also raised the problem of insecurity, which saw a number of election materials getting burnt by suspected arsonists few days to the election. The INEC chairman denied any political interference from any quarters, and stated that as far as resources for the preparation of the election are concerned, the commission is not complaining. Before the clarification, the social media was awash with dubious claims as to why the election was postponed to February 23.Some claimed that the ruling party connived with INEC to postpone the election, so as to extend the day of their imminent defeat. Others claimed that INEC chairman frustrated APCs plan to have a staggered election, while some made more outlandish claims that the ruling party organised the burning of materials and the logistical challenges with the ultimate plan to have a staggered election, or to frustrate INEC, so as to foist a new chairman on the commission. Those pushing these accusations did not bother to proffer any shred of evidence to buttress their wild claims.But INEC has maintained that the postponement was not a result of any political interference. The presidency has also denied any plan to remove Prof Yakubu, citing its fidelity to S.157 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) on the procedure to remove an INEC chairman. Some others, fuelling the falsehood jumped to the conclusion that because former President Goodluck Jonathan postponed election in 2015 and still failed, President Muhammadu Buhari will fail even if he postpones the election multiple times.They also claimed that since Jonathan postponed the election out of desperation in 2015, Buhari must also have acted out of desperation in 2019. Indeed, I saw some PDP supporters dancing and celebrating their differed victory. Despite the wild claims, it is now clear the twin evils that caused our dear country about $1.5 billion loss on Saturday, not to talk about unquantifiable emotional stress are logistics nightmare and insecurity.While out of frustration we can vent our anger on INEC for disappointing and humiliating us before the international community, we must ask ourselves why INEC should need to make extra-ordinary logistics arrangement and provide special security to conduct an election. For this column such worries are more fundamental to our national question.What played out last week is a further manifestation of the abuse our country has been subjected by the rapacious elite that have held her down over the decades. Had those who have been in power over the years built a modern railway with the monies they stole, INEC would have used the railways to innocuously transport election materials across the country at minimal cost to the exchequer.If not for the evil effect of corruption, how can a country as vast as Nigeria rely on road transport as the alternate means of transportation, when a regular train services would have delivered the election materials at very cheap cost to the far flung ends of the country. Some have also blamed INEC for the burning of their materials, instead of focusing attention on poor policing architecture. They easily forget that state governors have suffered worse humiliation from insecurity. Alas, what happened to the huge budget for security cameras across some metropolis, by the past regime'Those who are berating INEC for security lapses have not pondered how the commission could be expected to organize private security to police all its materials across the country. They fail to link INECs challenge to the inefficient policing structure in the country, which has necessitated the use of military men in what should ordinarily be policing work. When thugs can stop vehicles conveying election materials, burn them and maim the occupants, we should be deeply worried about the state of insecurity.While blaming INEC for failing to surmount the challenges, we should ask ourselves whence the rain started beating us. It is more intriguing when those who have freely helped themselves with our common resources, and have not fully discharged themselves of the accusation that they have stolen from our common patrimony, are now blaming those who are making some efforts to salvage the sinking ship for the mess they created.We must come back to the under-funding of the police over the decades, and the security challenges it has created. We must also worry about the huge deficit in our infrastructure. Indeed, we must worry which of the contenders to the office of president has the prudence to begin the painful process of rebuilding our infrastructure.While we may limp across the general elections on the new dates set by INEC, we must stop deceiving ourselves that the parlous state of our infrastructure and insecurity can support a modern state. Some of the urgent answers include the modernizing of our railways, the building of vast networks of roads, federalizing of the police amongst other urgent national assignment. Unless those entrusted with managing our common resources put them to proper use, our failing country will continue to wobble and fumble.The Buhari government has shown some promise with the speed it delivered the Lagos-Abeokuta rail line, on its way to Ibadan and subsequently the northern part of the country. If it wins the February 23 elections, it must accelerate its plans. No doubt, the discontentment especially among the youths on the state of affairs in our country is of volcanic proportion. It will be foolhardy to underestimate it. The consequences of full scale youth restiveness could turn our country to another Somalia.The hunger and anger in the country is exponentially seeking to overreach the base attachment to ethnic and religious cleavages, which our elites have used to divide and rule the country over the decades. The elites must be wary of such possibility, as a mass discontentment arising from that could bring them to their heels sooner than later.
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