Thread by @Papadonkee

So @AmakaAnku put up a thread that posits, inter alia, that “the process has improved”.

Disclosure: I’m a card-carrying member of the @OfficialPDPNig but I’ll resist the urge to respond emotionally to this meladroit attempt to whitewash the 2019 elections.

I’ll focus on data.

1. The assessment of elections is not a subjective exercise. It is a scientific & objective one. Metrics include public confidence (usually mapped to voter turnout), interference, intimidation, violence, process hitches, legal framework advancement etc.

2. So let’s look at the 2019 Presidential elections and compare it to 2015.

Turnout
2015 | 2019
44% | 35.6%

Deaths
2015 | 2019
19 | 53

3. I’ve said many times that elections are a process, not an event. 2015’s Card reader was made possible because @GEJonathan signed an electoral amendment days before the March 28 polls. We all witnessed Buhari’s refusal to sign an amendment that would have improved the process.

4. We all witnessed executive interference in the globally condemned removal of the CJN - globally condemned because of the impact it could have on the electoral process if disputes were taken to the Supreme Court.

5. People experienced systemic disenfranchisement when they were either unable to register to vote or were unable to pick up their PVCs

6. Despite a subsisting court ruling that d military has no role to play in the electoral process, this was the most militarized election ever

7. Vote buying became a mainstream electoral strategy after the Ekiti debacle.

8. Violent AND strategic PU disruption also became mainstreamed as an electoral tool after the recently overturned Osun farce. Then we saw the ugly introduction of targeted ethnic violence in Lagos.

9. @inecnigeria guidelines that did not stipulate biometric accreditation meant whoever controlled PVCs could vote unhindered where smartcard readers were used. INEC has the power to set accreditation guidelines. Why was biometric accreditation excluded?

10. However SCRs were not used in many Northern PUs to accredit voters. Again this was so widely reported that the Opposition was forced to formally asked for a blanket suspension of the use of SCRs so we were not cheated.

I could go on and on, about the fact that children were still allowed to vote, that people actually kidnapped RECs and forced them to announce results at gunpoint. At the huge number of void/cancelled votes. At the announcement of winners who failed to meet minimum requirements.

I’ll let my emotions out now. I’m truly pained because I love politics and I love Nigeria.

I HATE that young Nigerians appears to have given up on the democratic experiment. I HATE that we have a political class (in both parties) only interested in themselves & their ambitions.

So @AmakaAnku’s thread is really painful to read, bcos not only is it a false narrative, it’s a dangerous one.

2019 took us back to 2007.

The ONLY was we move forward is if - after raping our democracy - @TheMbuhari finds the integrity to sign the electoral amendment bill.

And yes, I’m aware I tagged the account of a parody President.

It seems appropriate, somehow.

I haven’t talk about Kano, where thugs took over the State in broad daylight.

I haven’t talked about Rivers, were there was an EXODUS out of communities because they did not want to be killed because of elections.

I have deliberately not talked about inconclusive elections.

At least 591 people lost their lives because of the Presidential elections. This pool of blood is what electoral progress in 2019 looks like.

THIS IS BEFORE THE GUBER POLLS O!!!

In fact, I no talk again before I start to abuse people.

(Data supplied by @sbmintelligence)

Amaka Anku’s thread. I’ve been told perhaps it is a “glass half-full” perspective on the 2019 process.

It’s good to be positive and optimistic. But guys, walahi I’m tired.

https://twitter.com/amakaanku/status/1110216542044737536?s=21