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There have been some conspiracy theories about the just postponed general elections. These are some of them.
Millions of Nigerians went to bed on Friday evening hoping to wake
up on Saturday to cast their votes. By the time they woke up on
Saturday, a familiar story had played out: the elections had been
postponed. For the third successive general election, the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) failed to keep its oft-repeated
promise of “we’re ready”.
Immediately, theories started pouring forth from various factories.
Uche Secondus, the national chairman of the the Peoples Democratic
Party (PDP), accused INEC of working hand-in-glove with the ruling
party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), because of imminent defeat.
The APC, in return, accused INEC of acting out PDP’s agenda. Atiku
Abubakar, the PDP presidential candidate, said it was “hand of Esau and
voice of Jacob” — accusing APC of being behind the poll shift. On social
media, APC supporters wondered why PDP fans already tweeted that the
elections would be shifted at a time other Nigerians did not have any
inkling. And so on and so forth.
After sifting through the various conspiracy theories, TheCable has consolidated them into three major categories.
THEORY NO. 1: INEC WAS PRODDED BY FOREIGN POWERS
This theory, suspected to be coming from the PDP, says APC wanted
INEC to conduct “staggered elections” in which only 26 states would vote
on Saturday while elections would be postponed in 10 states. The
presidential poll would be declared inconclusive. Based on the pattern
of results, APC, using federal might, would then deploy full security
and financial resources to the remaining 10 states to suppress PDP’s
votes and claim victory. This strategy, according to the conspiracy
theory, was used effectively by APC in Osun state whereby the
governorship election was declared inconclusive and voting was allegedly
suppressed in the run-off and APC carried the day. This theory says the
US, UK and EU, sensing what APC wanted to do, mounted pressure on
Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC chairman, not to stagger the elections but
shift them to a date on which every state could vote simultaneously.
THEORY NO. 2: PDP COLLUDED WITH INEC TO AVOID DEFEAT
Faced with the reality that most pre-election opinion polls did not
favour them, PDP decided to collude with INEC to postpone the elections
and buy time — according to another conspiracy theory propounded by
some APC supporters. It is alleged that most of the personnel at INEC
were appointed or recruited when PDP was in power and they still owe
their allegiance to the party. Therefore, the theory goes, the INEC
personnel decided to sabotage the elections at the prompting of PDP so
that there would be more time to gain support for Atiku Abubakar, the
party’s presidential candidate. PDP supporters have countered this
claim, asking why the same INEC staff did not sabotage 2015 elections in
favour of the PDP government. Meanwhile, some APC supporters are asking
why PDP fans knew beforehand that the elections would be postponed if
indeed their party was not working in tandem with INEC.
THEORY NO. 3: APC, SENSING DEFEAT, SABOTAGED LOGISTICS
There is yet another theory — that APC leaders met in Abuja on
Wednesday and concluded that the elections were not looking good for
them. Security agencies and other government agencies were directed to
sabotage the election, thus paving the way for INEC offices and card
readers to be burnt, the theorists allege. They further claim that
working with INEC insiders, the APC made sure materials did not get to
some locations ahead of Saturday so that elections would not hold
simultaneously across the country. Those who believe in this theory also
link it to theory no. 1 above, concluding that but for the
international community, INEC would have gone ahead with staggering the
elections. APC supporters have a counter-argument: why would they want
the elections moved when they were the favourites to win?
CONCLUSION
No matter the conspiracy theory that you believe, there is a
consensus that INEC was right to have postponed the elections as a
result of the issues it highlighted. Many commentators have blamed the
electoral body for poor preparations, but Yakubu, in his address to
stakeholders on Saturday after the postponement, said there was
sabotage, although he did not point his fingers at any particular
direction. Whatever theory is right, the indisputable conclusion is that
the postponement has created room for conjectures and allegations. It
would be difficult to persuade the purveyors that there was no political
motive behind the postponement, either in favour of APC or PDP.
***
Source: TheCable
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