Mixed metaphors: Rotting institutions

SONALA OLUMHENSE FROM PUNCH

Scenario One: Nigeria’s so-called secret police, the Department of State Services, on Wednesday announced that it had “identified some key players in the plot for an interim government in Nigeria.”

“The Service considers the plot, being pursued by these entrenched interests, as not only an aberration but a mischievous way to set aside the constitution and undermine civil rule as well as plunge the country into an avoidable crisis,” it said in a poorly-written statement, adding, “The illegality is totally unacceptable in a democracy and to the (sic) peace loving Nigerians.”

The service gave itself away when it then said, “This is even more so that the machination is taking place after the peaceful conduct of the elections in most parts of the country.”

I must be clear: there is no provision in the Nigerian constitution for an interim government, and I do not support any such plan, were one to exist.

That said, Nigerian elections are also clearly outlined in law, and nowhere does it provide for the atrocious performance of the electoral commission in the 2023 elections that included outright manipulation.

When that kind of service is delivered, injustice is the result, but in a democracy, justice is the objective.  When injustice is delivered, affected citizens have a right to react through public protests and legal action.

In other words, the DSS is right: the elections were mostly peaceful. But it is also false that there is a plot in Nigeria for an interim government.  Neither legal action nor street protests are a “plot” of anything, especially to pre-empt the transition to a duly elected government.

If the DSS found an illegal plot, the correct response would have been to ensure arrest and prosecution, rather than this brazen witch-hunt that is clearly designed to uphold the work of another flawed institution: the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The electoral commission, as hundreds of election observers have reported, conducted a shambolic, shameful, and amateurish exercise in brazen contradiction of the electoral law and the agency’s own guidelines.

The decision of the DSS to respond to the legal and protest actions against that performance with intimidation and blackmail is even more embarrassing than the performance of INEC. It is a solid reflection of how corrupt instruments of the Nigerian state continue to be.

The elections may have been largely peaceful, but they were far more remarkable for rigging, voter suppression, vote-buying, ethnic-baiting, ballot-snatching and sundry acts of intimidation: a lot of it captured by stunned voters in hundreds of widely-available photographs and videos.

That the DSS pretends to be a credible and respected institution because it has excess funds for this fake pursuit illustrates what is wrong with Nigeria. The agency must keep in mind the fundamental rights of Nigerians as provided in chapter four of the constitution, particularly sections 37-41, which affirm—among others—that:

• The privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications is hereby guaranteed and protected.