The people of Rivers State will now have the full complement of three senators in the National Assembly as well as ample representations in the State Assembly and House of Representatives. And it was not because the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did a damn good job of superintending over an election; neither was it down to the efficiency and impartiality of the nation’s security apparatchik. It was simply down to the masses of Rivers State. It was the triumph of people power, the unbowed, unbending fortitude of the popular will that gave the people their desire.

For no fault of theirs, Rivers people had been denied the full complement of representation in parliaments at both state and national level. They became, somehow, victims of the aristocratic clash of ego among the state’s political elite on the one hand and the power hawks marauding in the nation’s political capital, Abuja, as leaders of the leading political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

For an election postponed several times on rather flimsy excuses by INEC, it still numbs the senses to notice obvious ensigns of sloppiness on the part of the electoral umpire. More disturbing was the blood-letting and raw violence that attended the parliamentary elections supervised by a confederacy of security agencies including the Army, the police, the Directorate of State Services (DSS), an agency that suffers crisis of identity with its more common name, State Security Service (SSS); the much-derided NSCDC, and a potpourri of nondescript  security garrisons.

And you just wonder, why would a much-militarised electoral exercise go bloody; why would there be any incidence, let alone incidences, of ballot-snatching in the midst of gun-bearing security personnel. To locate the answer, we may need to review the report of one of the civil society groups that monitored that election.

CLEEN Foundation is not one of the run of the mill CSOs hankering after the establishment for stipends. It has a history of institutional integrity profoundly demonstrated in its reports on human rights violations among security agencies in the past; the integrity of Nigerian elections and other issues verging on national development.

The Foundation in its report fingered the Police, Army, SSS in multiple cases of violence and malpractices that characterised the exercise. This is to be expected. An election, any election, ought to be a test of popularity of candidates. But in Nigeria, it is not so. Elections are a test of elite might, the triumph of malevolence over benevolence. The actions of the security agencies in the run-up to the elections were clear pointers to a gathering of vultures. All the security agencies, save none, made remarks that portrayed their loyalty to the political elite from above rather than to the people whom they were constitutionally mandated to protect.

Rivers State like most states in the country has had its security challenges. Besides, it is one of heavy producers of crude oil, still the mainstay of the nation’s economy. It is therefore regarded as a rich state in the Nigerian context.  And if so regarded, whoever controls its soul should matter to the politicians. I recall the expression of the Chairman of the APC, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, when the PDP won the governorship election of that state and its subsequent ratification by the Supreme Court. He said his party’s loss of the oil-rich state to the PDP was regrettable. He even took his Freudian slip a notch higher when he lampooned the Supreme Court Justices for ruling in favour of Nyesom Wike, the governor of the state.

Oyegun said after the Supreme Court validation of the election: We have lost very important resource-rich state to the PDP. No matter how crude oil price has fallen, it is still the most important revenue earner in the country”. Such statement from a party leader is rather unfortunate. It mirrors the mindset of politicians to see statecraft as cash-craft.  Such sentiment that a party must capture a state at all cost for reasons of the economic value of the state creates the fodder for electoral heist and violence. And as if to justify the thoughts of Chief Oyegun, violence ran wild during the election of last weekend. In moments like this, it is difficult to disavow the fact that political violence feeds from the umbilical cord of the elite.

The CLEEN Foundation report was blunt: “The way and manner in which the election was conducted is a validation of the outcomes of the Security Threat Assessment report, and justifies the concerns of various stakeholders that the outcome of the election will not reflect the will of the people.

“There were serious cases of electoral violence orchestrated by the Police, Army and DSS in Ward 3 Bodo community in Gokana and Khana Local Government Area. This led to the shooting to death of Mr. Mbari John MeeBari.

“At Ward 12, Unit 5, Abonnema, Akuku Toru, Police shot sporadically to scare voters. At Sara 1, Sara 2 and Kalakama (Ward 12), Okirika LGA electoral materials were hijacked by the Army and officers of SARS at gunpoint”, the report said.

According to CLEEN, the killing of a police officer, Alkali Mohammed, a deputy superintendent of police, who was beheaded; and his orderly, was as a result of “unwarranted use of force and shooting”. The report noted that there was a clear failure of the military and other security agencies to maintain neutrality towards the political parties.

The CLEEN report was again poignantly pungent when it said: “INEC, Police, Army and DSS provided overt and covert support for one of the political parties during the poll at Isiokpo INEC Collation Center, Ikwerre LGA, Ngo in Andoni LGA, Bonny LGA and Ahoada.  INEC Staff and security agencies, especially the army and police, were observed openly aiding a political party.”

The highlights of the CLEEN report and the open show of banality by security agents during the election were foreshadowed by Wike well ahead of the election. He had warned the security agencies to maintain neutrality otherwise the people will have no option than to fight for their rights.  The military has exculpated its men of any misconduct but the truth remains that uniformed men, in police and military attire, usurped the stage to upstage a legitimate process of choosing men and women to represent Rivers people in parliament. But tried as they could, people power prevailed.  This is why the people, not the politicians, should take the glory in the matter of the Rivers election. And this is the lesson for all politicians, INEC and the security agencies: in a democracy power resides in the bosom of the people, not in the whims and spirited commands of the politicians or gung-ho bayonet-bearing hooded militia.

But there are sediments that we must never throw away in the Rivers rerun election. It is the manner uniforms, whether the wearers are genuine or fake, are being used to afflict the innocent with violence; plus the more evil issue of sophisticated guns circulating freely in the hands of thugs.  I am sure the military and the police know who played what role in the violence that graced the election. It is left for them to do the needful and save their names from the tag of partisanship which many observers of the election placed on them, justifiably too.

Again, there is this little curiosity to the election. Why is INEC releasing the result of a one-day parliamentary election in one state piecemeal? Why in bits and pieces over a stretch of days. I really wonder the magic and the logic behind this. I just wonder what would be if this present INEC is to conduct nationwide general elections. That will be the day….!