Member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Ladan Salihu, has declared that Nigeria’s democracy is “on a downward spiral” under President Bola Tinubu, blaming the conduct of Saturday’s by-elections on widespread irregularities and failures by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Speaking in an interview with Arise News on Tuesday, Salihu said Nigerians had been left appalled by what transpired in 12 states where the by-elections were held.
“Nigerians have watched with disgust and with appalling dispositions what played out in the by-elections,”he said.
He dismissed suggestions that the polls provided any credible indication of what to expect in 2027.
“These elections do not in any way represent a barometer for gauging what is to come in 2027. The issue at stake now, the empirical issues to discuss, are the issues of transparency and integrity of the election process.”
Salihu pointed to evidence of malpractice and intimidation across several states.
“You have 300 thugs arrested by security agents. In one local government in Kano, 200 have been arrested. There’s an individual that was caught with ₦25.9 million trying to buy votes in Zamfara State. For the first time in our election history, soldiers were deployed in a ward in Sakajiki where there was daylight box snatching.”
He accused INEC of failing once again to deliver credible polls.
“INEC has not lived up to the expectation of Nigerians. If anything, INEC has missed out on a history to redeem itself. The same processes that we’ve seen in 2023 played out. Nothing has changed. So there’s nothing to celebrate. And it is the responsibility of the state, especially the president, to midwife a process that will make this democracy dependable and full of integrity for the youth and generations to come.”
The ADC chieftain rejected claims that his party’s poor showing was evidence of weakness, stressing that the ADC was still in a rebuilding phase and had fielded limited candidates.
“The ADC was not literally on the ballot. There were people that had emotional attachment to their constituencies that on their own as individuals contested under the platform of the ADC. And they did so while this party, as we speak, is barely three months into calibration, repositioning, and catching our breath. So we expected this narrative to come out of the APC to suggest that 2027 is almost a foregone conclusion. No, it’s not yet. It is not.”
He argued that the party had been up against entrenched state power.
“When you are on the ballot in a by-election, you are up against the awesome power of the instruments that control violence and control the process. Make no mistake about that. In Zamfara State, soldiers were deployed to literally supervise the process, which is illegal under our own laws. So we are up against a system that is not only full of tricks and treachery, but a system that has a midwife that is not given to integrity.”
Recalling his own experience in a 2016 Bauchi South senatorial by-election, Salihu said INEC manipulated results against him.
“In 2016, I was privileged to contest a by-election of a similar nature in Bauchi for the Senate. On the same day, we had an election in Daura. The results in Daura were pronounced by 11:45 p.m. My own election in Bauchi South Senatorial District took three days.
“And the reason was simple: because the establishment and INEC had to work over a period of three days to cancel 83,000 votes of mine to declare an APC candidate winner. They were mining votes from one local government to the other until they got to a number they felt was reasonable enough to justify their incompetence.”
He said the experience exemplified the systemic rot in Nigeria’s electoral system.
“I probably should have been number one on the cards of INEC victims. I cannot remember anybody who contested election at the level of the Senate or National Assembly that had 83,000 votes of his candidate cancelled. And we’ve seen this played out even in states where somebody that was number three eventually became number one.”
Salihu concluded with a stark warning about the 2027 general elections.
“What we are saying is not about even this by-election, no. We are saying that the democratic environment that we have today is on a downward spiral, and that INEC is complicit. INEC is partly and almost entirely responsible, because it is the umpire. It is now left for Nigerians to do a surgical analysis of what they expect to have as a free and fair election going forward. But with this contraption, I’m not convinced that we have transparency upon ourselves. A leopard does not change its spots.”
Boluwatife Enome
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