A former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), Lai Olurode, has criticised former President Olusegun Obasanjo for allegedly attempting to truncate Nigerias electoral process through the back door.
Olurode, a retired Sociology Professor, warned that Obasanjos letter on the results of the presidential and National Assembly elections shouldnt be mistaken for the patriotism of an elder statesman. He said Obasanjos adversarial contemplation of elections cancellation was not only preposterous but counter-productive and a grievous invitation to violence.
Although he admitted that INEC could certainly have done better in the dispensation of its duty, he noted that the commission has also shifted grounds and improved from what it used to be known for. He reckoned that there are legal remedies to whatever imperfections or lapses that are observed.
Olurode recalled in his statement that Obasanjo had supervised some of the worst anti-democracy elections in Nigerias electoral history. He said there was indeed nothing to be proud of in Nigerias 2003 elections which witnessed bare-faced, blatant large-scale rigging and even fundamentally flawed.
He advised the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to ignore the proposal of Obasanjo and take it as an excuse or invitation to stage a palace coup in self-succession or a return to full-scale military rule.
Nigerians must continue to stand firm for democracy with all its limitations, he said. There is no alternative to peaceful co-existence in a country that is as diverse as Nigeria.
