The high level of electoral offences witnessed in the 2023 elections reflects the failure of the Nigerian state and its institutions to ensure clean polling and to bring perpetrators and their sponsors to justice. As Nigerians, and domestic and international poll watchers take stock of theshambolic elections, the evidence of the lack of effective deterrence is written in the blood spilled, ballot boxes and voting materials captured or smashed, intimidation and voter suppression across the country. Until electoral offenders, especially politicians and public officials, are severely punished under the law, impunity at the polls will continue to escalate.

Regular elections are the ultimate expression of the people’s sovereign will and a defining characteristic of democracy. Where the integrity of elections is degraded through the subversion of otherwise sacrosanct processes and procedures, the results and winners lack legitimacy. Even worse; where leaders emerge through compromised elections, democracy becomes a charade that differs from autocratic rule only in its expensive mimicry through institutions that undermine rather than facilitate the people’s choice.

Unfortunately, successive elections conducted in the country have produced questionable results due to compromised processes. Indeed, the failure of the law enforcement agencies and the Independent National Electoral Commission to bring purveyors of electoral malpractices and violence to justice has stoked the fire of impunity.

The fouling up of elections and the acrimony that accompanies balloting results in endless litigation. This delegitimises the electoral system and hinders participatory democracy from taking deeper root in the country. Sadly, winners, from the party primaries to the open contests, are often determined by the courts, not the votes of the majority.

The promise by INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, that the commission would set up a legal team to speedily deal with the electoral offenders of the February 25 presidential and National Assembly polls should be accompanied by decisive action. The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, has similarly ordered his field commands to complete investigations and send the files to INEC.

All those arrested for breaching the electoral laws during that and subsequent polls should be prosecuted without further delay.

Nigeria’s elections are notoriously fraught, and the 2023 elections have been particularly marred by malpractices and violence. This is hardly surprising since the politicians perverting the electoral process since 1999 are never brought to justice. They were out in force on February 25 and on March 18, during the presidential/NASS, and the state governorship/state houses of assembly elections respectively.

The EFCC arrested 65 suspected electoral offenders nationwide last week. In Sokoto, it intercepted 35 bales of fabrics allegedly belonging to a principal officer of the Sokoto State House of Assembly meant for voter inducement, and in Argungu Local Government Area, Kebbi State, it nabbed another suspect with a vehicle loaded with fabrics and other items earmarked for vote buying.

In Kaduna, a suspect involved in vote-buying was nabbed at School Road, Ungwan Rimi. One Buhari Muhammed found with voter coupons was also taken into custody in the state while two individuals were apprehended for vote-buying. They were caught with N67,500, a list containing names of voters with their permanent voter card numbers, and bank account details.

Six men and two ladies were picked up in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, with a list of names, telephone, and account numbers of voters. In Ogun State, anti-narcotic officers arrested four party agents with money and credit cards to be used to buy votes at Ibara, Abeokuta.

Even more deadly were the various cases of violence, intimidation, and voter suppression. Thugs torched the house of a former President-General of the Urhobo Progress Union, Joe Omene, in Mosogar, Ethiope-West LGA, Delta State.

During the counting of votes at a polling unit located in a primary school in Oredo, Edo State, on Saturday, thugs snatched the ballot papers and boldly walked away.

On the eve of the presidential election, a member of the House of Representatives, Chinyere Igwe, was apprehended by the Rivers State Police Command with $498,100 and a list of the intended beneficiaries found on him. The EFCC arrested the Director-General of the PeoplesDemocratic Party Campaign Council in Benue State, Cletus Tyokyar, on Election Day with N100,000 in Daudu.

Currently, the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa, is facing five counts of criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide, and unlawful possession of firearms, mischief, and incitement of public disturbance.His case raises hope that finally, the law may nab VIPs. In Lagos, armed All Progressives Congress thugs and field agents operated with impunity, disrupting voting, snatching, and destroying voting materials and attacking voters. Some traditional rulers in the state joined in intimidating voters with no sanction yet from the state.

INEC, the police, and other law enforcement agencies must bring the offenders to justice and sanitise the system.

Elections in Nigeria are routinely compromised. Malpractices comprise the inclusion of fictitious names in the register of voters, illegal compilation of voters’ lists, underage voting, vote-buying, and selling, illegal possession of ballot boxes, multiple voting, and ballot box snatching. A new one spearheaded by APC stalwarts, traditional rulers, and thugs in Lagos, is violent voter intimidation and suppression perpetrated in broad daylight.

The perpetrators are politicians, as the hired thugs, assassins or corrupt officials and security personnel are not on the ballot; they are hirelings of despicable politicians. Nigeria’s current crop of politicians is the worst the country has ever had. Many are corrupt, desperate,and unscrupulous, lacking vision, ideology, or conscience; they have driven the country to the precipice. Unchecked, they have developed a culture of impunity.

Media reports said between 15 and 20 people were violently killed during the state-level polls on March 18. Deaths were recorded in Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta, Ebonyi, Benue, Niger, and Osun. In Ibadan, Oyo State, three party supporters were reportedly killed by suspected thugs who invaded the party’s campaign office on the eve of the election.

Over the years,arrests and prosecution of electoral offenders have not been commensurate with the scale of the brigandage. Primarily, it is the police that have this responsibility. Sadly, the Force has been remiss in this duty, hampered both by its own contradictions and by political interference. The Force needs a courageous IG to make a difference. INEC should wield its powers under the amended Electoral Act to prosecute offenders.

Some state governors, the godfathers and senior public office holders openly break electoral laws.Their criminality must not be allowed to continue.

Human Rights Monitor cited 294 cases of arrests and prosecution of electoral offenders from January to March 2012 in 18 states of the federation, saying only 24 cases had been concluded and sentences passed.

In three days of post-election rioting which engulfed 12 northern states in 2011, Human Rights Watch counted over 800 deaths and property worth billions, including churches, burnt down.

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), should take strong interest and order Baba to swing into action.

Nigeria’s democracy is a charade; punishing electoral offenders and cleaning up elections will help establish true democracy.

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