By CHIDI MATTHEW NWACHUKWU

Few days into the month of February, the Obidient Movement (supporters of Mr. Peter Obi, candidate of the Labour Party at the 2023 presidential election) reached a consensus on the X (formerly Twitter) social media platform to rain curses on Mr. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), ‘for conspiring with political desperadoes and power-grabbers to steal their mandate.’

The said Rain Of Curses which was scheduled for February 25^th, was also to commemorate what the Obidients believed would have been the rebirth of Nigeria. Nigerians, many of whom were fed up with the situation of their country and yearned desperately for a breath of fresh air, reposed their hope on INEC and trusted it to conduct a free, fair and credible election that would throw up a quality leader for their country, but were greatly disappointed when it ended up conducting what turned out to be the worst election in Nigeria’s history.

The Obidient Movement was not going to allow the man who spearheaded such a sham of an election to go scot free. They were going to show the world how very disgruntled they were with the way and manner their mandate was stolen. They were going to destroy Mahmood Yakubu and his future generations with curses, and invalidate the argument that curses do not have effect. If they could not mete out physical punishment on Yakubu for robbing them of their inheritance, they could at least invoke spiritual powers on him, to deal with him according to the weight of his transgressions.

When the day of the cursing eventually came, Obidients all complied with the agreement. On that 25^thof February 2024, “Cursed be Mahmood” trended heavily on the X social media platform. The cursers implored all the powers and forces that they know to destroy Mahmood Yakubu. Some Obidients who were not contented with cursing Mahmood alone, added to the mix names such as those of the Justices of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court who presided over Peter Obi’s election petition cases, and the names of other prominent Nigerians (such as Nyesom Wike) who worked to install Bola Tinubu as president.

One Obidient who goes by the name Revolutionary Youth on X and has the handle @torty_mercy posted: “The elements curse you! The land works against you. A smooth land will grow turns (sic) under your bare feet. The air will take your breath away. The waters will turn to blood in your mouth and acid on your body. As surely as the Lord lives Mahmoud Yakubu is marked for destruction.”

Another Obidient who goes by the handle @DRREAL01, added a clause to his own curse. This is what he had to say to Mahmood Yakubu: “Mahmood Yakubu, if you are innocent let no evil come near you. But if you actually rigged the 2023 election, today is judgment day for you. The air you breath (sic) shall be rigged away from your life, the soil you live on shall be a curse to you and your third and fourth generations…the water you take shall be death…you took away joy and celebration from millions of young people, may celebration depart from your life and that of your generation together with your accomplice….you shall never know peace….iseeee!!” And the curses poured in in torrents.

Now, in the light of all these, one may want to question the rationale behind this sort of act which many disinterested observers and opinionists have tagged ‘irrational.’ There were those who took the religious standpoint to disapprove of laying curses on people. Many Christians and Muslims on the X platform jointly condemned the cursing of the INEC chairman and tried to talk the Obidients out of embarking on “a futile activity that does not conform with the will of God.”

Now, the arguments on whether or not curses are potent and can work against the ‘cursed’ person have actually taken a lot of dimensions. Some people believe strongly that curses can be effective under certain circumstances, while some others do not subscribe to the school of thought that ascribes potency to curses; but whatever the arguments, there is one very crucial point of view that I consider as germane to this entire discourse, and it is the perspective of whether or not Mahmood Yakubu actually robbed Nigerians of their mandate. If Mahmood stole Nigerians’ mandate and sold it to the highest bidder, then it will only be proper to say Amen to all the curses heaped on him.

Going by all that transpired before, during and after the 2023 presidential election, one may be forced to agree with the Obidients that the election was compromised, and that Mahmood deliberately bungled it to make sure that his preferred candidate won. It doesn’t matter that the courts awarded victory to Mahmood’s candidate, and it also doesn’t matter that Mahmood’s candidate has already taken power and has started to exercise it; what matters is that the people felt and still feel robbed by Mahmood and that tand that Mahmood deliberately bungled it to make sure that his preferred candidate won. It doesn’t matter that the courts awarded victory to Mahmood’s candidate, and it also doesn’t matter that Mahmood’s candidate has already taken power and has started to exercise it; what matters is that the people felt and still feel robbed by Mahmood and that their perception of INEC is flawed, tainted and very negative.

Nigerians have never really believed in INEC’s ability to conduct a free, fair and credible election, but the events of the 2023 presidential election further cast a dark shadow on INEC’S chances of ever redeeming its image and winning the trust of Nigerians. The 2023 presidential election which was supposed to be INEC’s golden opportunity to prove to the world that it is capable of conducting a flawless election, turned out to be its most-damning undoing. As it stands now, INEC has no reputation to its credit. While other countries are making tangible progress in the consolidation of their democracies through the effective workings of their electoral institutions, Nigeria is retrogressing against all the parameters and indices of democratic ratings, no thanks to its electoral institution that has sworn to never do the right thing. It is because INEC has incorrigibly and invariably failed to improve on its performance that our courts are always inundated with election-related cases.

Barrister Patrick Okereke Nwajah, while examining the implication of inundating the courts with election-related cases, stated that the courts do not really have any business with deciding the outcome of an election, adding that it is the electoral umpire that is saddled with the sole responsibility of conducting an election and deciding its winner. He emphasized that it is only when the electoral body fails to conduct a credible election that the contestants are forced to seek redress in court. He cited an example with the United States’s presidential elections which are hardly ever contested in court as the Electoral College’s verdict is always perfect and incontrovertible. He compared Nigeria’s election to Kenya’s, and praised the effort made by the country’s electoral body to bestow Kenyans with the leader of their choice.

So, by Barrister Nwajah’s submission, the inundation of the courts with election-related cases only shows that the electoral body is not doing its work well, and when the courts are overwhelmed with election-related cases, the judges are hardly ever able to attend to the several other cases that are equally begging for their attention. Nwajah concluded by asking, “Do you now see how the electoral body’s indiscretion can unsettle a nation’s entire architecture?” Indeed, the indiscretion of a country’s electoral body can destabilize the country’s smooth sail, and that is clearly the case with Nigeria at the moment.

In conclusion, Obidients may be seen by many as noisemakers and fascists, but that does not negate the fact that they love Nigeria and mean well for it, their radical views and modus operandi notwithstanding. If you must blame the Obidients for whatever actions they have taken in expressing their dissatisfaction with Nigeria’s current situation, then you must also blame the persons, parties and institutions that have conspired together to bring the country to its knees, because if things were working as they ought to, there wouldn’t have been this much discontentment among our highly energetic youths. If anything, the Obidients should be apologized to for being misunderstood, misjudged and mischaracterized.

•Nwachukwu is an Abuja-based journalist and media consultant, and can be reached on X @Cmatencore. His email iscmatencore86@gmail.com