Professor Nnenna Oti: The ballot box and democracy in Nigeria By Steve Nwabuko
When the history of elections in the fourth Republic Nigeria is written, one name shall stand out as a shining star in grandiose integrity, ebullient ethical conduct, methodical knack for details, inherent values driven disposition and God fearing pedigree, and that personality so described is none other than Professor Nnenna Oti, the current Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology (FUTO) Owerri.
Professor Nnenna Oti was the Returning Officer (RO) in charge of declaring the Governorship election results of Abia State in the 2023 general elections.
She approached her duty with diligence, delight and dexterity with the intent to do what was right, noble and justiciable in her heart and in the eyes of the world without giving in to chicanery, intimidation and manipulation from the forces baying to interfere and rewrite the outcome of the Abia state 2023 Governorship elections.
Professor Nnenna Oti saw distrust and dishonesty in the Abia state Resident Electoral Commissioner and the INEC staff in Abia state but kept her cool waiting for the final collation of votes when she would bare her fangs and torpedo the compromised INEC officials’ rigging machinery in Abia state.
Professor Nnenna Oti confronted barefaced, rabblerousing, daredevilry Dollars-in-hand Abia state politicians ready to buy her conscience in exchange for doubling down on the official election results and deny the real winner the People’s mandate but she refused to cave in and declared: “If I Perish, I Perish.”
Professor Nnenna Oti refused to bend backwards to the request of INEC bigwigs in Abuja who were asking her to take it easy and adopt the usual convention of allowing political criminals have their way but she insisted on declaring the correct election results.
Professor Nnenna Oti was summoned to INEC headquarter in Abuja to meet INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, and she straightway told the INEC Chairman that she will only declare the results extracted direct from BVAS, endorsed by the accredited officers at the polling units and not the mutilated results the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner would want declared.
Moreover, a particular Local Government in Abia State called Obingwa LGA is always in the habit of churning out over bloated election results at every cycle since 2003 and which had always determined the Governor Elect in every of Abia state elections.
But in 2023, Professor Nnenna Oti refused to accept written results from Obingwa LGA that was not extracted direct from the BVAS machine and that was the endgame of election rigging in Abia state and the dawn of the mighty Liberation of Abia state from twenty four years of PDP misgovernment of Abia state since 1999.
Professor Nnenna Oti stood for standard, specifics, orderliness, compliance and honesty in implementing the INEC code of conduct for elections as stipulated in the Electoral Act and INEC Guidelines for elections in Nigeria.
After three years of rightfully declaring the true winner of that election, Abia State stands out as the best governed state in Nigeria.
Moreover, it is on record that the Abia state Governor, Dr Alex Otti is the only Governor from the 2023 election cycle that has refused to defect to the ruling Party based on how strident he relied on honesty and transparency to be elected into office and more because of his surefootedness in performance in office arising from righteous and transparent access to power as Governor of Abia state.
It is important to point out that the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Abia state that served with Professor Nnenna Oti in the 2023 Abia state elections, was found guilty of procedural infractions in the 2023 elections and was terminated from the service of INEC.
The lessons from Professor Nnenna Oti ‘s official conduct in the 2023 Governorship elections are noteworthy:
A good name is better and more glorious than gratification to compromise service and truth.
If the process is right, the outcome will be right and the mandate will produce right performances.
The problem is not incongruous Electoral Act but rather integrity deficiency on the part of INEC REC and a compromised S.C.O.P.E that may take bribe and sell the People’s Mandate in exchange for untold hardship in furure.
Most cases of bad governance at state levels is because the process that installed the Governor was deficient, fraudulent and manipulated and this will reflect in the performance of the Governor in office and this equally extends to the National level.
When Elites in the status of Vice Chancellors expected to be honest and truthful in declaring election results compromise by bribery, the consequent poor performance in governance is suffered more by the Elites who become pedestrians and bootlickers of the inept leadership that they helped install.
As we celebrate three full years of Professor Nnenna Oti’s truthful declaration of Abia state Governorship elections on March 22, 2023, we see peace, honour, dignity and prosperity in her life and in the Federal University of Technology (FUTO) where she superintends.
*This is wishing Professor Nnenna Oti more greatness, goodness, grandeur and glory in her march through life.
*May our sons and daughters stand firm, strong, steadfast, and righteous for what is good for humanity which Professor Nnenna Oti wholeheartedly represents in Nigeria.
God bless Professor Nnenna Oti.
God bless Abia State.
God bless Nigeria.
