It is no longer surprising to hear Nigerians complain bitterly about the way elections are conducted in the country. The just-concluded gubernatorial elections in Edo State is no exception. Most observers are shouting themselves hoarse in a spirited condemnation of the manner in which the election managers, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), handled the collation and announcement of results.

The general Impression one gathered from the Edo State off-season elections was that peace ruled and reigned across the state during the elections. However, cities say, the well laid out electoral processes which had been commendably observed during the voting proper suffered a major affliction at the collation stage.

Purported malfeasances observed by political party agents and independent observers were reported to INEC but nothing was done to investigate or address then until the results were announced.

Political parties, candidates, Civil Society Organisations as well as the Media were all scandalized by the indecent haste with which INEC put out the results when the extant laws allow for a seven-day window to enable INEC review complaints made about the processes, including ballot manipulation and vote buying.

INEC fell back to its familiar ways of peremptorily inflicting fatal damage by announcing questionable results knowing very well that only the courts could now nullify them. It has the backing of the Supreme Court to do so.

The Indications are quite clear. It is either INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu, and his top officials are heavily compromised, or they are guilty of serial gross incompetence, or both.

One can still vividly recall the horrible misdemeanors of the 2023 presidential election and the kangaroo judgment of the Supreme Court. The fact that Yakubu, a university Professor, did not honorably resign after that 2023 debacle in spite of the international opprobrium Nigeria harvested as a result of his shameful performance, showed the level of depravity that has become norm among Nigeria’s so-called elite.

The Nigerian populace, the media and civil society organizations have all gone mute in the face of repeated impunity. Even the trade unions, especially the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to which Yakubu belonged, could not muster the courage to condemn the disgraceful outing of one of their own.

So why wouldn’t Yakubu and his ilk do again what they know best to do? Never mind the humongous funds routinely approved to ensure “free and fair elections.” It has now become clear that such generous appropriations are part of the evil scheme to spoil the umpire and win him over to the side of whoever controls the federal government.

Those who provided a one-week window for INEC to review election results if and when serious complaints are brought up during the electoral process might as well have wasted their time. Or perhaps that provision was not made for Yakubu but for his successors in office.

If Nigeria had any value for merit and competence, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu should not have been around to superintend over any elections after the charade of 2023. But here he is unleashing more electoral horrors on a hapless country and threatening to continue doing so ad infinitum. The forthcoming Ondo poll will be next.

Prof Mahmoud Yakubu has proved incorrigible and a colossal failure. Let him not be allowed by default to incinerate this country. The people’s patience and long suffering is being tested to its elastic limits. Let Yakubu and his bumbling cohorts go now!

•Nnamdi Wigwe, a veteran journalist and PR practitioner, writes from Owerri in Imo State.