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By Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko
On Friday 20th February 2026, most of us who have lived in the Federal Capital Territory for an upward of 25 to 30 years, were taken by shock when out of the blues, the minister of the FCT, Mr. Nyesom Wike masterminded the imposition of an illegal curfew in Abuja for the local council election in the 6 area councils of the FCT.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThis was the first of its kind that anyone of us who have resided in Abuja for two decades can remember the restriction of movement during council poll. And then the strictest enforcement action stopping voters whose polling centres were arbitrarily moved by INEC from point A to point B disenfranchised thousands of willing voters. I give you an instance, if you live in Zone 6 and actually registered to vote in Zone 6 Wuse, INEC can move you to Zone 1 Wuse to vote which is approximately over 800 metres away from the place you reside. Since voters are mandated to only vote where they registered, you would have to go to Zone 1 to vote. All of a sudden, you can’t move to Zone one if you drive a car, ride a bike or a motorcycle because soldiers and policemen positioned by the minister of FCT wouldn’t let you go. The government knew that majority of voters who live withing Abuja metropolitan Area, are politically aware and most of them vote intelligently based on life experiences with the quality or governance in mind. The government officials realised that the economy us mismanaged and most urban voters are aggrieved with the government, so the government imposed the curfew and enforced it vigorously within the municipal area.
In the rural areas, party agents funded by the federal government party at the moment which us All Progressives Congress, released millions of Naira to bribe voters as low as N20k to induce them to vote for APC. Security forces who were assigned to stop vote buying are few. In Kuje, a DSS operative was almost lynched to death by a mob who never wanted him to capture party agents bribing voters. These infractions impeded the local council poll which was made to look like a national election by the minister of FCT because he was working to achieve a predetermined aim.
Local council elections had always happened in FCT and residents moved about and around their lawful activities whilst interested electorate have always exercised their democratic franchise to vote for their candidates of their choice to head the Governing councils of the few local councils in the FCT. For over two decades, there have never been any known recorded case of riots or skirmishes during the holding of council polls in the past. So, it was a shock which birthed deep annoyance in most of us that the minister of FCT decided to dictate how the council poll should go and then perfected modus operandi to exclude many registered voters from participating by subterfuge. The imposition of curfew, stopped a lot of voters who would have love to vote for their choices at the poll.
But this was never to be because, the election day being Saturday February 21st 2026 in Abuja was heavily militarised and the FCT was like a police state because voters whose polling units are a bit away from the places of abodes, were stopped from driving to their polling centres to vote by the federal government security forces deployed by Wike in the name of president Tinubu.
Besides, Wike committed another infraction brazenly and he got away with it. The minister who was the immediate past governor of Rivers state and a self styled political godfather of Rivers state, is not a registered voter in Abuja. Wike does not work in INEC. Wike was not accredited as an agent of APC or as an election observer. So he can’t legally move around and about visiting polling centres.
READ ALSO : Tinubu Congratulates APC Winners in FCT, Kano, Rivers, Hails Wike’s Impact
There is an extant regulation that nobody can access the polling units with convoys of soldiers and police. Wike announced a curfew that in itself is unconstitutional. So, since he is not a registered voter in Abuja and is not accredited by INEC as APC election agent or as an election observer, Nyesom Wike is legally not allowed to move around and about with soldiers to polling centres to dictate how voters should vote. This in itself is unlawful. Wike had prior to the holding of the council poll, met with All Progressives Congress members and gingered them to go out and vote and then to leave him to do the rest. In other words, he had already predetermined that All Progressives Congress would enjoy a pyrrhic victory of sweeping the entire council seats available for the contest. This he did using those unconstitutional tactics I listed above.
To add salt to injury, president Tinubu applauded Wike for committing those undemocratic crimes which facilitated the emergence of APC as winners of the local council election in the FCT. The brazen disrespect to the human rights of Abuja residents and the open imposition of a criminal curfew to deprive some voters from participating in the election, has motivated the writer to inquire into what constitutes a free and fair election in a democracy, that is if we still argue that Nigeria is a democracy. So we proceed by inquiring into what qualities makes an election free and fair.
Experts say that free and fair elections are the foundation of democracy and allow for the free and just societies we want to live in. Experts recalled that it is true that we all want to have a voice in determining the future of our country and in shaping the lives we live under. And we want our voice to count exactly the same as everyone else’s.
What are free and fair elections?
LibertiesEU stated that everyone under a democracy needs free and fair elections. In fact, in order for a country to truly be a democracy, its elections must be both free and fair. But this basic facet of democracy is increasingly in doubt, even in places like the European Union. For example, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, which carries out election observations, assessed Hungary’s last election as free but not fair. With Poland’s judiciary now almost fully under the control of the government, there is doubt about its impartiality should election cases come before it, as happened last year when it upheld the victory of the ruling party.
What makes elections free and fair?
There are many necessary components of free and fair elections, although all of them are fairly straightforward and to be expected in true democracies. Specifically, there are eight standards that must be met for an election to be free and fair. But it’s important to keep in mind that it’s not only about the elections themselves. There is a system around elections that, in order for them to be free and fair, must be vibrant and free from government meddling. These are opinions of LibertiesEU. I agree.
This is why it is surprising that the president of Nigeria Mr. TINUBU has decided to cash in on the deliberate manipulations of the recently held council poll to conclude that his political party the All Progressives Congress actually won because of what he described as the achievements of his minister in the area of infrastructural development.
The media reports that President Tinubu as commending the Minister of the FCT, Nyesom Wike, for what he described as remarkable achievements in the territory, noting that the performance of his administration had yielded political dividends for the APC.
The President congratulated the APC national leadership, as well as party leaders and members in Kano and Rivers states, on the electoral successes.
He lauded INEC, security agencies and voters for the peaceful conduct of the polls, and praised the contestants for demonstrating courage and discipline, saying democracy thrives on participation and healthy competition.
Tinubu added that the successful elections further strengthen Nigeria’s democratic institutions and urged INEC to continue improving its processes to deliver more credible polls.
Can I tell this my president the whole truth? There was no election in Abuja last Saturday because there was no free atmosphere for voters to exercise their franchise and the Minister used unlawful means to gain advantage for the All Progressives Congress even when Nyesom Wike parades about as a member of the opposition PDP. A massive irony.
Let me again return to borrow the position of LibertiesEU. It says: “when speaking about elections directly, its like voter registration, rules on political campaigning, ease of voting, and independence of elections commission, amongst other things, that ensure free and fair elections.
These requirements listed above are not present in the Nigerian situation and certainly the question of independence of the election commission doesn’t arise because the managers of INEC are handpicked acolytes of the incumbent president who are decorated as independent arbiters but deep inside of these persons such as the chairman of INEC, he knows that he has been assigned a task by the President and he is obliged to deliver which was exactly what played out in the just held council election in the FCT.
The FCT election was manipulated by the government to favour the All Progressives Congress to make up for the defeat of the All Progressives Congress in the FCT during the last presidential election in which Tinubu was ruled the winner. Tinubu also lost Lagos state to the Labour party’s Peter Obi just like in the FCT. So, the local council election has been used as a test ground to prepare for how INEC would do in the next presidential poll in which the incumbent is enthusiastic about winning a second term. The popular media have remained inactive and are not asking these questions and infractions of the FCT minister that I listed above. We must know that the current minister of FCT is the single largest patron of newspapers in the area of prepaid advertisements which rake in millions for the media monthly. Wike also pay a lot to TV stations for live interviews. This means that both the print and electronic media that matter in Nigeria are captured by the minister. I’m told that media chiefs were gifted landed assets in Abuja by the minister of FCT. This is a report I got today but this allegation is under investigation by me. I will unravel the secrecy behind the landed assets gifts to private media chiefs in Nigeria by the FCT minister.
Going forward, it is looking increasingly difficult to guarantee that the presidential election would be free, fair and transparent given that the grundnorm to guide the conduct of the election has been written without including one surest safeguard to manipulation of results from manual collation centres.
The failure to clearly mandate the election managers to transmit the results of election into the central server in real-time which the whole world can view simultaneously, has heightened the suspicion that this INEC under the new helmsman who is a kinsman of President Tinubu can supervise and insists on a free and fair poll.
I suggest that somehow, there should be a legal challenge to streamline the methodology for transmission of election results to make it a real-time electronic transmission and not the ambiguous provision that was included to allow INEC to decide whether to use electronic means or to manually collate election results. There has to be a transparent way of technically determining if real-time transmission is not practicable by obtaining valid and sworn affidavits from the telecommunications companies. This side of the law isn’t there but what is there is to let INEC decide. This captured INEC can’t determine faily and justly without the input of the telecommunications firms just as it is already notorious that telecommunications experts said real-time electronic transmission can happen everywhere in Nigeria. Bythe way, terrorists who kidnap people, negotiate for ransom payments from deep inside tje forests. How come they have networks?
EMMANUEL NNADOZIE ONWUBIKO is the founder of HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). He was a NATIONAL COMMISSIONER at the NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF NIGERIA.
Amanze Chinonye is a Staff Correspondent at Prime Business Africa, a rising star in the literary world, weaving captivating stories that transport readers to the vibrant landscapes of Nigeria and the rest of Africa. With a unique voice that blends with the newspaper's tradition and style, Chinonye's writing is a masterful exploration of the human condition, delving into themes of identity, culture, and social justice. Through her words, Chinonye paints vivid portraits of everyday African life, from the bustling markets of Nigeria's Lagos to the quiet villages of South Africa's countryside . With a keen eye for detail and a deep understanding of the complexities of Nigerian society, Chinonye's writing is both a testament to the country's rich cultural heritage and a powerful call to action for a brighter future. As a writer, Chinonye is a true storyteller, using her dexterity to educate, inspire, and uplift readers around the world.
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