All Nigerian politicians, political parties have been stealing and rigging elections since 1959 -- Doyin Okupe

A former senior special assistant to former President Goodluck Jonathan, Dr. Doyin Okupe, said Nigerian politicians and political parties, without exception, have been involved in rigging elections since 1959.  

Okupe, said this on his Facebook page in reaction to outrage trailing confession of Senator Ibrahim Mantu that Nigeria’s former ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP engaged in rigging of elections by bribing security operatives and officials of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
 
Mantu, a former deputy president of the Senate elected into the National Assembly on the platform of PDP, made the confession on a television program over the weekend.

However, the leadership of PDP has disowned Mantu’s his confession, saying the Senator was speaking for himself alone and not the party.

But the ruling All Progressives Party (APC) lauded the Senator, even as it asked other members of the opposition party to also come forward to tell Nigerians how PDP manipulated the electoral system to its favor in the 16 years they were in power.
  
While countering both parties, Mr. Okupe said that anybody who claims ignorance of the fact that massive rigging has been part of the electoral history of Nigeria is an enemy of the country.

Okupe, who was also a former member of PDP and was a spokesperson forA former President Olusegun Obasanjo said: “It may be difficult for us to make serious progress as a Nation. Most of us leaders and followers are Hypocrites, and dishonest individuals. Very few think about the interest if the country and we play politics with everything.

“Mantu spoke as a true patriot who desires true and genuine change.. The media is suddenly awashed with a cacophony of misrepresentations and distortions on what he said.

“Suddenly the substance of his honest disposition is lost to partisan blame game that has not advanced our course of history in any way.

“For the avoidance of doubt ALL elections are RIGGED in Nigeria from 1959 to date, without ANY exceptions.

“This rigging is all encompassing and involved all political parties from action group, Ncnc, Npc to Nrc,Sdp and pdp, ad, acn, cpc, apc etc.

“If anyone says anything to the contrary such persons are willfully perjured individuals and the true enemies of progress in Nigeria.

“People like Ibrahim Mantu and late President Yaradua who even openly admitted that the election that brought him to power was faulty, are heroes of this country.

“Parties in Nigeria rig both intra and inter-party elections from wards through local governments all the way to National elections from time immemorial.

“For a truth it is only in the southwest and a few other zones that a modicum resemblance to an election actually do take place. in most other parts of the country Nothing like elections take place or better still the charade of people lining up and casting their votes is just a mere ritual that has nothing to do with the results announced.

“Perhaps, the most crooked of all electoral umpires we have had so far is Attahiru Jega, who cynically brought in Professors to glorify the electoral Fraud superintended by him throughout his tenure.

“INEC participates and drive the rigging process from the ward to national. Police, DSS and all other agencies involved in our elections are accomplices.

“How can anybody claim that only PDP rigs elections in Nigeria.


“Are we not witnesses to the undeniable fact that in all state elections, no matter how civilized, innocuous or God fearing the state governors pretend to be, all state elections, no matter the political party involved, are won by the ruling party in the state 100%.

“It is in our overall interest that we take what Mantu said seriously and for posterity sake, let us sit down and plan how to conduct proper free and fair elections in our country. Democracy is mocked if people have the right to vote but their votes do not count. it is a societal abomination, a desecration of our core value, and a shameful disgrace on us as a nation. True modernity and civilization will elude us if we cannot by adult suffrage elect credible candidates, stop or remove non-performing officials simply because they already occupy elective posts or belong to an entrenched party.

“The only recourse the citizens have is the power of the ballot, and if it is rendered ineffective by gross electoral fraud and widespread malpractices, then our Nation will be nothing, but a grand Animal kingdom to borrow Nnamdi Kanu's words.