By Emmanuel Aziken
Nigerians are this weekend distilling the outcome of last weekend’s governorship elections conducted in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States with many doubting the prospects of a virile democracy in the country.
Saturday Vanguard reports that following the controversies that trailed the 2023 General Election the off-season elections in the three states were seen as an opportunity for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to redeem its credibility.
The Professor Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC had promised that the 2023 General Election would be the most credible election in the country underpinning its promise of integrity on the IREV portal and the BVAS machine with the claim that the two technologies would banish rigging from Nigeria.
However, on Election Day on February 25, as the polls got underway, a glitch on the IREV portal brought a cloud that the INEC has till today not been able to clear.
It was against the cloud overhanging from the last election that many approached the off-season elections in the three states.
For some, the experience has further dampened their hopes for a true democracy.
Dino Melaye, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Kogi State speaking on his experience in an interview monitored on AIT said: “Since I started politics, I have seen ballot box snatching, I have seen ballot box stuffing, I have seen pockets of violence, I have seen inflation of results but what happened in Kogi is legendary, it has never happened in the history of mankind. It has never happened South of the Sahara or north of the Limpopo. What I saw was unimaginable. What I saw was wicked, barbaric,” Senator Melaye, a veritable political actor who has participated in nearly all elections in Kogi State in the past 20 years said.
However, his participation in the last election left many questions both for himself and his opponents who he accused of throwing the BVAS technology that the INEC had vowed as a game changer into hopelessness.
He spoke against the background of claims that the turnout of voters in Kogi Central of registered voters was more than 97%.
However, Senator Melaye’s participation in the polls was also left in controversy as his critics dubbed his participation as what caused the division in the ranks of the opposition with some insinuating that he did not even come out to vote for himself on election day.
Saturday Vanguard reports that Melaye has repeatedly fought off the issue of whether or not he voted for himself last weekend.
His assertions nonetheless, many described last weekend’s election in Kogi as way better than what happened four years ago when there were reports of gun violence with a police helicopter reportedly firing from the air at voters. That incident was what gave Kogi elections the tatatata phrase.
Kingsley Fanwo, the Kogi State commissioner for information and spokesman of the APC governorship campaign council, however, dismissed the contentions of Melaye who he claimed was never in the race.
At a thank you press conference in Lokoja last Tuesday, he said: “Dino Melaye was never in the race for the Governorship. The perennial contestant was in it for business and we do not see his allegations as anything more than the ranting of a thoroughly rejected political jobber.
“We can’t beat a child and expect him not to cry. But we will be magnanimous in victory. Someone who claimed to have boycotted an election is here complaining about the conduct. He was not even at his Polling Unit to vote. How he got over 40,000 votes should be probed,” the party stated.
If Kogi was in dispute, the development in Imo State has continued to cause consternation among many political actors.
Governor Hope Uzodimma who came to power through a Supreme Court judgment that threw him from fourth position to number one has now buried the ghost of Supreme Court governor with another wonder after winning all 27 local government areas of the state in the last election.
The election in Imo was remarkably among three senators who served in the Senate in 2015 at the same time.
Saturday Vanguard reports that Uzodimma was in the Senate representing Imo West, Senator Samuel Anyanwu represented Imo East and Senator Athan Achonu represented Imo North. They all at that time came to the Senate on the platform of the PDP until Achonu was removed by a court order.
All three men in 2023 lined up representing different political parties with Uzodimma representing APC, Anyanwu flying the PDP ticket and Achonu representing Labour.
In a feat that many consider as another wonder after his Supreme Court emergence, Uzodimma rubbished his rivals even in their strongholds as he won all 27 local government areas of the state.
According to the state Returning Officer, Prof. Abayomi Fasina, Uzodimma emerged with 540,308, votes while Samuel Anyanwu of the PDP came a distant second with a total of 71,503 votes.
Ikenga Ugochinyere, a member of the House of Representatives who served as the director-general of the PDP campaign was dismissive of the results telling newsmen on Monday:
“More than 90% of the votes allocated to Hope Uzodimma were not votes that passed through the accreditation process as the turnout in the election was very low and this could be because of the insecurity in Imo State.
“Thugs backed by security agencies were maiming, shooting and destroying private property in a bid to cow the people to allow them to announce already written figures without accreditation or credible election.”
What made the results in Imo more controversial was the speed with which they were announced on Sunday morning. That Sunday morning as the returning officer proceeded in announcing the results, the Labour Party agent, Calistus Ihejiagwa, repeatedly said he had a petition as he challenged the results that were being announced by Prof Fashina who scorned him.
At a point, some people beat him inside the collation hall and dragged him away when he appeared untoward. Fashina then proceeded on his assigned job.
The contentions nonetheless, Uzodimma has continued to receive congratulations on his declaration as winner with President Bola Tinubu, his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and fellow governors hailing the Imo governor on his election.
The Labour Party candidate Achonu has, however, stepped back from extending congratulations saying he was the true winner.
In Bayelsa State, Douye Diri of the PDP had emerged as governor of the state after losing out four years ago but miraculously sworn in after the winner, David Lyon was disqualified by the Supreme Court on inauguration eve. This time Diri turned the tide against the APC.
Sylva’s albatross was the disunity that trailed his emergence as the candidate of the APC as many who thought that Lyon should be returned as the candidate refused to identify with him.
Saturday Vanguard reports that the minister from the State, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, Lyon, and many others distanced themselves from the Sylva campaign. Even President Goodluck Jonathan who was four years ago openly accused of backing the APC by going to the extent of hosting APC governors, however, this time went the other way as he hosted PDP governors who came to campaign for Diri.
However, as in Kogi and Imo, the election in Bayelsa was trailed with irregularities but not to the scale as reported in the two other states.
Condemning the conduct of the off-season elections Liborous Oshoma, a constitutional lawyer speaking on AIT yesterday said that much more needs to be done in cleaning up the nation’s electoral process.
For him, it should start from the appointment of the electoral regulators. “We should start from who appoints the INEC chairman,” he said as he spoke against the background of the recent appointment of openly political actors as Resident Electoral Commissioners.
Ahead of the General Election last February and March, the INEC had pushed forward the claim that with BVAS, that rigging had been put to an end. However, with the 97% turnout of registered voters in the off-season election in some constituencies, many are now asking of the future of democracy in Nigeria.
@Vanguard