THE violence and mindless killings that attended the rerun elections in Rivers State for some National and State Assembly seats, though condemnable, had shown clearly that some Nigerian politicians are yet to imbibe the democratic culture. Some of them still think that they can win election simply by visiting violence on hapless citizens and snatching of the ballots using armed thugs even in places they are not popular.
The bloody nature of the poll could possibly explain why the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) cancelled the results in 8 Local Government Areas. Out of the 9 state and one federal constituency which results have been released before INEC suspended the poll indefinitely, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won nine while the All Progressives Congress (APC) won one. And out of the four Reps seats released this week by INEC, PDP won three more Reps seats while the APC got one.
Before the poll, many analysts had predicted a bloody clash between supporters of the two major contending parties in the state, the PDP and APC. Many commentators saw the election as a battle for supremacy between the PDP, the ruling party in the state and its arch rival, the APC. And their predictions came to pass.
On another level, the exercise was a contest of wits between Governor Nyesom Wike and former governor and Minister of Transport, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi. Paradoxically, the political differences between the once political buddies fueled the political crisis in Rivers State that snowballed into the 2015 poll and the rerun. Their supporters should see through this veil and conduct themselves peacefully when INEC conducts polls in the cancelled 8 LGAs.
Both Amaechi and the defeated APC gubernatorial candidate in the 2015 poll, Dakuku Peterside and now Director-General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) took the poll as a battle of their life and which they would prove a point. Cast your mind to the 2015 elections in the state and you would understand why the stakes were so high in the recently held rerun poll.
To Governor Nyesom Wike whose victory in last year’s gubernatorial poll had been validated by the Supreme Court and whose party won all the assembly seats nullified by the courts, the rerun poll was another avenue to prove actually that the PDP won the 2015 poll which the APC has tried in vain to disprove. All these tendencies, no doubt, might have escalated the violence that characterized the exercise.
Amaechi would like to use the poll to demonstrate that he is still politically relevant in the oil-rich state politics. Perhaps he wants to show that the state which has been in PDP since 1999 is now converted to APC. The APC has banked on using the rerun poll to seek for Wike’s pound of flesh if it wins majority seats in the state assembly rerun poll. With the declared results so far, that hope of uprooting Wike has been dashed and sealed. The PDP is leading comfortably. What INEC should do is to conclude the poll.
While the politically instigated violence that marred the poll is condemned, the APC should not use it to call for the cancellation of the poll. By calling for the poll cancellation, the APC has shown that it is a bad loser. Such tendencies have been manifested by the party in Ekiti, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom and Rivers states but more viciously in the oil-bearing states. One had thought that a party that came to power on the mantra of change and whom a ruling party conceded defeat should be courageous and honourable enough to accept defeat. Is this what Nigerians are going to witness in 2019? There is need to reform our electoral system to check the recurring electoral violence.
How did things fall apart in the rerun polls after INEC and police had assured the nation that everything was okay for the poll? If 6000 policemen reportedly mobilized by the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, were not enough to provide security for rerun poll in 22 councils in Rivers, then something is fundamentally wrong with our policing. If INEC cannot conduct a rerun election in one state, what is the guarantee that it can do so in the entire country in 2019?
The electoral umpire should, without further delay, conclude the poll and announce the remaining results. To continue to wait is never the solution. There should be no attempt to change the results of the polls because that will lead to another wave of violence. To think of imposing a state of emergency, as being insinuated in some quarters, is surely out of it. The Rivers rerun has confirmed that our politicians have learnt nothing since this political dispensation in 1999.
They should stop seeing politics as a war. Rather, they should see politics as an avenue to render service to the people. The beauty of multi-party democracy is the freedom of choice for the people to elect their leaders. The choice of the people must be respected. Any attempt to vitiate this principle will lead to violence. It is given that a political party can only win election where it is popular. The PDP has demonstrated that with the Rivers rerun poll.
There are many reasons why the APC lost the 2015 poll in Rivers and there is no doubt that those reasons are still why it has so far performed woefully in the rerun poll. The voting pattern in the 2015 poll gave Rivers to the PDP.
It cannot be otherwise. Perhaps, that is why PDP is winning. The APC should accept this reality and move on. Let the opposition politicians in the state team up with Wike and move the state forward. For Wike, it is time to reconcile with other politicians and give Rivers good governance.
The people of Rivers have consistently spoken through their votes and they have spoken well in each occasion. Their wishes should be respected.
Like in any other election, those who feel aggrieved with the outcome of this exercise when the poll is concluded should approach the courts for redress. No one should resort to self-help. All politicians in the country should strive to promote multi-party democracy. That way, the opposition should not be stifled. Any attempt to silence the opposition will spell doom for this democracy. They should allow peace reign in Rivers State.