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…As parties get set for Saturday guber, state assembly polls
ν APC re-strategises, promises to be magnanimous to other parties
ν LP says election postponement, BVAS reconfiguration unsettling
ν NNPP upbeat of victory, targets Bauchi, Katsina Taraba, Kano
ν Says polls shift’ll cost party over N2 billion
ν PDP says it’s ready for election, not manipulations
From Romanus Ugwu, Okwe Obi, Adanna Nnamani and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday shifted the scheduled March 11 governorship and state assembly elections to March 18, saying that the postponement was to give the Commission adequate time to reconfigure the over 176,000 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines used in the February 25 presidential and National Assembly polls.
The sudden reschedule of the election has made the four frontline political parties: the All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), to return to the drawing board to strengthen their winning streak. 
Following the Appeal Court ruling by the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) on the reconfiguration of the BVAS used for the presidential and national assembly election, INEC met last week and assessed the impact on its preparations for the governorship and state assembly elections.
The commission, among other things, resolved that though the judgment of the Tribunal makes it possible for the commission to commence preparation of the BVAS for the governorship and state assembly elections, it, however, came far too late for the reconfiguration to be concluded.
“Consequently, the commission has taken the difficult, but necessary decision to reschedule the elections to Saturday, March 18, 2023. This decision has not been taken lightly, but it is necessary to ensure that there is adequate time to back up the data stored on the over 176,000 BVAS machines from the presidential and National Assembly elections and then to reconfigure them for the governorship and state assembly elections,” the commission had noted in a statement signed by its National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye.
“This has been the practice for all elections, including the period when the commission was using Smart Card Readers. We wish to reassure all political parties and candidates that the data from the presidential and National Assembly elections will be backed up and available in INEC cloud facilities, including the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV).
“Political parties can apply for Certified True Copies of the backend data of the BVAS. Also, the results on the BVAS will continue to be available on the IReV for interested parties to access,” he assured in the statement that announced the postponement.
For the parties, the new date has given them ample time to still engage with the electorate though with additional costs.
Also, the parties believe that they would use the new window to correct some of their mistakes observed during the presidential and National Assembly elections, though some claimed they would have done better if the election had held as earlier scheduled.
However, all of them are set to go for the broke on March 18.
APC
Like many other political parties, the All Progressives Congress acknowledged and accepted the decision by the electoral umpire, but charged it to ensure the safety and protection of the data in the cloud as it promised for future reference and litigation.
Though the ruling party equally expressed concerns over what becomes of the data in the BVAS, it, however, urged the commission to go the extra mile to properly back them up even on its cloud facilities, and do everything within its power to preserve and protect the integrity of the extracted data from BVAS.
The APC, through its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, noted: “APC respects the decision of INEC to postpone the governorship and state House of Assembly elections to Saturday, March 18, 2023, following the ruling on the reconfiguration of BVAS used for the presidential election.
“While noting its reassurance that data from the presidential and National Assembly elections will be properly backed up on its cloud facilities, we urge INEC to do everything within its power to preserve and protect the integrity of the extracted data from BVAS as it has committed to do before the court.”
Conscious of the imperfections of the presidential poll, the APC leadership challenged the commission “to use the opportunity presented by the election postponement to address any gaps or hitches identified in the presidential election in order to avoid a reoccurrence in the March 18, election.
“Even as presidential candidates and their political parties explore and exercise their constitutional liberty to challenge or defend the outcome of the presidential and National Assembly elections, we must remind ourselves of the overriding duty that we bear to eschew conduct and action capable of undermining the peace of our country or imperil the capacity of INEC to conduct the upcoming governorship and State Assembly elections.”
Before the announcement of the postponement, the ruling party had declared that though it was not planning a do-or-die contest in winning all the states, especially in the governorship poll, it will, however, sacrifice some states for the sake of democracy.
The APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, who spoke on the readiness of the party for the governorship poll recently, said: “We in the APC, start counting from one and the office of the president is one, we start counting from there and we will take them as they come.
“The governorship election is coming and by the grace of God, just as we won the presidency we are going to win, I wouldn’t say all, because APC is not a greedy party. We will win all the winnable and will make some sacrifices where necessary, so that democracy can flourish.”
He, however, noted that they have perhaps strategized to win the states the ruling party lost during the presidential election.
“On the issue of states we won or didn’t win, it is the nature of things that you win some and lose some. The fact that we lost some major states, like Lagos, Kano, Katsina, and even Nasarawa, Kaduna, you cannot be talking about democracy and evenness of representation at the same time thinking you must win everything.
“The fact that we lost these places and didn’t shed tears, did not cry foul, makes us the real political party in this country. Then what moral justification is there for a party that won Lagos and felt it was a good game and lost a place like Ekiti, and said the game was a bad one, it doesn’t make sense.
“With the strategic position of Lagos, strategic in terms of location, population, in terms of economy, in terms of political history, and prestige, we lost and we didn’t run to the street crying, what is important is that we got what we want, we got the presidency.
“They are gnashing their teeth, you can all see, it shows the level of immaturity, selfishness, and lack of sense of judgment. And to put it in common parlance, they are not sportsmen nor are they lovable women. For those who are grateful to the blessings of God, God promises to multiply their fortunes. So, we are grateful to Almighty God. We are not crying, we are not complaining, and we can assure you that we will win the coming elections again.
“But, the facts I must admit is that what happened in the election was an eye-opener, we can’t deny that fact. We have learnt some basic lessons from what has happened, we appreciate the fact that we cannot win some states of the federation that ordinarily we would have wished we won them.
“The fact that we lost them, or God gave us the ones that He blessed to deliver the president to the APC, we are more than grateful to Almighty God. We will do what we need to do and will not hesitate to do what we must do to ensure success in the governorship and House of Assembly elections.
“People are bound to interpret whatever happens in their own ways, their own understanding, and the kind of state of mind they have in their upbringing, we cannot deny them that,” the ruling party boss explained.
By way of marching words with action, some of the governors of the APC-controlled states have started strategizing and pampering state employees, including payment of outstanding salary arrears, opening employment opportunities, and many other dividends of democracy to lure the aggrieved electorate towards voting for them.
Although INEC had hinged the shift of the governorship and state assembly poll on the unfavourable limited days to reconfigure the BVAS, a member of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) told Sunday Sun in confidence that the National Peace Accord Committee had specifically made the request to the commission to calm frayed nerves by one week.
“The postponement was in order and could not have come at a better time than now. It is exactly what the country needs now. The tension and anger in the country over the outcome of the presidential election is just too high. It would not have been good to go into the governorship election under this situation.
“It is also good that the Peace Accord committee made that appeal to the Commission to shift the election by at least one week to calm the political tension in the country. But truth be told, the postponement is to the advantage of our party.
“Yes, APC may have won the presidential election; but the overwhelming signal across the country portends danger in the possibility of our party retaining most of the states. Take, for instance, some states like Lagos, Nasarawa, Kano, Katsina, and Kebbi that we lost during the presidential election, there are palpable indications that our governorship candidates may not retain power there. So, the postponement will help us to put the outcome of the presidential poll and pluck certain loopholes to help us consolidate our stronghold,” he noted.
LP
The Labour Party has described the postponement of the gubernatorial and state Houses of Assembly elections as a sad development, especially as it concerns the reconfiguration of BVAS.
The party said that there are genuine concerns over the sincerity of the INEC to carry out credible and transparent elections on March 18, considering the controversies trailing the presidential election, that have led to waning public trust in the Commission.
The Chief Spokesperson of the LP Presidential Campaign Council, Mr Tanko Yinusa, in a telephone interview with Sunday Sun said that while the party was already set for the March 11 elections, the idea of BVAS reconfiguration raises fresh worries as it may wipe out the information already stored in them that political parties seeking legal redress on the presidential election could use.
Tanko insisted that INEC should configure the BVAS in such a way that ICT experts of various political parties can ascertain that there is no pre-voting done before the elections, all in a bid to “salvage some trust on the part of Nigerians on INEC”.
He said that the shift in date for the guber polls would afford the party the chance to further consolidate on its preparedness.
Tanko said: The shift in date is a consi consa kind of thing, especially because of the BVAS issue, and that, we are not happy about it. This is because we are not so sure that if they reconfigure the BVAS machine, they will not wipe out all the records, except if it’s being done in a transparent manner where all the political parties will be there to actually confirm what is being done.
“At the moment, we cannot be sure of what INEC is doing because they have lost a lot of trust among the Nigerian people”.
On the party’s readiness to clinch victory in states, Tanko said that concerted efforts were being made to beef up security, especially for the voters who were harassed, intimidated, disenfranchised and stereotyped along tribal and religious lines.
“Remember there was a lot of intimidation, killings and manipulation in Lagos and so we need to make arrangements on how to make sure that our electorate are protected, including our agents. So, these are areas that we need to work on and also to reach out to those areas that we have not really reached out to”, he explained.
Asked if the party had confidence in the judiciary to adjudicate fairly as aggrieved political parties head for the court, he said: “The judiciary has been put to a public test to pass judgment. Many people have lost confidence with the way the judiciary has been making pronouncements, but then it is the last hope of the common man.
“And we want to hope that they will do justice to ensure that they actually pronounce the right judgment in the interest of the people and the nation. I mean, we just concluded an election, a presidential election for that matter and the mood of the country does not even reflect that someone has won an election. That is a pointer to anybody that the majority of the people are not happy at all”.
On the capacity of the party to win Lagos, Tanko said that the LP’s swelling popularity was already sending jitters down the spines of the incumbent party as the voting public demand a change.
“I just came out of a programme in Lagos, and the popularity is huge. The Nigerian youths, especially are determined that they are going to vote for Gbadebo Vivor as their candidate and so this has been giving sleepless nights to the opposition political party. He is so popular to a point that other candidates have to attach the picture of our presidential candidate to theirs in order to get support and we have come out to debunk it and say that it is Labour Party all the way,” he said.
Tanko also debunked insinuations that the party was not popular up North.
“We are so sure of the election results that we have, and they show that we are actually the winner of the election and so if anybody is saying that we are not popular in the North, it is surprising. Then how did we arrive at our own results? Because we have the results that showcase us winning and it’s the same with virtually every person that has the result. I agree with you that we needed to expand our horizon in the northern part, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we are not popular in the North. We are very popular in the North.”
NNPP
The New Nigeria People’s Party appears unperturbed by the postponement of the governorship and state assembly elections by the INEC.
Already, the party has penciled down states like Bauchi, Katsina Taraba, Kano and Nasarawa where it believes it would win the governorship contest overwhelmingly.
Its National Publicity Secretary, Agbo Major, in exclusive chat with Sunday Sun, said: “We are sure of winning a minimum of five states: Kano, Bauchi, Katsina, Taraba and Nasarawa. I am sure that we should be able to have between six and seven states on the March 18.”
He, however, scolded INEC for the lack of preparation despite billions of naira released to the Commission long before the commencement of entire exercise.
According to him, NNPP would have challenged the postponement, but said the party resisted the nudge in order not to cause chaos and anarchy.
For him, the electoral umpire defrauded Nigerians by not keeping to its promise with the claim that the shift was to dampen the enthusiasm of eligible voters who are all ready to weed out bad politicians.
He charged the electorate to maintain the tempo of patriotism by coming out en masse to exercise their civic duty.
“It is important that we say it clearly that this shift is as a result of negligence and complacency of INEC. Remember that INEC had told us that they had made provision for backup BVAS.
“What that means is that we expected that they would deploy two BVAS machines to each polling unit because the promise made to Nigerians is that in case the BVAS fails anywhere, the second one would be deployed.
“So, telling us now that they have to bring the ones deployed for the presidential election to reconfigure and to deploy before the governorship and state assembly elections, it means that they have defrauded Nigerians by not expending the resources made available to them by making available the back up BVAS. So, that is a defeat on their part.
“But then, from an administrative reason, I do not think any sensible person will query the postponement because it is clear that they do not have these machines.
“The ones available are the ones deployed for the presidential election and they need to be reconfigured according to them.
“The postponement is inevitable. Yes, it has affected us in the sense that we were prepared fully for this weekend, but it is going to be additional one week of criss crossing again for our candidates through the states and then the nooks and crannies of their various constituencies.
“It is going to affect them. They are going to spend more resources. The anxiety on the part of the people, you can see the anger on the faces of Nigerians.
“They were actually eager to go to the polls tomorrow to be able to deal with the mischief perpetrated during the presidential election.
“But this additional one week, we hope that the venom will still be there for them to release on March 18. So, we were actually set for tomorrow.
“But as it stands now, we cannot do anything otherwise. We are looking beyond the elections. We are looking at the stability of the country.
“If we insist now that the election must go on or INEC postponement is not acceptable to us, then it means we are calling for anarchy and chaos.
“So, as a peace-loving political party, we have no problem with that. We are taking it in good faith due to the fact that we have to deploy more resources to the field and do more campaigns before the elections will hold next weekend,” he said.
While presenting an estimation of the extra cost the shift of the election would take the party, he said it would cost them about N500 million, which when multiply across the states participating in the exercise it would amount to over N2 billion.
He said: “Certainly, we have our candidates running for governorship in all the states where there are no off season elections, so plus, minus it, if you are putting it together, this additional one week, if you say let us do N500 million per state, for instance, what you need to do is to simply multiply it by about 33 states where this election is holding, it will give you an idea of what we are going to lose as result of this one week gap.”
He warned officials of INEC to be deployed for the poll, to be diligent and not allow their selfish desires draw the wrath of voters, whom he said are now prepared to protect their votes gingerly, unlike what played out in the presidential and National Assembly polls where the contest was rigged.
“Well, whether anybody likes it or not, the stain that has been created by their conduct of the presidential election has put doubt in the minds of Nigerians, including me.
“If INEC, after having deployed so much tax payer’s money into promising Nigerians that there will be a transparent process for them to elect their leaders and they will go down so low on what happened on February 25, to happen, then I do not have any reason to doubt that this coming elections will be free and fair.
“But one thing I need to let you know is that Nigerians now know that what they did on the 25 February is unacceptable, they have decided that they will be the police in the election.
“In fact, some of them are saying that they do not need the conventional policemen, civil defense officers, military personnel, that they will police themselves.
“So, it’s expected that whether INEC likes it or not, the people are determined even if it is not 100 per cent clean, at least, they should be able to attain, 75 to 80 per cent transparent process.
“Let me use this opportunity to advise those who will be on the field as electoral officers that day to allow the will of the people to prevail otherwise they will be putting their lives in danger because Nigerians are determined to ensure that what should be declared as the winners of the election from the various polling units will be exactly what they will want or the votes they will be dropping be given to them.”
PDP
The Peoples Democratic Party also said that it is prepared for the March 18 gubernatorial and state assembly poll.
However, the party said it hopes the INEC would conduct free, fair and credible polls across the country.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, told Sunday Sun that the opposition party is necessarily bothered about the rescheduling of the governorship polls from March 11 to March 18.
He explained that the PDP is ready for the contest anytime, as it has campaigned vigorously in the respective states.
Prior to the commencement of the 2023 polls, the PDP, which presently controls 13 states, has expressed its readiness to win the presidential election, the majority in the National Assembly, as well as no fewer than 20 governorship seats.
However, the major opposition party suffered a setback, in its quest to regain control of the reins of government in the country, as its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar lost the presidential election to APC candidate, Tinubu, who was declared winner with Atiku as the first runner up.
Nevertheless, Ologunagba told Sunday Sun that the PDP is still optimistic it will win several governorship seats, in a free and fair contest, as its messages resonate very well with the electorate.
He said: “We have always been ready for elections. What we are not ready for is manipulations. We are always ready for elections and it is demonstrated from campaigns and everything we did before the February 25 elections. PDP is always ready for elections because we know that we are in constant touch with the people.
“What we never prepared for was the manipulation and reckless violation of the Electoral Act by a body that is supposed to be an umpire. It has been shown that from the pictorial evidence and video evidence that INEC is less than prepared. And is clearly not an umpire.”
The PDP spokesman stated that the expectation of the opposition party is that the March 18 contest will be free, fair and credible and conducted in line with Electoral Act 2022.
According to him, “that is our expectation. That is why we are asking INEC to do the minimum in engendering that confidence. It is not what INEC has done. It is what people believe that they are doing. And it is evident from their actions, pre, during and post election.
“That is what we are asking for and we are hoping that INEC on the next election will be able to do that which will meet the expectation of Nigerians and the international community that have put so much hope and belief in the words and commitment of Prof Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of INEC that promised to give us a free, fair and credible election. If the last election result is anything to go by surely INEC has failed.
“We are very hopeful. We want to believe that INEC will obey the Electoral Act 2022. And, of course, its own regulations, guidelines and manuals. If they do that, whoever wins election is immaterial. We hope that INEC will do that.
“We have worked very well in our campaigns. We have campaigned vigorously and the Nigerian people listened to our messaging and the messaging was already resonating.
“In the last one year in off season elections and by elections from Cross River to Osun, Plateau and the municipal election in Abuja, PDP won handsomely and that was a trend and that trend was there before the manipulation, rigging and massive violation of the provisions of the law by INEC itself in the presidential and national assembly election.
“So, our expectation are still there. Because the Nigerian people are still looking forward to the PDP and we have no reason to doubt that commitment and that interest in our party.”
