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From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The electrifying euphoria and the bile that have trailed the recently concluded legislative bye-elections across 12 states of the federation, have become synonymous with killing an ant with a sledgehammer.
For the ruling party, it was such a landmark victory, particularly to the newly appointed APC National Chairman, Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, that it considerably dwarfed and competed favourably for his attention and comments while hosting the visitors on condolences for the death of his mother.
To prove that the electoral victory was such a rewarding welcome gift to him, Yilwatda had oscillated between reflecting on the lives and times of his late mother and celebrating the historic poll success that the ruling party secured.
“If you look at the main enclaves of the opposition leaders, we defeated them. From Kaduna to Kano to Adamawa and Taraba states, we just made it clear to them that our party is the leading party,” Yilwatda noted, switching from the main purpose of the visit when he welcomed the APC Press Corps that paid him a condolence visit last week.
He further said “we are not just the ruling party, but also the leading and the preferred party in Nigeria today. We have 75 per cent acceptance from the people across the country. Our success is not just in the North but also in the South. In the North and South, South -South, South-West, we had clear victories. In the North -West, North- East, and North-Central, we also had clear victories. It tells you that in Nigeria, the APC is the most accepted party across the country. So, expect that 2027 is going to be the same thing,” Yilwatda noted.
Interestingly, the climax was the APC’s appreciation of the electorate for massively ensuring the party’s electoral victory possible in the statement last week.
“Your massive votes were not just for our candidates in the various constituencies, but also a vote of confidence in the leadership of President Bola Tinubu, and an endorsement of our Renewed Hope Agenda,” the statement read in parts.
If the party’s national leadership was magnanimous in celebrating the APC victory at the polls, the presidency was very sarcastic in using the triumph to throw a sharp jab and make a loud statement, asking the opposition political forces: “How’s the market?”
In his mother of all taunting, synonymous with killing an ant with a sledge hammer, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Tinubu on Information and Strategy, had delivered a devastating dig on his X handle against perhaps the eggheads of the opposition coalition forces like Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi, Mallam Nasir El-rufai and other members of the national leaderships of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) that have been tormenting the ruling party.
Although Onanuga did not mention names, the derogatory message of ‘How is the market now’, was unmistakably a subtle taunt at the opposition parties’ poor performance in the just-concluded by-elections.
Also, speaking on the outcome of the poll, the National Secretary of the ruling party, Senator Ajibola Basiru, in a chat with the Daily Sun, tacitly admitted that the sweet victory, particularly in the northern part of the country, was enough convincing eloquent signal to dismiss the speculated northern hostility against President Tinubu-led APC, arguing that it only exist in the realm of the imagination of the purveyors of such contrived conception.
And, using the electoral victory to dismiss the claims of anti-northern forces against President Tinubu, Basiru sarcastically asked: “Which northern forces will pose a threat to Asiwaju’s re-election? Is it from people like El-rufai who lost in their states? Are the people who voted for the APC during the recent by-election not from the North? I don’t know what forces against Tinubu you are referring to again.
“The North is fully with Asiwaju, and it has reflected in our victory during the recent by-elections in Niger, Kano, Zamfara, and Adamawa. Where then is the anti-Northern force against Asiwaju? Or maybe the northern electorate you are referring to is from the Niger Republic,” he quipped.
The celebration was desirably understandable. It was a powerful response and even a devastating blow, in the magnitude of ‘operation show no mercy’ to shut the loud, vociferous mouths of the opposition coalition forces, particularly the ADC. It is equally a bold warning signal to the opposition that no matter how they bellyache about the Tinubu presidency, it will never translate into victory votes.
In retrospect, for the first time since two years ago that President Tinubu assumed office, the APC administration, which has hitherto enjoyed so much comforts, sycophantic praises and the celebrated increase in the defection of the members of the opposition parties into the ruling party, had witnessed the comfortable dining table turned against it shortly after the emergence of the opposition coalition forces.
Ever since then, the APC had been uncomfortably swimming against the tidal wave, forcing it to shift from the over-glorification of self to constant sporadic attacks from the coalition fireworks, analysts say.
Apart from critically casting constant doubts on the policies and programmes of the administration, the ruling party also witnessed full dosage of brazen attacks and all manners of convoluted dirts thrown at it, mainly targeted at discrediting and presenting the APC government as an unelectable administration before the electorate.
The opposition coalition also forced the ruling party and its administration to a reactionary entity, ensuring that they not only return to the drawing board but also exploit the opportunity provided by the legislative by-elections, to make a bold statement that will quieten and permanently shut the increasing prominence of the opposition coalition fighting to submerge and reduce its electoral value and chances.
And meticulously drawing up strategic plans, the APC-led administration had perfected arrangements to use the by-elections for the dual purpose of pre-emptively test-running the 2027 presidential election and reducing the coalition forces to the dustbin of history.
Therefore, from the sting operation of mobilising the hungry masses into financially rewarding campaign grounds for the rallies across the states for the by-elections, where both the national leadership and the presidency ought not to be present, to the massive deployment of forces against the opposition, it was a comprehensive weaponisation of all available armament against the opposition.
The ruling party did not stop there; they equally networked deeply into the grassroots to grab the victory.
And fortunately for the ruling party, things worked in their favour, resulting in the APC winning in 13 out of the 17 vacant by-election positions, while the opposition parties won in only four.
And confirming the painstaking build-up to the victory favourable to the ruling party, Basiru told Daily Sun that it was a deployment of meticulous strategy from the campaign rallies to the outright victories, dismissing the insinuations that it deployed funds to rig the election.
“The truth and even the unanswered question is, where did the opposition parties mobilise? Our party organised rallies, engaged voters in all the constituencies, and even 48 hours before the election, our party leaders went to their constituencies to vote.
“Did you see Atiku Abubakar or any of the ADC officials visit Adamawa State, for instance, to campaign? Did you see Peter Obi campaigning anywhere for any of the candidates? But, the national chairman of our party, Yilwatda, with his NWC members, were in almost all the constituencies to campaign, and in some of the places we could not go, we gave necessary support for mobilisation.
“Politics is about mobilisation, not about expression of sentiments. The outcome of the by-election has shown that no matter how you bellyache about the presidency of Asiwaju Tinubu, it can never translate into votes,” Senator Ajibola emphasised.
For the leadership of the ruling party and the presidency, whether it was a pyrrhic or transparent victory, what perhaps, may be the biggest takeaway in the outcome of the bye-elections, should be its conviction and impression that Nigerians will not only vote for the APC in the forthcoming 2027 presidential election but also that the poll is already a near-sure victory for the party.
And to the election observers, part of the weapons the APC-led administration effectively used to its advantage to swing the tide to its favour was the security agents used to stifle and asphyxiate the opposition through the arrests of the opposition agents responsible for the disbursement of the funds to efficiently facilitate vote buying and other electoral maleficence.
Generally, to confirm the deliberate orchestrated effort to use the polls to make a bold statement and test run the possible outcome of the forthcoming 2027, there was electoral violence, allegations, and counter-allegations of financial inducements to the tune of N25.9 million through reported incidents of large-scale vote buying, and massive involvement of armed and unarmed thugs.
There were also cases of arrests of the opposition party’s leaders, and staff of the electoral umpire.
Despite the grade and nature of the polls, there were yet massive harvests of arrests of electoral offenders, mainly in the opposition-controlled states and some enclaves in places like Kano, Adamawa, Taraba, Kaduna, Niger, Ogun, Edo, among other states. There was also general voter apathy, and, expectedly, the unfortunate persistent malfunctioning of electronic voting devices like the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), just as little or nothing was heard about the use of the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
Daily Sun gathered that Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State expressed deep concerns over the slow performance of BVAS at the Edo Central Senatorial District, just as reports claimed that an unprecedented number of over 288 thugs were deployed and arrested in Ogun, Kano, and Kaduna states
Curiously, despite the reassurances and, more importantly, the reorientation efforts by the national leadership of the electoral commission, there were still reported cases of the involvement of its officials in manipulating the polls.
And confirming the involvement of some INEC officials in the electoral offences during last weekend’s by-elections, Ogun state police command spokesperson, Omolola Odutola, lamented in a statement that a whopping sum of over N2.5 million was intercepted and retrieved from such officials.
“A search of the vehicle led to the recovery of a cash sum of N2.5 million from the vehicle conveying them. During interrogation, they confessed that the money was collected at a hotel in Iperu, Ogun State, from a man referred to as ‘Political Solution,’ acting on the directive of his supervisor,” the police state’s spokesperson explained.
The situation was even more precarious in Kaduna State, where the opposition PDP accused security operatives of abducting its House of Representatives candidate for the Chikun/Kajuru Federal Constituency by-election, Princess Esther Ashivelli Dawaki, along with 25 supporters.
On its own lamentation of low turnout of voters and equally faulting INEC over poor communication and voter education strategies, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) expressed worry at the conduct of the exercise, calling for improvements in the build-up to the 2027 general election.
Perhaps, angered by losing the battle to be relisted to participate in the by-elections, Labour Party (LP), in its reaction to the polls, described the exercise as “nothing short of a mockery of democracy, a travesty of justice against the Nigerian people, and a dangerous dress rehearsal of what may befall us in 2027.”
Similarly, in its official reaction to fault the poll, the ADC national leadership, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, claimed that the by-elections were flawed with irregularities, urging the electoral umpire to investigate reported cases, sanction all compromised officials, and take the urgent and necessary steps to restore public confidence in the nation’s electoral process.
“If INEC cannot guarantee the integrity of a by-election, then Nigerians are right to question its institutional capacity and all-around readiness for a general election. Nigeria is too important to Africa and the world to allow its democracy to collapse under the weight of complicit impunity.
“We urge the civil society, the media, faith leaders, and indeed every Nigerian who believes in freedom to resist the slide into electoral banditry. If we do not defend the sanctity of the ballot today, there may be nothing left to defend tomorrow,” the party warned.
The ADC, lamenting further in the statement, noted that: “What Nigerians witnessed during the by-elections is yet another reminder that under the current administration, democracy itself, just like the economy and our national security, continues to decline under President Tinubu and the APC.
“When elections are marred by widespread violence, when ballots are openly and brazenly exchanged for money, when opposition candidates are excluded without explanation, and when the very institutions entrusted to safeguard democracy become complicit, then the vote of the ordinary Nigerian ceases to have meaning.
“In some states, nearly 300 thugs armed with rifles, knives, and cutlasses were arrested on election day. Is this democracy—or banditry disguised as voting? In some states, whole polling units were cancelled due to ballot box snatching and the open intimidation of voters. If citizens cannot go to the polls without fear of assault, then the most basic covenant between the state and its people has already broken down.
“After so many years, the failure of BVAS in some states has once again raised questions about the commission’s competence, sincerity, and perhaps, complicity. Nigerians deserve elections that command the implicit confidence of every citizen and the respect of the rest of the world. INEC must not be allowed to turn excuses into a code of conduct.
“The bigger picture that we must all remember is that for better or worse, these by-elections represent the clearest indication of a dress rehearsal for 2027. If violence, vote buying, candidate intimidation, exclusion, and collusion between security forces and compromised election officials become the new normal, then Nigerians and the international community must brace themselves,” the ADC noted.
