The last governorship elections held in three states of Nigeria clearly indicate that we still have a long way to go in enthroning free and fair elections in Nigeria. Like many previous polls, the governorship election of November 11, 2023 in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States was characterized by violence, intimidation and harassment of voters, vote buying and some other infractions.
There were early indications that all might not be well during the election. In Bayelsa state, for instance, a Supervisory Presiding Officer (SPO) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was kidnapped on the eve of the election in Sagbama Local Government Area. The official was kidnapped while waiting to board a boat at Amassoma jetty. He has since been released. There were tensions and acrimonies in Imo and Kogi states as well.
On the Election Day proper, incidents of violence, voter inducement and allegations of falsification of results held sway. This is despite heavy deployment of security men to the three states, including the deployment of three Deputy Inspectors-General of Police. At Ayigba town in Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi state, the military gunned down a thug for allegedly attempting to snatch and run away with a ballot box. Security agents also reportedly arrested a local government chairman in the same Kogi and some others with a lot of cash and ammunition. Voters were induced with some amount of money ranging from N3,000 to N5,000 and even over N20,000 in some cases.
In Imo, a Labour Party agent, Calistus Iheagwa, protested what he termed the incongruity in the results collated from the local government areas and brought before the state collation centre and the ones uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal. His loud protest earned him some beating and eviction from the collation centre.
These incidents notwithstanding, INEC announced incumbent Governor of Imo State and candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hope Uzodimma, as winner of the election. He polled 540,308 to defeat his closest rival, Samuel Anyanwu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 71,503 votes. The Labour Party’s Athan Achonu came third with 64,081 votes. Uzodimma is to serve his second term in office. Governor Diri Douye of Bayelsa, who is the candidate of the PDP, also won a second term in office. He got a total of 175,196 votes to defeat his closest rival, Timipre Sylva of the APC who got 110,108 votes. In Kogi State, Usman Ahmed Ododo of the APC was elected to take over from the outgoing governor, Yahaya Bello. He polled 446,237 votes to defeat Muritala Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party who got 259,052 votes. Dino Melaye of the PDP got 46,362 votes to emerge a distant third.
As expected, the losers are not satisfied with the outcome of the election. This prompted protests from the opposition candidates in those states. Some have threatened to go to court. This is the most honourable thing to do.
While we congratulate the winners, we urge them to be magnanimous in victory. They should neither discriminate nor take action that will be inimical to the peace of their states. They should help in pushing for electoral reforms because if we continue the way we are going currently, it may endanger the hard-won democracy we all fought to enthrone in the country.
We agree with the National Peace Committee, led by former Head of State, Abdulsalami Abubakar, which recently lamented the persistence of the culture of vote-buying, intimidation, and voter apathy, among others, in the country. The committee said the corruption of the process would lead to the emergence of corrupt leaders if we colluded with merchants of corruption. “A democratic culture will only grow if we participate in cleaning up the process of our elections because, in the end, we are the victims,” the committee said in a statement.
From all indications, one major thing that can guarantee free and fair elections is electronic voting. Shortly before the off-cycle elections, INEC informed Nigerians that electronic voting or collation of results was illegal in Nigeria. The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, said IReV was not for collating election results or determining the winner and that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was not an electronic voting machine. “All that the IReV portal does is just to display the Form EC8A uploaded from the polling units for the public to see,” Oyekanmi noted.
So, what happens if there are discrepancies in the polling unit election results uploaded on the IReV portal and what INEC eventually announces as the results, as purportedly happened in some previous elections? If electronic voting is made compulsory, it will check incidents of rigging and manual manipulation of results. It will restore confidence in the electoral process. The National Assembly should do something about this.
Already, many voters are frustrated that their votes do not count anymore. People go through a lot to get their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and still queue for long hours just to vote for a candidate of their choice. They will gladly stay back in their homes if urgent measures are not taken to reassure them that their future votes will count.