This columnist continues with her look back at some highlights of the year 2023. And today, I recall four talking points of the Presidential and National Assembly elections.
Here we go.
INEC’s hyped technology upgrade and other faux pas
The reason there was so much enthusiasm in last year’s general elections was because INEC, the electoral body, stepped up the use of technology. It upgraded from use of card reader to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). The BVAS was used in the off season governorship election in Anambra (2021), Ekiti and Osun 2022, all of which results were acclaimed by independent observers as representative of expressed wishes of the electorate.
There had been several bye elections since then conducted by INEC and everything went fairly well, according to it. It even conducted a mock election, just few weeks to the general elections, a kind of test run. INEC reported that it was set for a hitch-free general elections. What is more, the commission announced it now has a portal wherein results from polling units would be uploaded to its server at the tap of a finger via the BVAS and seen simultaneously by just about anyone from any part of the world, automatically, in real time. This boosted people’s confidence in the elections.
A record over 146 international observers, including some former African presidents, flooded Nigeria. With this technology step up, most people expected that the results of the presidential election would be announced the next day (Sunday) or Monday. The international observers expected to jet back to their various countries by Monday. However, by Monday evening of February 26, 2023, INEC had only released presidential results from 11 of the total 36 states.
For the umpteenth time INEC grappled with logistics. Many of the polling units commenced the process well behind INEC’s stipulated time of 8.30 a.m. In some 70 per cent of the thousands of polling units across the nation, accreditation reportedly started between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. In many places voting continued after sunset and torchlights had to be used due to lack of electricity. INEC had conducted several elections after the 2015 general elections. One would have thought that it had gathered sufficient experience over these years and perfected its logistics thereby. But this problem of late arrival of INEC staff, late arrival of voting materials, arrival of incomplete materials keeps recurring over and over again. Is INEC jinxed with logistics issue?
Labour party was a disruptor in South-east zone
Notwithstanding that the Labour Party was not in the reckoning to win the popular vote in the presidential election, it disrupted traditional voting pattern in, especially, the South-east zone. And the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) suffered the collateral damage. This zone had always been PDP’s stronghold since 1999. Arising from the fact that their son, the late Vice President Alex Ekwueme, was a founding father of PDP, they remained true to the party. Such was their loyalty to this party that any of its flag bearers did not need to stress himself/herself as he/she was assured of victory. And that was why elections/selections for its candidates in the various elective positions in that part of our country was a ‘do-or+die’ affair, more or less, replete with shenanigans.
The South-east was synonymous with PDP. And they were amply ‘rewarded’ by the PDP as it reserved the position of Nigeria’s number three citizen, the senate president, for that zone. Thus, we had the likes of Evans Enwerem, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, Adolphus Wabara and later deputy senate president’s position (Ike Ekweremadu). Later, the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) cropped up in Anambra and Imo states with Peter Obi and Rochas Okorocha as their respective governors then. Okorocha soon defected to APC, giving way later to PDP’s Emeka Ihedioha. Ihedioha sat on the Imo Government House seat for only six months before being sacked by the Supreme Court which declared Hope Uzodinma winner of the 2020 gubernatorial election.
Overall, however, the South-east had remained largely PDP’s safe haven as it had always won the presidential election and majority of the National Assembly seats there. Then, for the first time since the second Republic in 1979 came someone of Igbo extraction vying for Nigeria’s topmost post, former Anambra state governor, Peter Obi. This completely altered the voting pattern of the zone. Where PDP used to be the most favoured party, it was supplanted by Labour Party and PDP was now posting generally abysmal figures there. Of course, Obi won the presidential election in all five states of the zone and notable PDP National Assembly candidates, including incumbent governors vying for the senate seat lost. Among them were Governors Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia state, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu state, incumbent Senators Chimaroke, Uche Ekwunife, Stella Oduah, etc. It was called the Obi effect.
Tinubu lost Lagos and Buhari lost Katsina
According to the official figures, Bola Tinubu lost the presidential election in Lagos state to Labour Party’s Peter Obi by some 10,000 votes. However, depending on the angle from which you look at it, you could say that Tinubu lost or won it. Tinubu won 13 of the state’s 20 local government areas while Obi won seven. Obi won the popular vote but Tinubu won the local government areas. President Muhammadu Buhari also failed to win his home state of Katsina for his party, APC, in the presidential election. He had always won Katsina state as a presidential candidate. Interesting results.
Ghost of ‘Orubebe’ attempted to reincarnate
When PDP presidential election agent, Senator Dino Melaye, started protesting the process at the National Collation Centre where INEC chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakubu, was presiding, most people’s minds flashed back to the 2015 drama when then Minister Orubebe was similarly protesting and uttering the infamous words, ‘we will not take it’ at a same Collation Centre. For a while, it looked like the ghost of ‘Orubebe’ was about to reincarnate in Mr. Melaye. Some stakeholders succeeded in calming things down. However, the PDP and Labour Party agents as well as those of some smaller parties later walked out on the INEC chairman. Knowingly or unknowingly, they gave perceptive people an inkling of the direction to which the final presidential result was headed.
Ikeano writes via [email protected] 08033077519
