Osun: The People have spoken again ... loudly By Azuka Onwuka, August 12, 2014 The Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress made all the noise they could, bandied wild allegations, whipped up sentiments, attacked the person rather than the issue, and issued direct and indirect threats before Saturdays gubernatorial election in Osun State. The Osun people kept quiet, biding their time, waiting for August 9, 2014. Their time eventually came last Saturday. They marched out en masse, defying the early morning rain. At the appearance of the real masters – the voters – fear gripped the candidates and agents of the political parties. What would the masters say? Whom would they favour? Whom would they reject? Finally, the electorate spoke. Their verdict was loud and clear. Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the APC was their choice. The real masters had spoken. End of discussion! That is the new power the Nigerian voters have acquired courtesy of the new transparent and credible election that has been taking roots in Nigeria. That election re-affirmed that in the Nigeria of today, power belongs to the people rather than to political godfathers and political parties. To everyone who is concerned about the progress of Nigeria rather than victory for one’s party, this new trend should be heart-warming. In Osun, there was no report of ballot-box snatching, no thuggery, no inter-party fights that scare voters away, and no post-election violence. The heavy presence of security forces emboldened the people to come out to vote for the candidates of their choice without fear or favour. In less than 24 hours after the exercise started, the Independent National Electoral Commission announced the result. The official result reflected the trend of the results individuals had released from their respective polling units. Some two months ago, something similar was re-enacted in Ekiti State. In that election, the incumbent governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, was defeated by a former governor, Mr Ayo Fayose of the PDP. In November last year, the election in Anambra State had some hiccups in some areas, which INEC said was caused by sabotage. Many Nigerians were not happy. But with the Ekiti and Osun elections, INEC reassured Nigerians and the world that it has the capacity to organise a credible election in 2015. The push for credible polls started in 2010 with the conduct of Anambra gubernatorial election. Even though President Goodluck Jonathan, who was new in office as acting president, had promised to organise credible polls, there were doubts. Interestingly, despite INEC still being under the chairmanship of Professor Maurice Iwu, the Anambra 2010 election was markedly different from what had obtained especially from 2003 to 2009. The appointment of Professor Attahiru Jega in June 2010 by President Goodluck Jonathan was received with hope, given Jega’s positive record as erstwhile president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities. But many knew that what mattered most was not the integrity of the person in charge of INEC but the sincerity of the President. The electoral experiences of 2003 and 2007 were sour in the mouth. The 2003 election saw INEC under Dr Abel Goubadia and the presidency of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo conduct elections whose results were clearly different from what took place at the polling units. The PDP was on a capturing mission. For example, it “captured” all the South-West states except Lagos. It “captured” all the South-East states even though APGA had just been launched and was extremely popular there, with Dim Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu as its presidential candidate. Only Mr Peter Obi, who was dogged in pursuing his case legally, was able to reclaim his stolen mandate. In 2007, with Iwu in charge of INEC, and Obasanjo still the president, the election went down in history as probably Nigerias worst election. All local or foreign observers condemned it strongly. Even the prime beneficiary of that electoral travesty, President Umaru Musa YarAdua, acknowledged the low quality of that election. With such a scenario, it was not surprising that the then chairman of the PDP, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor, arrogantly boasted in 2008 that PDP would rule Nigeria for 60 years. He knew that with the discredited election INEC was conducting then, the opinion of the voters did not matter. Thankfully, the court later upturned the election in four states against the PDP (Edo, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun). In the fifth state (Rivers), the court upturned the decision of President Obasanjo to impose a different candidate on the party, instead of Mr Rotimi Amaechi, who won the primaries. Only one election took place under the presidency of YarAdua. It was a court-ordered re-run in some parts of Ekiti State in 2009. The resident electoral commissioner, Mrs Ayoka Adebayo, complained of being pressurised to go against her conscience. She resigned and went into hiding. After being threatened by agents of the government in a press conference led by the then Inspector General of Police, Mr Mike Okiro, she later re-appeared, and announced a result that was clearly padded in favour of Mr Segun Oni of the PDP. The Action Congress of Nigeria and the nation protested. ACN was told to go back to court. It did and won. However, in 2011, INEC under Jega conducted general elections that were much more transparent than what obtained in the past. PDP candidates ceased to be invincible. Many of the partys bigwigs lost elections in many states. PDP dropped its arrogance. The trust of many Nigerians in the electoral process rose. When gubernatorial elections were conducted in Edo and Ondo in 2012, the quality was good too. PDP lost in both states. With the recent experiences in Ekiti and Osun, it is becoming clear that credible election is no more a flash in the pan. It is becoming the norm. Why is credible election critical? Simple. It takes power away from the President, INEC Chairman, political godfathers and political parties and drops it in the lap of the electorate. The people become the real powerbrokers. The political office holders become the servants. They stop talking down on the people or taking them for granted. The signs have become to emerge. It seems that while the ruling PDP was dropping its robe of arrogance, the APC was borrowing that robe. The Ekiti election shocked the APC to the marrows. PDP came into its stronghold (with a candidate APC was vilifying) and beat the incumbent APC governor. In spite of APC’s lame excuses for that loss, APC governors dropped their inflexibility and began to cancel some of their contentious policies. For example, after months of students’ protest, the Lagos State Government last week announced the reversal of the tuition fees of the Lagos State University from about N350,000 to N25,000. Last month the Edo State Government also announced the cancellation of the fractious teachers’ competency test and recalled 936 sacked teachers. In Lagos, a close observation shows that street hawkers, whose wares used to be confiscated by the Kick Away Indiscipline (KAI) officials, seem to be enjoying some reprieve. Even the commercial motorcycle operators (called okada), whose bikes were seized last year and destroyed by the agents of the Lagos State, are no longer being arrested. It is a confirmation that no party, state, candidate, godfather, or the like is certain of what will happen at the polls anymore. The people have realized their power. If a political office holder or party does not listen to their cries, they keep quiet and wait for election day, to show the person or party who the real masters are. Besides the fact that this trend will enhance people-oriented governance, it will also encourage visionaries who have an aversion for politics to consider getting involved. Those who don’t vote because they believe that the people’s vote does not count will also have a rethink. Finally, even though many of us – because of partisan politics – will not acknowledge that President Jonathan should be commended for this new electoral achievement, there are those who will neither deny that fact nor fail to commend him. But while commending him, we must continue to put pressure on him and INEC to make every election better, until a time no Nigerian will need the presence of security men to be peaceful and forthright at polls. - Twitter @BrandAzuka punchng/opinion/osun-the-people-have-spoken-again-loudly/
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 06:43:16 +0000
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