By Ikechukwu Amaechi
Nigerians are an excitable lot. It is, therefore, not surprising that the outcome of the August 15 off-cycle Osun governorship election is generating so much buzz. To be sure, the outcome calls for celebration because for the first time in a long while, the will of the people prevailed in an election.
And it prevailed not because attempts were not made by the powers-that-be to replicate the September 21, 2024, Edo State governorship election heist. Till date, the beneficiary of that abracadabra, an open sesame of sorts, sits comfortably on the purloined mandate while the actual winner is languishing in political purgatory.
It almost happened in Osun last Saturday but for the determination of the longsuffering people of the State who, individually and collectively, vowed like the biblical Queen Esther that, “If I perish, I perish,” rather than allow the political vampires to trample on them.
And their unflinching resolve paid off handsomely. Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) behaved themselves. Security operatives respected their calling. Sensing that they may not live to tell tales of their violent exploits, political thugs mobilised from far and near to cause mayhem played safe. By 2 a.m. on Sunday, the game was over.
President Bola Tinubu, the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), called to congratulate Governor Ademola Adeleke, and APC chieftains who had invaded the state to do what they know how best — manipulation of election results — scurried out of town with their tails between their legs: in deep shame, humiliation and utter defeat.
Unlike what happened in Edo two years ago when a deafening silence enveloped the State after INEC announced the dubious result, Osun erupted in celebrations when the INEC returning officer, Prof. Joshua Ogunwole, announced the final result early Sunday morning, declaring Adeleke, the Accord Party candidate, winner with 511,067 votes and victory in 19 of the State’s 30 local governments.
The APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, polled 444,815 votes and secured victory in 11 councils, while the African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, received a paltry 17,180 votes.
According to the electoral umpire, a total of 1,010,684 voters were accredited. The election recorded 985,079 valid votes, 207 rejected ballots and 1,005,800 total votes cast. With the last of the 15 candidates, Saliu Oyelami of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), garnering only 83 votes, Adeleke’s 511,067 votes was more than the votes of the 14 other candidates put together. He earned the political epaulet on his shoulder.
But I am not ululating despite my excitement at the outcome of the election. Why? Because the Osun governorship election has demonstrated, once again, how jaded Nigeria’s ‘democracy’ is.
On the eve of the election, several APC governors, federal lawmakers, including Senate President Godswill Akpabio, and high-ranking APC leaders with their retinue of aides and heavy security details invaded Osun with sacks of money.
That is crass irresponsibility. Granted, political parties have the constitutional right to campaign, mobilise supporters and deploy legitimate party structures in prosecuting electoral battles, but the motive of those who exported their nuisance value to Osun on Election Day, when campaign had ended, could have been anything but altruistic.
Former President Goodluck Jonathan made that point succinctly on Tuesday when he warned that, “There is a point at which political mobilisation, particularly when it involves the overwhelming presence of serving governors, senior public officials and powerful political actors from across the country on Election Day, can create an atmosphere of apprehension, intimidation, bullying and undue pressure.”
Such egregious political conduct is antithetical to the spirit of free and fair democratic competition and hardly happens in other democratic climes. But I doubt if anyone is surprised. In a country where the president says, “all is fair in politics,” political contests easily become wars of attrition.
I am happy that the APC was worsted but not celebrating because Adeleke’s victory came at a very high cost. A Pre-Election Security Risk Assessment (ESRA) by the Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI) recorded no fewer than 73 election-related violent incidents which resulted in 29 deaths.
The report lamented the strategic deployment of political, criminal, operational, social, coercive and informational pressures to intimidate voters, suppress turnout and influence electoral outcomes. The huge presence of APC governors, lawmakers and party officials who had no business in Osun on August 15 was in furtherance of that devious plot.
Nigeria, The Democracy Outlier
I am not celebrating because, truth be told, democracy is retreating, not blossoming, in Nigeria, particularly under Tinubu’s pugnacious watch. And the continued militarisation of the electioneering process is proof. In most countries, even in Africa, election days don’t take unnecessary toll on citizens.
Nigeria is an outlier, as Osun proved most conclusively. The State was totally shut down last Saturday, with the police deploying 15,000 personnel that included 30 commissioners — one for each of the 30 local governments — and a deputy inspector-general. The deployment started three weeks prior to the election, together with helicopters and drone units for aerial surveillance. Two Mobile Police Force (MPF) units, each comprising over 60 personnel, were deployed to the INEC headquarters in Osogbo, and each local government area had a unit to boot; a deputy commissioner of police in each LGA, as well as a Mobile Police commander and a PMF commander with the rank of assistant commissioner of police. All these are beside the over 10,000 personnel from other paramilitary agencies like the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
To complete the lockdown, the Army was brought in to cordon off all the border roads leading into Osun. Now, consider the fact that all these deployments were for a standalone election in one of the smallest states in the country by landmass. Osun ranks as the ninth smallest state by total land area, covering approximately 9,251 square kilometres.
*Amaechi is the publisher of TheNiche (ikechukwuamaechi@yahoo.com)
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