The Myth About Buhari’s 12 Million Northern Votes

By Sufuyan Ojeifo

Short of saying, whether you vote or not, we will win, Kano state governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, who is locked in a supremacy battle with his erstwhile boss, former governor of the state and current senator, Rabiu Kwankwaso, for the political soul of Kano, was boasting, the other day, of his capacity to mobilise and return five million votes for President Muhammadu Buhari, if he contests, in the 2019 presidential election. That is quite massive in a situation where it is realistic or doable! 

*President Buhari 

For me, Ganduje’s declaration was nothing but a day-dream. But then, it could be preparatory to some advanced forms of rigging because, in the first instance, the figure of registered voters in Kano in the 2015 general elections was 4,943,862. Assuming, arguendo, that the figure goes up to between five and six million after the continuous voter registration, can the governor guarantee that five million voters would cast their votes for Buhari, especially if the leading opposition party decides to field a formidable northerner and possibly a Fulani man against the president? 

2019: How Will Gov Ganduje ‘Manufacture’ 5 Million Votes Promised President Buhari?

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

If recent political developments in Kano State point to the direction Nigeria is headed when the election bell tolls again in 2019, then the country is in clear and imminent danger. The augury is stark. The prognostication is as portentous as it is scary.

*President Buhari 

Every election circle brings out the beast in us as the legendary Afrobeat maestro, late Fela Anikulapo Kuti, sang. That is true. Our democracy is a jungle where the will of the powerful but vicious minority, who takes no prisoners, will always prevail.  

But there is something particularly telling about the Kano electoral stench.

On Saturday, February 11, 2018, the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission (KANSIEC) conducted local government poll. A day after, the chairman of the commission, Prof. Garba Sheka, announced that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) won all the 44 chairmanship and 484 councillorship seats, in an election where 25 political parties participated.