BY BENEDICT NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
The second leg of the 2023 general elections took place on March 18. It was the governorship and state assembly elections which brought to a close the election circle. There are still a few off-circle elections remaining, though.
The general elections might have come, but certainly not yet gone; won but yet to be lost as many ‘defeated candidates’ are already heading to various tribunals to challenge the results in many states. What is indisputable, however, is the ‘shocking outcome’ of the exercise which turned out to be a huge referendum about some incumbent governors who contested the election and lost to lowly opposition politicians while anointed candidates of a few others were defeated.
Prior to the February 25 presidential polls, the ruling All Progressives Congress and the main opposition People’s Democratic Party faithful and supporters never gave a chance to the possibility of the emergence of a third force, Labour Party. It was tagged a structureless party that cannot win a single seat anywhere in the country.
“THE CASE IN PLATEAU CAN BE DESCRIBED AS PATHETIC. GOVERNOR SIMON LALONG, DIRECTORGENERAL OF THE APC PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN COUNCIL FAILED TO WIN THE PLATEAU SOUTH SENATORIAL DISTRICT SEAT. HE WAS DEFEATED BY PDP’S BALI NAPOLEON, WHO POLLED 148,844 VOTES TO HIS 91,674. LALONG ALSO FAILED TO DELIVER THE STATE TO HIS PARTY IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION EVEN AS THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF APCPCC”
LAGOS STATE
But surprisingly, during the Presidential and National Assembly elections, the APC lost Lagos State, the stronghold of its presidential candidate who is now the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, to the Labour Party standard bearer, Peter Obi.
It was a feat that jolted the party in that it was the first time such a development would happen in the state’s electoral history since the return of democracy in 1999.
The good thing about it was that it instantly made the incumbent governor and candidate of the party, Babajide SanwoOlu, who was seeking a re-election to ‘sit up’, embark on a series of meetings with sections of the society that were earlier neglected as having no electoral value. It paid off as he won his re-election in grand style in the March 18 governorship election.
ZAMFARA STATE
What many political watchers described as mother of all shockers was recorded in Zamfara State where Governor Bello Matawalle, who won in the 2019 polls on the ticket of the PDP but decamped to the APC lost the March 18 election to the opposition PDP, Dauda Lawal. As an incumbent governor with the ruling party at both the federal and state levels, Matawalle had all the paraphernalia, as in the Nigerian election contest, to cruise home with victory but that was not to be.
He may have been shocked to the bone while watching and listening to the state’s Returning Officer announce the opposition PDP’s candidate winner thereby cutting short his ambition for a second term in office.
The Independent National Electoral Commission said Lawal garnered 377,726 votes to defeat Matawalle who amassed 311,976. It was one result where the electorate made the exercise a moment of referendum for Matawalle with a margin of about 56,000 votes. It was learnt that some APC supporters who were not happy with the governor had entered into agreement with Lawal to vote for him so that he would defect to the APC like his predecessor.
They equally claimed that Zamfara State is a stronghold of the APC from 1999 and it is the APC leaders that decide how governorship elections go. Whether he would defect to the APC remains to be seen. However, the fate that befell Governor Matawalle also happened to the Zamfara State House of Assembly Speaker, Nasiru Magarya and his deputy, Musa Bawa Yankuzo, who were both defeated by PDP candidates.
KANO STATE
In Kano, the New Nigeria Peoples Party rode into town like a tsunami. Governor Umar Ganduje’s dream of handing over power to the APC governorship candidate, Yusuf Gawuna ran into a concrete block as Abba Yusuf of the NNPP cleared the polls. Not only that, the NNPP also secured many House of Representatives seats in addition to a high number of state assembly constituencies.
The NNPP was led by a former Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwakwanso. The INEC returning officer, Ahmad Ibrahim, announced that Yusuf won the election with 1,019,602 votes, while Gawuna who is the current deputy governor got 890,705 votes.
Yusuf had contested against Ganduje in 2019 in what was regarded as a very controversial election, which went into supplementary polls in 28 out of the 44 local government areas in the state.
At the end of the first election, Yusuf was leading Ganduje with 26,655 votes. Yusuf, who was at the time the PDP candidate, polled 1,014,474 votes while Ganduje got 987,819 votes. Ganduje eventually won by scoring 45,876 votes while Yusuf got 10,239 in the supplementary polls. Yusuf’s assurance of victory was built on the day he decamped from PDP to join his mentor, Kwankwaso in the NNPP.
Bookmakers had said even before the elections that the former governor of Kano State was primed to win the state in both the presidential and governorship polls, and the predictions came true. Even former governor Ibrahim Shekarau was returned as winner of the Kano Central Senatorial election on NNPP ticket even when has decamped from the party before the polls.
That is how popular and accepted the party is to the people of Kano State. While the Kwankwasiyya movement supporters celebrated the NNPP’s victory, defying the dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed by the state government to prevent an outbreak of violence following the tension generated by the election outcome, the APC supporters went to the streets to protest and demand the removal of the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state.
PLATEAU STATE
The case in Plateau State can be described as pathetic. Governor Simon Lalong, Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council failed to win the Plateau South Senatorial District seat. He was defeated by PDP’s Bali Napoleon, who polled 148,844 votes to his 91,674. Lalong also failed to deliver the state to his party in the presidential election even as the Director General of the APCPCC.
It is not the best of times for the party in the state having lost power to the opposition PDP which was displaced from the Government House in 2015 after ruling the state for 16 years. Now, the APC has returned to the opposition as Governor Lalong’s efforts were not enough to install his anointed candidate, Nentawe Yilwatda, as his successor.
PDP’s Caleb Mutfwang emerged the governor-elect. He scored 525,299 votes to 481,370 votes. The results showed that the PDP won in 10 LGAs while the APC won in seven.
ABIA STATE
The Peter Obi tsunami was still able to blow away the ruling PDP and opposition APC in Abia State. The party’s governorship candidate, Alex Otti, who had made two earlier attempts without success, was returned the winner by the uncompromising Returning Officer, Prof Nnenna Oti, who stood her ground that the people’s mandate must stand. Besides losing the Senate seat, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu failed to deliver his party’s governorship candidate.
It’s clear he did not work for his party in the presidential election as one of the G5 governors who were at “war” with the party’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. However, his ambition was to have a PDP governor take over from him. Recall that the party’s candidate, Uchenna Ikonne, died a few weeks to the polls leading to another primary that produced Okey Ahiwe as the party’s candidate in the March 18 polls. Embarrassingly, Enyinnaya Abaribe of the All Progressives Grand Alliance humiliated Governor Ikpeazu’s bid to retire to the Senate like some of his fellow governors. Ikpeazu had taken the party’s senatorial ticket from Abaribe, who was then the Senate Minority Leader. That forced him out of the party and relinquished his position in the senate.
He decamped to APGA, contested against his governor on February 25 and defeated him.
BENUE STATE
Benue State is not among the states that produced shocking results. Governor Samuel Ortom had before the February 25 polls while openly supporting the Labour Party candidate, declared publicly that his senatorial ambition cannot be compared to Peter Obi’s presidential victory.
He made it clear that his joy would not be in winning the senatorial election, rather in Obi’s victory.
However, he failed to sustain the PDP’s hold on power in the state. Before the election, the face of APC’s Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia was everywhere in the state. Analysts had predicted his winning the governorship polls.
The cleric defeated the PDP candidate, Titus Uba, to emerge the winner of the election as predicted. “Yes Father” scored 473,933 votes to defeat Uba who had 223,914 votes and the Labour Party candidate, Hemma Hembe, who secured 41,841 votes. ENUGU STATE But the case of Enugu State governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, is different.
The shocking aspect of it is that after failing to win the senatorial election, the governor fought with the last drop of his blood to make sure that his choice candidate, Peter Mba, was returned and declared governor-elect of the state despite hues and cries about the wonder figures from Nkanu East LGA. Ugwuanyi was defeated in his race for the Senate by Okechukwu Ezea of the Labour Party. Chimaroke Nnamani, the senator representing Enugu East in the National Assembly, equally lost his bid to return to the National Assembly. He was humbled and retired by the Labour Party candidate, Kelvin Chukwu, whose brother was gruesomely murdered weeks before the elections.
Kelvin’s victory was apparently made possible by the cruel murder of his brother who was the senatorial candidate.
SOKOTO STATE
Of note is that the same political storm that swept off Ortom also eclipsed Governor Aminu Tambuwal’s plan of keeping the PDP in power in Sokoto State as the PDP candidate, Saidu Ubandoma, was defeated by APC’s Ahmed Sokoto.
Ahmed Sokoto was the deputy to Tambuwal during his first tenure between 2015 and 2019. In 2019, he contested against Tambuwal, a member of the PDP, and lost with a close margin of 342 votes after a re-run. He pitched a tent with the former governor of the state and serving senator, Aliyu Wamako whose influence is towering.
ADAMAWA STATE
Adamawa State where the great shocker would have been recorded has remained in limbo. The citizens are calling on INEC to release the result and announce the winner between incumbent governor Ahmad Umar Fintiri of the PDP and Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (Binani) of the APC. Dahiru Binani is at the verge of creating a record as the first elected female governor of a state in Nigeria if finally she is announced the governor-elect.
But the signal coming from the North East home state of the PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, is showing that the country seems not to be ready for such record creation, at least for now and so, the shock is about being absorbed by the powers that be. YOBE STATE In Yobe State, Lawan Musa of the PDP retired the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Ahmed Lawan, for Nguru II Constituency.
The Returning Officer for the election, Habib Muhammad said Musa polled 6,648 votes to defeat the incumbent Speaker Lawan of the APC who got 6,466 votes. What made the outcome of the election shocking is that Lawan, an indigene of Majakura village in Nguru LGA, had contested for the councillorship ticket for Majakura Ward in 2021 on the platform of the APC but lost. He was arrested and detained by the security agencies thrice for criticising the speaker on Facebook.
On regaining his freedom, residents of Majakura reportedly asked him to challenge the speaker at the polls. He answered their call and secured PDP’s ticket and eventually defeated the opponent.
EBONYI, IMO STATES
However, the case in Ebonyi and Imo States are different. A member of CSO, Mma Odi, described the electoral situations of the two states as broad daylight robbery where she said the governors took over the functions and duties of the INEC. “How can you say there were elections in Ebonyi and Imo States when the governors took over the duties of INEC. They have been accused of preventing voters from casting their votes, hijacking the BVAS and filling in the winners.
All these will be settled in courts. It’s a shame that we decided to go back to the days of “wuru wuru” which we used to refer to Prof Maurice Iwu’s INEC.” Odi further accused Governors Dave Umahi and Hope Uzodimma of allegedly compiling winners of the governorship and state house of assembly elections in their states respectively. Her statement was further authenticated by the press briefing of the PDP in the two states saying they are going to challenge the outcome of the polls in court.
ANALYTICAL REVIEW OF FIGURES RELEASED BY INEC North West: Tinubu – 2,653,235; Atiku – 2,329,802; Peter Obi – 350,188. South West: Tinubu – 2,279,407; Atiku – 941,941; Peter Obi – 846,478. South East: Tinubu – 127,605; Atiku – 91,198; Peter Obi -1,960,589. South-South: Tinubu -799,957; Atiku – 719,908; Peter Obi – 1,210,673. North East: Tinubu – 1,185,458; Atiku – 1,741,851; Peter Obi – 315,108. North Central: Tinubu – 1,670,091; Atiku -1,087,884; Peter Obi – 1,133,840.
The President-elect, Bola Tinubu, won the plurality of votes in the North West, North Central and South West and he also emerged second in the cumulative votes recorded in the South East, South South and North East.
The APC has also won a majority of the 93 out of 109 Senatorial seats as announced so far. APC – 51 seats; PDP – 27 seats; LP – 5 seats; NNPP – 2 seats; SDP – 2 seats; YYP -1 seat and APGA -1 seat. In the governorship election that followed three weeks after, results announced by INEC show significant dwindling in the cumulative results of the Labour Party while NNPP increased.
The results revealed that both third-force parties could only win a state governor in the election i.e Abia and Kano respectively while APC had a whopping 15 states to lead others. This implies that the ruling party still remains popular. The result analysis showed that Peter Obi won the entire Southern Nigeria but performed woefully in the entire Northern Nigeria whereas Tinubu won with a wide margin in the entire Northern Nigeria and became close in southern Nigeria thus explaining the reason for the wide gap between APC and LP. Atiku Abubakar of the PDP had a great outing in the North but couldn’t win in the Southern part of Nigeria.
The Kwankwaso’s NNPP is a party solely recognized in one geo-political zone of Northern Nigeria; hence, could not coast to victory with a very woeful performance in the South. The APC has scored the highest votes with 8,714,746 to emerge winner.
PERCENTAGE SCORES OF POLITICAL PARTIES
The APC met 25% of 29 states; PDP met 25% of 21 states; LP met 25% of 15 states and the NNPP met 25% of 1 state.
