The Ekiti State governorship election, conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, has come and gone. The election has produced a winner, and losers. INEC’s Chief Returning Officer for the poll, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, the winner of the gubernatorial election. He won in 12 out of the 16 Local Government Areas of the state, polling 197,459 votes; while his opponent, Prof. Kolapo Olusola-Eleka of the Peoples Democratic Party got 178,121 votes.
One of the outcomes of the election was the unprecedented large-scale vote buying by the contestants. If anything, it is a signpost to what will happen in the 2019 elections. In fact, election observers claimed that incidents of vote buying were noticed across the state, thus putting a big question mark on the overall credibility of the election.
If the way and manner the INEC conducted the Ekiti State election on July 14 is what to expect in March 2019, in the name of the free, fair and transparent election promised by the Commission, then Nigerians can as well say bye bye to democracy
Vote buying was said to have been openly, blatantly and extensively carried out in the state even in the presence of security agents, especially by the two main political parties, thus casting a serious doubt on the so-called “independence” of INEC. Some governors from other states were said to have been around and camped in some hotels in the state, where they used agents and other surrogates to buy votes for their contesting friends.
Also, the INEC, which had told the nation that it would count, declare and transmit results from the polling centres and also have the results pasted on the wall of each polling station, did not do so. Instead of transmitting election result from the polling centres, the ballot boxes were moved to INEC offices, amid allegations that some accredited party agents were disallowed from gaining entry into the collation
centre.
Security agents were also indicted. They were said to have seriously compromised themselves by giving cover to some party officials to financially and openly induce voters and buy votes at polling stations. They were also alleged to have driven away polling agents of some political parties while legal documents found on them were seized.
Meanwhile, a coalition of observer groups and Civil Society Organisations that monitored the elections has berated the entire process as hugely compromised. Reports, citing a press statement by Comrade Haruna Farouk and Nze Adachi Okoro, on behalf of the coalition of observer groups and CSOs that monitored the election, said the poll was marred by malpractices and that the results announced did not reflect what they saw on ground.
Indeed, with all these infractions, the Ekiti election cannot be adjudged as open, fair and transparent. If the way and manner the Ekiti State election was conducted on July 14 is anything to go by, then it is a signpost to what to expect in the Osun election holding on September 22, this year, and what to expect in the general election in March, 2019.
In addition, if the way and manner the INEC conducted the Ekiti State election on July 14 is what to expect in March 2019, in the name of the free, fair and transparent election promised by the Commission, then Nigerians can as well say bye bye to democracy.
Again, if reports that INEC did not keep to its assurance that it would count, declare and transmit results from the polling centres, have the results pasted on the wall of each polling station, and allow party agents to follow the election process, are true, then the electoral body had done incalculable damage to the growth of the country’s democracy. That could make Nigerians to begin to doubt its capacity to credibly conduct the rest of the elections in the country.
Monetary inducement of the electorate is perversion of democracy. Like eating the forbidden fruit, it corrupts the sanctity of free will and human conscience needed to keep our democracy
going.
In a state where civil servants and pensioners have not been paid their salaries and pensions, respectively, for upwards of six months or more, it was easy to induce them to vote against their
conscience.
In ensuring a free and fair election, INEC should have raised the alarm when the money bags began their power play. But they allegedly turned the other way and announced results amid proofs of vote buying. This was, indeed, the shame of a
nation.
As it happened, the political class took the election as a ‘do or die affair’ and unleashed on the state, an unparalleled vote-buying in the history of voting at elections in
Nigeria.
However, we commend the people of Ekiti State for their calmness, maturity, and in particular, for not disrupting the peace, while the show of shame displayed by the two major political parties lasted. We also hope that the same calmness will be displayed when those aggrieved take their grievances to the courts for
adjudication.