The Ofa election drama Written by Thursday, THE rerun election in the Shawo South-West ward in Ofa Local Government Area of Kwara State has been a source of high drama. The councillorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election, Mr Afolabi Olawole, did something novel in Nigeria’s electoral history. He disowned the victory he was said to have won by the electoral body, the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission (KWASIEC). He publicly announced that the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Adefioye Kayode, won the election. According to him, “In all the eight polling units in my ward … the PDP lost while the APC won convincingly.” While Mr Olawole’s rejection of the victory awarded to him stunned his party members, it was good news to the other party and a big surprise to political onlookers who are accustomed to the long-standing tradition of electoral victory at all costs. In an apparent effort to salvage the PDP’s integrity, the chairman of the party in Ofa, Mr Goke Rabiu, said Olawole was not the party’s candidate in the controversial election. He claimed that Olawole was dropped as a candidate because he was not part of those who secured the court order for a rerun of the election. The argument advanced by the party raises certain vital questions. If Olawole was not the candidate of the PDP in the rerun election, why was his name announced as the winner? Why hasn’t any other person showed up as the authentic candidate to lay claim to the electoral victory rejected by Olawole? Does the electoral law permit substitution of candidates in a rerun election? The PDP has only been striving, without proof, to disclaim Olawole. The party has not said anything to counter its opponents’ claim that figures were juggled. It has not said anything to disprove the allegation in the public domain that there was an electoral robbery which awarded to it a victory that belonged to the APC. The issue at stake is not limited to what PDP members might see as a quest for unmerited heroism on the part of Olawole. The bone of contention is the alleged declaration of the loser as winner of the election. It is the unending manipulation of the electoral process and the continued perversion of democratic principles. The do-or-die 2007 elections conducted under former President Olusegun Obasanjo with Professor Maurice Iwu as chief electoral umpire rendered democracy in Nigeria totally meaningless. It terribly diminished Nigeria’s integrity in the comity of democratic countries. Although not a remarkable success, the 2011 elections were generally adjudged as a passable exercise. The general expectation has been that further improvements will be effected on the modest gains of 2011. In the last two years, Nigerians have witnessed the conduct of isolated governorship elections in a number of states.While those elections were not without complaints and even litigations, Nigerians did not witness the degree of electoral fraud that occurred under Iwu’s watch. The local government elections have, however, been a different kettle of fish. Almost everywhere, the party in control of the state government has been recording 100 per cent victory. This was the case in the local government elections conducted in Lagos, Ogun and Edo states, which were marked by alleged frauds and protests by the opposition parties. It remains to be proved that what happened in the recent councillorship election in Ofa was not bare-faced robbery. If it could happen at the ward level, it can equally happen at the constituency, state or national level. There have, in the past, been cases of election results that were not announced at designated venues because the figures had been falsified. What allegedly took place in Ofa recalls this unwholesome practice and there is the apprehension that it could be an ominous indication of what to expect in 2015. In a country in which politics has become the most lucrative vocation, the closer the election year, the more desperate the politicians have become. The contention of the PDP leadership in Ofa that Olawole was not the party’s candidate does not in any way address or detract from the basic allegation that figures were falsified and the loser was declared as the winner. The significance of the Ofa election drama lies in the ignominious performance of state electoral bodies. KWASIEC was said to have taken the election result to the Kwara State radio station for announcement instead of making it public at the designated venue. The inclusion of the word “independent” in the name of state electoral umpires is an outright misnomer. The Ofa ward election has underscored the fact that the manipulation of elections will be a tall order without the collusion or connivance of electoral officers.The law should prescribe heavier punishment for a compromised electoral officer than it does for a hoodlum or hooligan disrupting an election.
Posted on: Thu, 12 Sep 2013 06:00:04 +0000
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