Presidential elections: Now the longest wait

All across Nigeria, millions of people wait anxiously for the results of the Presidential elections which held over the weekend. This is indeed Africa’s largest democracy and hence the significance the exercise portends for the continent, where every country is a fledgling nascent democracy, and leaderships generally uninspiring and despotic.

It is an election that carries great significance for the ruling All Progressives Congress in the extent that it would determine how Nigerians have responded to President Muhammadu Buhari’s work of reform and reconfiguration, his touted exemplary life of prudence and frugality. To the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, it means a prime test of the faith of Nigerians in the leadership of the party lost after 16 years, during which citizens prospered, but with hindsight now it is known that the nation bled.

It is possible that as you read this article today, the Independent National Electoral Commission will have announced the winner of the Presidential bid, certain to be either President Buhari or his main challenger, Atiku Abubakar. With the counts being tallied any one could emerge winner. As they say, it is not over till the fat lady sings the blues. What she sings if she sings, is revealed by my editor on the cover, I believe.

The outcome looks to be contentious even as the returning officers are bringing the results, with the opposition PDP, already indicating it would reject them. The Party’s National Chairman Uche Secondus addressed the Press in Abuja, contending that results so far being announced by INEC were not in tandem with those released and announced at the polling units.

Uche Secondus warned INEC and security personnel against working in collusion with the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to alter the will of the people. Meanwhile, the All Progressive Congress speaking through Minister of Information Lai Mohammed, condemned the cry by the PDP noting that it was on account of the imminent victory of the APC, and denied any collusion between the ruling Party and INEC.

A feature of the 2019 elections is that polls were counted and results in every ward unit were announced and posted on notice boards for all party agents and the public to see. Party Agents signed and received their copies. The opposition PDP is contending vehemently that the figures did not tally with its copies.

While INEC has been quick to dispute the allegations made by the PDP, international groups have urged the politicians to patiently await the formal declaration of results by INEC, and the final pronouncement of a winner. All parties have been urged to instead, utilise the laid down grievance procedure up to the law courts to seek arbitration.

But from all indications, the elections have been judged as free, fair, and transparent with the European Union, the Ecowas, U.K. and US observer teams applauding the conduct of the process. The conflict between the contending parties has been expected for their squabbles began as the elections drew near, with each party accusing the other of one thing or the other.

Globally, an overview of the 2019 General Elections does reveal an impressive run on power by Atiku Abubakar and the PDP given the inroads made in contested territories. Even if President Buhari and APC win, the point will have been made that theirs has not been as greatly a popular regime as is being largely professed. President Buhari and the APC lost along the nation’s ethnoreligious fault lines, indicating the need for concerted efforts towards national rebirth and the healing of frayed wounds for a greatly disunited people.

My State Adamawa was a battleground of sorts being home State for Atiku Abubakar. There is angst among APC kingpins who are now quick to pile all the blame on Governor Bindow for the loss of Adamawa State to the PDP. It is the most unfair blame because but for the glaring delivery on dividends of democracy by the Bindow regime, even the impressive showing by Buhari would have been untenable.

It is not possible to downplay the might of Atiku Abubakar, who eventually got the endorsement of former Governor Boni Haruna and added to the popularity of PDP candidate Umar Fintiri, PDP had to be a formidable opponent in Adamawa. Also, because up to the time of the general elections, APC contestants to the post of Governor against incumbent Muhammadu Jibrilla, preferred that the whole house came down if they could not wrestle the ticket out of Bindow’s hands. This earned them the appellation of renegades of the Party. Their persistent contention even after Bindow got the nomination, added more tail winds on Atiku Abubakar’s flight to victory in at least his home State. The attempt to blame Bindow for Buhari’s loss of Adamawa is sustained anti Bindow mischief. Buhari lost to several other factors, the least of them being the Governor. Indeed is it not a wonder that all the State’s APC Senators who got automatic tickets without primaries lost their bid to return to the Senate and National Assembly? Thus the voting was for personalities and not parties.

I can not miss striking upsets in the National Assembly elections with the major one being that affecting the two gladiators Senate President Bukola Saraki and former Governor of Akwa Ibom State Senator Godswill Akpabio who both failed in their bid to return to the Senate. They had been touted to be the political tin gods of their States, determining every political trend. As it appears now, “the falcons did not hear the falconer”, and things fell apart for the duo. For Saraki, it has meant the collapse of a dynasty albeit. For Senator Akpabio, it has meant a short lived stint as a Senator of the Federal Republic who though ruled Akwa Ibom for 8 years as PDP Governor and indeed won his ticket to the Senate on that platform, is loudest in blaming PDP for 16 years of bad luck. In Kaduna State, Senator Shehu Sani and Senator Suleiman Hunkuyi lost the bid to return to the Senate, the duo have had a running battle with Governor Nasiru el Rufa’i. He is rid of his tormentors if he wins Saturday’s Governorship tussle.

Now the nation waits. And it is a tedious long wait because of the painstaking and crude manual process of collation, which the umpire Professor Mahmud Yakubu, the INEC Chairman has estimated may be over by today. Clearly this is an area needful of improvement upon for future elections.

While INEC has been quick to dispute the allegations made by the PDP, international groups have urged the politicians to patiently await the formal declaration of results by INEC, and the final pronouncement of a winner. All parties have been urged to instead, utilise the laid down grievance procedure up to the law courts to seek arbitration