The 480,000 missing voters, other tales from Abia’s by-election

This weekend, voters in Abia State were supposed to troop out to vote in a by-election in Abia State. The low turnout left electoral officers sleeping at their posts and analysts scratching their heads over the sharp voter apathy.

Of the 498,390 registered voters in Aba North/South Federal Constituency of Abia State, only 16,017 took part in Saturday’s bye-election.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), there are 609 polling units spread across 24 Registration Areas (RAs) in the two Local Government Areas that make up the constituency.

Although Chimaobi Ebisike of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has been declared the winner of the election, one thing that will remain on the minds of those interested in politics, not just in Abia State, South East and the entire nation is the voter apathy recorded in the election.

Declaring the results at the INEC collation centre in Aba South Local Government Area, the Constituency returning officer for the byelection, Prof. Felix Obata announced that Chimaobi Ebisike of PDP polled a total of 10,322 votes to defeat Mascot Uzor-Kalu of APC who polled 3,674 votes.

Prof. Obata announced that a total of 16,017 votes were cast while 245 were rejected. The 16,017 votes include the votes garnered by other political parties that took part in the election, among which were the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Action Alliance (AA).

Are Nigerians interest in politics?

losing

To a typical politician, defeating your opponent with 6,648 votes shows acceptability. But this shows a huge gap. Imagine only a little over 16,000 persons voting in a city with a population of 2 million. In the build-up to the elections, the political gladiators deployed their arsenal in canvassing for votes, at some point, there was even tension across the city. But the people simply looked the other way on the day of the election.

This directly or indirectly, seems to pass the message that politicians are overrated. This could be the case of Nigerians losing interest in politics and those who represent them.

While some may argue that the 2 million population of Aba are spread in Osisioma Ngwa LGA, Obingwa LGA and Ugwunagbo LGA which are not within the constituency where the elections held, but as truthful as that may sound, Aba South and Aba North LGA on their own have a population of over 1.5 million people put together. If only 16,017 people showed interest in the exercise out of the more 480,000 registered voters, then your guess is as good as mine.

During my visits to various wards and polling units on Election Day, I found some ad-hoc INEC staff sleeping. The voters were nowhere in sight. While those who slept were considered lucky, given that they had chairs to rest their back, the situation at Osusu Primary School in Aba North LGA was worse as some of the INEC staff were seen sitting on the floor. Neither the commission nor the community found them worthy of sitting to perform their duties.

At Osusu Hall, unit 34, only 15 out of 1,239 accredited voters had voted at the time I visited the polling unit in the afternoon. At Unit 4 of the Golf course, only 15 persons had voted four hours after the exercise had commenced, while 10 out of 781 had voted at Okigwe Primary School.

With impunity, Aba residents flouted the restriction of movement order imposed by the state government as many commercial buses and tricycle operators were on the streets carrying on with their usual activities.

Some residents described the low turnout of voters as a total rejection of the current set of politicians.

“Some years ago, someone called for election boycott and people were quarrelling with him all over the entire media in Nigeria. Today, even without anyone calling for it, I am ashamed to say that Aba is politically lost.

Where are the voters?

“Nobody should count on Aba during any serious election. This is disturbing I must confess. From time immemorial, whenever Ndigbo need block votes, such votes normally come from Aba and Onitsha. With what we have witnessed between 2015 and now, Aba has gone down.

“Maybe because of terrible governance or other factors like the Biafra agitation, but whatever it is, the earlier we rekindle the political hunger in Aba before the 2023 general election, the better for Ndigbo,” Barr. Kingsley Obi said after casting his vote at Ward-8, Aba South.

Elder Lewis Eme, a voter at the Osusu Primary School, said, “I don’t blame Aba people at all. What do you expect when a group of politicians have decided to make life unbearable for people.

“I saw a lot of young people playing football in front of my own house. If it were before, I’ll instruct them to follow me down to this place because I know they all have their PVCs, but what will be my justification to persuade them?

“Is it payment or salaries of good governance? Imagine politicians begging residents to come out and vote with their bags of money, but people collected the money and went home. Here in Osusu, I saw women shouting let me go and get my share. After getting it, you’ll still see them at home. This is disturbing.”

The fate of the winner and losers has been sealed but the issue of voter apathy calls for serious concern.