By Lateef Adegbite
For the first time in Nigeria political history between 1979 and now, that a President –elect – elect has been declared after an election organised by the country ‘s election organising body, there is no jubilation in the winner’s camp and the party, an indications that something is wrong somewhere.
This time around, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, under the close watch of Professor Mahmood Yakubu, had declared Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, popular Jagaban, a former governor of Lagos staste and Candidate of the ruling All Progressive Congress, APC, who claimed to have been preparing for the position over the years.
Prof. Yakubu, the INEC. Chairman, who has two weeks, going by the 2022, electoral Act, to review the Presidential election before announcing the winner has declared Tinubu, the Presidential candidate of the APC, President –elect under one week, as if in a hurry to do so. He had declared that the APC flag bearer polled 8,794, 726 votes to Atiku Abubakar, a former Vice President during Olusegun Obaanjo’s Administration and Candidate of the Opposition People’s Democratic Party,PDP and Obi, of the LP’s votes of 6, 984,520 and 6,101,520 votes, respectively to emerge victorious during the election.
Indeed, the declaration of the APC, as the President – elect, appears to have turned to a bottled anger in Nigeria, as Nigerians have adopted a wait and see attitude to see what will happen on May 29, 2023. While Nigerians, particular, the Youths are grumbling silently that their vote did not count during the elections as promised by the Katsina state born Nigerian President and the INEC Chairman, the former Lagos state governor, whose victory, is currently being challenged in Presidential election Petition Tribunal, appears set to form a new government as Buhari Administration winds up.
As a prelude to forming the new government expected to usher n renewed hop to Nigerians undergoing currently severe economic hardship due to the government harsh monetary policies being implemented by Godwin Emefiele led Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has concluded arrangement to meet with the Senators-elect and member of the House of Representatives-elect on the party platform at the Presidential Villa on Monday, March 13, 2023, preparatory to hitting the ground running.
According to a source the President-elect is trying to avoid a situation that played out in 2015 to repeat itself. The source told The Value News that the issue of zoning the Senate Presidency, Speaker For the House of Representatives and other Principal officers of the National Assembly are expected to be disclosed at the meeting.
While Tinubu, the APC, governor-elect, has started making Consultations in forming a new government, the LP, under the Chairmanship of James Abure, which believes that its Candidate, Obi, presented for the February 25, 2023, Presidential election, won but was rigged out by the powers that be in Collaboration with the staff of the electoral umpire which had had perverted and manipulated the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, BVAS , may have a message to their supporters, called ‘’Obidients’’, ‘’to march to INEC offices nationwide in a non-violent protest which is allowed by Law ‘’ over the alleged refusal of the Commission to allow the party to inspect the all the sensitive electoral materials and the BVAS, deployed during the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections as granted by a Court of Appeal in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
An aggrieved Yunusa Tanko, LP spokesperson, would want Nigerians ‘’to note the level of Lawlessness and brazen disobedience to a Lawful order of a Court by INEC’’, describing as well calculated attempt to undermine and frustrate the presentation of the petition by the party and its Presidential Candidate before the Election Petition tribunal in record good time’’.
He has every reason to believe that the Commission is out to frustrate the LP, when he said that it has chosen the obey the Court order grant it granted to reconfigure the BVAS machine, which they are currently doing. The Commission had said that the decision became necessary ‘’to ensure that there is adequate time to back up the data stored on the over 176,000 BVAS machines used during the Presidential and National Assembly elections’’.
Notwithstanding the LP opposition to the INEC reconfiguring of the BVAS, ahead of the governorship and state Assembly elections on Saturday, March 18, 2023, who has challenged Tinubu’s emergence as the President-elect in Court, and who has embarked on tour of some states of the Federation, particular, in the south east and south-south, to thank Nigerians for supporting his Presidential ambition to extend same support for the party ‘s governorship and state Assembly elections on March 18, 2023.
In Beni, the Edo state Capital, he was said to have been given a ‘’Hero’s welcome’’ by the Obidients, whom he had hailed for their ‘’backing’’. His Statement in Benin speaks volume. ‘’ I have never rigged elections and have never paid anybody to do the same. I have never bought votes. I have never paid anybody to vote for me and will never do so’’. He may have alluded to Tinubu and Atiku, the Candidates f the APC and PDP, who were said to have paid was said to have paid people to vote for them and also engaged in vote buying.
Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers state and the arrow-head of the G5, in the Opposition PDP, calling for the resignation of Senator Iyorchia Ayu, the party National Chairman, may have added a new dimension to the February 25, 2023, Presidential election when he said that ‘’ the decision of Obi to contest the Presidential election on the Platform of the LP, primarily prevented the north from retaining power after President’s Buhari’s second term in office would have elapsed o May 29, 2023. He noted that if the Obi had not contested the election under the LP, the entire south-east and south states would have been won by Atiku, of the PDP.
It is not urprising why he has described the LP, Presidential Candidate as his ‘’hero of the election’’. He had told those that cares to listen that he has no problem with Obi not being pronounced the winner of the Presidential election by INEC, but that ‘’the Law will take its Course’’. Wike, who many believe had worked for Tinubu , the APC, Candidate, may have resorted to appease the people of the state, pariculer, the Igbo Community in the state to ensure that Simnalayi Fubara, the PDP, gubernatorial Candidate I the state and one of his loyalists , in the upcoming governorship election in the state. The dissolution of the state Executive Council of the Rivers LP Chapter by Abure, the National Chairman of the party over alleged anti-party activities and Corruption in the management of the party funds bear eloquent testimony to the fact that that the party Leadership do no not want anything to do with Wike for working against the Party in the last Presidential election in the state.
Dienye Popple, the Chairman, LP Chapter in the state, who was said to be under pressure from Wike, to get the Obidients to support Fubara, the PDP, governorship Candidate in the state was said to have announced that the party has endorsed Fubbara, of the PDP , to be the next governor of the Rivers state after the March 18, 2023, elections, without consultation with the national leadership.
Obi’s directive to the Obidients ,to vote for the LP Candidates in the forthcoming governorship and state Assembly elections may have sent fears down the spine of governors Wike, and Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Lagos, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu, Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia, Simon Lalong, Plateau and Eng. Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa state that they may lose out in the election .
