BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
In Nigeria, nothing is more predictable than local government elections. The ruling parties usually go home with all the trophies. The interesting thing is that even if the party can’t secure a councillor elsewhere other than the state where it is ruling, it will clear all the available seats.
The latest of such exercise took place on July 24, 2021 in the two contiguous South West states of Lagos and Ogun. As expected, the ruling All Progressives Congress cleared all the available seats, scoring almost 100 per cent.
In Lagos, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party alleged that staff of the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission that conducted the elections were all members of the ruling APC.
The Lagos State PDP Chairman, Dr Adegbola Dominic, claimed this in a chat with The Point.
The election saw the APC ‘capturing’ all the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Area chairmanship seats and also saw the ruling party win 375 councillorship seats out of the 377 councillorship seats.
The main opposition along with the Young Progressives Party (YPP) won only one councillorship seat each at Ward G, Yaba LCDAs and Ward D of Orile-Agege LCDA respectively.
Expressing his dissatisfaction with the outcome of the election, Dominic wondered how elections will be free and fair when the members of the state’s electoral umpire were either partisan or ruling party members.
The opposition chairman claimed that “the ruling party is the major contestant and it is also the umpire because Lagos State controls the LASIEC. All the full-time staff and ad-hoc staff, all the people on the field were APC. If they were not APC members, they were nominated by APC members.
“How can we have free election when you are the person who is counting for your opponents? LASIEC as a responsible organization should have reached out to other parties, at least, to make sure that non-partisan members were employed to do this job.
“In some areas, the APC won fairly, while in some other areas, they ensured that they manipulated, changed and uploaded the figures. In some areas, they stuffed ballot boxes, in other areas, they snatched ballot boxes. They wounded and attacked people violently who resisted. They employed their miscreants who wreaked havoc on the citizens who tried to protect their votes” he further alleged.
The PDP had at the build-up to the election declared its resolve to wrestle the ruling party hands down to ensure it wins most areas in the state, but the outcome is a different story. Despite the loss however, the party boss doesn’t regard PDP’s performance as a failure, as he is certain that the eventual results would have been to the party’s favour if the exercise was free and fair.
“When we said we were going to win election, we were talking about under normal circumstances, not when you bring out thugs to intimidate. We were predicting based on the belief that we will have free, fair and violent free election but we didn’t have that, so we have to go back to the drawing board to see how we can stop all these violence, manipulations, rigging and how LASIEC can be truly independent, that is very important.
“We were not expecting people to come with guns and cutlasses to snatch ballot boxes, do multiple thumb printing amongst others. In areas where we need to contest the results, we will contest. We are already compiling them but of course, we know how that will end up almost an exercise in futility.”
Dominic also decried the disenfranchisement of the electorate which he described as a contributing factor to the low voter turn-out.
“If you monitored the council elections, you will see that apart from party members, the general electorate, who were expected to vote, didn’t come out. That shouldn’t have been but they couldn’t come out because most of them don’t even have voter’s card.
“During the last registration exercise, Attahiru Jega (former INEC Chairman) and the APC governors made it impossible for people to collect voters’ card. While being hopeful that with the on-going E-registration, INEC will ensure that every Nigerian register and collect their voter’s cards, he lamented that “the few people who have voters’ card are afraid and scared to come out because they feel that when they come out, they will be attacked by miscreants. That’s why you see such low turnout. In some places 25 people, 10 people, somewhere 5 voters but by the time the results came out, you will find 500, 600 written on the result sheets,” he lamented, adding that “the people don’t want APC because they have already seen their misrule but if INEC does all these things, I’m sure the story will be different.”
He also charged security agencies to always take responsibility during election and stop favouritism for the ruling party.
“The prejudice attitude of the police looking the other way; when APC thugs are attacking innocent citizens who want to cast their votes, have to change. Anybody who breaks the law, the police should arrest, which will serve as deterrent to others. This will give people courage to come out and vote. The APC is wining because there is no free and fair election.”
On whether the party is still looking to re-present former flag-bearer, Jimi Agbaje for the gubernatorial election, come 2023, the party chairman played down the importance of the identity of the candidate while focusing more on the strength of the party structure on ground when it is time for the election.
He explained that “the important thing is to get a solid party structure that can win any election, no matter who the candidate is. The people are not going to vote for Jimi Agbaje or any other candidate. On the ballot paper will be PDP, APC and others. Whoever our candidate is, we will ensure he is dependable, has the welfare of the masses at heart, and believes in our manifesto and who will carry out our programmes. If the people believe in us and they want us, they will vote for our party, not the participant.”
Although Dominic agrees that the electronic transfer of results will be “good, achievable and beneficial,” he doesn’t believe the outcome of the local council elections would have been different if it was adopted as he doesn’t see how it will hinder the manipulation of results.
“I don’t think so. Instead of 20, if it is manipulated, they will write 1,000.Whether you transmit it electronically or not, it will still be a problem except we ensure that the voting is properly done devoid of intimidation and manipulation. If you do that, the electronic transmission of results will add to the quality of the election. It is important, necessary, and easy and it will make things better. If we had used it in this local council election in Lagos, it will have been better but as things are now, it will not solve the problem,” he stated.
Sharing his thoughts on independent candidacy, he expressed doubts about the possibility of such a task for the presidential or governorship candidate in an election as circumstances bedeviling the country will make the adventure an uphill task in terms of finance but says it is achievable for chairmanship and councillorship aspirants.
“I don’t know if it is feasible. It is to have a structure in Nigeria where an independent candidate can actually succeed but I don’t think we are matured to that level yet. The poverty rate is so much and the electoral process now is so monetized that whoever wants to win election must have tons and tons of money and if it’s an independent candidate, with the mindset of our people, everybody will be demanding for money from here and there. If he has so much money, he can do it.
“In my own opinion, it should not be stopped, anybody who feels he is strong enough to win elections by himself, should move on, but on the other hand, it’s not going to be easy, especially in the national election, precisely the presidential or the governorship election, I doubt it will work here. However, independent candidacy will be good and visible in a community or council election, a councilor from within a community, if you are a nice person, you can do that.” he noted.
