The 2019 Taraba State governorship election has been concluded leaving many questions unanswered.
There is no doubt that the people of Taraba came out and exercise their civic franchise, but how effective was their vote reflected in the outcome of the election as declared by INEC. Which leads to the emergence of the PDP as the winner of the Election that saw Darius Ishaiku emerged as the Governor elect. A victory the pose so many questions in Taraba State Democratic evolution.
We surely do need anybody to tell us that something somewhere things are not right, if not what would warrant a curfew? If truly democracy is meant to flourished unhindered, the people of Taraba ought to be allowed to celebrate the emergence of a leader they have elected at the polls. We all know a curfew is imposed in Taraba when the people are supposed to be happy for having someone they have voted and has won. Taraba is for all of us; we should put that into our minds and condition our behaviours to that. No one amongst us is an alien, yet up to now we were made to think and act as we are not one and the same people that made up Taraba State.
The just concluded Governorship election, is no doubt a new phase in the collective aspiration of making Taraba State a developed and prosperous state. So, it should but antecedence during and after the elections shows contrary. These were deduced from the election reports coming out from the observers both foreign and domestic. Definitely Africans ought to know that Democracy is meant to be guided by the popular will of the people they are the determining factor on who to govern them or not we must collectively know what we want and who will give us that things that we want not to be guided by primordial sentiment as preached to us by some misguided leaders who capitalised on our ignorance for their personal gains at the expense of our collective development as a civilised people in an era of information technologies at our finger tips.
Reflectively, ‘The African Union, Economic, Social and Cultural Council, (AU ECOSOCC) Nigerian chapter that observed the governorship and State House of Assembly elections in Taraba state Monday condemned the intimidation and alleged beating party agents in some local government areas of the state. The Nigeria representative of AU ECOSOCC, Dr Tunji Asaolu.
Similarly, one of the Governorship contestants is seen in an interview complaining of irregularities at some local governments in the state, the question here Is for how long shall we take Democracy and leadership contest as a do or die affair promoting violence indiscipline lies and deceit.
All these are not a mere story rather the actual happenings at the fields, been an active participant as one of the contestants for the Governorship position, as leader with futuristic vision to advance Taraba State and Nigeria as whole. It is bound on me to write and appeal to our senses; let us begin to see who really has our collective advancement in his/her heart, let us reflect not act upon sentiments and reactive stance, let us use our common senses guided purely on logic devoid of any stereotype by any form.
Conclusively, Democracy is our state should be seen as a uniting factor not as a means to divide us far away from our senses and our Collective logic of living together. 2019 Elections in Taraba State raised so many questions that need answers, me and you definitely know that it does. INEC we hope in the future will employ technology in our voting processes, as simple as using our fingerprint enabled smart phones to vote. Surely advancing our voting processes will address all these irregularities: rigging, thuggery, violence. Curfews, and loss of life.
