Anambra people deserve commendation for their resilience and tenacity in the just concluded governorship election held on Saturday, November 6, 2021. Though the election had some hiccups which necessitated an extension of voting to Sunday and a supplementary election in Ihiala Local Government Area on Tuesday, November 9, the outcome reflected the wishes of the people of the state.
At the end of the election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) candidate, Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, the winner of the election. Soludo scored a total of 112,229 to beat his closest rival, the Peoples Democratic Candidate (PDP), Mr. Valentine Ozigbo, who scored 53,807 votes. Andy Uba of the All Progressives Congress (APC) came third with 43,285 votes while Ifeanyi Ubah of the Young Progressives Party (YPP) came fourth with 21,261 votes.
This result shows clearly that there was voter apathy. While the total number of registered voters is 2,466,638, the total number of accredited voters is 253,388. The total number of votes cast is 249,631. Out of this number, the total valid votes cast were 241,523 while 8,108 votes were rejected. This falls far short of expectations. Nigerians should endeavour to always participate in the process of choosing their leaders because by not doing so, they stand the risk of throwing up renegades in power.
No doubt, the initial sit-at-home order by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) from Friday, November 5 to Wednesday, November 10, 2021 instilled fear in people and affected the turnout of voters. Even when IPOB cancelled the order, many people still stayed away from the polling units. Many of those who braved it, found it difficult to have their fingerprints and facial biometric features authenticated by the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). By the time the BVAS was able to accredit people, a good number of voters had left. Thus, some of those who could have voted in this election were technically disenfranchised.
Besides, the late deployment of electoral materials in some polling units and some other logistics glitches were clearly manifest in the election. This was despite the assurances of the INEC boss, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu. The INEC Chairman had said: “We have trained staff on the new technology. We have also delivered all sensitive and non-sensitive materials for the election on schedule, deployed election duty staff and made logistics arrangements to move personnel and materials to thousands of locations in Anambra State where voting and collation of results will take place.”
This was not to be. As Anambra State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr. Nkwachukwu Orji, put it, “It must be noted that on account of security concerns, some of the transporters that were mobilised and collected 50 per cent of their sign-on fee backed out at the last moment, leaving some of our ad-hoc staff stranded. Also, some of the trained ad-hoc staff backed out at the last moment. The Commission is on top of these challenges and extant regulations and guidelines will be applied.” INEC should work on its timing and logistics as Nigerians will not accept any excuse in future elections. It must put its house in order before any election. Politicians, on their part, must play by the rules. They must de-emphasise vote buying, which was prevalent in the Anambra election.
On a positive note, INEC deserves commendation for introducing the BVAS. The system ensured that the outcome of the election was transparent. There was no room for rigging or manipulation of election results. And even if thugs snatched ballot papers and thumb-printed elsewhere, it would not count as only the accredited voters’ votes would be counted as valid. INEC should use the off-season elections in Ekiti and Osun states to correct some lapses noticed in the Anambra poll. If the BVAS could be perfected for the 2023 elections, there is no doubt that our elections will become more credible and rancour-free.
Anambra people have spoken well with their votes. And it is good that their will prevailed. We congratulate Professor Soludo and APGA on this hard-won victory. Soludo acquitted himself well when he was the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. We have no doubt that he has the pedigree to do even more for Anambra State. He should carry everybody along and go straight to business as soon as he is sworn in as the governor.
President Muhammadu Buhari also deserves commendation for maintaining neutrality in the election. He allowed INEC to do its job and was not known to have interfered in any way either for or against anybody or party. Though his party lost, President Buhari did not waste time in congratulating the winner. This is how our politics should be. We also commend the security agencies for comporting themselves this time. The election was largely peaceful. Even in Ihiala where there were some incidents, security operatives were able to contain the situation.
As the 2023 elections approach, politicians and all stakeholders should study what happened in Anambra. They should emulate the good ones and try to make amends where necessary. We must continue to grow and nurture our democracy because that is one major thing that will guarantee us an egalitarian society.