BY NOW, the nation should have forgotten about the governorship elections that were held in 29 states on March 9. Unfortunately, this is not so because of the tardiness of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Up till now, the commission has not been able to sort things out in seven states. It declared the elections inconclusive in Adamawa, Bauchi, Benue, Kano, Plateau and Sokoto and suspended the process in Rivers.
But all of a sudden, INEC reversed itself, in Bauchi, saying it would continue with the process as the “duplicate and original registration area results are available”. That was on Friday. On Tuesday, it made a dramatic U’ turn again, as it returned to its earlier position of conducting supplementary elections in the state. Did I hear you say, why is INEC dillydallying? We will come to that shortly.
The other side of the elections, which will be remembered for the upset in some states where the mighty fell to those hitherto seen as small fries, are also quite interesting. But the polls will be remembered more for the new lexicon they threw up. These words have developed a life of their own even after the elections. It all started in Kwara long before the polls when some people in the state came together under the O To Ge banner to wrest power from the Saraki dynasty. Senate President Bukola Saraki, the head of the dynasty, did not know what hit him at the polls. He lost his bid to return to the Senate and was also unable to facilitate the election of those who relied on him to win.
The O To Ge Movement has been likened to the Arab Spring which spread through the Middle East in late 2010. Many regimes were toppled by the Arab Springers, just as O To Ge swept away Saraki and his men in Kwara. O To Ge was the beginning of things to come. Some mischief makers wanted to try it in Lagos. They tried all tricks in the book to rally the people round a cause which was bound to fail ab initio. The reason being that the champions wanted to fight a personal war. Their aim was to get at former Lagos State governor Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Never one to run away from battle, Tinubu gave it back to them during the March 9 election. “This is not Kwara”, he reminded them. “There is no O To Ge here, it is O To Pe in Lagos”.
In Ogun, the outgoing Governor Ibikunle Amosun, contrary to his wish, will not be leaving in a blaze of glory. He is leaving with his tails between his legs following the defeat of his anointed candidate Abdulkabir Akinlade by Governor-elect Dapo Abiodun. The people waved him bye after the election with the slogan: O Tan E. His followers will miss his sky-bound cap after his exit in May. His comrade-in-arm, the outgoing Imo Governor Rochas Okorocha suffered the same fate. Okorocha wanted to perpetuate himself in office through his son-in-law Uche Nwosu. His Ibeberism philosophy crashed even before it could be adopted. Former House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Emeka Ihedioha got the better of him and his candidate at the poll. Today, he is waging a bitter war against Ihedioha for cautioning him against going on a spending spree before his exit. With Ibeberism, he might have erected statues in honour of some undeserving people, but the philosophy sure has its limit when it comes to election.
In Oyo, Governor-elect Seyi Makinde is being heralded into office with the slogan: Won Tun De, to remind him of the years that his party spent in office in the state with little or nothing to show for it. Will he make a difference? INEC took the term ‘’inconclusive polls’’ to a ridiculous height this time around. It has reversed itself twice on Bauchi in five days, throwing its actions open to suspicion. Is the commission sure of what it is doing? Why did it declare the election inconclusive when it has not concluded its findings on the exercise? Inconclusive! Ongoing!! Inconclusive!!! What will INEC do next in Bauchi? Reverse itself again before the Saturday supplementary polls? You cannot put that beyond this commission which seems confused about its task. INEC should just round off the elections and let us put the exercise behind us. How long does it take to conduct elections paapa?
From 4 + 4 to Next Level in Abuja to 4 + 4…Loading in Edo, we were not short of slogans. The slogans did not just start today. In the Second Republic, we had 122/3; Accord Concordiale; Politics without bitterness; Political juggernaut; When the come comes to become and shortly after the beginning of this dispensation in 1999, the late Chuba Okadigbo came up with the “banana peel’’ under the Senate president’s seat following his ouster. Slogans are the munition with which political battles are waged.
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