In Osun State population 4.7m, 1.9m PVCs [41%] were made and in the election Adeleke Adeleke – PDP 403,371 [20% of total PVCs made, 27% of collected PVCs voters and 51+% of actual voters], wins over incumbent Governor Adegboyega Oyetola – APC 375,027 [19% of total PVCs made, 25% of collected PVC voters and 48+% of actual voters] with Lasun Yusuf – Labour Party 2,729[ 0.1% of actual voters] totalling 781,127 voters [52%] out of 1,479,595 PVCs collected. This means 698,468 [48%] DID NOT VOTE.
Remember that INEC complained that out of 1,955,657 PVCs issued only 1,479,595 PVCs [75%] were collected, leaving 476,062 [25%] no shows – more than voted for the winning party. In addition, where were the 698,468 [uncollected PVC owners-35% of total PVCs] + 476,062 [24% collected PVC, non-voters] = 1,174,530 PVC holders [60% of total PVCs]?
Are they ‘GHOST PVC holders’ equivalent to one and half times the number of the actual voters? Imagine if they had cast 1,174,530 or even 698,468 or 476,062 ‘protest votes’ for a minority candidate? He would have won easily. There is an unacceptable waste of INEC budgeted resources. Are INEC waste papers incinerated or recycled for school children’s jotters?
The election went without violence. However, intimidation, fear factor and voter apathy due to a perceived lacklustre past performance and bleak future and little difference between the candidates/parties/ideology may have paralysed many voters. PAST PERFORMANCE MATTERS EVEN IN A RIGGED ELECTION. So, what kept the electorate away? Civil Society/INEC should investigate this epidemic of ‘Non-picked-up’ or ‘Non-use of PVCs’.
WILL OSUN STATE BENEFIT FROM THE NEW GOVERNOR’S PLANS AND ACTIONS OR WILL THE NEW GOVERNMENT JUST BENEFIT FROM OSUN STATE?
The election points to a 20-30% lower population, 150-160m, than the 200m boasted about! Were the PVCs criminally made for non-existent or for voters with multiple registrations?
The election may be over, but will Osun State recover and eventually grow with serious SDG-compliant policies and practices and anticorruption strategies by the new government?
It seems INEC could reduce its ‘Printing Voter Card Budget’ and plastic footprint by one third by researching and better predicting actual voter numbers. Just think of the cost of the 48+% unused and therefore wasted voter cards! Sadly, crime in politics persists and criminally we heard a lot about N2,000, N5000, N7000 and N10,000 offered for the new name for ’vote trading’-the new name to soften the criminal interpretation for the action which is bribery and corruption! ‘Vote trading’ should not be used as it reduces voter corruption into a political gimmick.
Is vote buying better than vote stealing, ballot box stuffing, creative vote counting and underage voting? All are wrong, prosecutable and must be prosecuted. The politicians responsible, are criminally influencing the result, should be jailed and barred from public office.
If you cheat to get power, you will cheat to stay in power and cheat the treasury while in power leading to massive ‘approved’ corruption inflating governance costs to ‘recoup with 1000% interest’ election expenses. Now we must add N100m to that bill if the governor seeks the Presidency in future.
We applaud the progress of a British Nigerian Kemi Badenoch, 42, in the conservative party and the corridors of power around Number 10 Downing Street and being among the last five from over 30 PM aspirants. Fortunately, she did not face a criminal N100m or $240,000 fee to buy a form. We wish her success.
Nigeria has borrowed, particularly during the last seven years, creating a debt profile of N41+trillion-? N45trillion by end 2022. N41,000,000,000,000 or N150,000 -N200,000/Nigerian if my math is right. Some of Nigeria’s creditors are now also in financial trouble with citizens protesting high cost of living and falling currency values, the Covid disruption of family and business, high oil prices, the trouble with Russia, impending food shortage, destructive climate change events paradoxically causing massive flooding, heatwaves and frequent forest fires destroying economies and livelihoods. Can Nigeria’s children pay our current debt without paralysing our home economy and decimating even further our ‘toilet-paper’ currency, the once proud ‘N1 :$1.5’?
Governments and politicians at state level in Nigeria often inherit debt and uncompleted projects without question, not prosecuting guilty political predecessors, who corruptly diverted funds and robbed their true employers, the people, of salaries, pension and infrastructural inheritance. Hail Nigeria, where the captains of state and federal government agencies regularly turn into pirates accused in their hundreds and sometimes convicted of stealing sums totally trillions- caught only after crazy amounts have been stolen from Nigeria’s children’s present needs and future.
The latest among smiling, playacting dead, diseased or maimed accused was the Accountant General of the Federation, responsible for the safety of Nigeria’s public money, accused of N80b- 200billion i.e. N80-200,000,000,000, [N300- N2,500 per Nigerian population 160+m ] and owning 15+houses, caught only because he offered a 15-year-old any house in Abuja which she reported to an uncle who deserves GCON, a whistle blower reward and recognition by SERAP, Transparency International etc.
Who in the ICPC/EFCC/SFU failed to screen before appointment and monitor during the accountant general’s tenure? Is this ‘anti-corruption government’ so corruption-porous and without checks and balances and alarms when the first N1m or N1Om/N100m/N1,000m/N10,000m/N100,000m/N1b took off? We trivialise the word ‘Accountant’. It is a burden and means ‘to keep account’ and ‘Account for’ the nation’s funds. That is his only task but strangely full of apparently unmonitorable temptation. Monitor governments.