Category: ARINZE IGBOELI

There is then the question of what if the student beneficiary of such a loan is more interested in beginning a startup immediately after his “passing out” from the NYSC? How will the authorities seek to ascertain what he actually earns? Will the 10 percent monthly deduction also work out in this scenario? Now, given the numerous challenges experienced by startups and in this country where startup failures are at the gloomy range of 61 percent, how then will the government ensure a seamless recovery of such loans? I hope Asiwaju’s policy advisers have really thought this through.

Lastly, there is also the story in the air that the government intends to hike tuition fees, matter of fact, a number of state and federal universities have since the coming of the Student Loan Act have increased their fees by 100, 200 and 300% respectively with many pundits linking the ugly increases to the signing of the bill!  There is the notion also that the Tinubu administration is tilting towards granting autonomy towards the Nigerian university system, after all he had made such a promise in one of his campaign hustings. Perhaps the university system is reacting to the president’s body language since it is alleged that most governments no longer subsidize their university education system once there is the option of student loans.

Schools like the University of Benin, my Alma Mater did announce a 100% tuition fee increment following the signing of the Student Loan Act by President Bola Tinubu. Under the administration of Professor Lilian Salami, students from the sciences will cough out

N190,000  as against N73,000  paid last year. For the non sciences the fees will shoot up to N170,000 against N69,000.

If these fee increments from the University of Benin are heartbreaking then that of the Ambrose Alli University,AAU in Ekpoma, Edo State, a state government institution is enough to stir up a series of revolts until some of these University administrators are disgraced out of office. How in God’s name is such an administrator who on a daily basis experiences the hardships faced on a per minute basis  expect a student who once paid 185,000 to now pay the sum of N741,500 as while medical students would be paying N638,000 as against N216,000 because of the increment? This is ludicrous and it seems that those in charge of these universities, persons who benefited from subsidized, if not free education no longer want the children of the poor and even the middle class to attain a university education in Nigeria.

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I am then forced to suggest that if the Student Loan Act is  a precursor to the sordid conspiracy to keep millions of Nigerians out of school then it has only succeeded in worsening the nation’s present predicament  and here’s why! While there is no cap on the amount a student can access , does it now make any sense for a student to access a loan to see him or herself through school while those who are not entitled to such loans now have to pay more! It’s like robbing both Audu and Daudu and defeats the purpose of the Act which is access to tertiary education. Remember, those who can access the loan are those who can prove that their family income per annum is less than 500,000 , now how can a family who’s annual income is say about 1,000,000 meet up with payments into a school like Ambrose Alli, where a law student is expected to pay over half a million for a session, this is like the situation where one is between the devil and the deep blue sea. Now, I know that serial optimists and Sugar  Candy Mountain advocates will attack such a thinking and suggest that there are other universities for which the candidate can apply to, definitely but have these optimists noted   the fact that there would be a marked increase in the number of candidates vying for university spaces?

Again, given the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the Naira both policies in the short term will bring  to bear heightened inflationary pressures, thus reducing the spending power of even families with over 500,000. Couple this with the increases in tertiary education fees and we will be courting more problems than we are presently attempting to fixing.

In concluding, the Student Loan Act on its own remains a viable policy and  should help resolve the challenges of those who are indeed presently incapable of attaining such on their own. However, it must fix the many challenges set out in these twofold series as well as do away with the issue of university autonomy for the time being and the sharp increases in tuition fees, since both would be akin to scoring a goal and an own goal at the same time .

I have always argued for free education for the average Nigerian citizen or something close to it. I am of the opinion that the Nation can afford such, from primary to tertiary. Thankfully in what somewhat looked like a Democracy Day gift from the new President, The Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2023 A bill for an Act to repeal the Nigerian Education Bank Act Cap. N104, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and enact the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2023 to provide easy access to higher education for indigent Nigerians through interest free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund established in this Act with a view to providing education for all Nigerians was assented to.

The Access to Higher Education Act , 2023 is indeed the nation’s answer to the poor number of Nigerians seeking tertiary education. For years, millions of Nigerians have been denied access to such education owing to the huge cost in fees for tuition and other sundry payments. Not even the Work Study Programmes or the introduction of scholarships or bursaries have helped much as numbers have reportedly dropped out from their studies, others have adopted survival methods to see themselves through school with its attendant consequences.

In this situation and subject to the provisions of any other enactment, all students seeking higher education in any public institution of higher learning in Nigeria shall have equal right to access the loans under this Act without any discrimination arising from gender, religion, tribe, position or disability of any kind.

Funds will be garnered from

1% of revenue by Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and 1% of profits on all oil and mineral accruals to the state and then onwards to the  Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which will be managed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

According to the Act, the loan will be available to indigent students who can prove that their family income is less than N500,000 per year with two guarantors: a civil servant with 12 or more years in the service and a lawyer who is at least 10 years post-call. The loan will be interest free and payable two years after completing their mandatory National Youth Service Corps, NYSC.

The Act says employers shall deduct 10% of the loan beneficiaries salary, which means it ought to have received full payment in a space two years for a gainfully employed beneficiary .

Again,let me commend President Tinubu for signing such into law, however I have a few grouses with the Act itself and they run as follows.

First, why should the Act cover tuition only which is but a part of university education today? Whereas the are other aspects such as accommodation and textbooks which are also critical if one must boast of acquiring qualitative tertiary education. Or what benefit is it to have access to tuition without access to the required text books? Or what is tertiary education without access to decent accommodation which is indeed scarce in our present day universities, forcing a number of students to look to the Town for decent spaces at cut throat prices! Except the Tinubu administration is seeking to graduate guerrillas instead of graduates, then there is need to include accommodation in such a gesture to ensure that these students are not encumbered with such challenges in their periods of study.

Again, one wonders how the government intends to determine which family earns less than N500,000 in order to benefit from such a loan? This is given the fact that the nation lacks effective poverty mapping or its database from which one can determine that Children of ‘Aluu Meluu Okoye ‘are entitled to such loans and not the children of the rich or the middle class. We witnessed this in the distribution of President Buhari’s N5,000 and other poverty targeted programmes where many who had no business in such a programme were termed beneficiaries! Again, what will happen should the student beneficiary drop out say after his first year and is much unable to complete his degree programme and thus proceed for the NYSC from which the loan ought to be deducted back from? This could mean that such loans may become bad debts and could run also into billions of Naira in a very short time. How does the Federal Government intend to mitigate against such situations?

Lastly, Section 14 of such an Act restricts access to the Loan to Students who have secured admission into Nigerian universities, polytechnics, college of education or any vocational school established by the federal government or the government of any state of the federation. What this means is that students of private universities are originally excluded from obtaining such loans! One then asks are there no indigent students in private universities? Why should they be discriminated against because of their preference for a private university?

Even the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 elections refused the option of a popular Northern running mate in Paschal Bafyau for a Babagana Kingigbe, a Muslim from Borno State, thus blaming Asiwaju for doing same holds no water! No politician runs an election to lose at the ballot box, winning is not an option, it is the only option!

Now, even with such an explanation, there are several persons who sought to give their own coloration of such a ticket, the “Yes Daddy” “Thank You Daddy” audio tape as well as the calls on the “Church to take back their country “as if Nigeria was ever a non Secular State is ample evidence that many were willing to cash in on such a fault-line in order to whip up frenzied votes from the buyers of their bogeyman tales of an Islamic Conquest of Nigeria, but then while patriotic Nigerians rejected such cleverly spawn canards, are the likes of El Rufai helping our cause? No is the Music sir!

Like that Christian hymn goes “At a time like this “ while Nigerians are seeking to defray the costs of religion and ethnic politics on the state of our nation’s building project, which has much blindsided the nation from the greatness  she was called to offer to the Blackman and thus the world, the likes of El Rufai, people we much saw as the future of this nation continue to X and O this nation in a religious game of tic tac toe!

I do not give a damn and surely Nigerians would not give a damn if the people of Kaduna are ok with a Muslim Governor and Deputy Governor, it’s democracy and it is the will of the people of Kaduna but to hanker on such as the fodder for Islamic Superiority over the Bible thumping Christian or even the Ogun worshiper is indeed a let down.

El Rufai as a statesman ought to understand the weight of his words and the sum total of actions that occurred under his watch in Kaduna is enough to set the fuse of a series of struggles between the two main religions not only in Kaduna but also across the country at what cost we cannot put a peg too but Haba with all the killings in Southern Kaduna, the NorthEast, NorthWest and even the SouthEast where I hail from, pray have we not had enough!

El Rufai’s descent from Olympus is thus worrisome, for it lashes at the enthusiasm for a greater Nigeria in which religion is personal and ethnicity is but a loose colorful  expression of our people, call it a “fools dream”, the likes of Zik and others dreamed such dreams of a Pan Nigerian nation at full adulthood which would not be supine to the violations of the dignity of the Blackman all over the world.

It again puts to question our faith in the Nigerian leadership class that El Rufai much belongs to, I mean if El Rufai could fall so much low then who is to say that a Kashim Shettima wouldn’t follow such route or a Sanwoo-Oluu? Isn’t this a situation where beggars ride and princes are on foot?

Lastly it weaponises the religious and ethnic champions who have sought to carve out their own empire amongst gullible Nigerians , pray what is different between Adeyinka Grandson and El Rufai’s concept of Islamic superiority?

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 In El Rufai’s book, the ‘Accidental Public Servant’ he did talk about coming to terms with the duality of leadership  while engaged in a course in the US or thereabout. Where a leader could have huge components of good attributes but still engage in a Frankesitein set of activities which made many to question such positive attributes and that leader’s outlook. I am not tempted to give him such an easy ride here! Yes the Bismarck’s , De Gaulle, Kennedy and Obasanjo who he quoted in that book and their sense of duality ,are all reputed international statesmen and not religious mongers as he now wants to appear to millions of Nigerians. Yes , in that book he attributed to such duality as a skill “That must be possessed to be able to ascend to a certain leadership level. I am hoping that this skill can be acquired as I very much intend to master it someday”

If this is the path El Rufai may have chosen to take, it is indeed one with a dead end, the aforementioned leaders did not sink as low as El Rufai is doing now. Even if he is attempting to master such a skill in such error, he forgets that the main theme in Louis Stevenson’s book ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ from which the concept of the duality of man was farmed out from  is that there is a good and an evil side to everyone’s personality, but what is important is the decisions one makes! How on earth El Rufai thinks he can ride on the religious fault lines of Nigeria and still earn the trust of those he much sneers at, not with the killings in Southern Kaduna and other progressive Nigerians who are tired of the state Nigeria as a nation has found itself is but small wonder!

El Rufai may be coming to terms with who he really is but then there is still yet time to make amends and return to that spot on the Nigerian Olympus, in the alternative he may also choose to remain in the tumble downward spiral he has embarked upon , I trust there will be plenty of space for him there too. Sad!

Last week, I harped much on what I believe was then Biafra’s identity as a preamble to what I intend to postulate today. Having fought a war and paid so much in blood and in a number of other aspects that we today can unanimously agree that the Igbo Nation remains marginalized in the Nigerian Federation, now while we are all seeking ways to correct such a situation, it should dawn on any right thinking person that NdiIgbo will be the biggest losers in any secession scheme, whether it is by force or negotiated. What we should rather seek is the restructuring of Nigeria towards a free and fair nation where every ethnic group that makes up the Nigerian nation will flourish without fear oppression.

So, I have decided to dedicate this week and the next of my writings to the remembrance of the war, its actors as well as the sufferings and finally legacies of a war that was fought by brothers. I write this as a Nigerian and as an Igbo lacing this piece with a futuristic warning that we as a people must avoid repeating the same mistakes that led to the war, a second war should it be fought God forbid will not be restricted to the East and contingent parts as was witnessed in the first, modern warfare has certainly buoyed man’s capacity for destruction, another war would see mutual destruction, that we cannot have.

So who’s Biafra do I want to remember? Should I start from the heroics or should I first examine the gory moments? Do I recount the feel good moments of the war and then proceed to distasteful or vise versa?

Let me first punt on the heroics, and I will do that on all sides. I will recall the sheer brilliance of the Biafran Army and her people; her ingenuity as well as her resilience in the three years of fighting against such odds leaves her a worthy place in the annals of chilvary and warfare.

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I cannot forget the nations that recognized us, Nyerere’s Tanzania, Kaunda’s Zambia, Boigny’s Cotedivoire, Omar Bongo’s Gabon and Papa Doc’s Haiti, nations that saw the genuiness of the Biafran ordeal and thought that a diplomatic form of recognition was its own way of attaining justice for us.

To the aid groups that provided help and assistance of food and relief in the war, such as Catholic Relief Services, Cannairelief, Caritas International,World Council of Churches, Holy Ghost Fathers and a number of other groups airlifted food and supplies following the blockade of Biafra in order to save millions of children who were starving.

To the mercenaries, who came to fight for Biafra, history will be kind to your memory, I single out Count Von Rossen, the Devil Pilot who fought for Biafra for free! I hope to some day visit Sweden and lay a wreath at your graveside.

To the academia, the press and the intellectual movement within and outside Biafra, that drew the attention of the world to the struggle of a people for freedom, giants like Uche Chukwumerije, Cyprian Ekwensi, Chinua Achebe, Christopher Okigbo, Ezekwe, Modebe and Frederick Forsyth. Forsyth, a former BBC journalist resisted efforts by the BBC to do a news management of the war, staying back to report the news from the Biafran perspective, though his recent revelations that he had also spied for the MI6 calls into question the credibility of his support fro the breakaway republic.

The Biafran scientists and administrators who gave the new republic then technological miracles, building weapons such as battle tanks, rockets and guns deserve celebration. Even, with the fall of Bonny and Port Harcourt which delivered a crushing blow to our fuel needs, Biafra still refined fuel to meet the nation’s war needs. A shame that the Nigerian nation nor the nine states that made up the old Eastern Region and the defunct Biafra has not been able to leverage upon!

Obviously, they are a number of untold struggles and localized heroics that never saw the light of day, they may not have been on the war front, but they too contributed immensely to shaping the war, we remember them, whoever they are and wherever they may be.

Like Nigeria, what NdiIgbo seem to have gotten wrong lies very much in the Question of Its Leadership! Asides, Zik, M.I Okpara, Emeka Ojukwu and Alex Ekwueme, no leader in Igbo land has being forthright with handling the challenges confronting NdiIgbo, much as each of the aforementioned did try to galvanize our people and resources towards these challenges.

There are a number of factors which stand as reasons behind such a deep rooted failure, one of them is due to the fact that a number of these leaders have been in the business of recycling themselves in power for their selfish ends alone. NdiIgbo is thus in need of leaders who are young of age and are ready to promote the interests of the region within a greater Nigeria, that is a Nigeria that is free and fair to the aspirations of each and every citizen of Nigeria without recourse to ethnicity, religion or fortune.

Benjamin Kalu, perhaps readily fits this bill. The Bende Federal Constituency Representative has somewhat been involved in politics for the past 22 years but then came into limelight with his election into the House of Representatives in the 2019 elections becoming the spokesperson of the House.

Kalu, is bringing with him years of cumulative public and private set of experiences including an impressive record as a legislator.

As the legislator representing Bende Federal Constituency, Kalu has demonstrated both on the floor of the House and beyond it a knack for legislative  astuteness and competence. As a legislator, Kalu’s contribution on the floor of the House saw him deliberate intelligently on national matters brought before the lower chamber.

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In four years, he helped create positive narratives for the House under the leadership of Femi Gbajabiamilla. Since the return of the nation to democracy’s shores, no arm of the National Assembly has enjoyed a robust win-win relationship with the media and other publics of the federal legislative body.

Asides that, Kalu’s legislative record as a first timer is indeed impressive with 45 bills to his credit alone with  a number of these bills receiving presidential assent. Most notable among such bills are the NIMET Bill which gives the Nigerian Metrological Agency the sole authority to grant approvals and licenses for the establishment of meteorological stations and other related matters and the bill to place correctional  from the Exclusive legislative list to the Concurrent legislative list.

His list of motions are also impeccable, just as his Constituency projects which have a high index in their meeting the four dimensions of human development ( economic, human, environmental and technological) in areas such as education, healthcare , infrastructure, ICT and agriculture. Kalu has been to his constituency what M Power aka M.I Okpara the former Premier of the Eastern Region of Nigeria  was to the region.

A champion of what many will call the New Nigerian Dream, Kalu has sought to collaborate with young Nigerians all over the country in order to chart a new set of directions to the nation’s numerous hydra headed problems; an intellectual’s delight, Kalu understands that restoring the Nigerian nation to its lost glory rests on the Nigeian intelligentsia, a reason why he very much sympathized with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU and worked with the leadership of  the House of Representatives to resolve the near seven month feud then between  the union and the Federal Government.

Thus, Kalu’s earning of  the APC’s nomination for the position of Deputy Speaker, could be said to be a well thought out move on two fronts.

To the All Progressives Congress, it is a means to reward loyalty to the party. Second, it is a means of extending the party’s influence into the region, in order to give the region its rightful place at the centre. For the Igbo nation, Kalu’s nomination provides the region yet again a golden opportunity to renegotiate with the other power blocs within the nation and making a case for NdiIgbo, an opportunity we failed to take in 2015 , 2019 and 2023.

Now in doing this , NdIIgbo must readily do some soul searching and recall its past where a number of these political buccaneers now shouting themselves hoarse as the best for NdiIgbo readily sold the region and her interests at even less than give away prices. Let us recall the events of 1999 and 2003.

Hon. Benjamin Kalu is in simple words put,  the most prepared from the SouthEast to vie for the office of Deputy Speaker, it is important that NdiIgbo queue behind his aspiration which if well received will afford NdiIgbo to take its rightful place in the politics of the Nigerian nation and begin her journey into her golden renaissance.

My experience with elections in Nigeria in relation to the concept of rigging, particularly that of 2003 and that of 2007 will largely trigger the question “What manner of rigging will make the ruling party lose its strongholds and will see sitting governors under its platform  lose their bids to retire to the Senate in 2023?

True, the elections had its shades of ugly occurrences but are these enough to nullify the process in a country where we were prime witnesses to the eras of moon slides, and electoral heists that shocked millions of Nigerians to their marrow. Again, it is important to note that the incidences of such ugly occurrences were spread all over the Federation and whatever underhanded practices that occurred were perpetuated by the four major political parties who like the game of musical chairs played either victim or perpetrators and so the “Anwuolam” (I am dead in Igbo language) shrieks by certain candidates cannot hold any water.

For example, one must condemn the violence against Igbos in isolated areas of Lagos , i am one of those persons who believe that there was really no need for such in the course of both elections, but these same Labour Party sympathizers will  pretend that such did not occur in the SouthEast Region where thugs blatantly announced that those not intending to vote the Labour Candidate to leave the voting premises. So while we must condemn the ethnic profiling and harassment of persons living  in a particular area because it is believed that they would vote in a particular direction, the condemners have refused to condemn too the profiling and harassment of one’s own kinsman or woman because he or she too intends to vote otherwise, after all what is good for the goose should be good for the gander.

Again, to the allegations of rigging, let us ask what were the pathways of an Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and his theatrical counterpart in Mr. Peter Obi to victory in that election? Obi’s emergence produced a seismic shift within the Southeast, SouthSouth and swathes of the North Central advertently denying Atiku Abubakar’s People’s Democratic Party any inroads into these regions, which used to be the traditional strongholds of the PDP. Kwakwanso, who ran as the fourth force denied both Atiku and the APC Kano State and splintered whatever bloc of votes that should have gone Atiku Abubakar’s way in the core North.

Obi who had campaigned on the lines of ethnicity and religion, visiting church after church and attending every revival programme that was sure to draw in crowds of  Christians should never have expected to get the support of the vastly populated Muslim North, not with his infamous “ Church take back your country declaration”, possibly his own harmatia and very similar to the naivety exhibited by the April 1990 coupists who attempted to excise the five core northern states from the Nigerian nation at the start of the coup.

Thus it is indeed shameful or mischievous for certain persons to argue that the 2023 elections were rigged in favour of Tinubu— as outlandish as such claims appear to be it is even funnier when it comes from the stables of Chief election riggers like former President Olusegun Obasanjo who master minded the rigging of the 2003 and 2007 elections , far cries from whatever irregularities we witnessed in 2023. It is on record that the rigging exercises of 2003 and 2007 were the most brazen attempts at rigging in the nation’s history, second only to the rigging witnessed in the 1965 Western Region elections , an era dubbed as riggings “finest hour”.  In 2003, Obasanjo’s PDP shamefully stole votes from the other parties and where it couldn’t steal simply cooked its own votes, the rigging pattern witnessed then was so horrifying that former President  Jimmy Carter , Obasanjo’s Man Friday and fellow Baptist who was in Nigeria to observe the  elections declined to congratulate Obj for securing a stolen second term in office. Now, have you ever wondered why the 2007 Presidential elections do not have a concise result? In which we cannot pinpoint which state gave which figures but yet it ended up producing a President who admitted that the process that brought him to power was flawed? Who was the sitting president then?

Even Obi’s recent posturing as a moralist of sorts does not move me one bit, he should rather tell us how he won his reelection bid to govern Anambra in 2010 and his roles in the 2011 National Assembly Elections featuring Senator Chris Ngige and Professor Dora Akunyili as well as the 2013 guber elections which saw numerous irregularities play out in the victory of Governor Willie Obiano. In the 2013 scenario , materials meant for Idemili North were switched to Idemili South to undermine Ngige in those areas which were largely viewed as his strongholds. The question now is this , at such points were such processes excellent? Your guess is as good as mine.

The  2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections have surely come and gone but the lessons learnt from such a process will help guide this our fledgling democracy by conducting better elections. Yes things could have been done better,  but from this standpoint, the 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections were as free and as fair as it could be.

Like every event in a nation’s history, the first  phase of the 2023 general elections came  and did witness  Nigerians trooping out to vote for their preferred candidate who was to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari as the nation’s substantive president for the next four years.

Prior to this period, a number of persons who had been lucky to nick the presidential tickets of their political parties had begun to traverse the country seeking to share their narratives of how best they felt they would govern the nation should they be voted in. Another category saw other candidates both old and new, experienced and newbies vie to fill up the 469 seats in the nation’s bicameral legislature.

Dday came and the elections true to the predictions of a number of political panjandrum, ( Not those tainted by sentiments and what I call by his spirit polling) saw a former two time Governor and National Leader of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC win the elections with 8, 794,726 votes as against his closest rival Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the  Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP who scored 6,984, 520 and 6,101,533 respectively.

The electoral process as a whole , inclusive of the final results did leave different shades of taste in the mouths of millions of Nigerians who had immersed themselves with the electoral  process with a determination to vote a  candidate in tandem with their shared ideals.

First of all the elections were  since 2015 the most keenly contested election in the nation’s electoral history, since its return to democratic rule. It should also be noted that since 1979 and 1983 general elections, Nigerians had not until the recently held polls witnessed a plethora of choices, that is in terms of numbers of parties or candidates vying for the office of President.  Nigerians moved from the regular recurring two horse race  to what I can perhaps call a four horse race which helped raise the stakes.

Despite this, I still agree with the general consensus that the quality of campaigns, particularly those of the presidential candidates were quite below standards. The campaign on issues in this election took the back seat while Nigerians were left with the campaigns that for much of its time dwelt on personality attacks and the crude deployment of ethnic propaganda, most especially on social media.

Religion was also a rallying banner in the polls, for while the Muslim/Muslim ticket of the APC was bound  to unsettle a number of people, majorly Christians, prevailing electoral realities could not  avail the President Elect to do otherwise. This however to his opponents was like a shark smelling blood in the sea and trust politicians they very much capitalized on it. Religion played a big role in this election and examples abound.

We saw pastors and Christian clerics mount the podium to say vile things against a particular candidate while they carried out the beatification of another. Some took it a notch further by openly prophesying that a particular candidate would win, one now then wonders which God have these psychedelic pastors and clerics been calling upon. In the SouthEast, priests took it upon themselves to announce that any of their faithfuls who dared vote for any other candidate aside theirs would not receive certain sacramental privileges!

Ethnicity and tribalism were also on the front burners as each of the four leading candidates despite their avowed pretensions to been nationalists all sort to play the ethnic card. This is the very reason why each save Rabiu Kwakwanso did so well in their respective regions. Even Obi’s surprise victories in Lagos ,Nasarawa and Plateau  alongside his strong showing in a number of other states can be tied to the huge population of Igbos living in these areas.

One would have thought that the twin evils of thuggery and violence would have been relics of past elections , but from what was experienced that day, it is still a sore wound in our attempts to provide free and fair elections and thus needs to be surgically handled in subsequent elections. Visuals of  thugs manhandling people based on party interest should have been a thing confined to the First, Second and during the Obasanjo era of our experiment with democracy.

Other issues such as that of logistics also gave INEC’s preparedness for the 2023 election a black eye somewhat. In a number of areas such a situation denied voters the opportunity to cast their votes at the appropriate time given by INEC, a number of voters had to wait long into the morning to cast their votes, in a number of situations neither voting materials nor electoral officials arrived at their polling units, thus disenfranchising millions of Nigerians.

In a number of polling units where materials and electoral officials were present, there were issues of missing,non functional and wrongly assigned BIVAS machines , if this was not the case then perhaps the ballot papers assigned to the polling units were not adequate. All said,  the 2023 elections were a logistical nightmare.

However, despite the challenges faced in the course of conducting the election, the process itself could be said to have met the standards for electioneering, particularly in this part of the world. So far, so good, the results collated are indeed a reflection of the will of the average Nigerian.

A situation where the ruling party lost key traditional stronghold states to the opposition including Lagos, Kaduna, Kebbi, Plateau, Gombe, Kastina, Nasarawa and Bauchi  cannot be said to have been rigged .