Moving on

IT IS all over. The presidential race ended early yesterday when Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu declared  Muhammadu Buhari winner of Saturday’s election. His closest rival Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had yet to congratulate him at the time of writing this. Will he do so or will he and his party challenge the All Progressives Congress (APC) standard-bearer’s victory at the tribunal?

Our country is the winner in the just-concluded presidential and National Assembly elections. There is no loser even though many lost their bid for offices. Better luck to them next time. The polls went smoothly in many parts of the country, though there were pockets of skirmishes here and there. The clashes were not enough to write off the exercise. If they were, the observers, who came from different parts of the world, would have said so.

The elections may not have gone the way that some expected. Indeed, many giants fell by the way side. These are heavyweights who determine how elections go in their domains. But they lost because nothing is certain in an election until the last ballot is counted. What makes elections tick is the uncertainty about their outcome. Candidates go to the polls counting on their popularity to win.

An astute politician knows that without a large following, winning an election is impossible because it is a contest of numbers.  Having a large following is one thing, getting this huge number to vote for you  is another. On many occasions, many  popular politicians went to the polls certain of victory, only for the results to show otherwise. Winning an election demands tact and strategy. Experts use these qualities to map out their plans on how to win votes.

Such a plan is subject to many factors, chief of which, is the turn out of voters. We are in a society where apathy is rife. People usually register as voters, but will never turn out to vote on election day. It happened in last Saturday’s elections. We have over 84 million people on the voter register, with over 72 million said to  have collected their permanent voter cards (PVCs).  But how many of the 72,775,502 voters came out to cast their ballot last Saturday? 29,364,209 were accredited to vote; 28,614,190 cast their votes – going by the results released by INEC for the presidential poll. 27,324,583 were valid votes; 1,289,607 were rejected. Buhari scored 15,191,847 to Atiku’s 11,262,978. The 71 other contestants shared the remaining 869,758 votes among themselves..

With the presidential election won and lost, the shape of the Ninth National Assembly is also emerging. Many popular senators who sought re-election were beaten hands down at the polls. Senate President Bukola Saraki is not returning to the Red Chamber having been defeated by Senator-elect Ibrahim Oloriegbe. Senators Godswill Akpabio and George Akume also lost in Akwa Ibom and Benue states.

These politicians were expected to have an easy ride over their opponents, but they lost. How are the mighty fallen? If anyone had said these political juggernauts will lose before the election, that person would have been dismissed as talking nonsense. Their loss has shown that anything can happen in a political contest. In their states, these people are revered. They are treated as godfathers because of their powers to make and unmake politicians. Here they are today, battered, bloodied and bruised in a contest they were expected to show their strength in their sphere of influence.

Their loss should make them realise that they are not god even though they are referred to as godfathers. Their loss does not mean that they are not strong. They are strong in their own right, but their loss is God’s way of humbling them. Nobody wants to be on the losing side. The PDP has been griping about the outcome of the polls. It has on several occasions rejected the results, hinting that it may go to the tribunal. The party knows in truth and in fact that the elections  met the standard of a free and fair exercise. PDP has a right to complain and it has exercised that right, but having done that it should put the country’s interest first in whatever it plans to do.

Should it challenge the poll outcome just because it did not win? Is it complaining because it truly believes that it was cheated at the polls? Will it also contest the outcome in areas where it won? Can the elections only be credible in places where it won?  If it feels it has a case, it should go to the tribunal; if not, it should lay the matter to rest and wait for the next election. Whatever it chooses to do, it should reflect deeply before it acts. The nation cannot afford to play into the hands of those that do not wish it well. There can never be two winners in a contest. There can only be one winner.  Atiku put up a good showing, but his performance was not good enough to earn him the coveted seat.

Nothing good will be achieved by overheating the polity over the outcome of the election. Our country is the winner in this contest because of the peaceful way the contestants conducted themselves. This is how it should be. I pray that we sustain this peaceful nature and also extend it to the March 9 governorship and House of Assembly elections.