If morning is an indication, as it is said, of the potentials embedded in the day, the first hundred days in office of the Osun State governor, Mr. Adegboyega Oyetola, offers glimpses of the new heights of mature governance, meaningful development and sustainable prosperity to which the state of the living spring is capable of rising under the new helmsman’s guiding hand. It is certainly not for nothing that Mr. Oyetola holds a B.Sc. degree in insurance from the University of Lagos, an MBA in business administration from the prestigious institution and had a track record of successful and lucrative practice in the private sector spanning three decades before coming into government.
Easily verifiable information from the administration’s information management team to commemorate Oyetola’s first 100 days in office on Saturday, March 9, shows a lot of solid work that has been done quietly and unobtrusively in diverse sectors including security, education, workers welfare, healthcare as well as roads rehabilitation and construction within the three months span. Feeder roads in rural areas are being graded across the various Local Government Councils to boost agriculture while 10 strategic roads are being constructed to link major urban agglomerations.
In addition to the Osogbo and Ifetedo General Hospitals, which are being comprehensively rehabilitated, revitalized and re-equipped in the first phase of the healthcare programme, 332 Comprehensive Health Centres across the wards in the state are being rejuvenated with the procurement of HIV test kits, consumables and basic medical equipment worth N87.7 million for these grassroots facilities. To boost education, the governor on Thursday, 7th February, 2019, distributed learning aids, standard furniture, games equipment and computers to schools in each of the three senatorial districts.
Making the most prudent use of scarce resources, the Oyetola administration resuscitated 20 Armoured Personnel Carriers to enhance the crime fighting capacity of the police in the state while also refurbishing seven fire stations and repairing 15 fire fighting vehicles to boost emergency response capacity. While his administration has been paying the full salaries of workers monthly as and at when due, the prevalent industrial harmony suggests that the workers have full confidence in Oyetola’s pledge to pay outstanding accumulated salary arrears in due course.
Perhaps the most important initiative in Osun in Oyetola’s first 100 days is the forthcoming first State of Osun Economic Summit, which in the words of Sola Fasure, one of the governor’s aides, is “meant to generate a robust and sustainable economic development template that will launch the state into a boom. With all arrangements already in place, the stage is set to ignite what will be the most significant activity in the state since its creation in 1991. The blocks are being built as the direction the administration is going is getting clear. It is an encouraging one with the governor steadying his feet to provide quality leadership for the state”.
Against this background of the unfolding purposeful, focused and clear-headed governance in Oyetola’s Osun, the majority judgement of the Osun State Election Petitions Tribunal, which declared the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke, as the winner of last September’s governorship election in Osun is an irritating distraction. Mr. Oyetola and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have since appealed the judgement. In their majority judgement, Justice Peter Obiorah and Justice Adegboyega Gbolagunte returned Adeleke as governor elect. They declared that the rerun election of September 27 last year was unlawful and invalid as there was no basis for it.
Furthermore, the majority judgement cancelled the results from 17 polling units due to what it described as substantial non-compliance with the Electoral Act. That non-compliance was the omission to enter the data for accreditation and ballot papers accounting in the appropriate columns of Forms EC8A in the affected polling units. Thereafter, it resorted to a complex exercise in judicial arithmetic wherein it added and subtracted figures based on what it considered valid and invalid votes enabling it to declare Adeleke as winner of the election.
Interestingly, the Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Muhammad Sirajo, demurred. He delivered the minority judgement but did so in a most lofty, mature and even tempered manner saying “I participated actively and contributed immensely by personally writing some portions of the judgement just delivered”. Yet, he strongly disagreed with the major pillars of the minority judgement and, in his minority judgement, ruthlessly demolished them. Was the rerun election of September 27, 2018, unlawful and invalid? Justice Sirajo disagrees completely with the minority judgement on this and compellingly states his case.
In the process Justice Sirajo referred to the Supreme Court decision in the case of Faleke vs INEC (2016), which upheld the power of INEC to declare an election inconclusive and order a rerun in Kogi State. He quoted the Supreme Court thus in the said Faleke vs INEC judgement: “The first respondent was correct when it declared the election of 21/11/2015 inconclusive on the ground that the margin of win between the two front-runners at the election was less than the total number of registered voters in 91 affected polling units where elections were cancelled”. Can the Elections Petition Tribunal overrule the apex court on the matter? The appeal court will decide.
Did the non entry of data for accreditation and ballot papers for 23 units in the requisite columns in form EC8A amount to substantial non-compliance weighty enough to compel the cancelation of results in the affected units? Justice Sirajo disagrees. His words, “In this petition, it is not in dispute that about 90 per cent of the processes involved in the conduct of election in a polling unit have been fully complied with. Voters were duly accredited before they cast their votes. At the conclusion of voting, ballot papers were sorted out and counted. The presiding officers announced the votes scored by the parties, entered the figures in the result sheets and signed. The party agents counter-signed the result sheets and collected copies…I hold that the omission to record columns for accreditation and balloting accounting on the result sheets, though a non-compliance, did not amount to substantial non-compliance”.
Indeed, Justice Sirajo, referring to the requisite sections of the Electoral Act, had earlier averred that “The degree of compliance required to validate an election is substantial compliance. For any non-compliance to have the effect of invalidating an election, such non-compliance must in itself be substantial and must have substantially affected the result of the election”. His logic seems to me crystal clear.
Does the Election Petition Tribunal have the power to declare the winner of an election after subtracting and adding votes following the cancelling of specified results? Justice Sirajo says no. He anchors his position on Section 140(2) of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended), which provides that “Where an election or tribunal nullifies an election on the ground that the person who obtained the highest votes at the election was not qualified to contest the election, or that the election was marred by substantial irregularities or non-compliance with the provisions of this Act, the election tribunal or court should not declare the person with the second highest votes or any other person as elected, but shall order for a fresh election”. Again, this is crystal clear. But the appeal court will decide.
Given the commendable, courageous and path-breaking foundation laid by Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola for the revolutionary transformation of Osun State particularly through massive provision of infrastructure in diverse sectors, substantial job creation and a comprehensive social welfare scheme for the poor and vulnerable, why did the APC win the 2018 election only by such a slim margin? The problem of salary payment was not peculiar to Osun. It was compounded in Osun by the sheer breathtaking scale of Aregbesola’s investment in the radical modernization of infrastructure as well as the provision of social welfare services to the poor and this is certainly laudable. Perhaps then the problem was some of Aregesola’s avoidable controversial policies particularly with regard to education and the religious sensibilities of critical segments of the citizenry.
That is exactly why many believe that Oyetola is just the right man to succeed the pioneering visionary Ogbeni. Oyetola as Chief of Staff between 2010 and 2018 was a key actor in conceiving and implementing the Aregesola Osun transformation template. It makes for desirable continuity. He already has a good rapport with key stakeholders especially workers who hold Oyetola in high regard for his calmness, patience, understanding and maturity. Unlike Ogbeni, Oyetola is no impassioned ideologue. He is a technocrat with a subtle, suave corporate approach to governance.
Ogbeni’s volcanic revolutionary style was necessary to chart a new path for Osun in the face of stiff opposition from entrenched, reactionary political forces in the state represented by the dislodged and very bitter PDP elements. Now is the time for Oyetola’s calm, sober approach to governance in a manner that can keep Osun on the path of accelerated progress with as little avoidable disruption as possible.
The gift of exquisite dancing skills is certainly not a disqualification for the demanding office of governor. But an individual who cannot summon the ambition to furnish himself with the most basic education is unlikely to inspire any state to enviable heights. All eyes are certainly on Osun as we await the court of appeal verdict on Oyetola’s appeal.
