The governorship contest for Osun state has come and gone but the import of its outcome will linger for a long time to come. The election was won by Rauf Aregbesola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who prevailed against the strong challenge of Prince Iyiola Omisore of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It was an election defined largely by the policies and programmes of the contending parties as well as the personalities of the candidates.
Beyond these, it was one election on which the President of the Federal Republic, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and his party placed a large premium: it was to lead them deeper into the South West, the bastion of Nigerian opposition. Following his party’s triumph weeks earlier in the governorship contest in the neighbouring Ekiti State, victory in Osun would have been a sweet price for Jonathan. However, his march against opposition strongholds is delayed, even if temporarily.
For Jonathan, the loss of Osun ought to be a setback of sorts. But it has turned out, interestingly, to a victory of sorts: though the PDP lost Osun, the President has won plaudits for what has become an incremental march towards credibility of elections in Nigeria. At a time expectations are high on the 2015 polls, the outcome from Osun could not have been more heart-warming. Free and fair election—one in which both the loser and the victor shake hands and acknowledge each other after the result is declared—has gone beyond being a myth in Nigeria. Under Jonathan, it has become a reality.
Hours after the result was declared, he had issued a message through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, to congratulate Governor Aregbesola of the APC on his victory. This was followed by his party who wished the APC governor a successful second term. It was an uncommon show of magnanimity, a sharp contrast to the rival party’s show of shame in Ekiti some weeks earlier when Governor Kayode Fayemi conceded victory to the PDP only for his party to take off on different tangent.
The President’s gesture was not only symbolic; it was also a strong expression of faith in the electoral process, which, under his watch, has increasingly become credible. The President has delivered on his administration’s determination to positively reform Nigeria’s electoral processes. The departure from flawed elections and manipulations by governments at the centre had appeared and observers as well as rights groups in Nigeria and beyond have commended this shift. Like was the case in Ekiti, the people of Osun State had come out en-masse to peacefully and freely exercise their democratic right, trusting in the President’s assurance that all necessary measures had been taken to ensure their safety and the sanctity of their votes. In Osun, like in Ekiti, the atmosphere for election was free of intimidation and each person’s vote counted.
The earlier success recorded in Ekiti, however, did not stop the usual scare-mongering by the APC leadership which cried from roof-tops that the national security agencies were deployed, first in Ekiti and then to Osun, primarily to facilitate victory for the PDP. In usual manner, its National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, had doubted the President’s sincerity in deploying security men to ensure the election was peaceful. To him, the security operatives were to intimidate and harass opposition party members and supporters as well as deliberately disenfranchise voters to achieve a favourable outcome for the PDP. The free atmosphere under which the election was conducted has not only vindicated the President, it has given the lie to those unfair and uncharitable allegations. Mohammed and his ilk of scare-mongers were, once again, put to shame.
Since the flawed 2007 elections that brought the late Umaru Yar’Adua and himself in as President and Vice-president, President Jonathan has irrevocably committed himself to credible elections. He has taken the nation on a tortuous but steady journey towards the conduct of credible elections and raised optimism that the 2015 elections, especially, will even be more credible than those of 2007 and 2011. To achieve this, he has taken steps that reassure the populace. Not only has the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) witnessed a vastly improved funding, government has fully supported its constitutional and electoral reform proposals. It has gone further to insist on respect for the rule of law by political parties, compliance with internal democracy and has committed to reduce impunity by sending a bill to the National Assembly for the establishment of the electoral offences commission.
In preparing for the 2015 elections, INEC, on its part, has greatly enhanced the integrity of the register of voters and put in place plans to get more citizens onto the electronic register as witnessed in Ekiti and Osun. It has also started issuing in phases all duly registered voters with chip-based Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), which will be swiped with card readers in the 2015 elections to ensure 100 per cent verification and authentication of voters.
Those who oppose the tight security measures put in place by the Federal Government in Ekiti and Osun are either being mischievous or out to promote chaos. In those recent exercises, it was obvious that the security agents gave the people the peaceful ambience to come out and cast their votes. The soldiers, who stayed at the borders of the states, effectively checked the usual smuggling of electoral materials in and out of states where polls were being conducted. While the mobile policemen stood at junctions at the polling stations, unarmed policemen stayed within some distance from election units. Contrary to the wolf-cries by the APC, none of the security men was allowed into any polling station.
Yes, Jonathan and the PDP may not have won the last Osun poll but the outcome is no less profound for the government. Coming on the march towards 2015 polls, its conduct signposts a positive performance index for the President and his promise of credible elections in Nigeria. It is a victory for the ongoing electoral reform and it is worth much more to Nigeria as a nation. More importantly, the credibility of the election clearly vindicates President Jonathan and speaks so eloquently of his commitment to free, fair, credible and peaceful elections.
Written by Johnson Momodu.
