The choice of the people should prevail
Essentially because of the desperation by politicians, off-season elections that should ordinarily be easy to conduct are now riddled with controversies. Interestingly, this kind of election is an entirely Nigerian phenomenon. They started in 2006 primarily due to court rulings which overturned many election results before the 1999 Constitution was amended to legitimise the idea. But instead of enhancing public trust and building confidence in the electoral system, many of these stand-alone elections are now deepening the crisis of legitimacy. It is therefore little surprise that the campaigns for who becomes the next Governor of Osun State is turning out a puzzling spectacle.
Last Thursday, President Bola Tinubu, overruled the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by directing a reversal of the freezing of the Osun State Government Statutory Allocation account. The action by the anti-graft agency, taken ten days to the gubernatorial election scheduled to be held this coming Saturday, had been greeted with howls of outrage. Although some stakeholders have also queried the presidential intervention on grounds that it raises questions about the independence of EFCC, the president said he was deeply embarrassed, arguing that the timing of the restriction was inappropriate.
This latest controversy has merely deepened the tensions ahead of this weekend’s election. The build-up has been characterised by large-scale violence, intimidation, blood-letting and thuggery. The state is heaving with cultists, many of whom are reportedly being exploited by some of the political actors. Indeed, in the past one year alone, political violence has claimed more than two dozen lives. “We have issues of cultism in Osun already,” admitted the Inspector General of Police, (IGP) Olatunde Disu. “It became easier for different parties to attack each other using the existing animosity in the state.” Some 13 local government areas out of the 30 have been marked down as high-risk due largely to recurring violence and killings.
The climate of violence in the state is aided by the paralysis of the local government system, and the challenge of a managing a relatively poor state for 15 months without statutory funds. The dispute over statutory allocations to the councils persists even after the Supreme Court’s intervention. But the Osun election is particularly important because it is the last off-cycle governorship election before the 2027 general election. For many, it will act as a litmus test to the preparedness of the electoral bodies, the political parties as well as the security agencies.
Meanwhile, 14 candidates are challenging the incumbent Governor Ademola Adeleke, who is running for a re-election on the platform of the Accord Party, having earlier defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). However, the contest has essentially been narrowed down to three contenders: The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, who had served as Commissioner for Finance under former Governors Rauf Aregbesola and Gboyega Oyetola, and the African Democratic Congress (ADC) candidate, Najeem Salaam, a former Speaker in the state House of Assembly as well as the incumbent Adeleke. Interestingly, all three frontline candidates are from the Osun West Senatorial District.
Since an ‘end justifies the means’ approach to politics has over the years provided the incentive and motivation for power seekers to believe that all is fair and acceptable in electoral politics, the success or failure of Osun polls will depend largely on the capacity of the security agencies that must remain neutral throughout the entire process. We hope the redeployment from election duties of Police Commissioner Ibrahim Gotan will help in providing a level playing field for all parties and candidates. No less important also is the role of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as an impartial arbiter. Fortunately, INEC has had ample time to prepare and get its act together by ensuring that all logistical problems like late arrival of ballot papers and voting materials to polling centres are not repeated.
But the onus is still on the politicians in the state to give peace a chance. At the end, the choice of who governs Osun for the next four years is that of the residents of the state to make. May the best candidate win.