2023 General Elections: A Post-Mortem
By Hon. Hussein Umar Ibrahim
It is patently clear. One the reasons why some educated and unenlightened Nigerians didn’t come out on election days to exercise their franchise, by voting for the candidate of their choice regardless of his political, tribal, regional, and religious affiliation, is because they lack confidence in the country’s electoral system.
To a large extent, many Nigerians believed that the two dominant parties – APC and the PDP – will eventually share the spoils of the elections.
Hence, they resigned their fates to the two popular parties and their powers brokers—a “coterie of elite bureaucrats” who always see themselves as givers and takers of power.
This unenlightened notion is the main reason why this election’s voter turnout is rated “discouraging” by political communication experts in both the presidential and national assembly, as well as the gubernatorial and state assembly elections.
According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, 93 million Nigerians registered for the 2023 elections, 87. 2 collected their Permanent Voter’s Card, PVC, while less than 30 million decided the fate of the presidential election and data revealed so far by INEC on gubernatorial elections across the country shows that the voter apathy is overwhelming and this cannot be unconnected to the belief that “votes don’t count.”
However, the emergence of the newest salacious influential political parties—Labour Party, LP by Peter Obi and New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP by Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, had turned a new page in the political ecosystems in the country.
The previously predominantly imposed perception by senior political gladiators that “no one will win an election without our approval, blessing, and backing” has greatly faded in the phenomenal 2023 elections, with NNPP and LP winning juicy political offices across the country.
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These victories by different political parties wouldn’t have been achieved by both NNPP and LP without the commitment of President Muhammadu Buhari to free and fair elections. That is one of his favorite legacies and that is what patriotic Nigerians will remember him for.
If not for the enabling environment created by the outgoing president, an ordinary motorcycle operator Donatus Mathew of Kaduna State wouldn’t have won a legislative post to represent Kaura Federal Constituency. He contested to fill up LP’s slot but destiny blessed him with victory. Interestingly, an appreciable number of candidates from LP and NNPP made their way to the 10th Assembly; courtesy of a credible election.
Back then, it was a fallacy for opposition parties to defeat incumbent governors in their various states until Buhari supported the electoral body to sanitize the conduct of elections and give the win to the deserved. That was how Senator Ademola Adeleke of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP raped the then-incumbent governor of Osun State Gboyaga Oyetola under the All Progressive Congress, APC in 2022.
Similarly, the same effort put in place by Buhari instrumentally births the reign of the Bauchi State Governor Bala Mohammed who has just been reelected for a second term. He defeated the then-incumbent Governor Mohammed Abubakar who sought reelection under APC.
Unluckily, Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia, Darius Ishaku of Taraba, and Simon Lalong of Jos and others have been democratically prevented from going to the retirement house—National Assembly despite the power of incumbency at their disposal. Interestingly, their loss was large to the new opposition parties.
This, among other indicators, has given renewed hope for patriotic young people like me who don’t have political juggernauts to bankroll our political ambition. People like me want to serve to make a difference, not to become rich on the sweat of the poor.
The 2023 phenomenal election has strengthened our nascent democracy and the hope of young people to properly represent their interests in the government has been renewed.
Hussein Umar Ibrahim writes from Abuja and can be reached via his email: [email protected]
