BY Taiwo George
The gubernatorial election in Osun state has come and gone, but what about the memories? The poll will go down as one of the most dramatic events in the 23 years existence of Osun as a state. Here are some jottings in the reporter’s diary.
As early as 6.50 am, the people of Osun started trooping out to partake in the process of choosing the man that would preside over the affairs of their state for the next four years. Though there were about 20 candidates vying for the office of the governor, no one was in doubt that the race was between Senator Iyiola Omisore, a former deputy governor of the state, and the incumbent Governor Rauf Aregbesola.
Not even showers of rain witnessed in some parts of state discouraged the people from exercising their electoral rights. Rather than return home, those who had umbrellas used them as shields, while others sought refuge at nearby locations around the polling zones until the rain subsided. The queues were really long.
In some places, men and women lined differently; but in other areas, they mixed. Though they had different candidates, the people united, exchanging banters and composing themselves in a civilised manner. Their patience is worthy of commendation, as the election process spanned several hours. From accreditation, voting to counting of votes and announcement at the polling unit, the people endured and took the result in good fate. Talk about sportsmanship.
Despite the harassment of some top politicians by security personnel, there were no acts of violence across the state. The only known incident that could have created tension was the misunderstanding between agents of the two main parties – All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) – in Gbongan, a town few kilometers away from Osogbo, the state capital. An agent of one of these parties had slapped the other and the situation almost got out of hand, as members of the party tried making a retaliatory move but the intervention of security personnel prevented the situation from spiralling out of control.
Even Prof. Bamitale Omole, vice-chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, who was the returning officer of the election admitted that there were hardly any reports of violence. He made reference to this shortly before he began announcing the results. Though many might attribute this to the heavy security presence, the people also played a major role in ensuring that peace reigned. There could have been trouble in areas of lesser security presence, but Osun people chose to be law-abiding in the interest of the nation. I cannot but doff my heart for the ‘good’ people of Osun state.
The Jega-led administration at INEC has no doubt introduced notable changes in the electoral body. Being an academic, Jega decided to collaborate with people from his primary constituency, Bayero University Kano, where he was vice-chancellor. Lecturers and youth corps members are employed on temporary basis during election periods and this has brought about a far better situation than what obtained in the past when some corrupt politicians capitalised on the weakness of desperate electoral observers to buy their way through. There is perhaps a modicum of integrity in most of the officials that conduct election in the country.
An electoral observer linked Jega’s “sterling performance” with the collaboration with academics. A staffer of INEC also reasoned along that line.
Another point raised in support of Jega’s decision to employ the services of academics during elections is their proficiency. However, an incident that occurred at the state headquarters of INEC during the collation of results almost punched holes into that belief.
A coalition officer was asked to announce the result of his local government and the professor of a leading university in the country could not give a good account of himself by emulating those who had done the same earlier.
The results had already been documented and programmed into INEC’s database. The collation officers were only asked to read out the hard copy, which coincidentally was being displayed on a projector. However, apart from the fact that he was incoherent, the professor kept mixing up the figures.
Firstly, the returning officer subtly told him to start all over again because his figures did not tally with the one appearing on the screen. He tried again, but could not get the result until he was asked to leave to prepare himself all over again.
About 30 minutes later, he was called to reel out the actual figures. Though there was a slight improvement, the man still did not live up to expectation. However, the audience got bored, having waited so long for the result of that local government, and therefore cheered him up when he finished. A resounding applause roared for prof in the hall, but was there any need to say that he understood the real message?
Osun election was a test of might between the federal and state government. The PDP had the mind to re-enact its Ekiti feat by winning more states in the south-west, whereas the All Progressives Congress wanted to retain the seat of power and also test its popularity among the people. What you have in such situation is better imagined.
APC’s leaders relocated to Osogbo about a week to the election and the PDP bigwigs did the same. However, a few days to the poll, Osogbo came alive with dignitaries: minister of state for defence, Musiliu Obanikoro; minister of police affairs, Jeilil Adesiyan; and some other top-notch personalities who hid their identities behind the tinted glasses of vehicles blazing through the state in an intimidating manner.
Sulaiman Abbba, acting inspector general of police was also in Ekiti. So was Brigadier-General Johnson Olawunmi, director-general of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC); Evans Uwerem, deputy comptroller-general, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Commission (NSCDC), and so on.
Personally, I counted well over 100 vehicles with number plates bearing PRESIDENCY and someone else might be forced to think the president was also in town. The bigwigs shook Osun to its foundations, but the people sent across a strong message: no army, no matter how powerful, can stop an idea whose time has come.
From a distance, one would have ordinarily applied caution in dealing with security personnel, sensing that Abuja might have drafted a script for the officers. Nothing could have substantiated this than the assault carried out against Mr. Ayodeji Moradeyo, a senior reporter of Television Continental News (TVC) and his cameraman, Binafia Miebi.
The journalists were attacked at the secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party in Osogbo and handed over to the police as criminals. It took the intervention of the leadership of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and some other colleagues to secure the release of both men. This made journalists covering the election to brace up for harassment.
However, the police, acted contrarily, forcing this reporter to wonder if the police could actually be so dignifying in their approach.
News was all over town that some INEC officials were detained at the office of State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Osogbo, after being arrested in Obokun local government for electoral fraud. TheCable visited SCID for confirmation and in the process came in contact with perhaps the most civilized corps. ‘
“You are welcome, what can we do for you?” he asked politely.
“Ooh! It’s not here. Can you follow me for direction, please? God bless you; have a nice day”.
Such courteous utterances of from a police officer?
Though the officers were in high spirits before the election, the same cannot be said after the people had cast their votes. One thing was evident: hours before the announcement of the result of the election, everyone knew who the winner was. At Arugba circle, en route to Okefia, where the government house is situated, results were being displayed on the giant electronic billboards. Talking about technology. So the people only waited for the 24-hour curfew imposed on the state to be lifted before trooping to the streets with their brooms. They were dancing, chanting, singing and, surprisingly, the morale of the security agents just dropped.
Hours to the election, they were in boisterous mood all over the state. But the aftermath of the election suggested that roles have been changed. The security personnel had gone into hiding and the people had taken over. A pale of cold just descended on the officers.
Aregbesola had upper hand over Omisore in terms of publicity materials. From billboards, to posters, stickers, flags and other memorabilia. It was nearly on a ratio of 9:1 across the state. Right from the moment one entered Osun from Oyo, Aregbesola was conspicuously seen all over.
However, the most surprising thing was that while the campaign materials of Omisore were scarce in town, they were well pasted on the fence of the government house, adjacent the police headquarters in Okefia. I wondered what prompted that idea. Perhaps it could have been a notice of quit to the existing occupant of the house. The way the minds of politicians work, only God knows!
The term crept into our lexicon after the Ekiti State election of June 21 and as a result of the embarrassment generated by that trend, politicians try as much as possible to avoid it, even though it was real. The Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) is in Ile-Ife; Omisore, a top contender is from Ife and truly he won convincingly in Ife but not OAU, which had 10 polling units.
The PDP candidate had reportedly made several attempts to resolve his estranged relationship with the university community but to no avail. On this day, he needed their votes seriously. The alleged donation of a bus to the student union did not achieve the result and 10 polling units cannot be left like that, hence stomach infrastructure could have just been a good weapon. A vehicle containing bags of rice was brought into the school premises.
It belonged to the students but they had to work for it. So they struck a deal: give us your vote and this would be yours. Some students fell for the bait yet that could not give them victory, Omisore lost to Aregbesola by a very low margin and they decided to take away the goodies because the students did not fulfill their own end of the bargain. But trust Nigerian students, not even a bag of rice was taken out of the campus. Spirit of aluta!
As I moved from place to place, I conducted some sort of survey. I wanted to know the mind of the people, who they wanted, why and what they would do. It was unmistakably clear that the people wanted the governor to continue. Little children were urging their parents to vote for him. The bike man wanted him. Drivers of the mini-buses, popularly called Kurugbe, wanted Aregbe. The market women and food vendors. There was a clear direction that Aregbesola was a very popular politician who had won the people over.
But not everyone liked him. A woman operating an odds-and-ends store at Woleola estate, opposite old governors office, said she was a civil servant and just doing the business on the side. She jeered at the jubilant crowd who were celebrating as result trickled in from various polling units. “’Omi’ won in Ife and some parts of Ede, not only Osogbo votes can make him governor,” she said.
She would not say what she had against the man drawn to so many, but his reelection would be a deep source of worry. But those in her ilk are very few, as the people trooped out when he was declared winner of the election on Sunday. The city of Osogbo erupted and you could feel the connection, the bond, the passion; and as he made to thank his supporters at Freedom Circle in Osogbo, they kept yelling, screaming. It was so clear; the people had spoken. Osun people stood by him; they were not cowed by the armed security men, the masked and unmasked. They wanted the governor to continue and they succeeded. The will of the people is supreme – any time, any day.
Osun election was peaceful. It was free and fair, just like my stay there. I want to be in this state again.
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