{"id":218,"date":"2019-03-12T17:30:51","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T17:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mukatoinvestment.com\/blog\/?p=218"},"modified":"2019-03-12T18:10:39","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T18:10:39","slug":"presidential-national-assembly-elections-in-nigeria-a-post-mortem-analysis-by-olaoluwa-mufutau-kajogbola-fnim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mukatoinvestment.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/12\/presidential-national-assembly-elections-in-nigeria-a-post-mortem-analysis-by-olaoluwa-mufutau-kajogbola-fnim\/","title":{"rendered":"PRESIDENTIAL \/ NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS IN NIGERIA: A POST MORTEM ANALYSIS. BY OLAOLUWA, MUFUTAU KAJOGBOLA (FNIM)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

on 23rd<\/sup> February 2019, Nigerians trooped out in large numbers to cast their ballots for the candidates of their choices to fill the position of the executive President of Nigeria and members of the National Assembly which tenure will be for another four years i.e. between 29th<\/sup> May 2019 and 29th<\/sup> May 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The election earlier fixed for 16th<\/sup>\nFebruary 2019 was shifted to 23rd<\/sup> February, 2019 due to an excuse of\nlogistics problems by the Independent National Electoral Commission.\nNotwithstanding, the election was held and the results were announced on\nWednesday, 27th<\/sup> February, 2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a process<\/font>, the election was started with a long period of preparation by INEC. It was propped up with interesting campaigns by the political parties and culminated in the casting of ballots by the electorates and the declaration of results of the election on Wednesday 27th<\/sup> February, 2019. The last has however not been heard about the election as one of the Presidential candidates who lost the election has challenged the result of the election at the election Tribunal.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

 It suffices to have a perspective on the whole\nexercise for a post mortem analysis as follows:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAMPAIGNS:<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The pre-election\ncampaigns were full of fun and furry. There were a lot of social media clips,\nbeautiful rhetorical speech makings, impressive jingles on electronic media,\nfestive rallies, processions and public gatherings and a lot of many other side\nattractions. Promises of a better life were made to the electorates. However,\nsome campaign contents lacked value, were not issue based and were made up of\ninsult and degradation of personality, contempt, intimidation and threat of\nviolence which tend to instill fears in the electorates. Of grave concern was\npolitics of envy which dominated the campaigns in the last election. The\npolitics of envy as explained by David Hundeyin is the assertion that life is\nterrible because of the existence of another group of people who are either of\na different social class, ethnic, religious, political group. The evil of that\nelement of campaign is that it has engendered more bitterness and divisions\namong Nigeria. Campaigns for the last (23rd February, 2019) Presidential and\nNASS election in Nigeria was quite intensive and it could be said that the\nelectorates were not taken for granted in term of necessary mobilization.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

23RD FEBRUARY 2019 PRESIDENTIAL AND NATIONAL ASSEMBLY\nELECTION:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a massive\nturn out of electorates who wanted to exercise their franchise o the day of the\nelection. Accreditation of voters for the election and the actual casting of\nballots took place simultaneously and the exercise commenced in many polling\nstations across the country as early 8.00a.m. Late commencement of voting and\nfailure Card readers in some voting centers was however reported by the Media.\nViolence also marred election in some areas and there was media report of\nkillings and ballot box snatching in some election areas. In Oriade Local\nGovernment of Osun State, INEC materials were burnt by hoodlums and bullet\nmarks on the wall of the INEC office were showed on the Radio and Television on\nthe day of election. The Inspector General of Police, while giving his report after\nthe election, confirmed the loss of two policemen and the maiming of many\npeople during the election. He also confirmed the arrest of 323 people for\ndifferent electoral offences.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Card readers<\/font> wonderfully worked well to put the electorates within reasonable\ncontrol. Voting by proxy was vividly put to check. Election results were\nvalidated by the number of accredited voters electronically recorded by the\ncard readers. The card readers, to a very large extent, provided a brick wall\nagainst election fraud in the last Presidential \/ NASS election in Nigeria.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voters\u2019 apathy<\/font> was not well pronounced in the last Presidential\/NASS election in\nNigeria. Forty Five percent voters\u2019 turn out recorded in the election is\nimpressive but there were allegations of voters\u2019 disenfranchise in some voting\nareas such as Lagos and some other places in the Northern and eastern parts of\nNigeria by some desperate politicians in the display of their do or die misdemeanor.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ballot papers<\/font> designed for the election was too long and too unweeding. A total of\nseventy five political parties were printed on a ballot paper used for the last\nPresidential NASS election in Nigeria. This caused confusion for some\nelectorates while trying to locate the logo of their preferred candidates. This\nalso caused a very large number of void votes. Out of 28,614,190 votes cast in\nthe last Presidential election, a total of 1,289,607 votes were void votes\narising from voters\u2019 mistakes. A very long time was taken to read through all\nthe parties \u2018scores when the results of the election were being announced\nwhereas only two or three parties had the overwhelming results. Tongues have\ntherefore continued to wag on the need to control the number of political\nparties that would appear on the ballot papers in future.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Muhammad Buhari<\/font>, the incumbent President and the candidate of the Action Peoples\u2019 Congress\nParty was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as\nthe winner of the election with a total of 15,191,847 to defeat his arch rival\nin the election, Alhaji Atikku Abubakar, the candidate of the Peoples\u2019\nDemocratic Party, who polled 11,262,978 votes. Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP\nhas filed a case at the Election Tribunal to challenge the result of the\nelection.  Of the 109 seats contested for\nat the upper chamber of the National Assembly, the results so far released as\nat 27th<\/sup> February, 2019 showed that the APC won 64 seats, PDP won 40\nseats while the Youth Progressive party (PYP) won only I seat. The results of\nthe remaining 4seats were still being expected from INEC.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

SECURITY:<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Security was\nmaximally provided but it did not translate to maximum peace on the Election\nDay. The general peaceful atmosphere which pervaded election area in the\nmourning later turned to violent and dreadful atmosphere later in the day\naround the collation centers in some places across the country. The\nparticipation of the Military personnel in security duties on that day became a\nsaving grace for the overall security of lives and election materials. The\nsecurity situation in some areas on the Election Day therefore lent Credence to\ndeployment of military personnel for internal security on the days of elections\nin Nigeria. Higher level of political maturity among Nigerian political class\nis necessary to make deployment of soldiers for election related security\nduties totally unnecessary in future.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ELECTION TRIBUNAL:<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

The Presidential\ncandidate of the Peoples\u2019 Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar expressed his\ndissatisfaction about the result declared by INEC for the Presidential election\narguing that the result did not reflect the the votes cast by the electorates.\nHe has therefore filed a case at the election Tribunal where the case would be\nadjudicated and a verdict will be issued on the matter by the court.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also an\naspect of electoral process as stipulated by the electoral law of the country.\nThe case may step up to the appeal and the supreme court before a final verdict\nis established.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Election petition<\/font> to the tribunal is a way of reposing confidence in the Judiciary as a\nreliable and dependable arbiter in such political disagreement. The petitioner\nhowever needs to present enough credible evidence to prove his case and as an\neffect; to reclaim his hitherto deprived mandate. Election petition also has an\nadvantage of:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Exposing any hidden discrepancies in the\ncourse of the election if there is any.<\/strong><\/li>
  2. Enriching further the country jurisprudence.<\/strong><\/li>
  3. And making the victory of the winner more\nlegitimate if the petitioner is unable to prove his case.<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    CONCLUSION:<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

    The general election\nof 23rd<\/sup> February, 2019 could be adjudged to be better than what\nNigeria used to have in the past. However, the palpable fear and some cases of\nviolence that accompanied the election eroded a very high rating that would\nhave been earned from the exercise. The final credulity of the election is\nbeing awaited from the election Tribunal. The process of a very near perfect\nelection in Nigeria remains a dream yet to come true. The journey continues.\nHopefully Nigeria will get there one day not too far.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Wishing all Nigerians\nthe best under the new dispensation. Long live Nigeria.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    on 23rd February 2019, Nigerians trooped out in large numbers to cast their ballots for the candidates of their choices to fill the position of the executive President of Nigeria and members of the National Assembly which tenure will be for another four years i.e. between 29th May 2019 and 29th May 2023.  The election […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mukato-discussion-blog","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mukatoinvestment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mukatoinvestment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mukatoinvestment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mukatoinvestment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mukatoinvestment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.mukatoinvestment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225,"href":"http:\/\/www.mukatoinvestment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/225"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mukatoinvestment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mukatoinvestment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mukatoinvestment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mukatoinvestment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}