The Saturday 18th June 2022 Ekiti Gubernatorial election is a microcosm of Nigeria’s politics. First, is the voters’ turnout which was 36.5%. Low turnout of registered voters during election is one of the problems we have always had in Nigeria due to voter apathy. Why are Nigerians not interested in voting? Firstly, many do not realize the relationship between governance and their lives; hence they do not see the importance of going out to vote. They have been forced to be their own government providing all their needs for themselves or have their needs provided for by fellow citizens. Secondly, some Nigerians feel that their votes do not count and that irrespective of whom they vote for, the elections will be rigged in favour of whoever the politicians want to be the winner. It is very common to hear “our votes don’t count” whenever conversation on elections come up. There is little faith in the electoral process. For others, the hours that would be spent at the polling units is better put to use eking out a living. After all, whoever is in office will not make any difference to their daily struggles. There are also the nagging questions on the integrity of the voters register. Are the numbers real? Are there multiple registrations that were done to boost numbers to enable ballot box stuffing that used to be rampant? Before now, there were no stringent measures to restrict multiple registrations by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The voter register was only kept in hard copy, but Section 9(2) of the amended electoral act now mandates INEC to keep the record of voters at its national headquarters and other locations, provided the register is kept in electronic format in its central database, in addition to being saved in manual or hardcopy format.

Despite the improvement in the efficiency of INEC and relatively low incidence of electoral violence at the Ekiti election, the process was characterized heavily by vote-buying. Vote-buying is not an alien concept in Nigeria’s politics. There are claims from CDD, an Abuja-based policy & democracy think tank, that the fairest election in Nigeria’s history (1993) had instances of vote-buying, which partly formed the rationale behind its annulment by the then Military Government. Asides from using food items to lure voters, politicians now give money to voters on the condition that they vote for their candidates. Many have wondered why voters do not simply collect the money and still vote their choice. That used to be the case until the politicians changed tactics and insist on seeing the ballot paper before payment on the Election Day in what is known as “vote and show.”   

The arrests of party agents allegedly involved in vote buying during the Ekiti election by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is a welcome development. Sections 114- 129 of the Electoral Amendment Act 2022 explicitly violate vote-buying and other forms of voter inducement. However, there are reports that political parties are working hard to ensure that the arrested persons are not prosecuted.  

Is it not ironic that the same people who sell the message that votes do not count are vigorously buying votes? If votes do not count, why then do politicians bother to buy votes? They spread the falsehood that votes do not count to send you away from the polling unit because they would rather have people whose votes they can buy at the polling units. They know there are persons whose votes can never be bought no matter what and it is better to keep them away from the polling unit.

One of the videos that went viral was that of young ladies showing off the money they received for their votes. It has been reported that as much as N10,000 (around $20) was paid. It is one thing for us to be aghast at the notion that people can sell their votes for such meager amount and it is another to understand the devastating effect of poverty that has been weaponised.

There are two different angles to vote-selling. The first angle leans towards the consideration of the poverty in the land. Nigeria’s minimum wage is N30,000 (around $60) per month. This is a recent increase which a lot of State governments are still unable to pay. So N10,000 is a lot of money for many and the politicians are exploiting that vulnerability. For some persons, N10,0000 can be the difference between life and death. There are people whose loved ones have died because of their inability to pay hospital bills worth N3,000 (around $6), so you cannot tell that person not to collect money. The second dimension is that there is a scarcity mentality amongst many. It is not about the money or hunger but their attitude or love for freebie or “awoof” as it is called in the Nigerian parlance. They want to get something even if it is of no benefit to them. It is the mentality that makes people scramble for food at parties, take the food home only for it to be discarded. Meanwhile their action denied some the opportunity to get some food at that party.

A positive development from the Ekiti election is the low record of electoral violence. This can somehow be attributed to the newly signed Electoral Amendment Act 2022, where accreditation is done with a biometric system called BVAS. Hence ballot stuffing and snatching cannot affect elections anymore because of the digitalization of the process. Section 51(2) of the electoral act gives the Presiding Officer (PO) the power to cancel the result of the election where the number of votes cast at an election in any polling unit exceeds the number of accredited voters in that Polling Unit (PU). Section 47(2) of the new law, allows for the use of electronic devices such as smart card readers, electronic voting machines and other technological devices in the accreditation process for voters and in the general conduct of elections. Although, there have been one or two reports of allegation of ballot box snatching and also reports of security agents being used to suppress voters, it is a far cry from the rampant violence that had trailed elections a couple of years back. The new Electoral Act undoubtedly changed the game!

The results of the Ekiti election also give a picture of what is happening politically in Nigeria. The incumbent party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the election while the major opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) took a distant third position. The PDP, which is supposed to be the significant opposition, have not been able to be a viable one both at the state level and at the national level. The supporters of the party has in the last 7 years spent time berating citizens for voting them out of power in 2015 and they have ended up antagonizing the electorate they need to get back into office. This could have led to their dismal performance in the just concluded election. The party that came second is one of the parties usually referred to as third force parties and the gubernatorial candidate happen to be a seasoned politician that left PDP because he was cheated as reported in one of the dailies.

Currently at the national level there is a party called Labour Party that is making the waves. This party suddenly became the people’s darling because of a presidential candidate, Peter Obi who moved to the party from PDP. He was infact the PDP vice-presidential candidate during the 2019 general election. He was also a Presidential aspirant for the upcoming 2023 election under the PDP before he opted out due to recent development within the party that made it practically impossible for him to continue to participate and make constructive contribution as was noted in his letter of resignation to the party. Some have attributed his resignation to the heavy monetization that was eventually alleged to have taken place during the PDP primary election which has led to the Inter-Party Advisory Council calling for an investigation into the alleged monetization. PDP is once again losing out through its members who move to other parties as was seen in the Ekiti election.

With Peter Obi’s candidacy there has been renewed interest in Permanent Voters Card (PVC) registration. People are opting to get their voters card because they have candidates they want to vote for at the elections. It is interesting to note that Nigerian youths make up a large population of the surge of the population of the newly registered voters. They were not this interested in previous elections. The #EndSars protest and years of advocacy on the importance of participation in the electoral process has awakened the youth of Nigeria to their civic responsibility.  As we go into the 2023 election which is about 8 months away, the ground is set for the possibility of anything happening and it might just be the case of “it is impossible until it is done” Nelson Mandela quote.