Success Nwogu of The PUNCH chronicles events leading up to the recently concluded local government  elections in Kwara State, and concludes that beyond voting during elections, the people deserve good governance.  

Memories of the Saturday October 26, 2013 election in 15 out of 16 Local Government Councils of Kwara State, will linger in the minds of observers of politics in the North-Central State for a long time to come. The reason is not far-fetched. It provided an opportunity for the troubled ruling Peoples Democratic Party and the main opposition party, the All Progressives Congress to test their popularity.

Members of the APC and the governorship aspirant of the Labour Party, Alhaji Abdulhakeem Amao, had called for the postponement of the elections. This, they argued, would provide a level playing field for all interested political parties to participate without let or hindrance.

Their pleas fell on deaf ears as the Chairman of the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission, Dr. Uthman Ajidagba, insisted that the election would go on as scheduled.

According to him, the commission had followed due process and was guided by the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of  Nigeria (As amended), the Electoral Act, and the Kwara State Local Government Electoral Law 2010 (As amended).

He said KWSIEC had on May 28, 2013 issued a proclamation in accordance with the law. He noted that his commission held stakeholders' forums, sensitization lectures, as well as sensitisation tours of all LGAs.

Ajidagba claimed that representatives of all political parties and all other stakeholders fully participated in the activities.

He, however, lamented that only three political parties namely: Labour Party, PDP, and Social Democratic Party returned the relevant forms to confirm their willingness to take part in the election.

Three candidates on the platform of the Alhaji Bamanga Tukur-led PDP: Alhaji Ademola Yusuf, Alhaji Adebayo Jimoh and Mr. Haliru Mahmud had approached a Federal High Court presided over by Justice Olayinka Faaj to stop the elections. Their attempt failed.

The opposition APC also tried but failed to convince Justice Suleiman Kawu of a High Court in Ilorin on the need to postpone the polls. The APC represented by its counsel, Mr. Deji Gbadeyan, had sued KWSIEC, and joined the PDP, Dr. Bukola Saraki, Labour Party, Peoples Democratic Movement and Independent Democrats in a bid to postpone the elections.

The opposition party had, among other things, sought to restrain KWSIEC   from conducting any election on October 26. It argued that going ahead with the election when a matter challenging the validity, legality and the constitutionality of the proposed election was still in court was subjudice.

But counsel to KWSIEC, Adelodun Salman (SAN) and that of the Abubakar Baraje-led PDP, Abdulwahab Bamidele urged the court to dismiss the claimants' application.

They had argued among other issues that an injunction is granted on established parameters notably; legal rights, irreparable damage, balance of convenience and conduct of parties.

Kawu agreed with the defendants by striking out the matter. He said the applicants failed to satisfy the court that going ahead with the elections would infringe on their rights.  He consequently dismissed the application.

Even after securing the court victory, many PDP leaders in the state were still uncertain about the conduct of the election because of rumours that the Tukur-led PDP which is the one recognised by law had disowned the 15 candidates put forward by the faction of the party loyal to Dr. Bukola Saraki.

A document purportedly issued by the Tukur-led PDP was circulated a day prior to the election urging KWSIEC to discountenance "Saraki's candidates" and accept its new list.

It was also said that Tukur wrote security agencies urging them not to allow the elections to go ahead.

To the disappointment of APC and the Tukur-led PDP faction in the state but to the relief of Saraki and his loyalists, the election went on with minor glitches.

The Kwara State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Agboola Glover-Oshodi, revealed that a total of 7,000 security operatives made up of 4,000 policemen drawn from the State Police Command and others from neighbouring states worked round the clock to ensure a peaceful conduct of the polls.

Although there were reports of apathy in some rural areas, the police described the polls as generally peaceful.

As expected, Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, the state  House of Assembly Speaker, Mr. Razak Atunwa, Baraje, member representing Ilorin East and South Federal Constituency, Dr. Ali Ahmad and many party stalwarts loyal to Saraki applauded the conduct of the election.

Also, National Co-ordinator, CITAR, an NGO, Mr. Mohammed Lawal, said on the scale of random sampling, despite some observed shortcomings, it is believed that the election was generally free, fair, peaceful and credible.

Lawal who is the national coordinator of the election, monitoring body however urged KWSIEC to improve on its record of deployment of election staff and logistics. It also urged the election management body to train and retrain its election duty staff to enhance efficiency.

A visibly excited Saraki said "Leading to the election, there was enough reason for apathy.  I commend the people of Kwara State for the way they turned out for the election. When you look at the factors now, national and state issues, one would have thought that if there was no commitment or interest and support from the people of Kwara State to the party, you would not have seen this kind of turnout."

He also said the "Interest of the people is what drives the political leadership and the government in the state. You might not be able to achieve all. There is no doubt that there is hardship out there; a lot of people  unemployed, a lot  of people do not find a means of living, a lot of people are still starving."

 According to him, he and his loyalists were able to retain the confidence of the people because they de-emphasized god godfather politics and the imposition of candidates.

The chairman of the KWSIEC, Dr. Uthman Ajidagba, left no one in doubt about PDP's victory at the polls when he declared that the party won all 15 PDP chairmanship and 181 councillorship seats.  This announcement threw supporters of the party into wild jubilation.

Ajidagba, who said results of councillorship election had earlier been released at the various ward collation centres, did not however announce the scores of the LP and SDM that participated in the election.

He declared the results of the chairmanship election in which all PDP candidates emerged winners: Asa LG, Saka Obalana, 43,748; Baruteen LG, Mohammed Bio 76,478; Edu LG, Abubakar Tsonga, 61,291; Ekiti LG, Akintoba Fatigun, 23,888; Ifelodun LG, Babatunde Salami, 74,299; Ilorin East LG, Abdulateef Okandeji, 89,416; Ilorin South LG, Usman Ebedi, 63,267; Ilorin West LG, Tajudeen Oloje, 129,885; Irepodun LG, Owolewa Omoniyi, 45,187; Isin LG, Maruf Thanni, 21,144; Kaiama LG, Yahaya Bagudu, 43,747; Moro LG, Abdulganiyu Ajibola, 46,493; Oke-Ore

LG, Aminat Yusuf, 23,957; Oyun LG, Jimoh Alao, 34,783 and Patigi LG, Uthman Muhammed, 36,294.

Ajidagba said "The candidates, having satisfied the requirements of the laws, are hereby declared the winners."

It was not surprising, that chieftains of APC, Mr. Dele Belgore (SAN) and Bashiru   Bolarinwa while reacting to the results, alleged that they fell short of standard elections.

They also said that the exercise disregarded the process for free choice amongst the people and allegedly impugned  the corporate integrity of the state.

Bolarinwa, a former member of the House of Representatives, claimed that there was absolute apathy of the electorate towards the election.

Belgore, in a statement by his media aide, Rafiu Ajakaiye, dubbed the election, a desperate, face-saving measure.

He alleged that the announced votes by KWSIEC were untrue.The statement said, "…and where did KWSIEC see the over 800,000 votes it claimed were cast in the sham election that recorded some of the worst voter turnout in history?

"For instance, up to 18 of the 20 people who responded to a question by Ilorin.info on Twitter and Face book on Saturday said they did not vote because they felt it was a one-party affair and there is no point wasting their precious time.

"Funny enough, these over 800,000 votes are those credited to the New PDP candidates alone because nothing was said of the votes scored by either the Labour Party or the SDP, the two parties that took part in this mockery of democracy.

"These votes credited to PDP far outweigh the entire votes cast in the 2011 governorship election involving the Action Congress of Nigeria, Allied Congress Party of Nigeria; Congress for Progressives Change and PDP!."

But the state PDP Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Mas'ud Adebimpe, said there was a large turnout of voters. He said the elections were free and fair, adding that the results released by KWSIEC were credible and authentic. As these claims and counter claims die down within the coming weeks, the people of Kwara expect nothing less than an improvement in the quality of their lives.