The President of the Centre for Convention on Democratic Integrity (CCDI), a non profit organisation with Consultative status of United Nations Mr Olufemi Aduwo has said that the election that gave Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu a second term on March 18, 2023 was credible.
Speaking on the conduct of the last general elections, Aduwo who served as Chief Technical Officer to a foreign election mission in monitoring the 2023 general election said the gubernatorial and state assembly election did not face the same problems with the use of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, (BVAS) as that of presidential election of February 25.
He said the results from polling units for the gubernatorial election were uploaded and displayed for public scrutiny. “At the time of the declaration of presidential results, only one quarter of result was viewable in IREV. But by midday of March 19, gubernatorial race, available results online ranged from 62 to 97 per cent depending on the state, including Lagos.
The cosmopolitan nature of Lagos makes the state a guinea pig for our democratic experiment. Whatever works in Lagos should be considered applicable elsewhere.”Lagos has approximately 13,325 polling units populated by citizens from all parts of Nigeria. Some areas are populated predominantly by one ethnic group. In all parts of Lagos, however, the most ubiquitous are the Yoruba. This is because Lagos is historically and geographically part of Yoruba socio-political civilisation (an identity factor that many confused with tribalism in the last election)”.
He said following the political thunderbolts against APC in the first election, many had written off Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and others felt his chances were very slim but he said the governor returned to the trenches to work out more strategies.”Many things worked in favour of Sanwo-Olu. The traditional stakeholders in the state did not take the development with levity. They came out in full force to campaign for the governor, the like of the current Minister of lnterior, Rauf Aregbesola, who was not visible during APC presidential campaign in Lagos, relocated to the state weeks ahead of the gubernatorial election.
“He made the target of his campaign for Sanwo-Olu the non-Yoruba. Sanwo-Olu himself didn’t leave any stone unturned. He met with the Christian religious leaders as well as other necessary stakeholders to seek their support, which eventually worked out for him. The party embarked on a serious door-to-door campaign and mobilisation of its members before the election and it paid off”.
Aduwo who has been international election observer for many years and the only Nigerian accredited by United Kingdom Electoral Commission who observed the country 2010 general election and 2016 referendum called on political parties to always engage professional research organisations to help. them with accurate opinion poll before any election.
“l spoke with 230 of LP members from South-East zone who resides in Lagos state after the presidential poll, they told me point blank that they would not vote for LP guber candidate in Lagos. During my interaction, the educated non-Yoruba in Lagos decided to vote for Sanwo-Olu based on two issues: being a Christian and principally because many voters believe the LP candidate does not have adequate experience and maturity to govern a state like Lagos”, Aduwo said.
On the complaints of Voters molestation during the Lagos Governorship Election, Aduwo said complaints about the electoral process in Lagos are traceable to less than four per cent of the polling units. They account for less than 10 per cent of the win margin. This is based on average voter turnout. Where the law makes substantial compliance with the benchmark for credible and acceptable election, it is difficult to conceive of anything other than an affirmation of what has already been declared. Sanwo-Olu with whom a majority of the voters identified won the gubernatorial election in Lagos State.
“Remarkably, in many states, the dynamics changed after the presidential election with political parties clinging to victories after losing to the opposition during the February 25 Presidential Election. It was the same story in Oyo where Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led APC’s Teslim Folarin with a wide margin as against what transpired during the presidential election which the APC won”.
