7 Things we learnt from governorship battle

To emerge winner, Fayemi defeated Prof Kolapo Olusola-Eleka of the PDP.

Eleka was handpicked and heavily backed by departing Governor of Ekiti, Ayodele Fayose.

Here are 7 lessons Ekiti just left us all...

1. Nigeria runs a two-party democracy, deal with it

35 political parties fielded candidates for the Ekiti governorship election.

However, when INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) presiding officers began reeling out results of the election, only the PDP and APC were polling substantial figures. Some political parties had as little as three votes in a local government! (Look away now, KOWA, ANRP, SDP, AA, YDP etc).

Here’s the thing: we can pretend to run a multi-party democracy all we want, but the big boys (PDP, APC) are playing in a different league to the other ‘briefcase’ political parties who stand no chance at all in our cash based political system.

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Ekiti may just be a sign of what’s to come in the 2019 general elections.

2. The desperation for power is sickening

I had written earlier that ahead of the election, you had to really strain your ears to hear what the major candidates were proposing in terms of making life better for the people of Ekiti.

It was all about grabbing power for the sake of it, at the end of the day.

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We had over 30,000 police personnel deployed to keep the peace in one State, soldiers were stationed all over the place, teargas canisters were freely dispersed into gatherings, Fayose threatened the APC, Fayemi threatened the PDP and Fayose, Fayose claimed the police shot at him and Olusola Eleka eventually became bellicose like everyone else.

Ekiti became a war zone as it chose a governor. Sickening.

3. Fayose had Eleka’s mumu button

Not a lot of people know that the name Ayodele Fayose wasn’t even on the ballot.

Deputy Governor, Kolapo Olusola-Eleka was the PDP candidate for the Ekiti governorship election. However, he allowed himself to be so used by Fayose, he became a caricature of some sort. The Prof would quietly shrink under Fayose’s out-sized persona, image and ego.

It was said of Eleka that he only said what Fayose dictated and went where Fayose wanted.

In the end, Eleka lost—even if by a small margin. But he’s got to learn to be his own man in the future.

4. Vote buying is a huge factor in Nigerian politics

On the eve of the July 14 election, Fayose’s PDP which hasn’t paid workers their salaries for seven months, began dispatching N4,000 to bank accounts of potential voters.

When the APC learnt of what was going on, it increased its own vote buying amount by a thousand Naira (N5,000) on polling day. However, unlike the PDP, the APC preferred to disburse its own ‘stomach infrastructure’ in raw cash. Once you showed proof of voting for the APC candidate, you got your money.

Vote buying was so prevalent and brazen in the Ekiti election. The two major political parties

In the end, the political party that outspent the other, probably won.

5. Fayose’s theatrics now make for bad spectacle

The enduring meme or GIF from the Ekiti election has to be that of Fayose strapping himself in a neck brace and sling and wailing “I am in pains” into the cameras after claiming the police had physically attacked him, shot at him and hit him with the butt of a gun.

There’s been no pictorial or video evidence to suggest that the police did all of the above to Fayose and the police has denied assaulting the governor (not like the police has ever told the truth).

Fayose was also seen laying a ‘pastoral’ hand on Eleka and summoning the heavens to make his deputy, governor.

Fayose has led Ekiti by play-acting or histrionics. Thankfully, the public will now be spared some of that as he exits the stage.

6. Card readers are still a problem

The PDP candidate, Eleka, almost didn’t vote as the smart card reader for the electionrejected his finger-print time and again. There were several instances across Ekiti where voters couldn’t be registered on time because of faulty card reader machines.

In the end, a handful of polling units resorted to manual registration and accreditation--a by-phrase for rigging.

As we march tortuously into the 2019 elections, INEC has to elevate the smart card reader into something that is a lot more reliable. If Nigeria intends to transition into electronic voting someday, it’s got to begin with fixing the smart card reader.

7. Graciously accept defeat and come back stronger

This period four years ago, Fayemi was putting finishing touches to his concession speech. Fayose had reportedly rolled in the tanks from Abuja to annihilate, pulverize, emasculate and humiliate the sitting governor.

However, after a humiliating defeat (Fayemi lost all 16 local governments to Fayose in 2014), the genially sophisticated Fayemi quickly conceded, shook hands with his conqueror and disappeared into the midnight.

But not quite. He left with the resolve to return as governor someday. He often told friends that he had unfinished business in Ekiti.

The Fayemi who returned to seek the governorship throne in Ekiti in 2018 had become smarter, street-wise, a better campaigner, a shrewd politician and a bare-knuckled opponent. He returned to the stomp in 2018, all guns blazing.

The moral of the story: life doesn't come to an end when you are stuffed with humble pies.