Governorship Election: 5 Things we learnt

29 states trooped to the polls to elect their governors with seven states conducting their elections in the “off-season”.

Here are a few lessons we picked from the just concluded elections:

1..INEC still can’t get its act together.

Logistic problems that reared their ugly heads in the presidential election of February 23, resurfaced during the state elections across Nigeria on March 9.

Voting materials arrived most polling units late, smart carders malfunctioned in most polling units and INEC Returning Officers reeled out wrong numbers during collation.

Even though the governorship election was moved from March 2 to March 9 because of logistic and other concerns, the same problems were evident as INEC conducted elections in 29 states.

INEC still can't sort out its logistics, decades after.

2..PDP is closing the gap on APC across the states

After the supplementary elections conducted on March 23, the two biggest political parties in the land, APC and PDP, were almost neck-in-neck in terms of the number of states won.

Bauchi Governor Mohammed, won't be returning to government hose for a second term [Herald] Pulse Nigeria

Results from 27 of the 29 states where elections were held shows that the APC has so far won 15 states, while the PDP has racked up 12. The two outstanding states—Rivers and Adamawa—will also likely go the PDP’s way

Considering that before this round of elections, APC controlled 22 states while the PDP controlled 13, with one state—Anambra—going to APGA, the PDP has sure made considerable progress in this election.

APC has lost Adamawa, Bauchi, Oyo and Imo to the PDP.

PDP lost Gombe and Kwara to the APC.

The victory margins were also paper thin between the PDP and APC in states like Kano, Sokoto, Plateau and Benue, for instance, suggesting that no one party can lay claim to complete dominance of the nation’s political landscape, at least for the moment.

A good thing for Nigeria’s nascent democracy.

3..Violence continues to be a major concern

Kano was like a war zone during the supplementary election. Thugs chased journalists and voters from polling units in the North-western state.

Most elections in Nigeria have witnessed political violence (Guardian) ece-auto-gen

A couple of persons were shot across Nigeria and a serving lawmaker was killed in Oyo.

Violence disrupted the vote in Rivers, Delta and elsewhere and there were multiple cases of ballot box snatching.

The more things change…..

4..INEC has to look for ways to announce results quicker

There has to be something the electoral commission can do to make sure votes are announced as soon as polling is closed. Vote collating doesn’t have to be the kind of rocket science we have been treated to by INEC in recent weeks.

And in a couple of states, the returning officers couldn’t compute properly. What exactly was that about?

5..Our democracy may not be where it is, but it is getting better

Electoral battles in most states were a competitive, fierce affair. PDP lost some of its states, APC lost some of its states and both parties made inroads into the territories of the other. Democracies should be keenly contested affairs and that's what this election offered in most respects.

INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu gave the 2019 elections his best shot (Punch) Pulse Nigeria

It may be 2019, but the signs, as it pertains to our democracy, aren’t so bad after all.

With a few improvements in logistics, electronic voting and the death of money politics someday, Nigeria could well hand Africa its best election yet.

Never say never.