The outcome of last week’s governorship election in Edo State should not be a source of worry to Nigerians who already knew what was in the air. The result of that election as declared by INEC was, simply put, inevitable. I should think that even Governor Godwin Obaseki knew that. If he didn’t, he should at least have had premonitions – physical and (or) spiritual – that he was battling against principalities and powers that would go to any length. And they were very ready! To those Nigerians whom the election and all around it still give the “no credit today come tomorrow” vibes, please I urge you to man up and hold your peace. Nigerian elections should be a familiar turf to you by now. The players on the turf too should have given you enough as lessons. They designed and implemented ‘no credit today, come tomorrow’ elections.
If I was in such a position as to decide, I will strongly tell the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party not to bother to challenge the conduct and outcome of the election in court or tribunal or anywhere else. They should just relax after what they have done so far, like the mother hen who lost a child to the kite. If they must head to any court, it should be Kootu Olorun – God’s own court, for right judgment… They should not forget that there is a presidential “let them go to court” jibe already thrown at them. PDP, Labour and the insignificant others would incur more losses along with their bloodied noses. And a court would be additional waste of time, resources and efforts. The president’s jibe is like the icing on the cake of the gloat by the APC national chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje. It’s so sure that anyone who takes these subtle warnings with a pinch of salt would always end up with the short end of the stick.
Going by what has been said about the Edo election by various concerned stakeholders, I think it is just better for the PDP, LP and all the other aggrieved parties toying with the idea to forget going to court. The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room said the election fell short of credibility requirements and had failed to meet the provisions of the Electoral Act. These submissions should buoy their confidence in getting some reprieve from the courts, but they should also not forget that we have a ‘no credit today come tomorrow’ judiciary. This should rather lift them above the trite argument that taking the Edo election matter up would widen the frontiers of our legalese, or improve our jurisprudence. As far as I can see and believe on this particular matter, all those ego-massaging submissions are rather there to keep the dishevelled PDP or LP or any other crumbled political machine oiled, and to also keep it squeaking on somehow.
Perhaps, for emphasis, may I repeat that the result of the governorship election in Edo State of last Saturday should be just left alone. It was a practical demonstration of that slang ‘the more you look the less you see’. People in Edo State said so, especially as they looked to hearing the results they said they saw earlier before the collation by the electoral umpire. And, if, perhaps you look the more and you see more, then you may have to take whatever your eyes see. This advice is similar in texture to the suasive Yoruba warning to a person who had decided to embark on the expedition of picking the eggs of the bush fowl with cage.
Going by the results from feelers in Edo, the election was not an election per se, but an opportunity to show raw power and to tell some stubborn people, especially Governor Godwin Obaseki, who really is the boss in Edo State. The election was a payback time for a man who some said had the people behind him but didn’t have the principalities and powers with him. The poll, according to some others, was one way through which some powerful men dealt, although unabashedly, with a fellow powerful man. Here, names such as Adams Oshiomhole, Dan Orbih, Philip Shaibu and Nyesom Wike were mentioned. Unfortunately for Obaseki, he was in the midst of powerful enemies and he relied on fake assurances by the INEC that it would midwife a free, fair and credible election. With the exception of the APC, the parties in the election have totally forgotten how slick INEC was in its deception just last year; and it made the same promises with its array of wonderful fake products of technology.
If the technology was not fake, manipulated or compromised, why would Obaseki suddenly decide to relocate to the INEC office in Benin City in the heat of the collation of the election results? Is it that he didn’t have some other serious matters to attend to? He might as well have just gone to take a shower and relax with a few people around him to monitor as the results dropped to the almighty iREV. But he went there to see things for himself and learn what was going on, because he might have heard from the grapevine or seen something strange on the iREV. Obaseki either didn’t trust what he was seeing or had been hinted that some idan (magic) was going on there. In the end, his eyes saw what people who scavenge for the bush fowl’s egg with a cage were warned against.
As one insignificant outsider in the whole matter, the Edo election actually brought to my mind the sign that confused me so much as a fresh pupil of Amizi Oloko Community School in Ikwuano. The sign was on a shop that was run by a popular village shopkeeper we knew De m Igbo. The sign simply says: ‘No credit today come tomorrow’. Each day as I walked by the shop to school and read the sign, I would be curious and interested in knowing how others felt about it. I had truly wanted to know how it worked between the shopkeeper and those customers of his who had wanted credit. What if they come tomorrow, I would wonder, without the knowledge that tomorrow never ends. I didn’t know what was beyond me. I still don’t know what is beyond me. But I know that that, with regards to election management in Nigeria, three persons cannot stand in twos.
So, for those who had gone to the polls with the singular aim of making a change with their votes, I salute your tenacity, courage and determination. However, I think your reliance on the INEC to serve as a credible vehicle to that change you seek was misplaced. This, to me, was a form of that naivety I had with “no credit today, come tomorrow.” Those of you in who witnessed the uploading of the results on the ubiquitous iREV, and now claim that the results INEC announced were different from what you said you saw on the portal, see una, see God. But I think you also fell for INEC’s ‘no credit today, come tomorrow.’
No credit today, come tomorrow is also said to mean “cash and carry”. So, it might have also been ‘cash and carry election’. Did Edo governorship election also tick the box of our unique cash-and-carry election? Did it?
Congratulations Senator Monday Okpebholo.
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