Nothing is impossible. But is it possible that in local government area elections within a state, with the playing ground level, and the atmosphere rid of state-sponsored electoral brigands and their duress, a single political party will win all the local government areas? This can only be malpractice, manipulation, a manhandling of democracy and its greatest treasure — the ballot box.
The tide has continued with thunderous fury. Across Plateau, Anambra, Rivers and now Kano states, all chaotically folded into the dizzyingly disoriented camp of Nigeria’s opposition, the ruling party in each state has swept the polls conducted into the local government councils.
At a time when Nigerians are groaning under the chaotic ineptitude of the ruling All Progressives Congress, these victories if they weren’t so dubious would appear an endorsement of the stellar work the opposition parties are doing in the state they run.
The renewed ferocity of the battles for Local Government Areas long neglected for development but considered prized electoral trophies for political parties is directly connected to the historic intervention of the Supreme Court in its judgment of July 11 wherein affirmed declared financial autonomy for the councils.
From that moment, it became clear that the fight for the councils would be nasty and noxious. Until date, the bloodiest battles have come in Rivers State where a long-running turf war between the former governor and his successor lent flames to the criminals who razed down the secretariats a couple of councils in the state.
In Anambra State, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, despite mounting evidence that it is failing to secure lives and property in the state, mopped up all 21 Local Government Areas in the state. In Plateau State where the Peoples Democratic Party has flattered to deceive, it still won 15 of the 17 areas. In Rivers State, in scenes shred from the darkest scrolls of political sorcery, the Action People’s Party buried in obscurity until lately, and which is neither the ruling PDP in the state nor the main opposition party, the APC, won in 22 of 23 councils.
The latest duet of mass deception ” and chilling conspiracy between a state electoral commission and the state government came in Kano State on 27th October 2024 when the Kano State Independent Electoral Commission declared that the ruling New Nigeria’s People’s which only won last year’s governorship elections in the state by whiskers lapped up all 44 local government areas in the state, going a step further to take home all 484 councillorship positions. By any measure, these are impossible electoral numbers.
What has happened in these states which is clear even to the naked eyes is that the elections were rigged and manipulated in favor of the ruling party in each of the states. It is a damning indictment of the kind of politics played in Nigeria.
When the ruling All Progressives Congress rigged and wriggled its way to victory in the 2023 presidential election, other political parties cried themselves hoarse until the Supreme Court endorsed the extremely dubious victory of the APC and all it did to achieve that.
Save in Anambra State which did not hold elections last year, the governorship elections in each of Plateau, Rivers and Kano States were fiercely contested with each of the political parties throwing everything at the other contenders. The elections in Plateau and Kano State especially went through nerve-shredding months of litigation until the supreme court again, despite its rumblings, silenced all grumbling.
In Plateau, Rivers, and Kano State where the governors have struggled to convince, did the people really and so comprehensively vote the ruling parties? The case of Kano where the governor has done little more than pursue a vendetta against his predecessor is especially curious. Did the NNPP, a relative newcomer to politics in the state, really win all the LGAs?
The popularity that these governors have attempted to display in the states is as improbable as it is invasive of democracy in Nigeria.
What is happening is that state governors in collusion with state independent electoral commissions are rigging elections into local government areas to reward their cronies and favor their political parties. This survivalist strategy with its many slimy tactics is infinitely dangerous to democracy in Nigeria.
Elections are contests of manipulation, with the party with the most destructive game plans emerging victorious. This means that save a few, many of those who shriek themselves stiff about electoral malpractices after elections do so only because they were outfoxed and outmaneuvered in the elaborate game of deceit.
When to gain an advantage, people are prepared to do what they otherwise rail against, then there is a problem. This largely explains Nigeria’s dilemma and the weasels who weave it at all costs.
Kene Obiezu,
