As candidates share pains of rescheduled Edo poll

 

Ballot box

  As the countdown to the September 28 Edo State governorship election begins, ALEXANDER OKERE writes on the gains and pains of the rescheduled poll as well as the implication for the 19 political parties and their candidates

The recent postponement of the September 10 Edo State governorship election till September 28 by the Independent National Electoral Commission, no doubt, came as a major setback for the 19 political parties and their candidates seeking to succeed the incumbent governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole. Prior to the postponement, the state had been inundated with campaigns by the candidates and their parties trying to outdo one another in a bid to sway the opinion of the electorate towards their respective manifestos.

The list of the parties and candidates cleared by INEC for the poll include the All Progressives Congress, Godwin Obaseki; the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Osaro Onaiwu; the Labour Party, Pastor Amos Areloegbe; the Peoples Democratic Party, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the Action Alliance, Ishaka Paul; the Advanced Congress of Democrats, Andrew Igwemoh; the Social Democratic Party, Omorojieva Gbajuma; the Progressive Peoples Alliance, Thomas Sadoh; and the National Conscience Party, Omoragbon Osawaru; Others are the Citizens Popular Party, Roy Oribhabor; the New Nigeria Peoples Party, Frank Ukonga; the People for Democratic Change, Bishop Akhalamhe; the Mega Peoples Political Party, Oronsaye Richard; the Alliance Congress Party of Nigeria, Cosmos Irabor; the Independent Democrats, Tobi Adeniyi; the Young Democratic Party, Nurudeen Inwanfero; the KOWA Party, Thompson Osadolor; and Peoples Party of Nigeria, Tracy Agolebun, who is incidentally the only female candidate in the race. But many consider only a few of the parties as prominent in the race due to their membership, popularity of their candidates and their media presence.

No sooner had the stakeholders’ forum convened by the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, in Benin ended than the media were flooded with sudden call by the Police and the Department of State Services on the commission to shift the poll to a later date, citing security threats by insurgents as the reason for the call.

Although the security advice was rejected by many of the political parties, civil society organisations and election observers, the poll was eventually shifted two days to the exercise. The decision took its toll almost immediately.

Indeed, most of the political parties had concluded their senatorial, local government and ward campaigns, with their attendant expenses. For instance, the ruling party wrapped up its governorship campaign with a grand rally in Benin, which was attended by President Muhammadu Buhari, some APC governors and national leaders of the party.

Therefore, the postponement came as a huge blow causing the two major political parties to trade blames over the electoral umpire’s decision. The state chapter of the PDP described the postponement as a plot allegedly arranged by Governor Adams Oshiomhole, INEC and the security agencies to deny it victory. The PDP had, in a statement, questioned the rationale behind the shift in the poll in a state “without a history of security threat.” But the APC dismissed the PDP’s claim as false.

The development, however, appeared to have had a major impact on the candidates. Apart from their financial implication, in terms of additional spending, most of them had temporarily parted ways with sleep and their families, due to the daily visits to several communities, traditional rulers and other relevant groups.

To Obaseki, who saw his party’s primary as a full-blown election, the postponement of the poll was disappointing, after eight months of rigorous campaigns.

The APC candidate had, in an exclusive interview, said, “I am quite disappointed because you can imagine the implication of such a thing on somebody like me who has been campaigning in the last eight months. Unlike other candidates who did not have a rigorous primary, mine was like a full-blown election.

“So, you can imagine how much work I have had to do and the anxiety. I just hope that come September 10, I will be victorious. For me, it is quite disappointing, especially as we were clear that victory was ours.

“I do not know where this is coming from, why this decision was taken at this time, particularly because some of the issues raised by the security agencies, we had made these concerns known to them weeks ago. So, I felt that by now, they would have dealt with such situations.”

 Ize-Iyamu, who returned to the PDP a few years ago, believes the postponement is a conspiracy hatched by those who were afraid of defeat.

He said, “We were confident of winning, but all of a sudden, we got the news that the poll had been postponed with the authorities citing security challenges. It is a long postponement with the election scheduled to hold on a week day and we were not even consulted.

”We see this development as a conspiracy by those who are scared. But as law-abiding citizens, anything they want to do, we will be ready.”

The rescheduling of the election also shook the campaign of the other candidates and, perhaps, claimed its first casualty when the candidate of KOWA announced his withdrawal  from the race and joined forces with the PDP last week, stating that the development had destabilised his campaign.

Osadolor had said,”I am not satisfied with the postponement of the election. They (INEC) knew that we would win the election; that was why they postponed the election. Having done that, they have destabilised us. That is one of the reasons why we withdrew.”

But that did not appear to go down well with the national leadership of his party, which dismissed him as the KOWA Party candidate 24 hours after his withdrawal.

The party had, in a statement by its National Youth Leader, Jude Feranmi, on behalf of the National Executive Council, said, “Mark Adebayo, who heads the national secretariat of our party, has thereby issued a notification of dismissal to Thompson Osadolor, authorised by the BOT/NEC of the party which takes effect immediately.

“He does not qualify to bear our flag in the forthcoming election on September 28, 2016,” the statement said.

For the PPA candidate, it would be difficult for his party to afford another round of political campaigns. The PPA candidate, Sadoh, noted that the postponement would not tell a positive story about politics in Nigeria even as he disagreed with the reasons given for the shift.

He said, “The postponed election is going to tell a lot of stories on the politics of Nigeria. I do not think the story is going to be positive. It is going to tell a bigger story on my pocket and the coffers of the PPA.

“Election in Nigeria is capital intensive and my party is not buoyant as the two other political parties (APC and PDP). It is going to be difficult for me to go round again on campaigns because we thought we had stopped our campaigns last Thursday.”

But while others expressed worry over the shift, the APGA commended INEC for upholding one of the pillars of the party’s manifestos – education – by not denying the 1,742 candidates of the West African Senior School Certificate Examination their rights to vote. Onaiwu had even suggested a further postponement of the poll to ensure that all the candidates, many of whom he believed would vote for his party, participate in the election.

Onaiwu had said, “On Wednesday 28, there is Physics. After the holidays, I think I am going to do a letter to WAEC and INEC, alerting them that (September) 28 is not convenient. We must accommodate those people doing exams.

“They should take it (exam) to October 1. There is nothing wrong if we do the election on Independence Day, as long as we must have a governor that would be sworn in on November 12.”

However, many believe that the two-week period opened a window of opportunities for some of the parties to cement their campaigns. Consequently, sooner had the postponement been announced than the APC and the PDP begun another media war to drive home their suitability, cripple the chances of their respective opponents and, perhaps, gain sympathy votes from the 1,924,072 voters during the election.

For instance, Oshiomhole had during the visit of the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, accused the PDP of importing about 8,000 militants from neighbouring Delta and Rivers states to foment violence during the election.

He added that the militants allegedly took part in the last voter registration exercise in the state. But PDP dismissed the claim as a plan allegedly perfected by the governor to invite militants, whom he said were lodged in hotels and had been instructed to identify themselves as PDP thugs when arrested by security agencies.

The PDP also raised the alarm over alleged plan to swap the electoral officers in the 18 local government areas with “APC friendly” ones, an allegation INEC debunked, through its spokesperson in the state, Mrs. Priscilla Imoudu-Sule.

Imoudu-Sule said,  “I want to say that the electoral officers have been very busy retrieving their materials from their camps. Also, they have brought their card readers for fresh reconfiguration.

“So, all those things some people are saying are not from here; they are just in their imagination. I would rather advise that they go and campaign for the remaining two weeks and make up for that time. They should allow INEC to handle the administrative issues.”

Since it was practically impossible to commence a fresh round of rallies across the state within the period of the postponement, a few of the parties hope to bank on door-to-door campaigns, using their foot soldiers in the 192 wards in the 18 local government areas of the state. This, they believe, will enable them to reach out to some rural communities, which could not be covered before the earlier date.