PAUL ARHEWE 20/04/2011 02:43:00
A significant voting pattern was observed as the results from last week’s presidential election began to trickle in on Sunday Nigerians, to some extent may have jettisoned the moribund pattern of voting en-masse along party line. As it was made obvious in the poll that the electorate voted based on personality preference; this also took into consideration the ethnic and religious pathway. Thus, clearly dividing the country dangerously in two halves: -the northern and southern- like the prototype the late Gideon Okah proffered during the botched April 22 coup in 1990.
That the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) could decisively secure Lagosians’ ballots, a stronghold of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) attest to the fact that there is an emergent pattern of balloting, where consideration for party, which hitherto was a major factor in past elections, may soon be secondary if this trend continues. For ACN to clinch virtually all seats in Lagos and accrued a frightening proportion of winnings during the National Assembly elections for the whole of Southwest and a week later lost all but one (Osun) state to PDP, this tells it all. Someone asked this writer if the PDP would also floor ACN in the gubernatorial poll in the state? Many voters who trouped out to cast votes for PDP last week were actually voting for Jonathan, the personality bearing the flag of the party, not the party itself. It won’t come as a surprise to me next Tuesday if Governor Babatunde Fashola should garner 90 per cent of votes cast during the governorship poll for Lagos state where PDP won convincingly last Saturday.
People have already started venting their opinion that the victorious emergence of President Goodluck Jonathan is an output of voters’ sympathy and voting based on sentiment; pleading the cause for a minority ethnic group to take their turn at the highest position in the country. To a great extent, there is truism in this statement. However, to this writer, there is really no better alternative among the lots that contested the election with Jonathan.
While deadly uprisings are spreading like wild fire in some parts of the North, the triumph we have already recorded in the conducted polls would likely be overshadowed if such attitude continues as losers and their supporters fail to embrace the reality, and accept defeat honourably. For once, we can raise our head high, and be proud as Nigerians because we are certainly getting it right with the level of fairness and transparency that embodied the presidential and the legislative polls. Apart from the botched 1993 general election by the man known as evil-genius, elections in Nigeria, especially since the country embraced democracy in 1999, has continued to record backlog of widespread riggings, daylight ballot box snatchings, and deadly violence.
President Goodluck, Attahiru Jega and his INEC team deserve to be lauded for the commendable outcome of the two polls already conducted. Foreign observers, both the EU representatives and those from our neighbouring countries have all raised their thumbs up in acknowledging a well-conducted and very transparent election. The level of transparency for the polls is undoubtedly the best Nigerians have witnessed in decades.
Former Ghanaian president, John Kuffour who represented the Africa Union (AU) in monitoring the elections extols Nigerians determination and called the election a “refreshing” and “positive” impact on the continent. Other international observers from EU, ECOWAS and the US joined in rendering positive comments on the outcome of the poll. Monitoring group from Unites States, say thousands of polling unit across Nigeria were largely peaceful and free of major glitches associated with previous elections. This is indeed a turning point, we still have some more elections to conduct next Tuesday, and for INEC to have a clean slate and complete excellent grade, it needs to ensure that similar transparency accompanies the gubernatorial and the remaining parliamentary polls set for same day. Those little skirmishes observed during the last two polls need to be addressed.
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