By Ishaya Ibrahim
In buses, eateries, bars, salon, just anywhere people meet, the choice of who becomes Nigeria’s President has been the major debate.
There are 73 candidates on the ballot for the presidential job. But only two have the spread in the 36 states, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and across 774 local government areas to win the election.
They are; President Muhammadu Buhari, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and his main challenger, Atiku Abubakar, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) flag bearer.
Election facts
Three elections will be taking place simultaneously on February 16. Presidential, Senatorial and House of Representatives.
However, the one that occupies the thoughts of most Nigerians is the presidential election.
For the election, there are 84 million registered voters, the figure rose from 68 million in 2015.
There are 119,973 polling units where elections are expected to be held.
After the votes, the results will be moved to all the 8,809 wards in the country for collation. It will further be moved to 774 local government areas for another collation before it finally gets to the state collation centres across the 36 states.
After the tally at the state’s collation centres, Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will announce the winner. This may take till Tuesday, February 19.
The campaigns
The embargo on political campaigns was officially lifted on November 18, 2018. Prior to that, the PDP produced its manifesto in a book form called ‘The Atiku Plan.’
The APC did same, and titled its known ‘Next Level.’
The logo of the Next Level initially caused some stir when it was discovered to be a plagiarised work of Winthrop University. The campaigns, however, moved on.
At various campaign rallies, the crowd surged in their numbers. Some were jubilant, others were mere observant, indicating that they either came as spectators or hired to fill the venue.
The Kano rally of the PDP was particularly striking. Kano is held as Buhari’s stronghold. It gave him 90 per cent of its votes in 2015.
But after the PDP rally which saw a mammoth crowd, analysts started revising their assumption and placed Kano as a battleground state for Buhari and Atiku.
The gaffes
The campaigns were not without some major gaffes. President Buhari made the most of them.
While handing a flag to the governorship candidate of the APC in Delta state, he referred to him as ‘our presidential candidate.’
In Cross River State, the President raised the hand of the chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Victor Ndoma-Egba as the governorship candidate instead of Owan Enoh.
In Ekiti, he said he was elected in 2005.
For Atiku, a major slip was his comment that he would make his friends rich if elected.
Rowdy rallies
The campaign of the APC in Imo and Ogun were particularly untidy.
In Imo, the rally was literally divided into – those in support of the state’s governor, Rochas Okorocha, and those behind the APC governorship candidate, Hope Uzodinma. Their supporters tried to outshine each other.
The pro-Okorocha’s group who had adopted his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu as their governorship candidate on the Action Alliance (AA) platform, came to the venue with the posters and banners of their candidate. The irony, however, is that they promise Buhari all the votes in the state.
Buhari was caught in between these two scenarios. He simply asked the people to vote a candidate of their choice.
In Ogun, the President met a similar scenario. The governor, Ibikunle Amosun, wanted another party, Allied Peoples Movement (APM) to produce the governorship, while also pledging to ensure Buhari’s victory.
Unlike in Imo, this clash of interest did not end without a major incidence. When the President raised the hand of the APC candidate, some miscreants threw objects at him. The men of the Department of State Services (DSS) quickly saved the day by forming a ring around the President to shield him from the flying objects.
The APC’s national leader, Bola Tinubu, wearing angry look, was caught shoving aside the APC’s flag at the rally.
More than 24 hours after his action dominated the social media, Tinubu later said in a statement that he merely intended to pass the flag to the APC’s national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole for onward transmission to the Ogun APC governorship candidate, Dapo Abiodun.
INEC
The INEC in 2015 under the leadership of Attahiru Jega made history by managing an election that passed the test of public scrutiny.
The rating of that election, even by international standards, was adjudged to be fair. Can the current INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, deliver at least an election that can meet the 2015 standards, if not surpass it?
The INEC chairman’s litmus test came when news broke that Amina Zakari, a relative of President Buhari would be in-charge of the collation centre.
The revelation came with hue and cry from Nigerians who insisted that she should be removed. But the INEC chairman clarified that her role would simply be managing logistics at the venue. This has not assuaged Nigerians but has significantly reduced the fears.
President, Voters Awareness Initiative (VAI), Wale Ogunade, believes that INEC has put a lot of measures to make the election better than the 2015 exercise.
He said this election is not likely to witness the high rates of void votes which Nigeria’s elections are known for.
He said the way INEC has solved the problem was allowing voters to use any of their fingers, and not necessarily their thumb to vote. The thumb, especially those with a big one, has resulted in many void votes.
Ogunade also said the ballot paper will be coming in a folded format, eliminating the pressure of folding the paper.
He believes that the 2019 election will be an improvement of 2015.
Security
The police have pledged full security for INEC and the electorate before, during and after the election. The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu said the police have no sympathy for any political party or any candidate in the election.
He pledged that his officers and men would work towards a free, fair and peaceful election throughout the country. On Thursday, the police declared that vehicular movement across the country would be restricted between 6 an and 6 pm on Saturday, election day.
Across the country, Nigerians were seen travelling to the places they registered for the purpose of casting their ballot. At the airports like the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja and the Murtala Mohammed Airport Ikeja, huge presence of travelers was observed with many of them sounding optimistic they were travelling to discharge their civic responsibility.
The same applied to those travelling by road who were spoken to at the bus and other road transportation terminals.