The Okafor family has been making preparations to travel to their home town in Anambra State to vote in Saturday’s governorship elections.
“We are going to vote out the governor”, said Joseph Okafor, the father of three. “The government demolished my family house to build road. No compensation. No sorry”, he concluded.
Unfortunately, Okafor has not been following the news and didn’t know that it is not in all states that governors will be elected on Saturday. And he is not alone. There are other Nigerians who are not aware of the situation.
Gubernatorial elections will only hold in 29 out of the 36 states of the federation on Saturday 9th March.
Governorship elections in the remaining seven states were staggered and had already been conducted off season.
However, apart from governorship election in 29 states, all the 36 states of the federation will elect state assembly members while in the Federal Capital Territory, there will be area council elections.
The seven states where governorship election will not hold are Edo, Bayelsa, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Anambra and Kogi.
On the whole, there are 1, 066 candidates for the governorship elections, 14, 583 for the state assembly elections and 806 for the FCT Area Council elections broken down into 105 chairmanship candidates and 701 councillorship candidates.
As campaign ends today for the 2019 elections, tension has built up in some states because this last leg is closer to the people at the grassroots.
Thuggery and violence tend to be more pronounced at this level because of the desperation of candidates to win at all costs. Such candidates at assembly and governorship levels are in direct contact with the people and can dictate to supporters what to do to ensure victory for their principals.
The security agencies will need to up their game and be seen to be impartial in dealing with volatile situations at polling booths, collation centres at ward, constituency, local government and state levels. They should not be seen to be in support of any candidate or party and should be prepared to protect election officials, observers, media people and voters throughout the voting period – i.e. before, during and after the elections. Identified flashpoint states like like Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Delta, Rivers, Zamfara, Benue, Imo and Akwa Ibom should be areas of focus and special security apparatus must be put in place to nip any potential dangerous trend in the bid and ensure hitch-free and violence free polls.
Above all, credibility and fairness should mark these all-important elections.
Image credit: Electra.org
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Ogie Eboigbe, veteran journalist, broadcaster and public affairs specialist writes and analyses current and historical issues with a ‘wise pen’.
