Edo gov election: Beyond technology

FROM the registration of voters to the announcement of results, the September 21 Edo State governorship election was a raw contest between the human and the technological elements. Since every endeavour responds to and is shaped by its operational environment, the human element prevailed from start to finish, with shocks and surprises in tow.

The high-level desperation of the politicians powered by federal might, the incumbency factor, the estranged godfather-godson phenomenon, the influence of traditional authority and intra-party feud not only created a climate of fear and consequently low voter turnout, but they also conspired to compromise the technological innovations instituted to drive the process.

In the end, the Independent National Electoral Commission announced the All Progressives Congress candidate, Monday Okpebholo, the winner with 291,667 votes. He was trailed by the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Asue Ighodalo (247,274 votes) and the Labour Party’s Olumide Akpata (22,763 votes).

Politicians rallied voters to massively register and collect voter cards in preparation for the electoral war. A total of 2,629,025 voters registered for the election while 2,249,780 voters, representing about 80 per cent, collected their permanent voter cards in the 4,519 polling units.
Unfortunately, voter turnout was 22.4 per cent down from 25 per cent in 2020.

The results are a mixed bag of jubilation by the winning APC, condemnation by the losing parties and a few commendations and knocks by the election observers.

The technology elements introduced by INEC – BVAS, PVC and IREV – worked substantially. They were however heavily compromised by human factors. The election was won and lost by vote-buying, and during results collation.
Shockingly and surprisingly, despite the sombre atmosphere, including threats by politicians, there was no violence and there was only one reported case of ballot box snatching. Public outcry against the use of officials whose relationships with politicians could compromise their fair judgement was ignored by INEC.

The controversial outcome of the election, despite the successful employment of technology, confirms the popular belief that technology alone cannot deliver free, fair, and credible elections in Nigeria, unlike in other countries. Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan said, “Without the human mind ready to do what is right if we bring the technology, they will manipulate it.” He is right.
All the electoral shenanigans at the polling booths where vote buying and collation of results where results manipulation occurred, happened under the full glare of security agents that have responsibility for ensuring the sanity of the process, the party agents charged with serving the interest of their parties, and the voters who should own the process.

These three core stakeholders must engage in renewing the mind and mentality shift to complement technology and institutions for effective and efficient election conduct and democratic experiments to take place. Technology and institutions are not self-operating; they require the human element to deliver effectively and efficiently.

Additionally, there should be massive sensitisation of the people to make them know that politicians deliberately pauperise them to make vote-buying an effective tool for election manipulation, and that no amount of money distributed at the polls can cater for their welfare until the next election season.

The people need to know that huge turnout during elections makes vote buying difficult and ineffective. The people must own the democratic and electoral processes.

INEC must make voter registration and PVC collection seamless.
The gale of threats by politicians during the election is unacceptable. Such characters must be sanctioned to sanitise the democratic space.

INEC must cause officials whose relationship with politicians can compromise the integrity of elections to recuse themselves in the interest of fairness and justice.

As the Ondo State governorship election in November approaches, the stakeholders must learn lessons from Edo and apply the lessons to sanitise the electoral system further and strengthen Nigeria’s democracy.