In its days in opposition, the All Progressives Congress (APC) was fiery and fearsome. It drove the fear of God into the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from which it wrested power six months ago. We have lived with APC since then, but as some have been saying, we have yet to see the party belch fire from its mouth like the Sango Yoruba god of thunder. What these people are saying, in essence, is that what they are seeing, at least for now, is not what they bargained for from a party, which came to power, on the mantra of change.
Has there been any change in the last six months? To me, it is too early in the day to answer that question one way or the other. But for sure, we should have started seeing some signs of what to come because as the saying goes, the morning shows the day. This is, however, not an assessment of the APC government but of the party’s handling of the fallout of the November 21 Kogi State governorship election, which it had won before its candidate, Prince Abubakar Audu’s sudden death.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) did not declare the late Audu winner of the election because of Article 44 (L) (N) of the 2015 INEC Election Guidelines, which states : Where the margin of win between the two leading candidates is not in excess of the total number of registered voters of the polling unit(s) where election was cancelled or not held, decline to make a return until another poll has taken place in the affected polling unit(s) and the results incorporated into a new form EC8D and subsequently recorded into form EC8E for declaration and return. But, the party’s reaction to this unexpected development was least expected.
APC did not react as the APC we know. Its reaction was too tame and tepid as if nothing is at stake when it is the governorship of a state that is the bone of contention. Give or take, APC has already won the election, no matter the provisions of the election guidelines. PDP also knows that it has lost – that is why it is fighting tooth and nail to see if it can upturn the poll on technical ground. Its candidate, Governor Ibrahim Wada, is trailing the late Audu by 41,353 votes and the outstanding votes in the 91 polling units where election did not hold are 49,953 out of which APC only needs 9000 votes to retain its lead. This is why INEC has fixed a supplementary poll for Saturday and asked APC to replace the late Audu with another candidate whereas he contested the November 21 poll with James Faleke.
Without Faleke as the late Audu’s running mate, the ticket would have been incomplete and APC would have been disqualified from the November 21 poll because no sole candidate can contest election as governor, according to Section 187 (1) of the Constitution. With Audu’s unfortunate passage, Faleke should ipso facto step into his shoes. We can only be talking of a substitution as provided for in Section 34 (3) of the Electoral Act 2006 if both candidates had died. The section reads: Except in the case of death, there shall be no substitution or replacement of any candidate whatsoever after the date (not later than 60 days to the election) referred to in subsection (1) of this section.
If it does, it would have stood up for what is right without consideration for the attendant consequences. Some people are saying that the party does not want to field Faleke as its candidate because he is from the minority group in Kogi State. Should where he hails from make him a second class citizen in his own state? Didn’t APC realise that he is from the minority group before pairing him with the late Audu? If Audu had died in office, will those who do not like where Faleke comes from be talking of the propriety of a minority succeeding him when it is constitutionally stated that the deputy automatically becomes governor where his boss dies? INEC is set for Saturday’s supplementary poll, which Faleke and Wada have rejected.
Wada and his party too have cashed in on the impasse to claim victory at the poll all because of APC’s misreading and mishandling of the case. PDP would have since stolen the show from APC if It is not crystal clear that come rain, come shine, the latter will eventually be declared winner of the election, if not by INEC, but certainly by the court, when all this political shenanigan is done with. APC should stop playing the PDP game because by so doing it is unwittingly playing into the opposition’s hand. PDP does not want to lose Kogi despite having seen the handwriting of defeat on the wall.
It has now become a case of to the courts, O disputants! Wada is in court seeking to be declared governor-elect in the absence of the winner, the late Audu. He seems to have forgotten that the late Audu ran with Faleke. And Faleke is also in court, seeking what truly belongs to him. I only hope that APC will put its house in order before the Kogi crisis turns into another Senate leadership brouhaha albatross on its neck. The public expects something better from APC and it is not too late for the party to show that it can make the difference in our national life. The people are looking forward to that much-expected change.
NATION
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