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Opinion: As Edo Goes to the Polls Today
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By Raymond Nkannebe
As the good people of Edo State troop out en masse to cast their ballots towards determining the next occupant of the Dennis Osadebe Government House in the State, so much is at stake.
On the one hand, the election is in many respects a referendum on the performance of incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki who ran a popular campaign some four years ago to become the 5th democratically elected Governor of the State. On the other hand, it is a fight to the finish by political heavyweights in the State seeking to ‘retire’ each other.
Whereas Obaseki had been lavishly marketed by the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Governor of the State, comrade Adams Oshiomhole, four years ago, in an election that seemed as though he was also on the ballot, today, the tables are completely turned. Friends have become bitter enemies. And for Oshiomhole, just about anything would be fine, to prevent Obaseki from winning re-election.
On the campaign stump, he was seen kneeling before a gathering of Benin Chiefs apologizing to them for the indiscretion of canvassing the candidate of his former God-son, Godwin Obaseki four years ago. He now says he (Obaseki) is the worst thing to have happened to the State. And wants to correct it, with the same man, he had told the whole world was an unrepentant liar, school dropout, and “a well known non-performer”, Pastor Osazie Ize Iyamu.
For Ize Iyamu, a veteran political figure in the State by all standards, the election is probably his last shot at acheiving what has clearly become a life ambition. His quest to become a Governor in the State has seen him alternate both ends of the political pendulum at different times depending on the political dynamics. While he had vied for the top job of the State under the banner of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2016, he flies the flag of the APC today; a paradox that highlights the fluidity of Nigerian political parties and the lack of politics of ideology in Nigeria’s experiment with elective politics. Like Ize-Iyamu, like Obaseki, but it however remains to be seen whether his (Ize-Iyamu’s) well articulated SIMPLE Agenda makes any impression in the minds of the over 2 million registered voters who would be expected to cast their ballots today and in consequence decide the fate of the political gladiators.
From the robust and engaging campaigns of the leading contenders in the polls and the enthusiasm shown by the people of the state across the 192 wards, there is no doubt that the polls would be well attended, despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 Pandemic. In this wise, the Electoral Commission, deserves some commendation for the efforts it has taken to create a Covid-19 environment for conduct of elections. As voters, electoral officers, observers and other election stakeholders in the State file out on election duty today, one hopes that compliance with the INEC Guidelines for Conducting Elections during the Covid-19 Pandemic is prioritised.
As with all elections, the place of transparency in the entire process cannot be overemphasized. Indeed the essence of democracy is to afford the people the latitude and liberty to elect their preferred leaders without interference from any quarters. Sadly, our history with elections on this score have been nothing to cheer about. The ugly outcome of the Bayelsa and Kogi State elections indeed leaves much to be desired. And it would be a sad commentary for our election management system if the electoral heist that the world witnessed in both elections repeat itself in Edo.
As usual, INEC says it is ready for the polls, promising to ensure free, fair and credible elections. But if there is anything we have learnt from the past, it is that those words mean nothing. However, today’s elections affords the electoral commission, the rare opportunity to redeem it’s battered image in the opinion of many Nigerians by, asserting it’s neutrality and independence from any power centres whether at Abuja or Edo Government House. The Commission can only do this by undertaking today’s exercise with the demonstrated knowledge that it is the repository of a public trust which must not be treated lightly.
Implicit in the role of INEC in delivering its mandate on free and fair elections, is the role of the security agencies. Last year in Kogi, the Nigerian Police made an embarrassing show of how unprofessional it can be in the conduct of the election as some of its officers and men, were seen publicly prostituting the electoral process to confer undue advantage to a particular candidate. Such cannot be the role of the police which ought to maintain neutrality at all times and provide civil cover for the entire electoral process. Will the situation be different today? That is the question.
Already the events of yesterday evening, where a detachment of about 300 policemen were reported to be laying seige at the hotel lodged by the Chairman of the PDP Campaign Council and Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike does not give one hope that the over 30,000 police personnel posted to the State would conduct their duties with the highest sense of professionalism expected. When one factors the high stakes in today’s exercise as signposted in the serial cases of violence and thuggery that characterised the campaigns, that the police should be on the top of their game cannot be gainsaid. In my opinion, with all the best intentions in the world, there is little INEC can do in delivering on its mandate in the face of a compromised security architecture.
All said and done, beyond considerations of the oversized ego of the political actors in the State for whom this election is a test of their political future, we must not lose sight of the fact that the paramount demographics of today’s exercise is the people of Edo whose political choices today would determine how they’ll fare socially, economically and otherwise in another four years. If the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has taught us anything, it is that elections have huge consequences in the material well being of a people.
Consequently, the people of Edo must resist every attempt to make this election an extension of the political feud between Governor Obaseki and Adams Oshiomohle and vote in line with the dictates of their conscience and their aspirations as a collective. The developmental issues in the State are not in any way different from those in other parts of Nigeria: bad roads, ill equipped schools, unpaid salaries and other entitlements of civil servants, unemployment, electricity, lack of portable water, dilapidated healthcare system, a thin social security and poor access to credit in no particular order. An informed decision today at the ballot would entail a proper assessment of the manafestoes of the 14 political parties on the ballot, against the antecedents of each of the candidates, and making a choice accordingly.
By all means, today’s event should not be seen as an avenue to make quick money by unscrupulous voters and vote traders. Sadly, the wide trust deficit between citizens and leaders occasioned by years of leadership neglect, have given birth to a sprawling vote market as electorates now see election seasons as an opportunity to have their own share of the proverbial National Cake. A pre-election report released by the Centre for Democracy in Africa (CDD) on 17th September, 2020 which cited “vote trading” as a feared dynamic in the election had it that, “a number of voters interviewed insisted that the only thing, which would make them vote, is if a contestant, agrees to pay an amount for the vote”. When citizens trade their vote, they lose the moral right to hold elected governments to account and become complicit in their misery. Edolites can however sieze today’s occasion to elevate the standards of civic conduct at periodic elections in Nigeria.
Finally, elections like every other contests, are only amenable to one winner. In this connection, the conduct of the candidates at today’s exercise comes to mind. For all the foibles of our 21 years uninterrupted democratic process, we have been able to show leadership in the Continent by subscribing to a peaceful transition of power through the ballot, with president Good luck Jonathan elevating the bar in 2015. We cannot afford to go off that trajectory.
Therefore, irrespective of the outcome of the polls, basic rules of decorum, civility and gentlemanliness demands that contestants subscribe to the pact extracted from them by the Abdulsalami Abubakar and Bishop Kukah’s Peace Committee, not to foment trouble or outbreak of law and order by whatever means, but to explore our rich Jurisprudence to ventilate all perceived grievances at the Courts. In the words of former president Goodluck Jonathan, nobody’s political ambition should be worth anyone’s life.
May the best candidate emerge as the Heartbeat of the Nation, beats.
Raymond Nkannebe, a legal practitioner writes from Lagos. Comments and reactions to raymondnkannebe@gmail.com. He tweets @raynkah
Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of removing some of its nominated candidates from the commission’s list and replacing them with names allegedly unknown to the party.
The National Chairman of the party, Senator Moses Cleopas Zuwoghe, made the allegation in a statement on Sunday, following INEC’s publication of candidates for the 2027 State Houses of Assembly elections.
Cleopas said the names published by INEC, particularly in Anambra State, suggested an attempt to undermine the party ahead of the elections and create disaffection among its supporters.
The NDC chairman specifically alleged that nine persons whose names were not authorised or submitted by the party had been listed as its candidates in various constituencies in Anambra State, the home state of the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi.
He called on the INEC Chairman to immediately investigate the development and determine how the names got onto the commission’s list.
Cleopas also urged INEC to extend the investigation to other states, including Benue and Imo, where he said the party had observed a similar pattern.
According to him, the development had embarrassed the party, its leadership and its genuine candidates, while creating disaffection among its supporters in Nigeria and the Diaspora.
“We, as a party, are also carrying out our own independent investigation, the preliminary findings of which are already pointing to the complicity of INEC officials in foisting names purporting to be our candidates, but who are not from us,” he alleged.
He said the party’s investigation indicated that the uploading process was being used to intimidate and embarrass the NDC.
The party listed the following persons as names allegedly published by INEC as its candidates in Anambra:
Onitsha South 1 — Umennaajiego Jude Ezenwa
Onitsha South 2 — Akpotue Obinna Chibuike
Orumba North — Nwankwo Chiemerie
Anaocha 1 — Maduagwu Eric K
Idemili North — Ngoebisi Obinna
Njikoka 1 — Isintume Charles
Nnewi South — Nwachukwu Nonso
Nnewi South 2 — Okeke Ifeanyi Akunne
Ayamelum — Nnonyelu Samson E
Dunukofia — Azotani Chuks Francis
Cleopas, however, said the party is particularly concerned about the process through which the names were uploaded and published.
He said after the conclusion of the party’s primaries and appeal process, stakeholders from Anambra, the party leadership, representatives of Obi and the appeals panel agreed on a final list of candidates.
According to him, the list was signed off by the relevant stakeholders before being uploaded to the INEC portal using the code provided to the party by the electoral commission.
He alleged that INEC officials subsequently kept nine of the names on “Pending” status, claiming that the names were already in the commission’s system based on submissions by officials who monitored the party’s primaries.
Cleopas said the NDC formally challenged the names and submitted the identities of candidates it said were legitimately nominated by the party, but INEC allegedly declined to replace the disputed names.
He further alleged that INEC subsequently collected Form EC-9 directly from the persons whose names were in dispute and uploaded the forms without going through the party.
“To further confirm that there was a predetermined effort on the part of INEC to impose the said nine candidates on the party, and embarrass both NDC and Mr. Peter Obi, INEC went behind the NDC to collect the Form EC-9 directly from the candidates, bypassing the party, and uploading same,” he alleged.
Cleopas argued that where there was a discrepancy between names submitted by a political party and information received by INEC from its monitoring teams, the commission should have left the affected positions vacant pending clarification, rather than publish names the party said it did not nominate.
“At the very worst, INEC could have left us with no candidates for those positions, if they knew they were unwilling to engage us in addressing any perceived anomaly,” he said.
The NDC chairman accused INEC of creating a pattern in which opposition parties were allegedly prevented from uploading their preferred candidates while other names were introduced into their candidate lists.
He vowed that the party would pursue the matter through all available legal channels and seek to have what it described as its authentic candidates restored.
“We are moving to approach the court of competent jurisdiction to seek redress and restore our authentic candidates. The general public and our millions of supporters should note that these are not our candidates,” he said.
Nepal said Sunday it had begun burying some of the hundreds of bodies recovered after devastating floods, after taking DNA samples and marking them so families can later retrieve them.
The dead are traditionally cremated on funeral pyres in Hindu-majority Nepal, so the burials are viewed as long-term storage until families can retrieve them.
Foreign Secretary Amrit Bahadur Rai told reporters that all those buried were carefully recorded, but also appealed for international support, saying Nepal needed “more than a thousand” freezer units to store bodies.
The announcement of the burials came as Nepal’s disaster ministry increased its toll again on Sunday to 752 bodies recovered and 2,502 people missing.
That list includes 589 foreigners unaccounted for.
Chinese state media earlier confirmed 16 dead in Tibet and 546 people missing following Wednesday’s disaster, taking the overall toll to 768 dead and 3,048 unaccounted for.
“Following standard and accepted protocols, such as those of ICRC (Red Cross), the mortal remains of the dead, especially those not recognisable… have been temporarily buried,” Rai told reporters.
“Medical teams took DNA samples from every victim prior to the burial so that families can match-reference later, and would be allowed to exhume for necessary rituals.”
Nepal has called for freezer storage units and DNA testing kits, as it is overwhelmed with the number of bodies to store safely.
“We have requested different countries for freezers; we will need more than a thousand,” Rai added.
“Many dead bodies have been collected, and they have started decomposing. To preserve public health, we had to bury the decomposing bodies,” he added.
AFP
By Henry Ukazu
Dear Destiny Friends,
Everyone loves influence. Everyone wants to be a person of influence. Everyone wants to be relevant. Everyone wants to be celebrated. Everyone likes attention, appreciation, approval, and admiration. All these are products of influence.
The question I need you to ask yourself is, are you a person of influence? Are you influencing anyone? Do you have a positive or negative influence on your children, spouse, friends, mentors/mentee, or even strangers? Take a minute to listen to yourself.
When we talk about influence, uninformed minds just think influence is only about money, power, authority, or even being a mentor. Influence is far from it. We are all influencers in one way or another. Many people have influenced us in different ways, some positive, some negative. Similarly, we have also influenced many people in good and bad ways.
But today, I’m here to share with you what influence is about and the positive ways one can be a person of influence. Influence comes in different ways: as a politician, you are influencing people; as a leader, you are influencing policy; as a youth advocate, mentor, teacher, pastor, and employee, you are influencing somebody in one way or the other.
Do you know you can influence someone with your lifestyle? Yes, the way you talk, write, lead, dress, eat, exercise, preach the word of God, do your job, serve people, train your children, etc., are all part of influence. Influence is powerful. It has a way of permeating someone without them knowing. I believe that’s why my late mother would always say, if you are hanging out with a friend, only take the good part and leave the bad part.
We currently live in the 21st century, where the internet leads. The internet is regarded as the fifth estate for a reason, because it empowers networked individuals and alternative media to hold traditional institutions, governments, and mainstream media accountable. Everyone and almost everything is on the internet; however, sometimes, the information we get on the internet is regarded as fake because it’s unverified.
In some quarters, the internet has been regarded as a bad influence on the younger generation because of the limited restrictions and the negative information it has exposed their minds to think in a particular way. Some other schools of thought have opined that the internet has done more good than harm due to the knowledge it has exposed their minds to, as opposed to the information being peddled by some other schools of thought. Regardless of the aisle one belongs to, the internet truly has its pros and cons, especially as it relates to influence.
The big question one needs to answer is what influence is. According to Nosakhare Tune Oni – A Pan-African Strategist, leadership and business coach, “influence is when people trust your judgment enough to act on it. It is when someone calls you before making an important decision. When your recommendation opens a door. When your name carries weight in a room, you’re not even in. When people are willing to put their reputation behind yours. That’s influence.
Let’s take a minute to dwell on those lines again. Has anyone played any of such roles in your life? If yes, that’s the best definition of influence in a nutshell. Influence is not about quantity, but quality. The quality of people in your life is more valuable than the quantity of people one’s life. Do you know we don’t really need battalions of friends, whether online or in person, but just one person of influence can be a game-changer. According to Les Brown, a leadership coach, we need only quality people.
Do you know we are everywhere and nowhere at the same time? Do you also know that we can be everywhere and still have very little influence? Influence is about knowing your value and the right people who appreciate the value you bring. Do you know one can be a person of value to the wrong person or audience?
Influence is about having followers who believe and follow your teaching. We can have visibility with little or no influence. One may have 100,000 followers. We may trend on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, LinkedIn, or even WhatsApp. Your name is a household name. That is visibility.
Let me give you a practical example. If you have a large crowd of people following you online or in person. The critical question one must ask oneself is: why are they following me? Are they following me because of my ideology, my talent/gift, academic process, position, profession, vocation, skill, or jokes? If they follow you because of the ideology you represent, you are a person of influence. If they are following you because of your jokes, you may be a content creator or comedian with little or no value in influencing them to do or not do certain things. Real influence provokes action.
According to Nosakhare Tune Oni, influence is built differently from attention. Attention can be bought. Influence must be earned. You can manufacture visibility with advertising, controversy, or constant posting. But you cannot manufacture trust that easily. It comes from consistently being useful. Keeping your word. Knowing what you’re talking about. Showing up when it matters. Building relationships before you need them.
And creating value for people without constantly asking, “What’s in it for me?”
Do you know a person with 1,000 followers and deep trust within a particular industry may have more real influence than someone with 100,000 followers who nobody listens to. So, I don’t think the goal should simply be: “How many people know me?” A better question is: “How much does my presence actually change things?” Because visibility gets you noticed. Value gets you remembered. Trust gets you listened to, but influence is what happens when people trust your value enough to move.
As I prepare to conclude, please take a minute to ask yourself: are you a person of influence? Do you have influence? What positive influence have you had on people or anyone? Today, I want you to be a man/lady of influence like Martin Luther King Jnr, Mother Theresea, Evangelist Ebuka Obi, President Nelson Mandela, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Dr. Kola Adesina, Dr. Joe Abah, Dr. Dele Momodu, Barr. Henry Ukazu and Miss Ginika Dike.
Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer, and author of Design Your Destiny- Actualizing Your Birthright to Success, Unleash Your Destiny, and The Six Pillars of Success. He can be reached via info@gloemi.com
