On Saturday, July 16, 2022, voters in Osun state, South West of Nigeria will go to the polls to elect who will be the Executive Governor of the state for the next four years.
No fewer than 15 candidates will be on the ballot paper including the incumbent Governor, Adegboyega Oyetola of All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ademola Adeleke of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party’s Hon.
Yusuff Lasun, a former Deputy Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, among the contestants.
Already, the preparations towards the election have reached the fever pitch for the candidates, electorates and the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which is the lead agency of the stakeholders.
It goes without saying that INEC in conjunction with all the arms of security agencies have mobilised to Osun state ahead of Saturday’s gubernatorial election.
As at the time of this report, both sensitive and non-sensitive materials have been successfully deployed across Osun state by INEC just as local and international observer groups and the vibrant Nigeria media are already on ground in Osun state to observe, monitor and to bring to millions of Nigerians and international community what will happen in Osun state come Saturday.
Earlier in the days leading up to the Election Day, the National Peace Committee (NPC) spearheaded by former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar and Bishop Mathew Hassan Kukah have supervised the signing of the Peace Accord by the 15 Governorship Candidates at Oshogbo, the capital of Osun state.
However, beyond the preparations for a hitch-free, fair and credible election in Osun, the Commission under the hardworking Professor Mahmood Yakubu must think out of the box to beat vote buyers to their game on Saturday.
To discourage the act of “See and Buy” by unscrupulous politicians who have devised other means of compromising the elections in Nigeria after INEC’s introduction of Bio-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) has made ballot box snatching irrelevant, the Commission should learn from what happened last month in Ekiti State Governorship Election.
Prompt News can confirm that the act of “See and Buy” was very successful in Ekiti State Guber Election last month
because of the way the electoral umpire positioned the Ballot Box at various Polling Units.
It was observed that voters had ample time to display their thumb-printed ballot paper before folding it to drop into the ballot box placed far away from the cubicle to the Ballot Box.
In the process of casting his or her vote, the party agents who were taking records of who voted for their candidates had proper view of the tthumb-printed papers. This was widespread in Ekiti State Governorship Election.
Luckily, the Commission has promised to effect some changes in the election process especially in the way ballot boxes and voting cubicles were placed last time in Ekiti state.
It is important to know that should the voter be deprived the opportunity to display his or her thumb-printed ballot paper by placing the ballot boxes very close to the cubicle and backing the public who are queuing to cast their own votes.
INEC as a lead agency in the conduct of elections in Nigeria will have to change the entire security architecture by giving the Nigeria Police and other relevant security agencies to cordon off the ballot boxes and cubicle areas so that party agents and electorates on the queue will not see the ballot paper the voter is displaying no matter how hard they tried.
If INEC succeeds in doing the above listed adjustments then it will be very difficult for “See and Buy” to rear its urgly head in Osun State Governorship Election.
Harry Awurumibe is a Public Affairs Analyst
