POLITICS-NIGERIA: President Obasanjo Wins Second Term

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Apr 23 2003 (IPS) - Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared incumbent President Olusegun Obasanjo the winner of Saturday’s presidential poll.

”Chief Olusegun Obasanjo of the PDP (People’s Democratic Party) having met the requirement of the law, having scored the highest number of votes is hereby declared the winner and he is returned as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” INEC chairperson Abel Guobadia, declared Tuesday night.

In his acceptance speech, President Obasanjo gave "gratitude to God for his inestimable love to our nation for successful election in the last two weeks".

”By all account last Saturday saw the people of Nigeria go out in record number to freely, transparently and fairly make their choice. I am humbled that I am the people’s choice for the next four years,” Obasanjo said.

”I am happy by the magnitude of the mandate in which the voting pattern have cut across ethnic, regional and religious lines, by defying known elements of deceitfulness in our society. Electorates have demonstrably endorsed my hope and aspiration for a united, peaceful, strong and prosperous Nigeria,” he added.

”(Electorates) have voted for continuity, stability and progress and I humbly accept the challenge to consolidate the gains of the last four years, while charting the course to a greater destiny for our nation. The people of Nigeria have spoken loud and clear with their votes, they have voted for one united, harmonious Nigeria and no leader shall deny them their hearts’ desire,” Obasanjo said.

Obasanjo scored 24,456,146 votes in Nigeria’s 36 states, as well as in the federal capital, Abuja.

His closest rival, Muhammdau Buhari of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) got 12,710,029 votes.

Odumegwu Ojukwu of the All Progressive Grant Alliance (APGA) got 1,297,445 votes, taking the third place. The only two female presidential aspirants, Mojisola Obasanjo and Sarah Jubril scored 3,070 and 137,560 votes respectively, while human rights activist, Gani Fawehinmi, got 151,333.

Guobadia said INEC believes the results of the presidential poll reflect the true will of the electorates. ”Politicians who are aggrieved are free to challenge the results in election tribunals. I urge politicians to demonstrate the highest level of statesmanship,” he said.

While journalists were waiting at the media centre in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, for Guobadia’s press conference, a group of politicians who failed in their bid to clinch the presidential seat, hijacked the venue to announce their rejection of the presidential poll.

Don Etiebet, ANPP chairperson and spokesperson for the group, told the journalists that ”the results reeled out by INEC were obviously very frivolous. They did not reflect the wishes of the people”.

He cited the South East zone, where he claimed three million votes were returned for PDP, while less than 200,000 were returned for all the other parties.

”What happened there was characterised by hijacking of election materials and diversion of such materials to people’s houses (and) to government houses where they sat down and filled forms and returned them to INEC to announce. And INEC, working in unity with them, announced the results,” he alleged.

Nigeria’s Minister of Information and National Orientation, Jerry Gana, called on the aggrieved contestants to seek legal advice. ”They should not discredit a credible, free and fair election. We encourage them to exhaust all channels allowed by law instead of rejecting a credible election”.

”Of course, elections are not perfect even in the United States, that is why there are provisions for people to appeal through tribunals so that matters can be resolved legally, effectively, justly and fairly. That is the right way to go. And, that is the democratic way to go,” Gana said.

Some Nigerians are worried about the effects of the legal challenges being mounted by the aggrieved contestants.

”I am a bit worried about how this reaction will play out in foreign media because this is what most of them came to Nigeria for – not expecting a smooth transfer of one democratic rule to another. (Nigerian) politicians should have handled it better,” said Ben Murray-Bruce, Director General of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

Segun Aribike, a senior journalist in Lagos, said the aggrieved politicians ”reacted even before the official results were announced by INEC. They should have waited for INEC to announce the results before reacting."

"I am not a lawyer, but I think those politicians should be arrested and prosecuted for violating Nigeria’s electoral act,” he said.

Bola Oladele, a youth leader in Lagos, told IPS on Wednesday: ”These politicians should know that Nigerians are no longer interested in political violence. They should not use sentiments. They cannot attract anti-democracy elements to rise up against a democratically elected government. We are tired of chaos in this country”.

Analysts believe most of the 30 political parties, which contested Saturday’s poll, did not perform well because they were registered at the last moment, following a court order.

”Everyone rushed to register a party because of the appellation,” said Henry Nzekwu, a former presidential candidate. "But with some parties scoring less than 3,000 votes nation-wide, such parties will fizzle out eventually.”

”At the end of the day, Nigeria may have just four or five parties,” he said.