Jonathan: Edo Guber Poll is Proof Technology Can’t Solve Our Electoral Challenges

•Says politicians with dirty minds would still manipulate process, canvasses attitudinal change

•Secondus: APC has buried Nigeria’s democracy, 2027 won’t come 

•Ruling party warns Yiaga Africa

•Oshiomhole: Obaseki is politically dead 

•US govt urges stakeholders to support process of challenging poll results

Chuks Okocha, Michael Olugbode and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, said the outcome of last weekend’s governorship election in Edo State had shown that technology would not solve Nigeria’s electoral challenges.

Jonathan said the human mindset was key to resolution of the electoral problems. But he regretted that many Nigerians had a dirty attitude to politics

The former president canvassed attitudinal change among citizens.  

Jonathan made the remarks in Abuja at a programme organised by the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) and Partners in commemoration of the International Day of Peace.

He pointed out that the struggle for power remained the major cause of conflicts in Africa.

Former National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus, warned that 2027 might never come to political reality, because the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) had murdered and buried the country’s democracy.

But the national leadership of APC said Yiaga Africa, one of the agencies that observed the Edo State governorship election, was overreaching its election observer mission. APC said the civil society organisation (CSO) was now second-guessing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the result of the Edo State election.

The ruling party’s warning came as party member and senator for Edo north, Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday said the outgoing governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, had become politically irrelevant following the defeat of PDP in the September 21 governorship election.

Meanwhile, the United States Mission in Nigeria called on INEC and other stakeholders in the Edo State election to support the process of challenging the results.

Speaking at the event, Jonathan said there was little technology could do to make right a fraudulent electoral process, as it could still be manipulated by corrupt human minds.

The former president was inducted as Fellow of the Institute at the programme, and he became the second individual to be so honoured, after former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, who oversaw the reintegration of Nigeria after the civil war, was given the award last year.

Jonathan, the only Nigerian president to hand over to an opposition party after he was defeated at the polls, said there was more tension after the Edo election than before it, due to the feelings that some things were not done rightly.

He stated that technology would not solve the problems in Nigeria’s electoral process, because technologies could be manipulated if the human mind was corrupt.

“Here in Nigeria, we talk about technology. Without the human mind ready to do what is right, if we bring the technology, they will manipulate it,” he said.

Jonathan said, “Actually, 10 top countries are in conflict globally. Three of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. And quite a number of countries around us, including us, are in one form of conflict or the other.

“And when you look at what causes conflict in Africa, most cases are struggle for leadership, contestation for power. And that is the main cause of conflict.

“Sometimes when you go through a society, and you can tell all kinds of stories. But by the time you do proper analysis, and dig deep, you know that most cause of conflict is leadership struggle. That is why I’m only worried about my country Nigeria.”

The former president, who chaired the occasion, said the notion that politics was dirty was wrong. He stressed that the players were responsible for the dirty state of politics in Nigeria and Africa, in general.

According to him, “People say politics is a dirty game. The way we play our politics is the way we want to play it.

“Remember (Olusegun) Obasanjo, the former president, recently made a statement that politics is not dirty but the people that play politics, come to play politics with their dirty minds, dirty hearts and dirty character.

“And that is why people say politics is dirty. And in that case, we must all begin to think differently. We must cultivate the culture of peace.”

He said Nigerians and Africans, in general, must start developing a culture of peace, stating that peace should be part of everyday life.

Jonathan stated, “Until we get to that level where we develop the culture of peace in this country, we will always have political conflicts in our election.

“And without us strengthening that effort, without us developing that culture of testing a nation peacefully, we will always be in conflict in Africa and in Nigeria.”

While delivering his lecture, Head of Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the National Open University of Nigeria, Dr. Samuel Iroye, said all Nigerians needed to play a part in the promotion of the culture of peace in the country.

Iroye said peace was not an ideology but a practical experience that could be felt. He called for the engagement of youths in developmental initiatives.

Iroye said to achieve peace, there must be a level playing ground for everyone through education, stressing that the education curriculum in Nigeria does not promote the culture of peace.

“To ensure a culture of peace, we must ensure that we have peace within ourselves,” he said, adding that no one can give what he does not have.

Director General of IPCR, Dr Joseph Ochogwu, said peace was an orphan, adding that people like to enjoy it but do not want to invest in it.

APC Has Buried Nigeria’s Democracy, 2027 Won’t Come, Ex-PDP Chair, Secondus, Says

Reacting to the outcome of the Edo State governorship election, Secondus said every indication showed that the ruling party was on a mission to murder and bury democracy in Nigeria.

He said what took place in Edo State last weekend was an electoral fraud exhibited without regard to the rule of law and respect for the voters.

Secondus stated, “From the results of all the off-cycle elections conducted in Imo, Kogi, and Edo states, the Professor Mahmoud Yakubu-led Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is not showing any remorse for the show of shame they conducted in 2023 that threw Nigeria under the bus.

“And with the shameless boast of the APC national chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, that they will apply the Edo template in other forthcoming off-cycle elections in Ondo and Anambra states, it is very obvious that 2027 will not even come, as the ruling party’s agenda is to create a one-party state by muzzling the opposition.

APC to Yiaga Africa: Quit Second-guessing INEC On Edo’s Governorship Poll Results

APC warned Yiaga Africa to stop overreaching its election observer mission by second-guessing INEC on the result of last Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State.

National Publicity Secretary of APC, Felix Morka, in a statement yesterday, said the people of Edo State were loud and clear in their choice of Senator Monday Okpebholo as the next governor to lead the state into a new era of peace, unity, people-centred development, and prosperity for all.

Morka stated that alleging that results were manipulated without hard facts and figures was a disservice to the democratic process.

He stated, “In its jostle for headline attention, Yiaga Africa, one of the many civil society organisations accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is overreaching its election observer mission to second-guess INEC on the result of last Saturday’s Edo State gubernatorial election.

“INEC is the sole statutory authority for the conduct and declaration of result of the election. Yiaga Africa is not, and must desist from constituting itself into a parallel agency for the declaration of election result.

“Alleging that results were manipulated without hard facts and figures but based on some statistical guess work is a clear disservice to the electoral process.

“Yiaga Africa’s report is a travesty, replete with methodological flaws, politicised observations, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and called its credibility into question.”

The ruling party stressed that election observer missions were not election management agencies and could not usurp INEC’s statutory authority as the sole election management body in Nigeria.

Morka added that trying to take over INEC’s role constituted a clear breach of the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

He maintained that while election observer missions, like Yiaga Africa, were at liberty to share their observations about the election process with INEC and the general public, declaring election result or second guessing result declared by INEC in performance of its statutory duties fell beyond their observation mandate.

“Declaring or second-guessing the Edo State gubernatorial result based on unsubstantiated, unverified, highly questionable statistical parameters created by Yiaga Africa for Yiaga Africa is designed to create unnecessary confusion and the appearance of a parallel election process,” Morka alleged.

Oshiomhole: Obaseki is Politically Dead

The senator for Edo north, Adams Oshiomhole, said the state governor, Godwin Obaseki, would become politically irrelevant following the outcome of Saturday’s election.

Speaking on “Politics Today”, a programme on Channels Television, Oshiomhole said the PDP governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo’s loss should sound the death knell for Obaseki’s political career.

The former governor of Edo State also faulted Obaseki for visiting the INEC office in Benin City as the commission prepared to commence collation of results.

Oshiomhole said, “I was a governor. Once I finish voting, if I like I’d wait at the polling booth a bit, chat with people and then I go home. If I find that my appearance is attracting more attention, I just quietly head home.

“How can a sitting governor go to a collation centre? To intimidate or possibly influence the results or to change the results? What was he doing there? How can a governor go to a collation centre when collation is going on?”

Obaseki had said his mission to the INEC office was to find out why the electoral umpire had not commenced collation.

Oshiomhole also criticised the outgoing governor for labelling the election a “do-or-die affair” days before the polls.

Oshiomhole stated, “Obaseki said the election was a do-or-die affair. He told you that here. He insisted. Now, the people have done it, he’s dead. Now, the people have done it, I guess he’s politically dead. I know so. The verdict is out.

“So, if you can speak good grammar because you sit on a board, nobody knew how you became a board chairman… Edo people have spoken.

“When a man goes to a village and speaks his dialect, he has more impact on those communities than when you speak high profile English that when you finish, people will ask ‘what did he say?’

“Monday communicated with the Edo electorate and it worked. The mistake you TV hosts make — many of you — is to assume that anyone who doesn’t appear before you… you exaggerate the importance of television viewers.”

Oshiomhole described the governorship poll as “free and fair.”

US Govt Urges INEC to Support Process of Challenging Edo Governorship Poll Result

The United States Mission in Nigeria called on INEC to support the procedure for challenging the results of last Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State.

The US Ambassador to Nigeria, Richard Mills Jr., yesterday, said the American government also called on the people of Edo State to remain calm.

Mills said, “The     US Mission in Nigeria commends the people of Edo State for the widely peaceful conduct of gubernatorial elections on September 21 and reiterates calls for calm following the announcement of results.

“We commend Governor (Godwin) Obaseki’s appeal for peace and urge all stakeholders, including INEC, to support established electoral processes and respect legal procedures to challenge results.

“Transparency and due process are crucial to maintaining public confidence in any democratic system. The United States reaffirms our commitment to supporting free, fair, transparent, and credible elections in Nigeria and will continue to monitor the situation closely.”