On May 29 this year when the current democratic rule clocks 24 years, a new set of governors (apart from Edo and Bayelsa) and legislators will mount the saddle in the six states of the Niger Delta region. They will have a battle brushing aside the infamy of the 2023 elections that ushered them into office and face the more demanding task of governing their states that now yearn for development and economic stimulation.
When Nigerians trooped out on February 25, 2023 to vote in the Presidential and National Assembly elections, millions of them did so with the conviction that the electoral process in the country had been so fine-tuned that election results would reflect the voting. For months before the election the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the security agencies, civil society organisations and other stakeholders in the electoral process spent time convincing the electorate that a new device, the Bi-modal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) had been introduced to ensure that every vote cast at the polling unit would be upheld.
And for the first time in the history of elections in Nigeria, the population of young people and non-indigenous voters turning out to vote soared. This even caused some conflicts in some places like Lagos, where non-indigenous voters were issued threats if they voted against certain candidates.
The faith the people had in the electoral process was the reason why they braved the elements and waited patiently at the polling stations across the country on February 25 to vote “their conscience” even when election materials and personnel came late in many places and glitches were experienced with election devices.
That faith began to fail when as voting closed across the country, reports began to filter in about killings, violence, ballot snatching, manipulation of results and attack on voters and election materials. The B-VAS machines which gave so much hope to the voters were either not used to upload and transmit results as provided for in INEC guidelines or were entirely bypassed as election officers used manual methods to compile and transfer results.
By the time the governorship and house of assembly elections were due three weeks later, the morale of voters had dropped significantly. The result was widespread apathy at the polls. This put a further dent on the general elections. The elections were roundly condemned both in local and international media.
Apart from the failure to transmit result electronically, there were very many cases of vote buying by politicians and compromises by electoral and security officers deployed to conduct the elections. Political party agents were strategically placed to monitor and direct people that voted their parties to places where they were given cash or asked to drop their bank details for electronic transfer of money to them.
In places where election officers could not be bribed to compromise results, violence was adopted to snatch election materials. In Rivers State alone, more than ten people were killed during the elections. One of them was taken away from a polling unit at Ahoada West and killed.
Gender Representation
The elections did not produce a female governor-elect in the zone however. The only female deputy governor-elect, Prof. Ngozi Ordu is from Rivers. The only senator-elect from the zone, Dr. Ipalibo Banigo, who is the outgoing deputy governor of Rivers State, is from Rivers too. The rest senators-elect are men. The same also goes for all the elected members of the House of Representatives. It was only in Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa State that women were elected into the House of Assembly.
Of the 18 senatorial seats in the zone, PDP had 10, APC, 7 and Labour, 1. In the House of Representatives, PDP had 34 elected members, APC had 13, while Labour Party had 4.
Heroines
Many women played brave roles in the entire process and need to be complimented for that. But there were some that stood out. . One of them was Prof .Omieye Briggs, who was the collation officer for Port Harcourt Local Government Area during the Presidential and National Assembly elections. Prof. Briggs, a lecturer at the University of Port Harcourt, was said to have been offered a bribe of N30 million, which she rejected. She insisted on declaring the results in her area as filed from the polling units.
Another Niger Delta daughter, Mrs. Jennifer Efidi, was attacked and injured by thugs who invaded her polling unit in Lagos. But she went to the hospital, had her wounds treated and bandaged and returned to the polling unit to vote.
During the governorship election in Abia State, the Returning Officer, Prof Nnenna Oti, the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, alleged that she had come under pressure to inflate the figures from a particular local government area to upturn the final result. She stood her ground and declared the authentic result.
Niger Delta
The election turned out to be a mixed bag in the Niger Delta states despite the irregularities, manipulations and tragedy that greeted the elections. The region, which from the beginning of the current democratic dispensation had voted consistently for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) had a rainbow formation this time around. While the Labour Party presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi won in Cross River, Delta and Edo States, the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar won in Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa. The All Progressives Congress candidate, Senator Bola Tinubu managed to win in Rivers State in very controversial circumstances.
By May 29 when the present crop of legislators and governors would be serving out their terms, Niger Delta would be having four new governors for Cross River (Edet Bassey Otu); Akwa Ibom (Umo Eno); Delta (Sheriff Oborevwori); and Rivers (Sim Fubara). The governorship election outcomes in Rivers State and Delta State are being contested by candidates of the other political parties. The governorship elections did not hold in Edo and Bayelsa because they had off-season elections earlier on.
There is so much for the new governors to consider when they eventually take office. Many years ago the six governors of the region met severally and structured a Niger Delta wide BRACED Commission, which was conceived to coordinate economic growth of the region from Edo to Cross River State. That commission with all its prospects has been dumped in the shelves of the respective Government Houses, gathering dust. The new governors should be able to dust the BRACED master plan, review it and see how to commence its execution.
The East-West road, which connects all the states of the zone, has become a national embarrassment. Though it is a federal government project, there is the urgent need for the governors to put pressure on the federal government to expand and complete that road, so that it can attract development and investments into the region.
Nothing stops the governments from venturing into the upstream, downstream and midstream sectors of the oil and gas industry which is located in the region. They can do so by direct investments, or by going into partnerships with established operators in the industry.
There are several federal government agencies set up to intervene and accelerate development in the region. They include the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Nigerian Content Development and Management Board (NCDMB) and even the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, which have not done much to fulfill the purposes for which they were established. The governors can take them up and get them to work.
The Petroleum Industry Act passed two years ago might still be controversial. But a lot of its provisions were enacted to empower host communities of oil and gas companies. Communities have complained that a lot of the companies are not implementing the Act as they affect the communities. The governors should confront this challenge as a duty, to get the companies to activate their obligations under the PIA, with regard to the host communities.
While they might be having their heavily flawed elections go through the election tribunals, the new governors and legislators must rise to the call of their offices and place service before self.
