By Adebowale Abayomi and Layeni Aliu

It is no longer a news that the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria under Chapter 6 Part 1 stipulated that the executive office holder shall hold office for a period of four years before the successor takes charge of the office. However, there is need for different political parties to have their primaries to choose who would represent the party as the flag bearer in the election proper.

It is the duty of every individual who has come of age to participate in the electoral process and it is also the duty of the elected government to ensure good governance through accountability and transparency. However, political posts are sought after by both the sheep and the wolves. It is only an irony that no matter how saintly you appear to be, you need to behave in a wolfish manner to survive in the political scape of Nigeria regardless of the region.

Heading to the state of Osun, it looked almost possible that the governing party would further entrench its footstool in the state through the candidacy of Mr. Gboyega Oyetola an anointed successor of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola but all won't go as initially planned as the idiomatic expression comes into play, "He who plays the pipe dictates the tune" but the question is: who is the piper and who is the dancer?
The governing party seems to be playing a tune that is quite infamous to people while the major challenging party (PDP) is playing a tune that is currently resonating with the people as they have been able to produce a dancing senator in the person of Sen. Ademola Adeleke.

The political scape of Osun state for the past six months have been filled with ground breaking events and interesting details. The latest one to be added is the bargaining tendencies of the two major political parties in determining the price of a gauntlet.
For the PDP: A once rejected stone is soon sought after.
For the APC: They melodiously danced with Sen. Iyiola Omisore to Tunji Oyelana's Eniyan bi Aparo.

A quick review of the results of the Osun gubernatorial election which held on the 22nd of September, 2018 and INEC's position on related cases are seen below.

INEC as an electoral body play a major part in ensuring that elections are devoid of violence and other vices; the commitment to the execution of the roles of the commission leads to the declaration of an election as inconclusive. It is not just the responsibility of the Commission but also that of the electorate.
Section 153 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) empowers the Commission, in pursuit of the provisions of the Act, to "issue regulations, guidelines, or manuals for the purpose of giving effect to the provisions of this Act and for its administration thereof". The provision of this electoral act is to ensure correction of irregularities in the electoral process. This regulation has been applied by the commission in several polls. This can be seen in the Governorship elections in Kogi and Bayelsa (2015). This case is seen to be elucidated upon.


KOGI GUBER ELECTION 2015

Abubakar Audu( APC):240,867

Wada Idris (PDP):199,514

Margin:41,353

Cancelled votes:49,953

The Commission led by Professor Mahmood Yakubu rightly declared the election as inconclusive based on the provision of the law that requires an election to be declared inconclusive when the number of cancelled votes exceed the margin of difference. The governing party as at this time was the APC whom the ruling was against but this ruling was applauded by the PDP.


BAYELSA GUBER ELECTIONS 2015

Dickson ( PDP):105,748

Sylva ( APC):72,594

Margin:33,154


With respect to Bayelsa, Sylva had amassed the entire 120,000 votes in the Southern Ijaw area, but a much maligned Prof. Mahmood Yakubu refused to accept such result, therefore declaring the election inconclusive and ordering a re-run because the number of cancelled votes were clearly more than the margin of victory. The news was received well and celebrated by the PDP.

It should be further noted that Sec. 53 (3) prohibits the Commission from declaring a winner for the election "until another poll has taken place in the affected area".

Looking at the circumstances surrounding the Osun state gubernatorial election held on Saturday, 22nd of September, 2018 where the election was declared inconclusive, Sen. Ademola Adeleke of the PDP scored 254,698 votes as against his APC rival, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, who polled 254,345 votes.

However, Sen. Ademola Adeleke could not emerge winner because his victory margin of 353 votes is lower than the number of votes cancelled in seven polling units which have 3498 registered voters. A further breakdown below:
* Orolu LGA: 3 polling units with 947 registered voters.
* Ife South LGA: 2 polling units with 1,314 registered voters.
* Ife North LGA: 1 polling unit with 353 registered voters.
* Osogbo: 1 polling unit with 884 registered voters.

The question is why are the two major political parties (APC and PDP) striving to engage in an alliance with Sen. Iyiola Omisore of SDP? It shouldn't be farfetched as it can be seen that the previously released results of the inconclusive election showed that the performance of the SDP candidate; Sen. Iyiola Omisore in the 7 polling units can be used as a leverage in the coming rerun election fixed by INEC to be held on Thursday for electorates in those areas to exercise their franchise and determine the outcome of the election.

It has become a race to win the support of the SDP candidate in order to ensure wheel balancing and alignment so as to ensure a smooth sailing journey to victory.

However, it should be noted that Sen. Iyiola Omisore of the SDP was the last man standing in Osun PDP after other heavy politicians left the party to seek greener pastures elsewhere, he kept believing in the ideology of the party.
The Adelekes were as at that time members of APC. The death of Isiaka construed the neglect shown to Sen. Ademola Adeleke when he sought for the party's ticket as a senator. After the ticket eluded him, he decamped to the PDP, found succor there and he is today a senator. His quest for more political power saw him pounce on the gubernatorial elections and he eventually emerged the flag bearer in a most controversial manner that soon saw other aspirants leave the party whose wound they had once nursed. Had he not defected, PDP would have had another candidate in the person of Sen. Iyiola Omisore but within a short time, the decamped bread and butter dancer displaced other party men in the race. Sen. Iyiola Omisore however left the party for SDP.
Now, the once rejected stone is being sought after.

It remains to be seen who Sen. Iyiola Omisore would eventually work for in the rerun election said to hold on Thursday, 27th of September, 2018.



This article was written by Adebowale Abayomi, a final year student of Business Administration, Lagos State University and Layeni Aliu, a final year student of Political Science, Lagos State University.