A post mortem of the presidential election

The presidential elections have come and gone, with Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress emerging as the winner. As expected, the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party have vowed to challenge the outcome of the election in court. Regardless of which direction the election had gone, it was already expected that the losers would go to court. The coming months promise interesting legal battles.

Depending on the political divide one belongs to, the election has been hailed as one of the freest in recent times or described as the worst ever in the history of the country. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has received criticism from losers and critics alike, which is also to be expected. In a third-world country like Nigeria, politicians rarely concede defeat and instead claim that they were rigged out.

However, the election had many surprises, which proves that votes actually counted. Governors like Samuel Ortom, Darius Ishaku, Atiku Bagudu, Okezie Ikpeazu, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, and Simon Lalong all lost their senatorial elections. If votes did not count, these governors would have rigged themselves into power.

Some unknown persons also won elections due to the Labour Party tsunami in some states, just like in 2011 and 2015 when some politicians rode on President Muhammadu Buhari’s coattails to power.

Sadly, despite the high expectations, this year’s voter turnout was the worst in recent times. After INEC announced that 87 million people had collected their permanent voter cards (PVC), there was excitement that there would be a massive turnout. However, only 26.70 percent of voters turned out. Out of 87 million people who collected their PVC, less than 30 million people voted. There could be many factors responsible for this, but I believe the cash crunch caused by the needless new naira policy caused this.

According to proponents of this cashless policy, it was to stop politicians from buying votes in the presidential elections. However, the policy only compounded the misery of most Nigerians. We have over 130 million people living in poverty, and I am sure that number has increased because of this senseless policy. There were reports that a man lost his wife in Kano because the hospital was insisting on collecting only cash.

Now that the presidential election has been won and lost, the federal government should suspend the policy and let us get back to our normal lives. Insisting on this cashless policy, considering the pains Nigerians are going through, is sadistic. No matter the merits of the cashless policy, it has been proven that we are simply not ready for it. The banks lack the infrastructure for online banking, and many artisans are out of jobs. This is simply unacceptable.

Fake news was rampant during the elections, and it dominated the social media space. It was on steroids, and I even began to doubt authentic news stories because of it.

Another significant lesson is that opposition parties need to get their acts together. If the PDP had not split into LP and NNPP, they would have won with a landslide. A combination of their votes would have given them almost 14 million to the APC’s 8 million votes. The arrogance of all the actors involved cost them the presidency. Even the APC had to join forces in 2015 to oust a sitting president, so why would the PDP think they could sack the ruling party with a divided house?

This brings me to my last point; I think it’s time for Atiku Abubakar to retire from active politics and become an elder statesman. He is 76, and his age is no longer on his side. He is a former vice president, and his name will forever be etched in our history books. Atiku’s dream of becoming a president is looking as if it will just end up being a dream. He has fought many battles and I think it’s time to take a bow and retire from partisan politics.