Review of Anambra 2021 governorship election

 

I was not in Anambra State to observe the November 6 governorship election but I was there in spirit. Apart from having physically observed the 2010 election that brought former Governor Peter Obi back to office for his second and final term, I observed the 2021 election won by former Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Prof. Charles Soludo, remotely and virtually. Before, during and after the election, I was on several radio and television stations to analyse the preparations and the conduct of the poll. On D-Day, I crisscrossed three media houses, Love 104.5 FM, Police Radio 99.1 FM and Nigeria Television Authority, all in Abuja. In fact, the following day, I was on NTA for 10 hours analysing the results of the election.

Anambra State is very unique in many respects. It is called the Light of the Nation. It is one of the five Igbo states located in South-East Nigeria. It is a centre of trade and commerce boasting of two international commercial centres namely: Nnewi and Onitsha. I dare say, an indigenous vehicle manufacturing company, Innoson Motors is in Nnewi, Anambra State. It is a state purportedly with the highest number of billionaires in Nigeria. An unverified record says there are about 300 billionaires in the state.

Some of the illustrious sons and daughters of Anambra State are: the first ceremonial president of Nigeria, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe; former Vice President Dr. Alex Ekwueme; first Senate President of Nigeria, Nwafor Orizu; former Biafran leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu; literary icons like Prof. Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwensi, Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche, Philip Emegwali, Prof. Dora Akunyili and Prof. Chike Obi;  a former Secretary-General of Commonwealth, Chief Emeka Anyaoku; business moguls like Sir Louis Odumegwu Ojukwu, who was the first Nigerian millionaire and first president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. Anambra is also the state of highlife musicians, Chief Osita Osadebe and Oliver Sunday Akanite, better known by the stage name Oliver De Coque.

It was in Anambra that the off-cycle, off-season governorship election started arising from the controversies engendered by the 2003 governorship poll that brought in Dr. Chris Ngige, now Minister of Labour and Productivity. Ngige today belongs to the elite corps of GSMs. These are a few privileged individuals, who have held political offices as Governor, Senator and Minister.  He also held an unenviable record of being the first and only sitting governor so far to have been successfully abducted while in office.

Before dwelling on the takeaways from the 2021 Anambra governorship election let me first draw parallels between the November 2017 and the November 2021 governorship election in Anambra. The comparative analysis is to draw out the similarities and differences between the 2017 exercise and the just concluded one. First, the differences.

A whopping 37 candidates vied in 2017 while only 18 did in 2021. While the number of Local Government Areas remains at 21 and the 326 Registration Areas (wards) remain intact, the 4,608 Polling Units and 2,158, 171 registered voters of 2017 have changed. In 2021 due to the additional 1,112 PUs created in June by the Independent National Electoral Commission, the number of PUs rose to 5,720. Similarly, due to the recently conducted Continuous Voters Registration exercise, 77, 475 fresh registrants were added to the old figure bringing the voters register to 2,525,471.

In 2017, INEC deployed 23,000 ad hoc staff to conduct the election while the Nigeria Police mobilised and deployed 26,000 personnel to maintain law and order during the poll. This year, INEC deployed 26,000 ad-hoc staff, police deployed 34,587 personnel while the Nigeria Civil Defence Corps deployed 20,000. It is unknown how many soldiers and paramilitary personnel were deployed this year. It is important to state that unlike in 2017, this year’s election was held amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. All these made the 2021 election to be the most expensive governorship election in Nigeria. In spite of the gargantuan resources spent on the election, the 2021 governorship election witnessed the lowest turnout of voters which INEC put at 10.27 per cent. Recall that in 2017 it was 22 per cent, in 2013 it was 24 per cent while in 2010, it was 16 per cent.

In 2017 INEC used Smart Card Reader for voter accreditation while the commission chose to use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System device better known as BVAS this year. While the 2017 Anambra governorship poll was concluded on the first ballot, the 2021 exercise was first declared inconclusive due to the inability of the INEC to conduct election in Ihiala LGA. Supplementary election had to be conducted there on November 9 before a winner was declared.

On the flip side, however, just like in 2017, there was an initial Indigenous People of Biafra’s order for a boycott of the poll. Both the 2017 and 2021 polls were held in November. November 18 and November 6 respectively. Ahead of the two polls, there were political debates organised by the media as well as the signing of peace accords by the candidates as championed by the National Peace Committee headed by General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.). Just like in 2017, there were serious legal controversies about some of the nominated candidates while there were reported cases of widespread vote trading in Anambra.  Like in the 2017 edition, the electoral outcome reflected the wishes of the voters. This was independently verified by YIAGA Africa, an NGO which deployed 500 stationary observers for its Parallel Vote Tabulation exercise. Like in 2017, the All Progressives Grand Alliance won the governorship contest even though the incumbent governor did not contest, having served for two maximum terms allowed by the constitution of the country.

Here is the summary characterisation of the 2021 Anambra governorship election according to some of the accredited observer groups. YIAGA Africa said “The elections were marred by community resistance to the conduct of the election, logistical failures that once again resulted in the late opening of polls in several polling units, and severe challenges with the newly introduced BVAS. While election day was peaceful, the pre-election period was characterised by violence, intimidation, and arson resulting to (sic) poor voter turnout.”

Centre for Democracy and Development stated inter alia in its post-election report that “The Anambra governorship election experience is an indication of the difficulties that might affect the conduct of the 2023 general election as insecurity spreads and deepens in most parts of the country. The failure of the current democratic dispensation to cater to citizens’ socio-economic wellbeing and safety, expectations that politicians with the biggest purses can buy their way to public office, the prevalence of fake news and fears that the Federal Government will use federal might to subvert the will of the people all drove voter apathy.”

The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room is of the opinion that “The administration of the Anambra State Governorship Election appears to have suffered from severe logistical challenges.  Situation Room observed protracted delays in the opening of polls in most polling units, as a result of late deployment of ad hoc staff of INEC and materials from Registration Area Centres across the State. This issue reoccurred on a larger scale in the supplementary election held in Ihiala Local Government Area and was rather disappointing as it was expected that INEC would have been better prepared to deploy staff and materials early, with polls slated to open at 10:00 am and the supplementary election holding in only one Local Government Area.”

The Inclusive Friends Association, a Disability Persons Organisation deployed 200 carefully selected, trained and accredited People With Disabilities observers to document physical accessibility of polling units for PWD voters, access to Election Day materials, and the participation of PWDs in election day processes. Access Nigeria observers in Anambra reported that 54 per cent of the routes (roads) leading to the areas where sampled polling units were located were inaccessible for PWDs. Observer reports also showed that there were neither ramps nor handrails for use by PWDs outside the sampled polling units at 94 per cent of voting locations.

There is no gainsaying that INEC and security agencies could have done better than they did in Anambra. It is now left to them to look critically at the accredited observers’ reports as they conduct their post-election audit. Anambra has shown that the country is yet to overcome her perennial challenges of logistics, vote-buying and election violence. These really call for sober reflection. Former CBN Governor, Soludo, should know that managing banks is not the same as managing human beings. As he prepares for his inauguration on March 17, 2022, he should note that ‘Anambrarians’ are earnestly waiting for the fulfilment of his campaign promises. Good luck!