The Governorship and state House of assembly elections conducted nationwide has kept the Nigerian People and International community confused; and most people have lost confidence in the electoral process entirely.
The election in Bauchi State experienced a peaceful atmosphere during the process, both int’l and local observers commended the state for such.
The Collation of result at various polling units and wards up till local government levels was also commended. The announcement of each local government result started arriving the state Collation Centre at the early hours of Sunday where all Returning Officers from the twenty LGAs of the state gave their results and also report situations surrounding the election.
The ugly situation came up when the result of Tafawa Balewa, a local government where the Collation Officer Mrs. Dominion Anosike revealed to the world that the original result sheet was carted away by political thugs of a particular political party and she was forced to announce the result under duress.
The result was rejected by the State Returning Officer which later led to the inconclusiveness of the election.
In line with the above situation, a re-run election is scheduled to take place within the next 21 days constitutionally.
The Osun Formula
The Osun formula was a political gimmick that was devised and employed by the ruling Party (APC) on the people of Osun state when the election was in the favour of the opposition Party, (PDP) and the election was declared inconclusive.
The electoral body stated a date for a re-run and the ruling party went ahead to use “military” vote buying and information of voters and declared Omisore’s “sins forgiven” having succumbed to withdraw and support the ruling Party.
Now, Can the Osun Formula work on Sayawa People?
The Sayawa people are considered to be the “Israelites” of Bauchi State though small in number but mighty, strong and courageous.
History has it that they have never been defeated in any battle both home and abroad. The Sayawa people are not afraid of battle, because they were born out of the womb of war.
To clarify and further buttress my point on the valiant nature of this people, on the 30th of March, 2015 the community was attacked by Boko Haram terrorists. The youths in the community came out in a counter attack and wrestled with the terrorists and overpowered the group, slayed all the terrorists and collected the weapons that were used by the group.
During the attack, a soldier was killed and his machine gun was seized by the Boko Haram terrorists. The same Sayawa Youths pursued the terrorists and recovered the machine gun and returned it to the military base.
3 Things Characterized Osun Formula
Intimidation of voters, Omisore’s influence and vote buying.
The military were employed to intimidate voters and party agents of opposition and by so doing the ruling party coast home to victory. Can such intimidation from military or paramilitary make the Sayawa people change their votes for the ruling party looking at their valiant nature?
Yakubu Dogara, the Speaker, Federal House of Representative who happens to represent the community and enjoy grass-root support from day one, had been at logger-head with the incumbent Governor.
The Governor recently said that the Speaker represents a small group of people that are about 70,000 in number, but he (the Governor) represents the whole people. Therefore, the Speaker’s contribution to his re-election bid is inconsequential.
However the issue, the Speaker has high influence in this re-run election and making the matter worse, he is from the opposition party, the PDP and a strong ally to the Governorship candidate Mohammed Bala (Kauran Bauchi).
Vote buying! Can it be imagined that a Sayawa man or woman can sell his/her vote out for a Governor that looked down on them and have no regard for Elders and Community Leaders?
Be it as it may, I opined that the government should allow a free, fair and credible election in the re-run election of Bauchi State, devoid of intimidation from any angle and EFCC should be stationed at polling units to monitor vote buying, while we the good people of Bauchi State await the peaceful outcome of our election and a perfect transition of government from the incumbent to the Governor elect.
James writes from Bauchi, he can be reached at [email protected]
The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect WikkiTimes’ editorial stance.
