“It’s an intolerable abuse of power to have employees who are supposed to be advancing the public. Interest actually working on political campaigns.” – Sal Albanese
I arrived Osogbo, the capital of the state of Osun on Sunday 3rd of August, 2014 and one thing that struck me was the ominous signs of tension in the air. Please bear in mind that I have been shuttling between Lagos and Osun for over two months, therefore I am quite familiar with the state long before this last visit and I can confidently say that Osun is quite a peaceful and serene state, but as my friends and I drove into Osogbo, we noticed that the environment was charged.
Our problem started as soon as we got to the hotel where we had always lodged in and have earlier made reservations only to be scared off by the presence of heavily armed and mostly masked security men. There are lots of hotels in Osogbo but Ideal Nest and Regina Suites were the creme of the pick, followed by others such as Ripples etc…to cut a long story short, we were forced to make other arrangements as we were told that our reservations have been canceled.
Another thing that I noticed was the sudden abuse of sirens and the attendant noise. Note that the governor of the state of Osun does not, as a matter of principle, use siren and no member of his cabinet does. But the soldiers, polices, DSS and other battery of security were intent on making their presence felt with their constant blaring of siren, and boy, did we feel their presence? Of course we did and more.
By Wednesday we began to understand that the elections in Osun was not going to be a walk in the park, so many things happened but let me state one of it here. My friend, the honorable Ayodeji Joseph was forcefully evicted from his hotel, alongside his aides. He was lodged at the ideal nest, the same place that Musiliu Obanikoro was lodged. Ostensible the place became a sort of ad hoc HQ of the defence ministry and APC members were no longer welcome. It took a combine effort of myself and a lot of other well wishers to get him another place to put up. We knew the die was cast and by Friday it got worse as some hotels were raided by heavily armed security men, ostensibly to deal with APC supporters and sympathizers. Journalists were not spared as Simon Ateba, a reporter for Ynaija was one of those bursted and harassed in their hotel rooms.
Before then, by Thursday, I had few NYSC members spoke to me on condition of anonymity. They were being offered N30,000 (thirty thousand naira) to cooperate and look away especially in Ife and Ede area. Fortunately one or two of them are in twitter and will likely read this. Of they feel they are up to it, maybe they will corroborate this assertion.
Later on Friday night before the election, the home of Isiaka Faramade, the executive secretary of Osogbo local government was surrounded by masked men who threatened to shoot him if he doesn’t come out. While we were communicating and looking for ways out for him, the same scenarios was playing out at the Ede country home of Senator Isiaka Adeleke. His personal security men had to engage the marauders while he was ferreted away to safety in the dead of the night. It was bad that he eventually could not cast his vote.
The governor himself was holed up in the government house as he had been forewarned not to venture out of Osogbo to Ilesha, his country home where he will cast his ballot, until the break of day.
So many other acts of intimidation was being perpetrated by security men, most of whom were masked and the final straw was when Lai Mohammed and Sunday Dare for no other reason than the fact that they were APC members. They were held incommunicado without any charge brought against them and were later released the next day.
All these bringandage and executive rascality were ostensibly to ensure a free and fair election in line with the transformation agenda of our dear president Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. But surprisingly, not one PDP member was harassed. Indeed it was a level playing field.
On the Election Day proper, so many shenanigans went down but I won’t regale you with too much tale. Let me just state a few cases.
Firstly, the APC had 277 party agents in Osogbo, but the INEC in its wisdom only gave the party 60 official tags. Bedlam!
So many people were disenfranchised and were refused the right to vote. For instance a youngman named Adeyeye, Ademola Andrew, who duly registered and had his PVC was not allowed to vote and until now INEC has yet to tell us reason why they forcefully refused him accreditation and subsequently denied him the right to exercise his civic right.
NYSC members in Ife and it’s environs who were officially on duty with their names stamped and pasted on INE office were suddenly substituted illegally. One of the NYSC members where were thus stopped from doing their jobs and substituted with fake corp members is on writer with the handle S_hakur.
So many other infractions too numerous and at times extremely ridiculous were carried out. Waheed Saka, the Director of CEDI and Ag. National Coordinator CDRP, Nigeria reported that voters were openly being induced with N2,000 each to vote PDP and the policemen posted to the area looked on. His exact tweet “PDP MAN named OROBO is giving out #2000 each on the queue at ilare ward 2 unit 4, Ife centralLG in the presence of police, NSCDC and Soldiers”.
Credible election is the bedrock of democracy, Osun election was won not because the federal government wanted a free and fair contest, rather the people of Osun decided to make their voices heard and their votes count in the face of illegal and strong arm tactics, intimidation and executive rascality. We can’t celebrate an election as free and fair just because lives were not lost, a free and fair contest mean that the rules are obeyed to the letter and security officials are not deployed to aid the emergence of a particular favoured candidates over others.
This current democratic experience was not bestowed on us, it was won on the blood and sweat of martyrs of democracy. The PDP led federal government should understand that history will judge whatever actions are taken today, with a total of 15,000 soldiers, 30,000 policemen, 8,000 SSS officers and 20,000 NSCDC personnel deployed to osun for election, one will ask, why isn’t the same show of force used to reclaim Gworza and other Nigerian territories that are now in the firm grip of terrorists?
Elections should never be seen as a war where it is do or die, if sincere service to humanity is the driving force, why all the executive rascality and shenanigans in Osun? President Jonathan may not know it, but his junior minister of defence is making a mess of the defence ministry as he has effectively turned our soldiers to political thugs to be deployed to rig elections in the southwest. Although one is not too surprised, if a man has two different dates of births, two different surnames, had committed arson and destroyed the Lagos mainland city hall after looting the treasury of Lagos the local government and still is made a junior minister, formerly an ambassador, much should not really be expected of him.
Osun inhabitants have spoken, not because it was free but because they were determined that the will of the people must prevail. I congratulate them and their governor and I hope the larger ma population of Nigerians will learn from this experience.
This democracy may be imperfect but we must not lose it, it is our sacred duty to do what is best at all times. History will judge all our actions, may we be found on the positive side of history.
I am Ayobami Oyalowo, follow me on twitter @Ayourb.
