Nigeria 2019 Elections - The True Face of Electioneering

FRIDAY February 22

It is 7:28 p.m. and dark outside in a quiet village in Delta Central. A tall young man no more than 25 years walks into a group of youth standing not too far from the bright light emanating from the window of a building two feet from where they stood. The group is familiar with each other, sharing pleasantries, their main discussion about the presidential election less than 48 hours away.

The focus now shifts to the young man who walked in minutes ago. His name is Friday. When asked by a member of the group what he thinks about the election, he declares with a sly grin: "We are ready. We know the party wey go win!" He turns and looks at his audience who watch him enraptured. "I get 4 PVCs!" Friday declares, explaining that he had gotten the PVCs since 2015 as a member of the Umbrella party. 

He said he registered all four PVCs at four different communities in the Delta Central area. Going by his ancestral village, he is from Unit 3 of the Polling Centre but plans to go to three more centres within a 5 kilometre stretch to vote. He goes on to explain how he uses petrol to wipe off the ink stain on his finger used to vote in each polling unit, explaining that as a security agent approved by the senior Party Agent in charge of the units, all he needed to do was notify his gang of 5 per polling unit informing them he was leaving. They have a code, a signal for this particular mission. That is his cue to move with speed as soon as he's done voting. Thereafter he navigates his way to the next polling units. 

Asked how he could have quick access to voting on time in all three polling centres, he replies: "Na we-we dey there. We know how we dey run am." He gets paid N10,000 for this particular job. He has already been advanced N5000 and would get the balance after the election.

Earlier in the day word got out that prisoners have been released unexpectedly from prison without due legal process. Many in the community speak in concerned whispers about the appearance of a notorious prisoner known for armed robbery and thuggery. Someone in the group said: "Na to waste their lives in ballot snatching and thuggery that is why dem release them from prison nau." When someone asked Friday if he was aware of this, he says he's aware of the prisoner’s release explaining that the prisoners belong to the party with the broom logo who have been freed without official procedures with the singular goal to rig the elections in any manner possible.

Someone threw a direct question to Friday, asking if his umbrella party also have such prisoners released to carry out similar rigging. Friday nods his head ever so slightly in the affirmative in a manner that betrayed impulsive body language over quick-thinking response as his eyes widen in muted excitement at the same time. He turned his head away momentarily then turns back to reply: "I cannot answer that." 

When asked again, he repeated the same sentence, "I cannot answer that." A moment later he leaves and waves goodbye to the others who wished him well. Many in the group expressed deep concern about Friday’s safety, some saying he's not a smart young man and may not survive past the election should he be caught. Despite the order of the President that any caught in the act of ballot snatching will be gunned down, the devil-may-care attitude of youth in the Delta Central emboldens them to do the unthinkable.

SATURDAY March 23

The time is 5:30 a.m. I rush into the waiting car taking me to the designated polling unit. There’s a 6-6 curfew of no movement. The polling centre is far and I didn’t bring along my jogging shoes not to mention I had no idea how to get to the polling unit on my own.

We drove down the dark streets into partially lite streets leading to the polling centre. Within 10 minutes we arrived at the town hall where the election would take place. The building is locked. I take a stroll to another open centre and sat back waiting till the scheduled time for voting at 8:00 a.m. 

The community is quiet, many still asleep. A few persons can be seen fetching water from a pump. Some other early-rising voters join me too. They were keen on not being denied their rights to vote. The no-movement curfew was not going to be an excuse.

At 7:25 a.m. I head out to the town hall hoping I can be amongst the first on the queue, believing voting would start on time. As I walk through the street the stench of weed suffocates the air. It is 34 degrees hot. The burning heat from 5 gas-flaring nozzles radiates into the atmosphere adding to the scotching bite. The thick, irritating humidity makes the skin crawl with sticky sweat.

The sound of thumping Nigerian pop music pumps a continuous rhythm of gyrating sounds, mixing with the gay excited air of citizens out and about to vote – determined to vote. Today they decide who becomes the president of Nigeria and who would occupy the senatorial seats at the national assembly.

Ironically, you can smell and taste the deep stench of poverty, see the grains of sad echoes of unfulfilled dreams and feel pains of muffled outcry on the faces, homes and lives of people living in his community. The main road is tarred but modern facilities are not a common sight. Mud houses litter the community with some cement houses. The common building architecture are bungalows with one or two storey buildings scattered throughout the villages.

A dog sleeps on the white sandy ground like it has no care in the world, its eyes shut to the goings on around it. And even after much teasing by children and an adult to make it change its position, it refused to get up – a metaphor of voters' apathy seeping through the psyche and attitude of many who still feel their votes won’t count.

I move through a number of communities in the Delta Central and can't fail to observe the large number of young men dressed in singlets and boxers or jeans, some with sagging boxers or jeans bare-chested, drinking, smoking and generally lazing around. Many I’m told are thugs and their job is to 'snatch ballot boxes' should they think the election has been compromised in any way as they perceived. 

The two major parties, the broom and the umbrella hold sway amongst the many rearing to vote. No other party out of the 91 registered parties approved by INEC had any show of presence in this particular area. In some other parts of Delta Central. Delta South and Delta North there were up to 5 parties with voters ready to contest key elected positions.

At 8:00 a.m. the polling centre where I’m supposed to vote isn’t opened. 

At 9:03 a.m. when I passed by again, voting materials have not yet arrived.

By 9:55 a.m. an important political stalwart receives a call: "The bus have not arrived yet?" he queries the voice on the other side of the phone. He walks away from the small crowd trying to gather near him to eavesdrop. Later he walks back to his anxious waiting team and says to no one in particular: “I cannot understand why money already set aside for a job to be done isn't carried out.”, his face in a disturbed grimace. He whips his phone from the pocket of his African print trouser and makes another call. All is settled. 

Voters sit in scattered numbers around the polling unit, many of the senior citizens dressed in their traditional outfit with shoes and caps to match. A number of the youth who came out too were well kitted to the nines like it was Christmas. It was a bold statement that seems to proclaim: voting is serious business. Dress well to vote.

Three days prior however, the incumbent government announced that electorates who were indigenes of the state based in Abuja and Lagos will be provided buses at designated terminals to convey them down to Delta State to participate in the election no matter the party they intended to vote for.  Few resident indigenes I spoke with in the community said they saw 2 buses from which many voters alighted from, others said they saw 5 buses. The question on the lips of many was: this action by the government to convey voters for free from these locations, is it lobbying or vote buying? Many agreed it was lobbying since those ferried were not forced to do so in lieu of voting. Yet the big elephant in the room still hung: won’t this influence these voters to change their minds?

Someone in the audience with an angry scowl complained bitterly that teachers too had been compromised with bribes from the education secretary whose appointment required he delivers votes for the governor, else he will not return as a political appointee. The sum of N1.5 million was given to the executives of the Nigeria Union of Teachers after they had mobilised their members for a townhall meeting with the education secretary. While the excos shared N800,000, the balance of N700,000 was shared amongst its members, each taking away the sum of N1,500 only. Teachers who were not present at the forum were not given. They were considered 'traitors' or 'non compliant'. This caused some ill feelings. Two other persons in the group confirmed that the story was true, saying they had friends and family members who benefited from the largess.

At 10:15 a.m., a messenger runs to the political stalwart to announce that the bus conveying voting materials have arrived, but not at the central polling area where it was designated to be, but rather at a sub polling unit 4 kilometres away. "But they know we have more enemies that way nau!" a senior party agent whined, vexed. Another said, “But that is not the approved polling centre! Why take it there?” Quickly, they summon an emergency meeting to work out how to retrieve the INEC materials then dispersed secretly.

By 11:24 a.m. the voting materials was yet to arrive. Old men and women, including persons with disability fall asleep under the hot sun, barely protected by the shadows of the roofs of buildings. Many of the youth move about, their faces scrunched up. They are restive and eager to get done with the election.

A group of 15 men, ages 40-78 years gather together to play traditional drink-pouring and libation, welcoming one another as is the custom. Monies are placed on plates with kolanuts and drinks. Traditional poetry rules and the best orator holds the audience in his spell, mesmerizing them with ancestral idioms, proverbs and wise sayings. The senior citizens love this form of play and camaraderie, especially since it was such a rear treat to have so many wealthier and more sophisticated cosmopolitan visitors living outside the village come around for the voting exercise.

A sudden rush amongst the crowd announced the arrival of INEC Materials at 12:11 p.m. followed by a stampede of persons fighting to be the first in line to vote, many refusing to queue but keen on getting inside the hall rather than stand outside on a proper queue. 

A prominent party stalwart keen on delivering his constituency in the keenly contested elections calls on all to stay calm and form a queue. INEC officials and ad-hoc staff make strong pleas that seemed to fall on deaf ears. After much back and forth quarrels and tongue lashings, three queues were formed which later became two lines for 2 units.

Later, we get to learn that the reason for the late arrival of the materials was because the election materials had been seized by the opposition party with the broom logo. It took long negotiations, palm greasing and lengthy diplomacy of the party stalwart of the current party with the umbrella logo to finally get the gang who hijacked the materials to finally let go.

Just before I voted at 14:45 p.m., an elderly man struggling to walk with his walking stick caused a stir amongst the party agents inside the polling centre when he voted for the opposition in full glare of many. Because he couldn’t read and see clearly, one of the INEC officials assisted him with the process, asking him which party he preferred, and then guided him to thumb print on the preferred logo. There was no cubicle at this centre so everyone saw the elderly man’s party choice. 

A party leader who saw this happening exclaimed: “But how can he vote APC! Doesn’t he know this is a PDP community?” More grumblings from others watching the scene escaped people’s mouth. The larger number angry at the elderly man but a few more persons were concerned that the secrecy that goes with voting was violated and would prefer no one saw which party they voted for. After a while, a quiet calm set in after the old man was escorted away. By this time though, about one third of the voters on queue had already voted. Voting continued well past 5:00 p.m. considering it started more than four hours behind schedule.

Finally, everyone returns home to await the official announcement of the results from INEC even though many party agents, members and staunch supporters of the current party have high hopes their party will trump the opposition in these units.

And that was exactly what happened. At 8:30 p.m. news filtered that the party with the umbrella logo had the highest votes in these particular units.

But what would be the overall presidential and national assembly results from this community after the results from all the wards are collated? Which party will clinch it?

SUNDAY February 24

It’s 19:38 a.m. A bike with two men on it zoom past the street bumping with speed chanting a song, their voice loud: "Omo-Agege is a go!"

Five minutes later two more bikes speed past, the bikers shouting: "APC! Progress!" right behind them were children chanting in local dialect: “APC 5 over 10." "E gha na, e yen yen!" the literal translation means: You who vote, just keep pressing the brown!  "APC! Change Okowa!"

The partially lite street is now crowded with a moving jubilant crowd of youngsters from age 8 years and above in the midst of mostly older youth between 19-28 years old alongside more matured older men and few ladies, all shouting, chanting, singing with lots of exaggerated hailings, their joy palpable.

The community has gotten their desire. Their votes counted. President Muhammadu Buhari is returned as President of Nigeria, so is Omo-Agege returned to the 9th assembly as senator.

But is that choice the overall reflection in other wards and communities across Nigeria?

After almost 72 hours wait, INEC officially announces President Muhammadu Buhari winner of the presidential race while Atiku Abubakar emerged second with a 3.5million votes difference.

Gubernatorial Election

SATURDAY March 9th 

Driving through the community, an uncomfortable deadly quietness hung over the air as though people had deserted the place. It is 7:25 a.m. but the community seems to be fast asleep. The usual boisterousness that prevailed during the presidential election was absent. Not one single adult could be seen on the street. A few number of children pop their heads out from mud windows to see who the visitor in the car passing through their street was. They turn their face away, uninterested. The sound of voices from televisions filter into the quiet air, holding the gazes of the children spell bound to the screens.

In front of the town hall marked as the polling centre are three canopies. These were not there the last time the presidential elections held.

Soon the reason for the unusual calm and quietness in the community was uncovered. The week before, a strategic meeting with members of the community held. All youth, adults and adult groups were met and given gifts of monies. An average of N3k was given to male elders with an additional N10k was given at an earlier general meeting with all the male leaders and key male figures in the community and a token of N5k was given to each woman in the community. It was covert lobbying. A pre-emptive and strategic measure taken to prevent overt vote buying on election day. Electioneering has gotten more sophisticated, the money trail now more expansive.

I was already seated near the town hall under one of the canopies with about twenty other persons who had come from Warri to vote in their village. I repeatedly check my wristwatch, anxious to get done with the voting, hoping INEC officials will do better with timing this time. It was all wishful thinking.

At 8:55 a.m. the adults begin to stroll lazily out of shacks, mud, and cement houses leisurely taking up seats arranged under the canopies. Three large canopies were set up for voters to sit and wait their turns until the polling centre opens and voting commence. Many elders, majority of them dubbed 'Justices of Peace', have their special canopy. Older and middle aged women sit under this same canopy with the men. Another canopy with more nursing mothers and children, by default, occupied the last canopy.

At 10:40 a.m. election materials arrives.

By 11:07 a.m. voters were asked to cue in two separate lines.

Three patrol cars manned by 10 police officers and 2 military men in military outfits patrol the units. Different patrol vans move in and out, patrolling the entire breathe of the community in rotation. Seven women make up these mix team of police and army. They have a quick security meeting then zoom off in two patrol vehicles to create an air of seriousness.

Young party agents walk with bounce in their steps busy with activities expected of them to discharge. Some proudly don their tags around their necks, while others preferred to hold their tags in their hands moving about, sending coded signals to each other, whispering at other times and in one gusto move as a team to specific areas in and around the polling units. There does not seem to be any 'opposition' tension in the air. They have all 'reconciled' their differences.

There are two types of agents: the ones with tags and the ones without. The ones with tags are better dressed and slightly composed. The other set, dressed like street thugs in new clothes were more boisterous and aggressive.

It's 13:03 p.m. The sudden tasty smell of jollof rice swirling in the air set the olfactory lobe into overdrive causing a frenzy, scattering the queue. Many of the voters on queue made a run toward the smell of cooked meal. Instant quarrel amongst voters bursts forth. Shouts of “It’s my own,” "Where my own", "Give me too naa", "Why you no wan give me my share" rent the air, heightening the tensed excitement, many more no longer keen on staying on the queue to vote. Their priorities changed.

At 13:19 p.m., the sun bursts through the sky in one yellow flame of heat, shattering the cooler atmosphere long enjoyed for 6 hours amidst the struggle for packaged jollof rice.

At 13:25 p.m. a drunk voter jumps into a crowd of sitting voters waiting their turn to be served jollof rice, disrupting the merry calm. He charges in, picks up a white plastic chair and tries to haul it at another voter but was stopped in his tracks by three men. He shouts unintelligently, his words a slur. For another 3 mins they try to wrestle the chair from his hand while trying to stop him from attacking those who held on to his arms as he tried to kick and punch anyone within his reach. Then unexpectedly he wrestles himself free from their grasp rushing out the same way he rushed in.

By 14:44 p.m. about 95% of voters have exercised their franchise. Yet, the voter turnout compared to that of the presidential and senatorial election was low. Whispers of dirty, gun-shooting, fiery election seeped through many communities, frightening many from turning up. Surprisingly, it was a very calm and peaceful election. Many who later learnt how peaceful it had gone so far regretted not showing up.

But by 16:51 p.m. the story changed just as the weather began to gather dark clouds. A gun shot was heard. Panic and fear rented the air as many, especially the elderly began to run for their homes or seek protection in other people’s homes. News filtered that another polling unit, about 4 kilometres away, someone had tried to snatch a ballot box but was quickly gunned down by a vigilant police officer.

At this point the polling unit was barricaded off to allow a smooth collation of the results. Some said this was usually about the time ballot box snatching was done. It was time to go home. I drove off glad to have fulfilled my civic duties.

Almost forty hours later around noon on March 11th, the official announcement was made. The Umbrella won. The incumbent Governor emerged winner of the gubernatorial election. His winning was met with jubilation in Delta North and Delta South while it was a mix reaction in some parts of Delta Central.