The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) recorded a hundred percent success in last Saturday’s council elections in Osun, winning all the 389 councillorship seats across the 30 Local Government and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDA) of the state.

According to the chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC), Segun Oladitan, 318 of the contestants were returned unopposed in an election that was obviously a one-party affair.This is not strange because such victories have been the trends across Nigeria since the commencement of the current democratic experiment in 1999 as all ruling parties, without exception, have been recording landslide wins in the contest for political control of the third tier of government.

Of course, the victories are not without clear manipulation of the system followed by cries of foul play from the opposition who, given a reversal of positions, would do the same thing they complain about.What is however strange in the Osun instance is that the election was organised and conducted in line with the parliamentary system of government wherein only councillorship positions were contested for while the elected councilors would, from among themselves, pick the chairman of the local council.

A clear departure from the presidential system of government that is recommended by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, the new experiment in Osun, seeks a return to the early .........

Continue reading here: https://xclusiveafrica.com/2018/02/02/osun-council-election-and-challenge-to-status-quo/