Elections have been contested and won in Nigeria. But the Osun 2018 stands out among every other governorship elections conducted in recent time. Apart from having the highest number of contestants (48 candidates), the election is one of the most keenly contested elections in the history of Nigeria’s young democracy. Interestingly, it was relatively peaceful with less irregularities on the part of the umpire, security personnel involved and the electorates.

However, the said election was declared inconclusive at first ballot. While announcing the outcome of the election at Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Osogbo on Sunday, the Returning Officer and Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Prof Joseph Fuwape stated that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ademola Adeleke, polled 254,698 votes as against 254,345 votes polled by the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Gboyega Oyetola. Leaving the margin between the two leading contestants at 353 votes.

Unfortunately, there were records of irregularities that led to cancellation of votes in few polling units. The total number of registered voters in the affected polling units amount to 3498 voters. The Returning Officer hinged the decision of the electoral umpire to declare the election inconclusive on INEC's Election Guidelines and Manual, as the number of registered voters in the affected polling units is higher than the margin between the two leading candidates. INEC thereafter fixed September 27 for the re-run election, in the affected polling units. The re-run will be holding in seven polling units across four local government areas — Orolu, Ife north, Ife south and Osogbo.

INEC should be commended for early arrival of election materials & personnel to the polling stations, and timely commencement of accreditation and voting proper. The conduct of the security personnel involved in the election and that of the Osun electorates are largely commendable. Though the exercise was a success, there were few records of irregularities. There is still room for improvement on the parts of all the stakeholders.

Just as the Ekiti voting populace rejected the candidate of the ruling party in the State and godson of the incumbent governor in the July gubernatorial election in the State, the Osun voters have equally made nonsense the power of incumbency. Osun electorates made a bold statement that, the power of the people is stronger than the people in power. Ordinarily, one would thought that the contest will be a free ride for Oyetola, been the candidate of the ruling party, APC. However, the contest ended to be the most keenly contested election in recent time. Hence, the power of incumbency without good governance is nothing but a weightless paper.

Again, lack of effective conflict resolution mechanism and robust internal democracy within the two leading political parties affected the outcome of the first ballot. In case of Ekiti, APC was able to manage her post primary election crisis, and that gave the party an edge in the main election. But in the case of Osun, the two leading political parties were unable to manage their post primary elections crisis. Both APC and PDP faced the election with divided houses. Imagine a combination of votes polled by APC and ADP, that would have given Gboyega Oyetola of APC, a landslide victory. And on the other hand, the sum of the votes polled by PDP and SDP would have given Ademola Adeleke of PDP, a desirable winning with clear margin.

By and large, the good people of Osun are the biggest winners. The message was well coded by the masses, and we hope that the political gladiators decode the message. Whosoever emerge as the winner at the second ballot should learn never to toy with the people's mandate. Also, second term in office is a privilege and never a right.

The future is now.
http://www.olamilite.com/2018/09/take-home-from-osun-decides-2018.html?m=0