Nigerian Democracy took another step forward in the just concluded 2020 Ondo State governorship election. The result of this election was not totally unexpected compared to the 2020 Edo State governorship election which was somewhat difficult to predict the outcome. A lot of chaos took place before Edo State election unlike Ondo State election which was relatively stable. Ondo governorship election along with Edo State are free and fair elections. Incumbent All People Congress (APC) candidate, Governor, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu won 292,830 votes while his opponent, Mr. Eyitayo Jegede of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won 195,791 votes and candidate of the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) won 69,127 votes. The vote difference between Mr. Akeredolu and Mr. Jegede is 97,039. When it comes to the Nigeria 2nd constitutional requirements for wining governorship election, it was is not even close. Mr. Akeredolu won 15 out of the 18 Local Government Area (LGA) while Mr. Jegede won only 3 LGA. Nigerian constitution states that in addition to winning the popular vote, winning candidate must win 25% of the vote cast in 2/3 of the Local Government Areas of the state. For presidential election, the winning candidate must win majority of the vote cast at the national level and 25% of the vote cast in 2/3 of the states.
Mr. Akeredolu has not done very well as governor when compared to his sterling career as Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). He was one of the best lawyers in Nigeria before going into politics. He appeared to have had challenging health issues along with his wife during his four-year tenure. Hopefully, he will serve Ondo State residents better during his 2nd term. Thanks again to Nigeria President, Mr. Buhari for letting the Independent Nigeria Electoral Commission (INEC) conduct free and fair election.
Overall, Nigeria is marching forward despite the economic setbacks caused by COVID-19 and awful security situation in Nigeria. Hopefully, President Buhari will enact structural reform by moving the responsibility of appointing INEC chairman to a neutral body in-order to avoid conflict of interest and abuse by his successors. Even though he has not interfered in the State governor’s elections, there is no guarantee that his successors will do the same. Enacting needed reforms to avoid future interference in Local, State and Federal elections will ensure that people’s vote will count. Democracy without free and fair election is no democracy.