By Mautin Akin Olukunle,
To God be all the glory for seeing us through the just concluded Lagos East Senatorial District elections.
As the candidate of our Great Party, the National Rescue Movement (NRM), I believe everything happens for a reason. We have emerged from this travesty of election stronger, better and wiser.
Stronger because the experience and considerable support we received have been reinvigorating and empowering. Better because joining the fray has enabled us to rediscover our latent strength and resourcefulness; the power and the people we never knew we had behind us. Wiser because we have learned that Nigeria’s electoral system was designed to serve a favoured few and deny the people a voice; the process is urgently in need of reforms!
I will explain each in turn.
But not before I express our profound gratitude to all members of our party, supporters and well wishers. I would also like to congratulate the All Progressive Congress (APC) and its Senatorial candidate, Tokunbo Abiru, and House of Assembly, Kosofe II Constituency, Femi Saheed.
I am especially thankful to NRM for graciously giving us the platform to vie for such an important Office. But that is where the Party’s role ended. There was zero logistical or financial support. I threw my hat into the ring with limited resources but with plenty of hope.
It is that hope, coupled with the sincerity and courage in our struggle that attracted the support, both material and financial, of some family members, friends, associates, professional colleagues, even old school mates, that kept us in the race. I am eternally grateful to them for rising to the occasion in my hour of need, my very first quest to serve my nation.
Right from the get go, I was under no illusion that I would be contending with well-heeled and well-oiled political rigging machines. They were in full and forceful display all through the process. To wit: vote buying, agents’ cards buying, illegal issuance and use of voters’ cards at polls, inducements of our agents.
But this is just half of the story of disappointing end of a process that began with so much hope.
Those who have been declared victors should neither gloat nor celebrate. Instead, they should be sober and reflective. This was anything but an election. This is not a sustainable system.
There was conspicuous apathy across all the affected LGAs. I understand most of the youth that were on the streets during the noble #ENDSARS protests don’t have voters’ cards. And the generality of the people that came out were already ravaged by the endemic poverty in the system and stomach infrastructure. They succumbed to crumbs dished out by the feudal lords and parties. The big parties know the constraints of the people – finance and stomach infrastructure. And they took full advantage of this to deceive the people on Saturday. The few that turned out could not resist the N1,000 to N5,000 inducement dangled at them. The politicians have paid the people and they will subsequently recoup their money while in office. It is a vicious circle.
Even as a Candidate of our Great Party, I had my own share of repeated temptations and enticing carrots but, at every given turn, I chose the path of honour and service.
Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for some of our team members, especially the so-called experienced politicians. In our innocence, we assumed we shared the same vision for our nation and party; they pledged their allegiance and loyalty to us. But, alas, it all turned out to be betrayals, scams, deceits and manipulations.
We had thought we would be making waves with the resources and inputs we put into our publicity in the broadcast and print media, the social media, and one-on-one meetings with the people. Lamentably, some of our coordinators in the five LGAs did not really help matters. One of them, a seemingly vibrant young man, collected huge sums from us for campaigns/publicity and payment of party agents in their local government without delivering a single vote. Some of them even sold our party agents’ cards to the opposition and pocketed the money. With that, our agents that were supposed to be at the polling booths to monitor developments and check any excesses of others there were nowhere to be found. Agents of other parties, wearing INEC’s approved cards for NRM, mostly manned the voting centres and had a field day. I understand no vote was recorded for any party that was not represented at a polling station even if some electorate had voted for the party. That was part of our experience. And the errant party officials kept on making endless requests for support as the elections lasted. The intermittent situation reports from them on the field were impressive. We did not hold anything back from them.
They successfully played on our intelligence and innocence. It was more of a game for survival. That was a big sell-out! What a system, what a myopic mind set!! The final results declared by INEC spoke volumes about the escapades and games our people were involved in.
It is important for me to be very honest about the shenanigans of what could hardly pass for elections, and bring them to the attention of the Nigerian public and, particularly, the people who entrusted us with their scarce resources.
This was my very first outing. We joined the race late. It turned out to be raw baptism of fire. It is a solid lesson for the future. A lesson that has made us better.
That is why my supporters and I are not deterred by the challenges we faced. We still believe in the Nigerian project. We take solace in the Holy Book, Ecl. 7:8, which says: “Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof: and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.”
God bless you all!
Nigeria shall be great again!!
- Mautin Akin Olukunle, is the Senatorial candidate for National Rescue Movement, Lagos East.