Inconclusive and remaking of an administration
Bashir Kabir
It always is a great idea to look back in the past, in a retrospection, or simply for the sake of being able to understand what might transpire in the future. What happened in Kano, in 2019 elections that was popularly termed as “inconclusive” was not to be elusive to the minds so soon. Particularly with 2023 boldly staring at us in the face.
It is worth introspecting for several reasons which include, but are not limited to the inclination of the actors involved, the swiftness of the opposition in taking actions, the decent of game-changers at the critical minute to save the day, the seizing of opportunity of side players in credit sharing and most importantly, the repercussion of the outcome in the future elections as the deciding year again, gently rolls in.
The current administration was at the brink of losing the 2019 elections as the results maintained pouring in, vastly in the favour of the opposition. It was an inevitable catastrophe that kept substantiating as the minutes passed by. At a point, it was almost decided prior to final collation of results that indeed the opposition party has won over the ruling party with staggering enough vote difference.
That was the most important point in time as far as the deciding election of that year was concerned. And the one at which questions were raised so high in regards to what exactly was going on. Why did it seem so easy for the opposition to score ahead of the ruling party? It was not the first time an opposition party dethroned a ruling party in Kano State but that particular one appeared very much easily done.
Questions such as where is everybody from the party when this was happening? why were the ruling party’s kingpins sleeping in their houses while a critical election with looming disaster was going on? Why there was minimal effort to secure votes from the ruling party as the situations on the ground in the polling stations indicated? And, why at around the setting of the sun, people (including and particularly the ruling party members) started celebrating the opposition victory as it became apparent the results would be in their favour?
The above-mentioned bizarreness did indeed occurred and witnessed but no one cared to answer the above questions because soon enough after everything was ‘corrected’ and the ruling party secured victory everything was forgotten as just that which happens during elections and things returned back to normal. But, expectedly same might arise in 2023 again because the same conditions always produce the same results.
Some few hypothetical answers to the above questions might include; party members ‘mutiny’ or antiparty in a less militarized and more political parlance. It was a subtle mutiny that was not pronounced strong enough to register as such but in reality, the experienced lack of active support given by the majority of the party’s partisans might have indicated a weakness of faith or a more sinister intention of outright antiparty through inaction.
Things got a little messy when some elements from the party actively disrupt the trend that was taking the opposition to victory and changed the entire narrative. That happened in a form of storming the collation centre by some party members and outrightly disagreed with the way the process was conducted. The activity was halted to address the new development which saw to the rescheduling of casting votes in the leftover units. For the ruling party facing peril, these were supposedly the real saviors from doom.
It was believed that not nearly enough commitment was shown by the ruling party’s partisans. There was reluctance to fully participate in making sure that the shores of victory were reached. The inaction was profound that Polling units were devoid of the party’s agents. In some instances the agents complained of not being paid or even addressed prior to the election date. such provisions are expected to have been put in place but somehow never reached their designated targets.
In the meantime, the opposition was all out, putting every single resource to use. Active agents at the polling units were present from down to dusk effectively mobilizing voters using different strategies. On the side of the ruling party, It was such a reckless mistake if that was a mistake, or simply as hypothesized here, an act of abandonment by the partisans which was exposed at that crucial moment for the world to see. How much stake was there for those who chose to desert and not regard the consequences in the event of losing is entirely another subject of discussion reserved for another article.
Soon after the doom was averted with the declaration of election inconclusive, new saviors breezed in, claiming they know better. Nobody knows what they were doing in their personal capacity in order to contribute beforehand. Of course, at this point, it was clear to even the dumbest that something has not been done right during the first round. Now that the party has a second and final chance that cannot be wasted, it became the opportunity some elements were waiting for to display their prowess in the art of winning an election no matter what. Everything sure comes with a price and this one was not an exception.
The opposition sensed danger and perhaps even started giving up after realizing that another seven days have been given to conclude the election. Would they have won the election if that event that led to the inclusiveness of the election didn’t take place? Certainly, yes if those remaining wards came through in their favour that would have been it. It was the direction the results were heading for anyways.
They might have understood that the ruling party would never be careless enough to repeat the same mistake they did in the first round of allowing the election arena to them to do as they wished. And that was what happened. Seven days later, things turned around and the results were in favour of the ruling party. Much later the court validated the outcome and that’s where it will be left at, as far as this writeup is concerned.
The fact that the first instance of the partisans’ inactions exposes the weakness of the ruling party in regards to loyalties at various levels. It could be considered as a precursor as to what might happen in 2023. How strong is the party in the state to effectively face a contestant that once nearly brought it to its knees? The problem of unreliable party members’ loyalty will make a huge difference unless the story somehow changed. The problem is nobody thought it existed prior to the election that led to inconclusive and hence nobody can tell if the same would not be repeated.
The interest of many is how the party re-strategized within seven days and surfaced formidable enough to clear the remaining disputing wards? It was seemingly an easy victory that made it hard for much contention.
The opposition might have a reason to be concerned in contrast to the general opinion that perhaps what happened in the first round of the 2019 elections that nearly brought them to victory might happen again in 2023 in which case they will make such it doesn’t transpire to the likeness of inconclusive. However, it is also a possibility that the same problem of questionable party loyalty that almost allowed for the opposition to take the crown still existed.
