• How wave of presidential poll threw states into panic
BY GODDY OBINWA
Until the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections, the chieftains, stalwarts and members of the two dominant national parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had dismissed the Labour Party (LP)0, as a social media phenomenon with little electoral weight despite the rapid growth of its support base built on the Obidient Movement. But as the results from the polling units began to pour in on hundreds of Twitter handles of its polling agents in the various states, it soon became evident that an electoral tsunami was sweeping across the country and carrying the LP candidates, Peter Obi and Yusuf Ahmed-Datti to a possible unprecedented upset.
By the time results were officially declared, LP’s electoral performance produced surprising upsets, which jolted the governors of ruling parties in states to scramble for solutions to avoid defeat in the March 18 governorship/state assembly elections.
They took several steps to ensure re-election or installation of their preferred successors. Not all of them, like the governors of Abia and Plateau states achieved the goal of retaining the hold of their parties on the governorship. Below, is a state by state account of how governors of ruling parties in states managed to survive the LP hurricane. LAGOSIn Lagos State, the shocking and embarrassing defeat of the All Progressives Congress by the Labour Party in the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections in the state threw Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu into seeming panic mode. To turn the tide of support of the electorate, he hurriedly announced a 25 per cent salary increase for civil servants in the state. However, upon being re-elected, the state government cut the percentage of the increase from 25 to 20 per cent, starting from January 2023, with a promise to pay the arrears for the month of January along with March salaries while February arrears would be paid along with April salaries.The state government also announced the payment of N1.2 billion accrued pension rights to over 500 pensioners in the state. The development was said to have come as a surprise to most of the beneficiaries, who claimed to have steeled their mind for a long wait in queue as those who retired before them had had to wait for almost three years before receiving their benefits.Perhaps, the most jolting of the state government’s unusual gesture was the free release of vehicles impounded by the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) for various traffic infractions. The government also forbade LASTMA operatives from arresting motorists for other infractions. Although the State Commissioner for Transportation,
Frederick Oladeinde, said the state government’s decision to release the vehicles was borne out of the governor’s compassion for the owners of the vehicles as a result of cash crisis in the country, cynics were quick to interprete the move as a panic response of the state governor to the fear of being ousted by the LP governorship candidate, Mr Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, who ran a strong campaign and presented a formidable challenge to the APC administration in the state.
Also, in the run up to the governorship election, the government reduced the fares on the state’s BRT buses by 50 per cent. But less than two weeks after his re-election, Governor Sanwo-Olu has ordered the restoration of the full fare.
The governor had claimed that the reduction was meant to mitigate the effect of the naira scarcity on the people following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s naira redesign policy. But the move was also seen by many as the governor’s way of wooing disenchanted electorate in the build up to the last governorship election in the state
IMO
Seeing the effect of the Labour Party tsunami in the country during the general elections, Imo State governor, Hope Uzodimma decided not to take any chances.
He had to set forth at dawn, like Wole Soyinka advised in his book of the same title, to woo voters in the state ahead of the November 11, 2023 gubernatorial election.
To shore up support, Uzodimma has stepped up his political empowerment initiatives and also moved to reconstruct some critical road arteries in Owerri, the state capital.
Prior to the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly polls, in apparent imitation of Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, who had appointed over 250 special aids
ADVERTISEMENTS
2023-04-02
