A chieftain of the Labour Party (LP), Dr. Kingsley Oghogho Okundaye, has said Nigeria needs a political rebirth to enshrine democracy in its political system by eschewing win-at-all-cost syndrome.
Dr. Okundaye, who spoke in a news interview in Abuja, argued that the country has gone miles backward in its electoral reform processes, referencing the outcome of the recently concluded Edo State gubernatorial election.
According to the clergyman, all the efforts made over the years to reform the country’s electoral processes would appear to have been wasted against the backdrop of “a bleeding record of vote-buying that has become the other of the day in the nation’s electoral processes.
“I can say that there was no vote in Edo State, as far as the Labour Party is concerned. I can tell you this because right in my ward, I was told to pay the amount of N5,000 to voters to cast a vote for my party. It was vote for the highest bidder, and by my assessment, the results announced do not conform with the INEC Results Election Voting Portals (IRev) and it does not represent the conscience of the people,” he contended.
The former National Coordinator of the Labour Party Patriotic Members Congress, pointed out that the transactional exercise and theft, if allowed to persist, would breed a disillusioned voting population in Nigeria.
“From what we heard, they said that what happened in Edo will be replicated in Ondo and Anambra, which is the next in line, and that is the danger of setbacks. And as it is, it seems we are trying to fix things, and here we are, going back to our usual way of doing things,” Dr. Okundaye lamented.
“What we are saying is that if the ruling party should indulge in vote buying like we witnessed in Edo and also maintained that such would replicate in other subsequent state elections, then we are done for it.”
Meanwhile, Dr. Okundaye is optimistic that justice will be served in the LP leadership dispute, noting that all fingers remain crossed pending the outcome of the appeal filed by the Nenadi Usaman-led National Caretaker Committee (CTC), which, he said, remains the best option that will bring lasting unity and progress to the party.
“You and I know that the Nenadi Usaman-led National Caretaker Committee CTC has been recognized by all, and that is the only solution. You know that it has appealed the judgment granted by an Abuja Court because the case was carefully studied.”
