N500 No 2 MAY 2019 Cover2019 Polls • Buhari’s victory • Atiku’s challenge • Hiccups and crises • Shocks & surprises Newswatch Now May, 2019 | 1 Call: 07080601156 2 | Newswatch Now May, 2019 c N500 No 2 MAY 2019 No 2 MAY 2019 MayFive Media Limited 2019 Polls • Buhari’s victory • Atiku’s challenge • Hiccups and crises Outline • Shocks & surprises MAY, 2019. No. 2 05 A long trek to our political Eldorado How Nigeria 07 voted in 2019 21 Battle for supremacy 29 Goodbye 8th 27 National Assembly Buhari: why and How the mighty fell how he 35 won Newswatch Now is published by MayFive Me- dia Limited, 10B Acme Road, off Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, Ikeja Lagos. E-mail: eamame- We learnt nothing, [email protected]. Website: www.mayfivemedia. 41 forgot nothing com. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any form, in whole or in part, without permission is Why we don’t vote forbidden. Printed in Nigeria by AFKAR Printing 44 & Publishing Company Limited, Plot 151, Acme Road, Ikeja, Lagos. Newswatch Now May, 2019 | 3 From the Editorial Suite Newswatch Now debuted in February. With cover the debut issue, we have had to rely on the assistance headline Nigeria Decides, the publication was dedi- of some of our old Newswatch hands. This issue has cated to the election: how the politicians and their profited immensely from their reportorial experience. respective poliitcal parties positioned themselves for The likes of Olu Ojewale, Pita Ochai, Augustine Ada, the biggest event of the year. We ex-rayed the chances Ademola Abimboye and Ishaya Ibrahim were excited of all the contestants especially the most prominent about the new magazine and they did not hesitate to presidential candidates – President Muhammadu Bu- offer a helping hand. An up-and-coming enterpris- hari of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC and ing reporter, Yusuf Mohammed, made an excellent former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples contribution to the story written by Soji Akinrinade Democratic Party, PDP. We also reviewed preparations on How the mighty fell. We value their assistance as of the Independent National Electoral Commission, well as the contribution of Conrad Akwu, former INEC. From the various reports and analyses, it ap- Newswatch Photo Editor, who provided most of the peared all was set. pictures in this issue. Now, the elections have come and gone. In this second issue of the magazine, we have exhaustively reported the processes and the outcome of the elec- tions, highlighting the shocks and the surprises as well Yakubu Mohammed as the fall of some mighty political titans. Unlike in Editor-in-chief No 2 MAY 2019 MayFive Media Limited CEO Ray Ekpu DEPUTY CEO Dan Agbese NEWSWATCH NOW EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Yakubu Mohammed EXECUTIVE EDITOR Soji Akinrinade Photos by: Conrad Akwu BOARD OF DIRECTORS Leo Stan Eke (Chairman); Ray Ekpu, Dan Agbese Yakubu Mohammed Soji Akinrinade ADMINISTRATION Ekong Ekpenyong, Office Manager; Nathaniel Adejoh, Executive Assistant MARKETING Tel: 08055001917 . 08055001912 . 08055001924 . 08088979769 Emmanuel Umoette Office: 10B Acme Road, off Lateef Jakande Road, Agidingbi, Ikeja, Lagos 4 | Newswatch Now May, 2019 A long trek to our political Eldorado By Dan Agbese Democracy is the only form of government that recognises the he Romans had a better hang of it then than we do now. people as the locus of political power. Perhaps that is why democ- They gathered at the amphitheatre to elect their political racy was originally an exclusive means of allocating power. Even leaders with a voice vote. If the ayes had it, that was it; if among the Romans, the right to vote was restricted to men of prop- the nays had it, that was it too. The voice of the people was erty. Women and slaves were denied the right to vote. This carried Tthe voice of the gods. Whoever they chose to bless as their leaders, on into the modern times. It took a determined struggle to win the the gods also blessed them. The ends of democracy were served battle for adult suffrage and turn democracy from an exclusive and because the leadership that emerged was by the popular choice of limited system of government into the people’s government in the the people. 18th century. Through that simple act, the Romans gave us democracy, a sys- The Romans gave us a simple system. They did not invent the tem of government that gives the poor and the deprived the power ballot paper, the ballot box and the voting booth. We have man- and the right to be the masters of those who wish to lead them. aged to clothe democracy and the process of choosing our leaders That right is arguably the most respected right in the world today. with these complexities. We have refined the Roman method over Democracy owes its relevance to the full exercise of that right by the and over again and replaced the voice vote with the ballot paper people. It led Abraham Lincoln to see democracy as the government and the ballot box. As often happens in human progress, the law of of the people by the people for the people. No one has bettered his unintended consequences surfaced here and these refinements have definition of democracy. become part of the problems of democracy. Democracy is not just Newswatch Now May, 2019 | 5 about voting; it is more importantly about winning or capturing supervised the elections that returned the country to civil rule on or holding on to political power. Modern man has thereby made October 1, 1979. Believing that the fault was not in our civilian lead- democracy the most competitive form of government. It brings out ers but in the parliamentary system of government bequeathed to the best in men and women; and it brings out the worst in them us, they imported the executive presidential system from the United too. States. The problem lies largely with the evolutionary process in elevat- We thought the new executive presidential system would help ing democracy to a higher form of decision-making than the Ro- moderate the competition for power. We were wrong. In any case, mans conceived of it. We make laws laying down the conditions that the generals served notice more or less that this would not be so those who seek our votes must meet before they are even considered when they decided to constitute electoral tribunals to which those eligible to canvass the people’s votes. We created the executive and who felt cheated at the ballot box could seek redress through the the legislative branches of government as centres of political power. judicial interpretation of winning and losing. When the civilians We instituted elections through the instrumentality of the ballot pa- conducted the first post-military general elections in 1983, the same pers and the ballot boxes because the elections make it possible for primordial forces surfaced again and the same problems compli- the people to choose their preferred leaders, all things being equal, cated the simple democratic process of the people being allowed from among the contestants for power. to choose their leaders. Again, the generals took advantage of the These then, are the main problems with democracy. There is no controversies generated by the disputes over the elections and democracy anywhere in the world so advanced that it does not duly returned to the political turf. And again, we had a long chilly confront the challenges thrown up by the competition and the greed harmattan period of military dictatorship. Our country was put for power. Man must always seek to dominate his fellow men and through many twists and turns in political engineering to ostensibly women. Power, political power, is the veritable instrument for that prepare it for the challenges of democracy. domination. Let us face it: none of us, if given the chance, would Where are we? We are right here battling with the basics of the refuse to let others serve him. Playing God feels good too. conduct of elections. And we have been trying to stand on our feet There is an element of democracy in every form of government. since the generals returned to the barracks in 1999; 2003; 2007; This goes for the most sophisticated as well as the most primitive 2011; 2015 and now 2019. Five times on our own. We should expect form of societal co-operation in which people come together and to be getting steadier and sturdier on our feet. So far, no such luck. surrender their rights and privileges to a group of men who look Each of those elections was a subject of disputes and controversies. out for the common good. Think of the chief priest and his power In some cases, the tribunals saved the cheated but in most cases, over his unenlightened community. But modern democracy is an not even the tribunals could do much to turn the table against the alien system of government with its own culture and tradition and cheaters. nuances. On the one hand, where democracy is sufficiently cultur- For a modern election to be adjudged successful it must sat- ized, it is fairly easy to observe the basic rules of the competition for isfy two fundamental conditions. It must be free and it must be political power. This is what happens in the settled democracies of fair. Both words must be understood in their basic and ordinary the Western world that passed what it inherited from the Romans to meanings. Free means that the people must not be denied the right the rest of the world. On the other hand, where democracy and the to freely choose those for whom they wish to support with their electoral system are transplants and thus alien to the people’s culture votes; fair means there must be a level playing field for the candi- and their own appreciation of the nuances of their power resident dates.