PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2019: ATIKU WAS THE PROBLEM, NOT RIGGING.

ICHEOKU says it is now self evident, from the just concluded governorship election, that the result recorded on February 23rd presidential election was sacrosanct and unblemished by rigging. Nigerians, faced with two horrendous choices, decided to look more fairly after   their purse and refused to empower a thief, who had stolen before and prevent him from stealing even some more, again. This was what led to the result and not that any group of people had a concert to rig the election and conspired with INEC to deprive Atiku Abubakar a supposed phantom victory or as he would like to brand it, his "mandate." 

ICHEOKU has analyzed the elections of both of February 23rd and March 9th 2019 and arrived at a conclusion that the elections were fairly and freely conducted, as any election could possibly be; and that the outcome was not gravely tainted by irregularities, and very negligible at worse. For an election, particularly one held in a "shitholey" Nigerian society, where criminals and thief and bandits kill each other just for the opportunity to loot State's resources and not that any of them truly has the interest of the people at heart, the level of violence and "rigging" was not that much as to vitiate the result. It is just that in a society of superstition, where everything must be because of a reason, if it is not village people, it is Ndi Yard, Atiku to his supporters, could not have ordinarily lost the election, but for his being "rigged" out by the other guy. 

But to these mind-numbed and pigeonholed fantastical Atiku-maniacs, it does not matter to them why anybody will be fighting tooth and nail just for the opportunity to serve or work for others, including their principal; who, like all the others, are in it for what they can grab and not that they care a hoot about the people they are supposedly meant to represent and serve. ICHEOKU says this goes both ways and ICHEOKU is not by this exonerating the other guys or trying to elevate them into a sainthood pedestal because they are equally as guilt.

But pivoting back to the gist of this opinion, the controlling issue is, if the presidential election was rigged, why was the governorship election not rigged as well? A case made stronger because the same INEC staff who conducted the former election also conducted the later election. Also, the command and control structure of the Nigerian security agencies did not devolve unto another Commander in Chief, as the same President Muhammadu Buhari who was there on February 23rd, was also there in March 9th and still continuing till this date. ICHEOKU is emphatic that there is no way possible those governors who were swept away in last Saturday's election would accept to be sacrificial offal and not also benefit from the same rigging mechanism which elected the president, had there been one. It would have been one for him and one for them; a sort of one-cap fits all; but it was not the case, as Nigerians freely elected people who they want to lead them. 

Some cases for example, stand out like sore thumb, including Kano State, Zamfara State, Oyo State and Imo State. These are States with very virulent anti PDP and outspoken APC governors, who would have not accepted defeat in their States had Buhari been rigged into office for a second term, and would have demanded and insisted that they too benefit from the rigging, as well. But they were defeated, just like Atiku Abubakar was defeated on February 23rd, and they have nothing to blackmail the president with in order  to force him to do their bid and retain their offices. This is the sole reason they have scurried away into one corner and brooding the cruel fate which their electorates dealt them; otherwise it would have been one continuing string of mayhem after another. 

ICHEOKU says apathy among voters also played a huge role in both elections, especially in last Saturday's governorship election and was a huge factor in the election results recorded. Even some friends on Facebook were proudly stating that they burnt their PVC following their disappointment with the presidential election and spent their time doing some other things, rather than "wasting" it queuing up to vote, since their votes will not count anyway. Such cynic attitude was replicated throughout the country, resulting in a fewer turnout than was recorded in the presidential election, which also suffered a low voters turnout as well.

A case in point is Lagos State where registered voters who collected their PVC were 5.2 million people, but only less than one million, 945,586, cared enough to vote in the governorship election. APC's Sanwo-Olu defeated his closest rival, PDP's Jimi Agbaje, by 739,445 to Agbaje's 206,141 votes; speaking of a State that turned out more voters during the presidential election but were disillusioned by the its outcome. Also, the tribal hoopla which erupted in the State, leading up to the last governorship election, did not help the turnout either as it forced so many people to forgo voting. So, in Lagos State, 4.26 million registered voters did not or rather refused to vote in the governorship election, speaking of voters' apathy. 

ICHEOKU says therefore, the naysayers, should instead of brooding and pouring out their lamentations of Sodom, learn to give Nigerian voters some credit for being discerning voters, who vote with their head and not robotically with their hearts. They are not a programmed, down the ballot voters, who vote along party lines, regardless of the nincompoop fielded by the party. They vote because they care to put the best there is available into offices, regardless of heavily propagandized campaign of calumny. They choose wisely and they choose to vote for acceptable situations, the reason they rejected Atiku Abubakar, who was irredeemably damaged going into the presidential election as a heavily soiled and irreparably flawed candidate, who no right thinking person in their right frame of mind would have accepted as a good alternative to what is. President Muhammadu Buhari might not be the best candidate, but juxtaposed against and alongside a horrendous and horrible pilferer of State, his beatification was as good as morphed into an automatic sainthood. 

ICHEOKU says the PDP screwed up everything at the Port Harcourt bizarre bazaar of a convention when they auctioned off their presidential ticket to a thief, a shady character, who is yet to convince the entire world that he made his money legally and did not help himself to Nigeria's pot of gold. Just ask yourself, who, if they were innocent of all the accusations, would not have sued Olusegun Obasanjo for slander and defamation for not only mouthing it off the accusations, but also publishing same in his book, MY WATCH?  But not Atiku Abubakar and you wonder if he is a victim of a guilty mind; which incommoded him and rendered him incapacitated; thinking that merely entering America under a subterfuge of a Senior Special Assistant to the Senate President is enough to wash him off the accusation. 

Good enough, some Nigerians still have conscience and they registered their revulsion by holding their noses and voting to retain Buhari, instead of signing on to banditry and brigandage of such a magnitude as Atiku perpetrated. If the elections were rigged, why would Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu agree for his stranglehold of the Southwest to be diluted by losing Oyo State? If elections were rigged, why would Rochas Okorocha accept defeat in his nearly privatized Imo State? If the elections were rigged, why would GondujeDollars allow his butt to be kicked and vulnerable to the incoming government x-ray? Then speak of Zamafara State, a cousin of Katsina State, which elected an APGA candidate; and APGA is an Igbo party or is somewhat identified as such? 

Anyway, what is done is done and the Election 2019 is as good as now concluded. Nigerians must move on now to pursue other things that put food on their tables as well as clothes on their backs. Hopefully, the shameless Atiku would read the handwriting on the Wall that Nigerians want to have the election behind them in their rearview mirrors; and also go find something else to do himself, including taking another wife to augment his harem, if that is what pleases him. He must therefore, help Nigerians make this transition by withdrawing whatever case he has filed in the court regarding the lost election, which the hell must first freeze over before he can win. The required threshold is somewhat insurmountable for him to meet, as he is required to prove not only that the election was rigged, but also that it was such that the outcome would have been different but for the rigging. Four million votes differential is not ordinary and it will be difficult to discountenance the huge numbers as being products of rigging.

Overall, the Election 2019 was fair and free enough, compared to those of past years conducted by the Ota Deity and the crooked and corrupt polygamist, now Nigerian Presidential Reject extraordinaire; a duo who never allowed any opposition to thrive during their despotic 8 years of infamy in office. A duo who practically corrupted everything they touched their hands on and who introduced Ghana Must Go bags into the National Assembly and also the proverbial banana peels, that saw legislative leadership changed like underwear at their whims and caprices.  

ICHEOKU says congratulations to INEC and President Muhammadu Buhari for conducting Election 2019 which, under every  circumstances, met every international standards, the few snafus not withstanding. It is a learning process and hopefully the noticed curve of few irregularities will be straightened out come 2023, provided the team is allowed to stay together and continue to thinker and fine tune obvious shortfalls. Now, let the governing begin and begin with sense of urgency and purpose. Congratulations to every other winners and to the losers, another election comes around in four years, 2023 will soon be here before you know it. So start now to prepare.