Local News: The State of Osun Governorship Election was Free and Fair (16/07/2022) | Despite all Odds, Citizen's votes Count

Electoral process in this part of the world in most cases is not free and fair, the improper use of the power of incumbency has been in play ever and seems unending. Four years ago here in Osun state, Nigeria was a story of misuse of power to take over government again which dents the idea of democracy. The 16th day of July 2022 was another time for citizens to exercise their civic rights but how did it go? It's my first time posting here and I hope you'd enjoy this.

Osun state is a southwestern state of Nigeria that was founded in August 1991, it was created from Oyo state, and the distance from the capital city of Osun is just about 40 minutes drive from the parent state (Oyo state). I am from Oyo state and started living in Osun state about 2.5 years ago, the states have so many things in common, for example, the university I attended was co-owned by the two states years ago before it was fully owned by Oyo state. I can say, this is also my home.

The last few months have been a time of campaign for all the parties that would be participating in the governorship election in Osun State, Nigeria. We have a few candidates participating in this but the fact is that the battle is between two candidates from the most two recognized political parties in the State, People's Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressive Congress (APC).

The battle is still between the same candidates endorsed by the political parties who participated in the process four years ago, the incumbent governor, Gboyega Oyetola of the APC and former Senator, Ademola Adeleke of PDP. Sen. Ademola Adeleke is an uncle to the popular Afro Pop star, David Adeleke popularly known as Davido.

It's been weeks of readiness for the deal day and a lot has happened in the process. Once again the incumbency power has been utilized in a few ways to dent democracy, an example is the destruction of the campaign banners related to the opposition party. It's a very bad practice, it's been going on for a while and nothing was done about it, I believe everyone should be able to campaign freely. Let's see a picture below.

The image of the billboard above is one of the destroyed banners that belong to the opposition party, though not exactly that of the main contestant against the incumbent government, I have seen his destroyed in town but this is the only one I have gotten in this area of the town. The fact is that all banners that belonged to the incumbent governor remain intact, I hope you get the point now and how the whole stuff works.

I highlighted at the beginning of this article how both candidates in this year's election contested against each other four years ago. It didn't end well and has not in any way portrayed democracy due to a few bad practices like buying votes, rigging, and bloodshed. It was a bad election period in the state in September 2018.

During that time, the ruling party have ruled for 8 years and wanted to retain the position for a candidate from their party to continue the reign. Things got out of hand in the process, without solid reasons they canceled the election in one of the polling units where it appeared a new government is taking over with a lot of votes, over 2,000. This was done on the national television while they declared the election inconclusive and rescheduled it for another day.

The Polling unit on the scheduled day was filled with political thugs who forced people away from voting for their choice but enforced voting for the candidate of the incumbent government or no vote at all, they have won other units, they only need to take control of this one where they have lost earlier. There were killings that day, and a lot of promising lives were lost in the process and notably, that of a 12-year old girl who was killed having appeared in the vicinity where one of the crises occurred.

It's like forcing a government on the people and they are not happy with that. It's been four years now, would they be able to rewrite the story and elect their choice?

The people of the state of Osun were ready to perform their civic duty by electing their choice but will it count this time? Despite the willingness of the citizens of the state to participate in the process, many are still afraid that the incumbent government might once again manipulate the process.

People trooped out of their houses to choose a new governor for the state and information reached me about how the incumbent government has been involved in buying votes again for 5,000 NGN (39 STEEM) per vote, would people accept this and suffer for the next 4 years?

Yes and No, some accepted it and it's done with a kind of covenant using a gun representing the god of iron for the pledge, the local people believed going against one's pledge can lead to death by any object having iron as its component (car, motorbike, gun and so on).

The election was peaceful and one of the best ones I have seen in recent years, no casualties were recorded and the State of Osun has a new governor from another political party after many years of reign by the incumbent party, it's worth noting that the same party (incumbent party) is ruling Nigeria at the moment. The election result goes as seen below after coalition from 30 local government areas;

The result shows that Ademola Adeleke becomes the new governor of the state, he completed the job he couldn't finish 4 years ago, winning with 28,344 votes . This made many people of the state happy and believe in democracy again as their votes count in the electoral process. I took a picture and made a video of the few ones jubilating this morning while I was coming back from Church.

I walked a few kilometers this morning and I can hear citizens congratulating one another almost from every angle of the town which shows how tired they are of the present government and finally happy they eventually made a change.

In conclusion, the result of the governorship election in my state is a sign that vote counts and assures the people of Nigeria that they can still elect the candidates they want into the seat of power. The general election of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is approaching, precisely in 2023 and I guess many are getting ready to exercise their rights in electing their chosen candidate. I have just shared with you in this piece the state of democracy in my state and how hope is restored to many. I hope you had a great time on this.