Nigerian Elections 2011

Election Day 1

Since the election was rescheduled for this week a week ago, the polity has been engrossed in the process of discussions about what happened, what will happen and what could have happened.

Across the country, whenever you find a group of people talking, it mostly a discussion about who will win, who will not win and who might have a chance in the upcoming election. Also, the ability of the ruling party in the particular state and the nation to retain its seats in the houses also has not left the discussion trend.

Now on Saturday 9 April 2011, the election finally took place in the various wards and polling centers that the electoral commission, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had given the go ahead to hold the election. It has been reported that people came out to exercise their franchise and follow through with the process of accreditation and voting. Most people saw their names on the register that was posted at their polling station, some did not but overall, there seems to be a general perception that the process was transparent and credible.

The results are still coming in, some are coming as a shock and others are not so surprising. Some sitting politicians have lost their positions where the result has been declared but generally most people are still waiting for the results to be announced by INEC.

It is the hope of your agent that the process will be the beginning of a good future for the country. That this write up will be outdated and the level of understanding of the process would be much greater than this when time has taken its effect on this document.

After 12 years of the ruling PDP, it seems the polity is sensing that we are finally getting it right in the political sphere. It then becomes more imperative that those who have won seats in this election more that ever now owe their allegiance to the electorate to deliver on their electoral promises and be transparent in their dealings so that the feeble structure that is being setup stands the test of time.

Next week is the presidential election; it will be a good time to observe the performance of the candidates as the results unfold.

See you next week.