PUNCH
ADELANI ADEPEGBA writes on the inability of seven state governors to withstand the onslaught of the opposition candidates in the just general elections
The March 18 governorship and state assembly elections have been won and lost but the shocking outcomes of the exercise would continue to tickle bookmakers for years to come. Some governors who contested the election lost to the opposition members, while anointed candidates of a few others were defeated.
The All Progressives Congress lost Lagos State, the stronghold of its presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, to the Labour Party standard bearer, Peter Obi.
But while the Lagos State Governor and APC candidate, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, was able to rally support for his re-election which he won resoundingly, some governors lost their states as they were overwhelmed by the opposition candidates.
For Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State, the declaration that he lost the March 18 election to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Dauda Lawal must have shocked him to the marrow.
But the Independent National Electoral Commission said Lawal who amassed 377,726 votes defeated Matawalle of the APC who polled 311,976. Interestingly, Matawalle became governor under the PDP before he defected to the APC.
In Kano, Governor Umar Ganduje’s dream of handing over power to the APC governorship candidate, Yusuf Gawuna faded away like the morning dew kissed by the sun. Abba Yusuf of the New Nigeria Peoples Party was declared the winner of the polls. Not only that, the party also secured 17 out of the 24 House of Representatives seats in addition to a high number of state assembly constituencies.
The NNPP was led by a former Kano state governor, Rabiu Kwakwanso. The INEC returning officer, Ahmad Ibrahim, announced that Yusuf won the election with 1,019,602 votes, while Gawuna who is the current deputy governor got 890,705 votes.
Yusuf had contested against Ganduje in 2019 in what was regarded as a very controversial election, which went into supplementary polls in 28 out of the 44 local government areas in the state. At the end of the first election, Yusuf was leading Ganduje with 26,655 votes. Yusuf, who was at the time the PDP candidate polled 1,014,474 votes while Ganduje got 987,819 votes. Ganduje eventually won by scoring 45,876 votes while Yusuf amassed 10,239 in the supplementary polls.
The Kwankwasiyya movement supporters celebrated the NNPP’s victory, defying the dusk-to-dawn curfew imposed by the state government to prevent an outbreak of violence following the tension generated by the election outcome.
