Validation of Gbenga Daniel’s victory

By Wale James

THE recent judgment of Ogun State Election Petitions Tribunal in the petition of Mr. Dipo Dina, the Action Congress governorship candidate in the last gubernatorial election ,has afforded observers the opportunity of commenting on the outcome. As a lover of justice and observer of the sittings of the tribunal in Abeokuta, I welcome the verdict with a deep sigh of relief. It is noteworthy to point out that in the Dipo Dina suit, the tribunal was allowed to do its work without fear, favour, hindrance or reproach. This is how it should be. When tribunals are hindered as exhibited in certain cases, the course of justice is delayed.

The April 21 verdict in Abeokuta is an eye-opener. Mr. Dipo Dina had filed a petition challenging the victory of the current governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, in the last gubernatorial election. But the tribunal in its wisdom dismissed the petition for lacking merit. This would have implication for the other petition challenging the same victory. This is because the two petitions did not arise out of election conducted on different days. They arose out of election that was held in one day and under similar circumstances. Indeed, the judgment is a triumph for the judiciary and democracy. While one petitioner was trying to paint the tribunal in bad light, the other one accepted the proceedings of the tribunal. As a result, the tribunal forged ahead and asserted itself with a unanimous judgment.

Today, the Nigerian Judiciary is enjoying the best of times. The beauty of the current exercise is that the judiciary that is courageous in nullifying the election of some governors based on merit is the same judiciary that is bold in upholding the election of certain governors based on the same principle of merit. In every sense, therefore, the verdict could be described as a validation of Otunba Daniel’s victory at the polls. It has left an indelible mark of justice on the political scene of Ogun State. If the reports from other states following the last gubernatorial election were anything to go by, then the conduct of the election in Ogun State was much better. There was no sudden outburst of protest in the state after the election.

More importantly, the judgment is a confirmation of the various opinion polls that were churned out before the election that showed Otunba Daniel as the most popular candidate. It is important that I cast the mind of readers back to those opinion polls because some people are short of memory. In all the opinion polls, including those conducted by some national newspapers, neither Mr. Dipo Dina of Action Congress (AC) nor Mr. Ibikunle Amosun of All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) scored higher than the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Otunba Daniel. The opinion polls had predicted that Mr. Dipo Dina and Mr. Ibikunle Amosun would score less than 40 per cent each of the total number of votes cast while Otunba Daniel would score above 60 per cent.

Let us not deceive ourselves in Ogun State. Otunba worked hard for his victory. I followed the trend of his campaign. While there were reports in the national dailies that Otunba Daniel toured the 236 wards in the state during the last electioneering campaign, I read no such report about the candidates of other political parties. Instead, what I came about in the newspaper about other candidates was their attempt to bring down Otunba Daniel rather than tell the electorates what they could offer.From the look of things, because of high level of literacy among Ogun State citizens, the level of politics has moved beyond the pettiness and naivety displayed by most of Otunba Daniel’s opponents in the run-off to the last election.

Again, the story that I heard from the opposition camp before the election was that second­term governors do not perform. It is now very clear that this story was a figment of their imagination as far as Ogun State is concerned. With the monumental achievements of Otunba Daniel in his second tenure like the dualisation of Lalubu Road in Abeokuta and the commencement of the Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in the three senatorial districts in the state, his popularity is even soaring higher. May I conclude by saying once again that the latest verdict from Abeokuta has validated Otunba Daniel’s victory and advanced the course democracy in Ogun State.

James, a public affairs commentator, writes from Lagos.