The entire city of Lagos (Nigeria's commercial hub) was rattled as results posted on the website of the Nigerian electoral body; The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Mr. Funsho Williams of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) winner of the April 19th Lagos State Gubernatorial elections. According to the website, Mr. Funsho Williams of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled more votes than the Lagos State Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was earlier declared winner of the April 19 gubernatorial election.

According to the results on the website, while Tinubu, the Alliance for Democracy (AD) candidate, was given 838,000 votes, the PDP candidate, Williams was given 1,066,000 votes. However, the INEC Commissioner in charge of information, Okpo Sam Okpo, said the figure posted was a regrettable error. He stated that when the commission's attention was drawn to it, immediately correction was effected.
The crisis this error may cause cannot be overemphasized. A similar situation was the Miss World beauty pageant that was to hold in Nigeria, which was later, transferred to London. Unprofessional handling of information by the press caused the Miss world crisis.

We need to be very careful with the way we handle information because it can ruin a nation before we say ‘Jack Robinson’! More so, the people we entrust to the management of information must be experts and professionals. They must be very intelligent to avoid this sort of error that can cause a war.


This type of error can cause political unrest and crises throughout the country as the Governors elect may have their results challenged and it can be concluded that such errors may be possible in all other states thereby, rendering all declared results invalid.

The April 19th polls has come and gone and the results are out. The results were greeted with mixed feelings from both the electorates and politicians but history has been made. That Nigeria has broken the jinx of a successful transition from a democratic government to another democratic government is laudable. Nigerians have decided to govern themselves under a government chosen by the people and politically popular. I give kudos to all Nigerians who came out on that rainy day to perform their civic duties.

Although, the transition seemed to be successful but for the books of history, the election results should be intelligently studied. This is not just for us to savour but also for us to understand that we still have a long way to go in our democratisation process.

A close study of results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, seems to have supported allegations of irregularities in last weekend's polls.

The result from Ogun State, the president's home state, shows a wide discrepancy between the total number of votes cast for the gubernatorial and presidential candidates. The total number of votes cast for all the presidential candidates exceeded that of the gubernatorial candidates by 618,071 votes. This staggering difference has set many eyebrows askew. During the elections voters were given two ballot papers: the shorter one for the gubernatorial poll and the longer for the presidential.
From results crosschecked on INEC's website (www.inecnigeria.org), 1, 576, 875 names were on the voters' register in Ogun State. The total number of ballots cast (both valid votes and rejected ballots) for the gubernatorial candidates was 747, 296. However, the total number of votes cast in the presidential category was 1, 365, 367, a difference of 618, 071. Out of the total votes cast, President Olusegun Obasanjo polled 1, 360, 170 (99.92%), while General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd.) scored 680 (0.05%).
The discrepancy in the figures has thrown up a number of questions. Is it that thousands of voters in Ogun State were not interested in who becomes their governor? Is it that they were only interested in returning their kinsman to the presidency? Did thousands of voters refuse to take the ballot paper for the gubernatorial candidates? If so what did they do with the ballot papers? Did they drop them at the polling stations or did they take them home? Or did they forget to vote in the gubernatorial category? Were there more than 600, 000 voided yet unrecorded votes in the gubernatorial category? Are these figures from actual voting or are they cooked figures? Is there an honest mistake somewhere? Or a deliberate manipulation of figures?

These and many other questions are crying for answers.It is also noted, however, that though Ogun State posted the most staggering difference in the votes cast simultaneously, the trend is not peculiar to it. In 10 other states with full results on the INEC website, the differences ranged from 1,000 to 94,000.
In Adamawa State the difference is 94,143; in Akwa Ibom, 68,861; in Ebonyi, 1,457; in Edo, 24, 197; in Ekiti, 2,675; in Enugu, 70, 922; in Jigawa, 55, 740; in Kwara, 3, 325; in Oyo, 46, 336; and in Niger, 31, 850. Whether they are in a few thousands or in hundreds of thousands, the differences point to the fact that something is amiss somewhere.There are also questions about Rivers and Bayelsa states where the president and incumbent state governors scored almost 100 per cent with 97 per cent turnout.
This reminds us of elections held in Saddam's Iraq. The expired maximum dictator, Saddam Hussein, almost always scored 99 per cent in a vote where turn-out is akin to that of Rivers State. This leaves several questions unanswered especially when some local government areas like Brass recorded 100 per cent turn-out and 99 per cent vote for the incumbent.
The doubts engendered by the turnout in Rivers, which the PDP national chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh, called “historic”, cast a question mark on the credibility of the elections.

Already, the president's opponents have alleged gross manipulation of the polls. Both local and international observers have complained of lapses, irregularities and manipulation in a few states.

According to the European Union observer group, "the elections were simply not credible."Fair and square Obasanjo would have won but overzealous element within his party may have spoilt the day for him.

We still have a long way to go and by the year 2007, Nigeria shall by God’s grace have to witness another transition to a civil rule. If it continues this way, we may tend towards a pseudo-democratic state.