Samuel Oyejola
The presidential elections has come and gone but the ripples it created would continue to be a major source of review for analysts as a result of the emergence of General Muhammadu Buhari as the winner of the presidential election. Out of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory the PDP presidential candidate could only garner victory in 15 states of the federation including the FCT while the president elect cleared the others.
The gubernatorial election, intriguing as it was, saw PDP controlled states fall into the hands of the opposition APC.
The PDP could only boast of controlling the south east and the south-south and a pockets of states in the other geopolitical zones.
Like a hurricane, the APC swept majority of the states all over the country with Lagos, Ogun, Kaduna, Katsina, Benue, Bauchi, Kwara, Sokoto, Borno, Kano, Yobe, Plateau, and Kebbi raising the broom in victory. The PDP was not all altogether a bad loser as it also clinched almost all of the states in the South -South and the South-East.
Analysts are of the opinion that the Buhari Revolution had a very serious impact on the play out of the gubernatorial and to a significant extent the states house of assembly polls. Instructively, in the wake of the victory of GMB, political actor s have already began to rewrite their script to favour their interest in the next administration.
In the days that followed the emergence of GMB as the President-elect, there was a depletion of the PDP with the exodus of members into the APC with many of these defectors claiming they cannot afford not to be in the mainstream politics.
From the north to the south stories of movement was the same. In Jigawa, the deputy Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Mohmud, who was expelled from the PDP on the basis of anti-party activitie, joined the APC. He did not join as a person but went in tow with his supporters who were massive.
In the state, the APC had a major landmark results in the presidential contest, this alone indicated way the guber elections would go and the prediction was not farfetched.
In Edo state although there was no governorship election but the defection of the 2012 guber candidate of the PDP in the state, Maj-Gen. Charles Arhiavbere (rtd) was a milestone for the APC. He defected with over 10,000 supporters.
Prior to his defection, the retired soldier, who was the National Coordinator of the Goodluck Support Group, and Goodluck Youth Initiative, said his move was to give accelerated development to the state by working with the governor and the government at the center.
“I would not be one of the political leaders that would move Edo State backward, especially when the APC is now at the federal level.
“Every well-meaning politician must come to the centre for rapid development. We can only do that if we give political stability to the Comrade Governor of Edo State.”
He continued: “the party at the centre is APC and the party in Edo State is also APC why then should we be in opposition and I believe that I have the ground and the supporters to influence positively the election of April 11 for the State House of Assembly.” He told reporters.
In Kwara State, about 13 political parties with their governorship candidates declared their support for the candidate of the APC and the incumbent governor Abdulfatai Ahmed in the state after the presidential election victory of the party. The party stated that their decision was to be in the mainstream politics and not be left behind.
More also, the main opposition in the state, PDP witnessed the mass movement of its members to the APC in the wake of the Buhari victory. Their reason, they claimed, was that of genuine concern for the development of the state.
“We in the CNPP of Kwara State identified the need to be in the mainstream of the nation’s politics by ensuring that our governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, also emerges on the platform of APC to enable us recoup all the losses we have sustained under the punitive policies of the administration of the outgoing President in the last two years.”
In the north-east of the country that had always supported General Buhari right from his struggle to rule the country as a democratically elected President, the vote was overwhelming.
This is given to the age long impact he had on the region during his youthful years in the army when he was the military administrator of the region. It would be surprising if the region at this time had turned its back on the general. Thus the APC cleared the region in the gubernatorial election with the exception of Gombe.
But analysts continue to wonder what the magic wand was this time that did not work in the previous general elections.But then, CPC left its guber candidates in the various states to their fate. They were left alone to campaign on their own while GMB focused on his own campaign. This political miscalculation gave the PDP the opportunity to cash in on victory in the north in the 2011 election.
However it seems the general learnt from the mistake of the past. He was visible in all the campaigns in the states and identified with the APC gubernatorial candidates. This gave the candidates the required acceptance from the voters. They argued that in Kaduna it was the personality of GMB that saw the emergence of Nasir el-Rufai as the governor-elect.
