Nigeria: The Burden of Proof

30 June 2014
opinion

Perhaps, the freest election in recent history, but the All Progressives Congress has said the victory of Ekiti State Governor-elect, Mr. Ayodele Fayose is still haunted by credibility baggage, some of which it is already canvassing in the court of public opinion. Unfortunately for the party, it has a burden of proof to deal with in a much complex scenario like the Ekiti election.

Even before the official announcement of the June 21 governorship election results, almost the whole of Ekiti was reported by major national and local media organisations as having gone into wild jubilation. This, observers had said was a celebration of the trashing of the outgoing Governor Kayode Fayemi's elitist administration, which according to sources, had refused to "tar the stomach" of the people in three years but had gone on tarring roads and investing in infrastructure development. Curiously, analysts, both local and foreign including the many respected columnists had though predicted a Fayemi victory based on evident performance, however a close race they all seemed to agree, obviously because of the popularity of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Mr. Ayodele Fayose. But that was not to be. By the time the result fully came in and announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), it was a tsunamic victory for Fayose. He cleared the entire 16 local governments without any to Fayemi's credit.

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