Kano State, last week, held its local government elections and soon after the exercise, pictures of some underage voters, who had flooded some centres to cast their votes, went viral. This, naturally, had also created an outrage among the observing public about Kano’s tendency to churn out ridiculous number of votes in general elections.
To think that most presidents of the country had benefitted from this anomaly in each election year and none had taken the time to either speak against it or made any conscious move to halt the trend speaks to the level of dishonesty that typifies the Nigerian leadership.
Clearly, the council polls are a precursor to what would come up next year, when the main election would hold. Remember, there is a serious and intense political rivalry going on between Governor Abdulahi Ganduje and his predecessor, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, a development that stoke an upswing in the manipulations of the process in next year’s election, in addition to the fact that Kano is a potential flashpoint.
The criminality that strewn Kano council polls is condemnable and not just that, the authority must start to address some of these issues, not only because they confer undue advantages on the state at the expense of the others, but more importantly because they tend to undermine the nation’s democracy.
