 We're not done with the governorship election in IKT State. The Nigero civil society situation room has reached INAIC high in terms of logistics and commencement of voting in today's IKT State governorship election. The situation room is made up of over 70 civil society organizations working in support of credible and transparent elections in Nigeria. It's stated that the situation room observed early arrival of poll officials and election materials in 93% of the polling units observed. The situation room added that there were reports of widespread vote-buying by political party agents across the 16 local government areas of IKT. When I have a political analyst and election observer right there in IKT State, Chike Churi joining us. Good evening Mr. Churi. Good evening. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for joining us. It's a pleasure. Okay. Where do we start from? From our observation here, we are on the other side. You are on the ground there. We are on the other side. From this other side, it looks pretty peaceful overall. What's your opinion? Well, the reason why it looks peaceful overall is because it is peaceful overall. There has been very little incidents to be worried about in IKT State. And of course, I think what gives an idea of what has brought us about is the fact that if you notice the reduction in the number of security personnel that are deployed to IKT State is drastically less than we had in the last election, governorship election in IKT State. We all had that from 30,000 to 34,000 security personnel deployed to IKT State. And we have a massive reduction to about 17,000. So that gives you an idea that even the security agencies have also done their due diligence and also realize that the level of the threat level is not as it was in previous elections in the state. And we have seen this manifest in the period leading to this election. Of course, it is not as if there are no skirmishes. About some days ago, the factional leader of the national road transport workers was short dead. But the security people quickly stepped into the fray and then ensured that there was no reprisal. And so, I mean, from that moment onward, it's been relatively peaceful. And so we saw the combination of that in the election that took place today. Most of the centers were, you know, incidents free. And I think it speaks well of the people of IKT State. It speaks well of especially the security agencies, you know, for the deployment that they did. And then, you know, so that's what we have seen. It's relatively free. And you know, security-wise, the state is OK. Yeah, Mr. Trudeau. Now, early turnouts of voters, large turnouts of voters, are we beginning to see a reduction in the, in voter apathy in Nigeria? Can we make that? It is too early to make that assertion, you know, conclusively. Because we, again, first of all, we need to wait to get the available data or the relevant data, you know, data out there in terms of the number of people that turned out, the number of people that voted. And so to see whether there is a natural improvement to what we had in the last election in IKT State. But from our own observation, the turnout was fairly, was fairly OK. And even the media reports, and that's what you're making also reference to that. Because usually the media will tell you how low it is too, but it is not low at all. And it is also the same thing that we have seen. So I guess that that could be a sign of good things. And the one thing you want to look at, as possible, is it could be that the level of consciousness of the citizens of IKT State is on the rise. Yes, I was coming to that, the consciousness of voters in that state. Can we attribute that to the level of education in the state or is just voter sensitization? What would you say? No, I think it's voter sensitization. And then, of course, you cannot, you cannot remove voter sensitization from education too. Because once you sensitize, you educate. So I think it's a combination of the both. A lot has gone into sensitizing the voters and then the ongoing exercise at the national level with the primaries of most of the political parties I think also generated some level of interest too. So I think in a way that also helped, generally. And then, again, perhaps it might not be out of place to also suggest that perhaps Nigerians are beginning to understand the importance of these elections. And that is why they are responding in the way that they are responding. Because they are looking at their lives, they are looking at what is going on with their welfare and perhaps they feel that a solution can lie with letting the right kind of a political leadership perhaps. Okay. Yes, it's like you spoke my mind. You read my mind. Now, the voter response in this election, are we beginning to see voter responsibility, citizen responsibility in their practical involvement in elections saying enough is enough. Poverty, enough is enough. Poor education system, enough is enough. Insecurity, enough is enough. Is that why? No, obviously Nigerians are worried about that. And the citizens of Fakiti State are Nigerians. So they are also worried about their existence. And obviously they are not happy with what is going on and nobody will be happy. And I think a lot of them are beginning to realize that their political engagement is also crucial to having the kind of country that they desire. But so even as much as we can make this argument, there is also the negative aspect of it. And which you might get to, but at least it's important that I talk about it. And that is the instance of vote by him. Because when we make this assertion, for instance, about this new awakening, this new level of consciousness among Nigerians, it's a very good thing. But we also realize that the residence of vote by him would seem to kind of shed this very good motive on the part of the citizens of Fakiti State. Of course, while some of the institutions, federal institutions, they got their acts right, like the police did well in terms of deployment, very early deployment, by around 8.30 or 9. Virtually all polling units in the state had police presence there and security presence, which is very commendable. And then INEC again turned out reasonably well in virtually all the polling units. But maybe a certain 9 o'clock, about 93 percent or so turned out, which is very, very commendable. But the politicians did what they did. The politicians elect the people of Fakiti State down. They are the ones that are engaged in this vote by him too. And that is not to exonerate the people that are also being bought, whose consciousness are being bought. But of course, you also look at the issue of poverty and the weaponization of poverty. So it becomes very difficult for people to say no. So yes, they are on one side, the people want a better Fakiti State and they want a better country. But on the other side, their involvement in, you know, vote selling, you know, did not exactly pay them well in good light. Thank you. You've made my job easier tonight, Mr. Tude, by jumping on vote buying, because I was coming to that. Now, I wanted to do, perhaps it's still too early to judge, but can you do a quick, an overall judgment of the outing today? What would you score INEC on this? I wouldn't want to score INEC. But the only thing I can tell you is that this is, you know, markedly better from what we saw in Anambra State and what we experienced. That was Anambra State too. And then the Abudia Municipal Council elections too. We are not, I mean, we had a lot of, you know, beaver's machines are breaking down. And but what we have seen today is that there was about 76 percent proper functionality of the beaver's machine in the election that took place in Akiti State today. And so I think that that is a reasonable improvement. And that is progress. That is the only way we can put it. There is progress. There is progress in the logistic, INEC logistics. There is progress, which of course includes the deployment of staff and the materials and all that, you know, and then they came in on time. And there was progress in that. There was progress in the functioning of the beaver's machine and there was progress in the turnout of the police and the conduct of the police. And though in a few places, I mean, they performed creditably well and in a very civil manner. Though in a few places, some few bad acts were involved in, you know, in aiding voter, selling of an inducement of a voters, which also was not good. But in general, this election was an improvement, a fairly good improvement of what we saw in Anambra State and in Abuja. Amazing. Amazing. Thank you very much. My last question to you. Do you see INEC repeating these sterling performance in 2023? Well, before they repeat that in 2023, they have to repeat it in on-shoot state. And of course, don't forget that we have an election on-shoot state on the 16th, you know, of next month. July. And so we hope that this will not be one step forward and two step backwards. We want to believe that again, that they will improve on the improvements that we have seen in this last election today. So a lot of people have been waiting to see INEC's outing today and of course in July when we get to on-shoot state. Thank you very much for your time, Mr. Chikichune. You are an interviewer. Interviewer is the light any time. Thank you. Thank you. It's a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you very much.