Senate President Godswill Akpabio has raised concerns over the recurring pattern in Nigerian local government elections, where the ruling party often sweeps all the available seats.
Akpabio, after casting his vote in the local government elections in Akwa Ibom State, made this statement during an interview shared by Channels Television on their YouTube channel from 1:44.
He expressed skepticism over the results, highlighting that this phenomenon is common across many states in Nigeria.
Akpabio questioned how it’s possible for a political party to consistently win every local government seat without any opposition.
He remarked that in states where the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) holds power, they tend to announce victories in all the local government areas.
Similarly, in states under the control of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), it’s often the same story.
These types of results, where a ruling party claims complete dominance, do not seem realistic to the Senate President.
He further elaborated that such outcomes raise important questions about the integrity of the electoral process at the grassroots level.
According to Akpabio, it’s hard to believe that voters would overwhelmingly support one party in every local government area without any form of opposition or contestation from other parties.
This pattern, in his view, diminishes the credibility of the election and casts doubt on whether the results reflect the true will of the people.
Akpabio also emphasised that in a truly free and fair electoral system, different political parties should have a chance to win based on the competence and appeal of their candidates, rather than the ruling party dominating solely because of its power.
He urged for a system where elections are determined by the quality of the candidates and their ability to convince voters, not by their party affiliation.
He said that if elections were genuinely transparent and free, there would be a mix of winners from various parties, not just a single-party sweep.
Godswill Akpabio said, “My coming here today is to participate in the local government polls and secondly to observe the conduct of the local government election by the state government.
“Sometimes you hear a state that is run by a particular party, maybe sometimes APGA, and then they say the finish election and everybody in that state wins APGA.
“If you have 25 local governments, everybody wins 25 over 25, but when you hear a PDP state, they say we are 100%, so it is necessary for me to come and see how they normally win the 100%.
“With the avalanche of support that we have seen, that I have in my senatorial district and in my local government, which you are all witnesses, how do people normally score this 100%?
“So it simply means that if elections are allowed to be free and fair, a lot of political parties will choose people on the basis of their competence and not on the basis of the ruling party in that state.”