Why Fayose Won! Elections in Nigeria are not won on social media

The elites on social media are as usual doing what they know best: Speaking elegant queen English about the emergence of Fayose as the unofficial Governor-elect of Ekiti State. I have read all manners of insult hurled at Ekiti People for choosing a tout over an intellectual and I laugh.

Most of us on social media especially the champions and overlords who gets comments, shares and retweets on our updates are disconnected from the reality that is Nigeria; social media is an effective tool for social re-engineering and mobilization. It is an avenue to network, release tensed up energy and be informed on the latest gist in town, but elections in Nigeria are not won on social media.

#EkitiDecides: PDP should devote the energy they use to steal elections to the Nation – Tinubu

With today’s election, Ekiti State has become the epicenter of Nigerian electoral politics. Here, the major political fault lines converge into a great foreshadowing. 

Fateful questions not only about Ekiti but about the course of our nation and its uncertain democracy will be asked and may be answered this day. If this is how history will have it, so be it. Elections in Nigeria have rarely been a transparent exercise.

The ruling party has mostly dug into its bag of electoral tricks to cast about a vast assortment of malpractice over almost every important contest.

As the ruling PDP senses its popularity flag and apprehends the existence of an opposition party that it cannot dominate, PDP anxiety has become acute. Rigging is no longer a tool it uses in election.

Rigging has become an article of faith for them. With the advent of the APC, the PDP finally faces a challenger strong enough to remove its chokehold on the nation’s future.

EKITI UNDER SIEGE: We would not allow Ekiti State to be turned to a war zone

I want Jonathanians to justify the decision of their paymaster to send 36,000 security agents to Ekiti State (A State with a lesser population than each of the troubled States) for today's gubernatorial election when the total number of security agencies deployed to the 3 troubled States in the North East is presently below 36,000.

We would not allow Ekiti State to be turned to a war zone, persons being picked up indiscriminately without any offence are an attack on the generality of Ekiti people. And why would it be that these arrests are targeted at only opposition  APC members and their supporters...?

President Goodluck Jonathan sent 36,000 security agents to Ekiti for the gubernatorial elections. Security sources confirmed that there are 12,340 regular policemen;  26 sniffer dogs; 3170 anti-riot policemen; 4,280 soldiers; 1800 Nigerian secret police operatives and  15,000 civil defense personnel on ground in the state for today's election.

APC raises the alarm over Ekiti election, says clampdown on media part of strategy to capture state

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised the alarm on the desperation of the PDP-led federal government to capture Ekiti State at all cost, saying the ongoing clampdown on the national media is part of a grand strategy to silence Nigerians ahead of the satanic plan to thwart the will of the people of Ekiti and indeed that of all Nigerians.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the multi-pronged approach started with the harassment and intimidation of the people of Ekiti to prevent them from coming out to vote on 21 June.

''The pre-meditated violence inflicted on innocent and harmless Ekiti people last Sunday by the police, which has now turned itself to PDP enforcers, is aimed clearly at signalling to the people of the state what they should expect before, during and after the forthcoming election,'' it said