YIAGA Africa, one of the non-governmental organisations accredited by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to monitor the September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo State, has again and again shown by its actions and pronouncements before, during and after the election that it came to the state with a preferred winner instinct at the back of its mind.
Yiaga came to Edo State with a mindset to work from a presumed ‘answer to question or from solution to problem’ point of view.
Founded by Samson Itodo, YIAGA Africa shot itself on the foot by flying over the boundary set for election observers in an exercise like the September 21 election by declaring that the election that produced the candidate All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Monday Okpebholo as winner, failed, in its warped mind, integrity test.
Hear Itodo and co: “Yiaga Africa concludes that the 2024 Edo governorship election fails the electoral integrity test due to the lack of transparency in the results collation process, which led to the manipulation of results.”
Itodo and his now infamous organisation greedily found in the out-going governor Godwin Obaseki, a man desperate to remain in power and willing to do anything or pay any fee to push his candidate and business partner, Asue Ighodalo of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) through to Osadebey Avenue Government House as his successor.
Yiaga Africa fell for his bait – got the governor’s good money, which we gathered allegedly ran into hundreds of millions of naira of Edo tax payers’ money, lush accommodation – then threw caution overboard and went berserk.
In a hurry to satisfy the whims and caprices of its paymaster, Yiaga Africa dubiously claimed that it deployed “325 observers monitored polling units across all 18 LGAs, identifying critical issues that compromised the integrity of the election.”
How do a mere 325 observers fit into acceptable scientific sample size to cover Edo’s over 4,500 polling units? How many units did the so called Yiaga Africa observers visit in the state on the election to have come out with an acceptable report in an election as crucial as the Edo governorship poll?
Of the 325, Yiaga Africa further boxed itself to a tighter corner, saying “300 of them are stationary and 25 roving observers, covering a representative sample of polling units across all 18 LGAs”.
How many polling units across the 18 local government areas of Edo State did the Yiaga Africa’s 25 roving observers cover? How many of the over 4,500 polling units in the state did Yiaga Africa’s 300 stationary observers cover on September 21?
Peeved by the Yiaga Africa rascality, another civil society group accredited to monitor the election, Good Governance Network, questioned Itodo and his co-travellers, and said: “It is inappropriate for any civil society group or election observer to act as a parallel agency declaring elections.”
It should be recalled that all that the PDP and the agents of the government of Edo State was the Yiaga Africa’s rascality to goad into the street urchins-like behaviour the good people of Edo State have been seeing of late.
First, based on the Yiaga Africa’s statement, PDP governors gathered in Benin at time, announced Ighodalo as winner of the election. They shamelessly claimed that their figures were from their accredited observers and agents across the state.
Second, the government and its agents in the state, having lost the election, advanced in their propaganda by calling for a return of s fathom mandate; and the subsequent demonstrations around the city centre by sponsored persons.
The ground for all the bad behaviours that have followed the declaration Okpebholo as winner of the election by INEC was prepared by Itodo’s Yiaga Africa and its dubious report on the September 21 election report.
Ekhator, a political observer, lives in Benin, Edo State
