A 77-year-old retired civil servant, Fawole Ademola, has offered Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) an unusually high approval rating after casting his ballot in Saturday’s Osun governorship election and praised the calm atmosphere, cooperation between security personnel and voters, and smooth handling of the poll at his voting centre.
Ademola, who spoke with Channels TV at one of the polling units, gave INEC 99.9 per cent for its performance. He said he could not award a perfect score because “100 per cent” would leave no room for improvement.
The septuagenarian said he was particularly pleased that he had lived to participate in another election and exercise his constitutional right to vote.
He said, “I feel alright, and I am happy that today, the 15th of August, we are alive and able to perform our civic right. I am happy to be voting.”
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He described the atmosphere at his polling location as peaceful and free of rancour. He added that residents had been anticipating the election because of its importance to the future of the state.
Ademola said, “There is no rancour, and everything is peaceful. We have been expecting this election. It is for our own good.”
The retired public servant also linked his expectation from the incoming administration to developments at the federal level, particularly in infrastructure and other areas of public services.
He urged, “We want those developments that are going on at the federal level to also come here, infrastructure, everything!”
Ademola said his assessment of INEC was based on what he personally observed at the polling unit, including the absence of visible hitches during the voting process.
He said, “I can’t rate INEC 100 per cent, but I give them 99.9 per cent in everything. No glitches, everything is going smoothly.”
He also praised the security personnel at the location: that their interaction with voters had helped create an orderly environment.
He said, “There is cooperation between the security people and everyone. So, there won’t be cause for election malpractices.”
Ademola added that he had not witnessed vote buying at his polling unit and expressed readiness to cast his ballot.
His assessment came against the backdrop of extensive logistical preparations by INEC for the election, which has 2,339,233 registered voters and 15 political parties on the ballot.
The commission had faced a late adjustment to its preparations after a Federal High Court judgment ordered the inclusion of Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate Francis Ajala and his running mate, Faseke Oladipo, in the election.
INEC National Commissioner supervising Osun, Kunle Ajayi, said the commission printed millions of ballot papers and result sheets within 36 hours after obtaining a certified copy of the judgment.
He said sensitive materials were subsequently moved to the Central Bank and distributed across all 30 local government areas before voting began.
Ajayi also disclosed that INEC completed the distribution to the local governments at about 5 a.m. on Saturday. He insisted that the late court decision did not derail the commission’s logistical arrangements.
However, as for Ademola, the immediate verdict from his polling unit is simple and clear: the process he witnessed was peaceful, orderly, and largely without glitches.
