According to the Chairman Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Maurice Iwu, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar Adua, candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, who was also Chief Obasanjo’s anointed candidate, has won Twenty Four Million votes.

The two embattled candidates of ANPP, retired General Muhammadu Buhari and that of AC, Vice President Atiku Abubakar polled Six Million and Two Million votes respectively, at the heel of Yar Adua, according to the result announced by the INEC boss. In view of the landslide margin attributed to the PDP ruling party candidate, opinions in many quarters accused the results of being full of fraud and all sorts of rigging antics in form of ballot box snatching and box stuffing has laid thread-bare, causes for questioning the credibility of the elections.

Taking into cognizance the said electoral malpractices that manifested right from the first round of polls on April 14, while interviewed, the electorate themselves expressed fear they would not be granted their right candidates of their choice, particularly the presidential candidate. Their fear obviously emanated from their past experience of the 2003 elections which were equally controversial and a lot of rigging cases ended up before the courts of law and eventually aborted from achieving the goals of preservation of rights.

This particular phenomenon goes in tune with the belief among politicians in Nigeria that it is better for one to be sued in connection with elations, than for him to sue.

Like the case of 2003 elections, numerous observers to the 2007 polls have faulted the whole election process for so many clear reasons. Prominent among such who discredited the elections were the United Nations observer group, the Election Monitoring Group and of course the Human Right's Watch, the later of which stated that it wasn't satisfied by the particularly presidential polls, which was reported by it's observers at Gombe and Katsina that the process was rocked by violence and bloody encounters ever imagined.

On their parts, candidates in the prominent opposition parties: Retired General Muhammadu Buhari of ANPP, condemned the result as unacceptable and a fraud. Vice President Atiku Abubakar, presidential candidate of AC, termed the election as mere drama of film show of the motion picture brand. Likewise Attahiru Dalhatu Bafarawa of DPP waved aside the election result as fake. However, Yar Adua, the proclaimed winner of the presidential polls indicated that it was an election well contested by all registered candidates and that it could not be challenged in any way more than through due process of court case. The president Chief Olusegun Obasanjo's simple reason on the outcome of the election is that nowhere in the world elations have been perfect and free of rigging.

At this very juncture, some were of the opinion that it remains for the Nigerians to pass their verdict as the matter is now before the peoples' court either to endorse or reject the result of the polls.

Immediately sequel to announcement of the elections results, series of meetings and consultations followed, among all stakeholders to the elections, including an emergency sitting by members of National House of Assembly, the result of which the house equally faulted the electoral process in toto.

Still one wonders if the Federal Government under Chief Obasanjo would be sensitive and responsive to all these calls and suggestions for the good of the entire nation. Although it is known about Nigerian authorities to usually be bent on their interests and ignore popular demands of the people in similar cases in the past, however, one fact is clear that we are setting a very bad precedence of the up coming generation to inherit, as popular votes would no longer serve in clinching positions of power, rather through old primitive ways of power snatching trough violence and bloodletting, all under the guise of elections.

This unfit process has long been practiced in most of the South Eastern states, where the elections do not usually take place in reality, rather the power of thuggery and money decides the winner, without the electorate even seeing the colour of the elation materials or the ballot boxes. It happened the same way during the previous April polls, whereby a certain candidate of a particular political party was said to have won over a million votes over and above his opponents who got much less numbers. This trend seems to be drifting gradually to other parts of the country. This time around, in most of the Northern states whose electorate are usually enthusiastic and come out enmass to the polls, the elations seemed to have been rigged right from the denial of the peoples right to vote through delays and material shortages and in some cases, absence of materials or party logo for which to vote for a certain candidate. In a certain dramatic scenario, overall winner of the 2007 presidential polls, Alhaji Yar Adua was announced by INEC Chairman in the TV, while we (journalists) along with political parties agents were still waiting for A. A. Raji, the INEC commissioner for Kano state to co into the premises and announce Kano's result of both the presidential and House of representatives' elections.

In view of all that have transpired, some people were questioning the wisdom behind position usually taken by foreign observers to Nigerians elections, and the people were disturbed by the fact that their role has all along been passive - in spite of their testifying of elections malpractices, yet they do very little or no effort at all prevail on the authorities to cancel the elections and come up with a credible one.

Also in view of all the mentioned facts about electoral malpractices in the previous 2007 election it suffices it to say that the elections were not contested creditably enough to come up with people genuinely elected by the Nigerians. In other words, most, if not all elected candidates seemed to have been already endorsed and enthroned by the authorities and even the election figures in terms of number of votes seemed to have been earlier predetermined. For instance, considering the whooping figure of 24 million votes said to have been garnered by Yar Adua, the scenario suggests that the figures came up such that even if all the opposition candidates were to have merged, they would not have been able to beat the PDP candidate, Yar Adua.

With the on going moves both internally and otherwise in challenging the April polls, including move by opposition groups to stage a peaceful demonstration nationwide, Nigerians might succeed in their bid to have this election cancelled and having another chance for a better and credible polls.