Victor Osimhen has made the final list for the 2023 CAF Best Player award, a statement from the football body has shown.

“CAF has announced the shortlists for the men’s categories for the CAF Awards 2023,” the African football governing body said on Friday.

The Napoli forward, who is the overwhelming favourite, is the only Nigerian to make the cut and will be aiming to cap off an impressive year in which he won the Italian Scuddeto and top scorer gong in the league.

A few weeks ago, Osimhen finished eighth in the 2023 Ballon d’Or awards held in the French city of Paris.

Apart from the Nigerian, other top players who made the final 10 nominees for the CAF award include holder and Senegalese forward Sadio Mane; Riyad Mahrez of Algeria; and Achraf Hakimi of Morocco among others.

The ultimate winner of each category will be decided after votes from a voting panel consisting of the CAF Technical Committee, media professionals, Head coaches, and captains of member associations and clubs involved in the group stages of the Interclub competitions, CAF added.

The Awards Gala is billed for Monday, 11 December 2023 in Marrakech, Morocco.

Final Shortlist For 2023 CAF Best Player Prize

Riyad Mahrez (Algeria, Al Ahli)
Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa (Cameroon, SSC Napoli)
Vincent Aboubacar (Cameroon, Besiktas)
Mohamed Salah (Egypt, Liverpool)
Achraf Hakimi (Morocco, Paris Saint-Germain)
Sofyan Amrabat (Morocco, Manchester United)
Yassine Bounou (Morocco, Al Hilal)
Youssef En-Nesyri (Morocco, Sevilla)
Victor Osimhen (Nigeria, SSC Napoli)
Sadio Mane (Senegal, Al Nassr)

Kylian Mbappe has reportedly agreed a deal with PSG to forego significant bonuses he is owed.

The French superstar had wanted to leave the Parisians and join Real Madrid upon the expiry of his contract in the summer of 2022. However, he made a late U-turn and penned a new deal with the French giants until 2024, with the option of an extra year to 2025 that only he could activate.

In the summer, Mbappe was exiled from PSG's squad after he informed the club he would not be utilising that extension, and leave on a free transfer next summer. He was subsequently left out of the club's pre-season tour of Japan and South Korea and forced to train with a group.

Later, Mbappe was then reintegrated after missing the first game of the season against Lorient.

According to French outlet RMC Sport, Mbappe was only allowed to return to the squad if he agreed to forego bonuses that he was owed.

The report claims PSG had originally insisted the only way he could rejoin Luis Enrique's first team was if he signed a new deal, something the forward refused to do and a prospect he continues to dismiss.

As a result, they changed tact and Mbappe has now given up approximately €80m (£70m) worth of bonuses after reaching an agreement with the club following his reintegration.

PSG remain desperate to extend the contract of their talisman, who continues to be linked with a move to Real Madrid.

But, despite the constant speculation over his future, Mbappe shows no signs of letting it distract him after scoring 13 goals in 11 Ligue 1 outings this season.

Everton have been docked 10 points after being found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules, plunging the club into the relegation zone.

The punishment, the biggest sporting sanction in the Premier League’s history, leaves the Goodison Park club 19th in the table on a total of just four points after 12 matches.

Everton said they were “shocked and disappointed by the ruling”, announcing their intention to appeal.

The Premier League referred the club, who have posted losses for five consecutive years, to an independent commission in March for an alleged breach of its profitability and sustainability rules (PSRs).

Clubs are allowed to lose a maximum £105 million ($130 million) over a three-year period or face sanctions.

The Premier League said in a statement: “The club admitted it was in breach of the PSRs for the period ending season 2021/22 but the extent of the breach remained in dispute.

“Following a five-day hearing last month, the commission determined that Everton FC’s PSR calculation for the relevant period resulted in a loss of £124.5 million, as contended by the Premier League, which exceeded the threshold of £105 million permitted under the PSRs.

“The commission concluded that a sporting sanction in the form of a 10-point deduction should be imposed. That sanction has immediate effect.”

‘Harsh’ Punishment’

But Everton said the punishment was too harsh.

“The club believes that the commission has imposed a wholly disproportionate and unjust sporting sanction,” the club said in a statement.

“The club has already communicated its intention to appeal the decision to the Premier League.”

The statement added: “Everton maintains that it has been open and transparent in the information it has provided to the Premier League and that it has always respected the integrity of the process.

“The club does not recognise the finding that it failed to act with the utmost good faith and it does not understand this to have been an allegation made by the Premier League during the course of proceedings.

“Both the harshness and severity of the sanction imposed by the commission are neither a fair nor a reasonable reflection of the evidence submitted.”

Everton said they would monitor “with great interest” the decisions made in other cases concerning financial rules.

Premier League champions Manchester City were charged earlier this year with 115 alleged breaches of financial fair play regulations. That case is ongoing.

Only two other clubs have received points deductions in Premier League history.

Middlesbrough were deducted three points for failing to fulfil a fixture against Blackburn during the 1996/97 season, while in 2010 Portsmouth were deducted nine points after going into administration.

Both clubs were relegated.

Nine-time English champions Everton have been a continuous presence in the top flight since 1954 and have never been relegated from the Premier League but they only avoided the drop by two points last season and have spent years in the shadow of city rivals Liverpool.

Sean Dyche’s side are now level on points with bottom club Burnley on four points after 12 matches — and five points adrift of safety.

The Premier League has deducted 10 points from Everton, following an investigation into a breach of profit and sustainability rules.

The Goodison Park club insist they are “shocked and disappointed” by the punishment and will appeal.

An official club statement read: “Both the harshness and severity of the sanction imposed by the Commission are neither a fair nor a reasonable reflection of the evidence submitted”.

The deduction is the largest in the history of the Premier League.

It takes immediate effect, plunging Sean Dyche’s team into the relegation zone.

[DailyPost]

Former Super Eagles midfielder, Mikel John Obi, has observed that entitled families are more prevalent in Africa.

He pointed out that if one family member achieves financial stability, there is often a tendency for others in the family to relent in their daily efforts, placing the responsibility of financial provisions on the successful family member.

During an interview with fellow footballer, Rio Ferdinand, the former Super Eagles captain lamented how families are often entitled to a person’s money in Africa.

According to Obi, when an African person acquires money, many relatives and cousins begin to make demands, and sisters even married men believe they are destined to be a part of the family.

The football player mentioned that these people have so many children and expect him to care for them and that he sometimes has to be strong and put his own needs aside.

Mikel Obi stated that the extended family members believe he owes them money and threaten to go to the press if he refuses.

This, according to the footballer, is prevalent in Africa.

He said: “When you come from Africa when you make money, it’s not your money. You have all these relatives, cousins, and your sisters go off and get married to some guy who just wants to get married into Mikel John Obi’s family because his life is sorted, and then you start looking after this guy, and before you know it, they keep having so many kids and you look at it like,

“Okay, you’re having this many kids, who are going to look after them?’ It’s you! It’s the culture because, for them, you owe them that, so sometimes you have to be strong and say, ‘You know what, guys, enough is enough; I don’t care’. They give you this thing whereby ‘if you don’t do it, we’re going to go to the press’. After all, what have I done for you guys? But this happens a lot in Africa. Not everybody comes out and speaks about it.”

THE head coach of Lesotho Leslie Notsi has declared that there was not a great deal difference in quality between the Super Eagles of Nigeria’s Europe-based stars and his players who are mostly based in Africa.

Notsi’s side, ranked 153rd in the world by FIFA, shocked the Super Eagles in their 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign opener in Uyo last night by securing a 1-1 draw.

Indeed it was the unfancied Crocodiles, ranked 113 spots below the Super Eagles, who drew first blood through Motlomelo Mkwanazi in the 56th minute before Semi Ajayi rescued a point for the misfiring team of Jose Peseiro.

“There wasn’t much difference (between Europe-based and home-based players),” Notsi said during his post-match press conference.

“Yes, of course there were situations where you could see quickness of thinking and speed, but at the same time we did not give them respect. We felt they are the same human beings as us.”

Notsi insisted that his players were not intimidated by the Nigerian stars as he and his technical crew knew there were weaknesses in the Super Eagles side they could exploit.

“We said ‘let’s go there and enjoy ourselves’. Enjoyment not in terms of just going there to waste time, but to have self-belief and for the players to express themselves in the areas that they’re good at,” he explained.

“We studied the Nigerian team and we knew areas we could capitalise on, where we thought we had chances of coming up with something for ourselves.

“There is a lesson we’ve learnt from this match and we have to cherish what we got then improve more going forward.”

With the draw, Nigeria and Lesotho are level on one point each in African qualifying Group C with Rwanda and Zimbabwe, who played a 0-0 draw on Wednesday.

South Africa wil host Benin Republic in Durban on Saturday to round off the group’s first matchday.

The Super Eagles face Zimbabwe in Butare, Rwanda on Sunday in their second fixture, while Lesotho welcome Benin Republic to Durban, South Africa on Tuesday.

Only the group winners will qualify for the 2026 World Cup from Africa’s nine groups, with the best runners-up going into a play-off tournament with other confederations.

[NaijaTimes]

Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will clash in a “historic” fight for the undisputed heavyweight title in Saudi Arabia on February 17, it has been announced.

British star Fury will put his WBC belt, Lineal heavyweight belts on the line, while the WBA, IBF and WBO titles held by Ukraine’s Usyk will be up for grabs in Riyadh.

The winner will be crowned the heavyweight division’s first undisputed champion since Lennox Lewis who reigned from 1999 to 2000.

Fury, 35, and Usyk, 36, were originally expected to clash on December 23 but Fury’s poor displayed in a split-decision victory over MMA star Francis Ngannou last month forced a delay.

The pair will finally step into the ring in 2024 as Fury looks to add to his record of 34 wins with one draw since turning professional in 2008.

“This is a historic event. The whole world of boxing has been waiting for many, many years, and they now have this fight,” Fury’s promoter Frank Warren told reporters at a press conference in London on Thursday.

“For the first time this century, we will have an undisputed heavyweight champion.

“As a promoter I’ve been banging my head against the wall. But now we have the creme de la creme. These two undefeated heavyweight fighters.”

In typically combative mood at the press conference, Fury referenced his 2015 victory over Usyk’s fellow Ukrainian Wladimir Klitschko, which earned him the WBA, IBF and WBO titles.

“I already relieved one Ukrainian of all the belts, and now I’m going to take them all back,” Fury said.

“Usyk’s a champion, I’m a champion. It’s going to be a fight for the ages.”

Fury believes a victory over Usyk would cement his status as one of the all-time greats.

“He’s a good boxer, slick. But I’ve seen people like him before, and when they fight the big man, they lose,” he said.

“I believe we’re both destined to be here. I’m destined to become the undisputed champion, and more than that, cement my legacy.”

Usyk kept his cool amid Fury’s insults, which included taking swipes at his opponent’s height and his ear-ring.

“Yes I’m a little man. I’ll speak in the ring,” Usyk said.

Fury has held the WBC belt since he defeated Deontay Wilder in 2020 and has defended the title three times.

He stopped Dillian Whyte at Wembley in April 2022 and beat Derek Chisora at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium eight months later.

Usyk, who has won all 21 of his fights, has been the WBA, IBF and WBO title holder since defeating Anthony Joshua in 2021.

The Nigerian midfielder Wilfred Ndidi is reportedly close to leaving Championship team Leicester City to sign with FC Barcelona the following summer.

Aside from FC Barcelona, the English Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur are also preparing to challenge the Spanish champions for the services of Wilfred Ndidi.

His deal at Leicester City is set to expire at the end of the current campaign, and renewal is primarily dependent on Leicester City’s chances of returning to the Premier League next summer.

After Leicester was relegated to the Premier League the previous season, Ndidi was rumored to be leaving the King Power stadium, especially after players like Harvey Barnes, Timothy Castagne, and James Maddison left for elite clubs.

However, he remained at the club and he has made 15 appearances in all competitions, recording three goals and four assists so far this season. He has helped Leicester gain the upper hand in the standings with 13 wins in their opening 16 games.

Barcelona are trying to sign the Super Eagles midfielder for free, as they have done for the past two seasons, due to their well-known financial difficulties.

Because of the Bosman ruling, Barcelona will be able to sign Ndidi to a contract in January with the expectation that he will be available for a free transfer the following summer.

The Catalans are not the only team interested in the Nigerian, as Ange Postecoglou, the manager of Tottenham, has reportedly shown a strong interest in Ndidi.

Teamtalk, a UK publication, reports that Postecoglou is willing to bring Ndidi to the team when his contract expires in the summer of 2024 because he does not think Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is the best fit for his system.

No fewer than seven Super Falcons players have been nominated for the women’s categories of the CAF Player of The Year Award, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

The CAF list, which was largely dominated by Nigerians, has Asisat Oshoala, Chiamaka Nnadozie, Rasheedat Ajibade, Toni Payne, Christy Ucheibe, Osinachi Ohale, and Uchenna Kanu.

The Falcons had a remarkable year having gotten to the round of 16 of the Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and were very close to qualifying for the quarter-finals before being knocked out of the competition on penalties by England.

At the club level, some members of the team had an outstanding season.

Ajibade has been very consistent for the Falcons and has also been a key figure for Atletico Madrid. The forward scored nine goals in 28 games for the Spanish club last season.

Toni Payne has also been a consistent player for Sevilla Women. She had three goals and four assists in 28 appearances for the club last season.

Oshoala, who was also nominated for the Ballon d’Or where she finished in 20th position, helped Barcelona to the UEFA Champions League title. She also outstandingly won the Laliga, recording 21 goals and three assists in 28 appearances.

The former Robo FC player along with 29 other players will battle vie for the prestigious Player of the Year, which Oshoala claimed for a record fifth time during the last Awards Gala in July 2022 in Rabat, Morocco.

Just as in the men’s category, the best women’s goalkeeper will be rewarded for the first time to celebrate the heroic efforts of the shot-stoppers.

Ten players have been nominated for the first-ever CAF Women’s Goalkeeper of the Year award with Nnadozie one of the favourites to win the award.

Nnadozie was immense for her Paris FC side, as she helped them qualify for the Champions League group stage.

According to the African football governing body, ten nominees each have been pencilled for the Interclub Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, National Team of the Year and Young Player of the Year, limited to players not more than 21 years old.

The finallists of the ongoing CAF Women’s Champions League in Ivory Coast have each been rewarded with a place in the Club of the Year category.

The Awards Gala is to be graced by the crème de la crème of African football on December 11 in Marrakech, Morocco.

Off-cycle elections in Nigeria are elections that are held outside the usual timetable for general elections. When Nigeria returned to democratic, civilian rule in 1999, the expectation was that elections would be held regularly across the federation in a four-year-cycle, but after the 1999 elections, many candidates went to court to protest the outcome of the elections in many states. The result was that the election petition tribunals removed some Governors and ordered re-elections. After the 1999 elections, off-cycle elections were held in eight states of the Federation. Thus, the decision of the courts which usually comes months after a Governor or a legislator may have been sworn in is the reason for the off-cycle elections. In 2003, in Anambra State, Dr. Chris Ngige had been sworn in as the Governor, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), but Peter Obi of the All-Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) objected to the results all the way to the Court of Appeal which ruled in his favour in March 2006. Ngige v. Obi went from the Tribunal to the Court of Appeal for over 34 months! It was possible given the position of the law at the time that the process could have gone on four years, and justice would not have been done.

Obi had to begin a fresh four-year term of four years, automatically pushing Anambra State out of the regular 4-year cycle. For this reason, Anambra’s next Gubernatorial election, going by the four-year cycle, would be in 2025 whereas Nigeria is due to hold general elections in 2027. Bayelsa is yet another example. Other examples include Edo State, Ekiti State, Kogi, Ondo, Osun, and Imo states. In Rauf Aregbesola and 2 ors v. Olagunsoye Oyinlola and Ors, in the 2007 elections, the petitioner did not get justice until three years later in 2010. There was hence a felt need for the review of the 2010 Electoral Act, especially with regard to the time frame for determining election petitions. Off-cycle elections have their roots in this regard.

President Goodluck Jonathan, after voting in Bayelsa state during the current off-cycle elections in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi states has been quoted as having now expressed the view that the National Assembly should consider an amendment of the Constitution to put an end to off-cycle elections in Nigeria. With the off-cycle pattern already in place, post-1999, and the decisions of the courts on various election petitions, it would be difficult to see how that can be done without violating sections of the Constitution which obligatorily state the tenure for elected officers as four years, renewable every four years for the President and Governors, with a limit of two terms, and open-ended for legislators. The extension of that tenure by a day would be a gross violation of Section 135 (2) for the Presidential position, and Section 180 with regard to Governors. Besides, it was the case previously that election petition cases used to be heard in some cases, for three years as already indicated, creating room for grave injustices and limited access to justice. The 2002 Electoral Act and the 2006 Electoral Act did not specify time limitations for election petitions. This was the mischief that the amendment of Section 285(6) of the 1999 Constitution (by the First Amendment Act No 1 of 2010) sought to correct by limiting the hearing and disposal of petitions to 180 days, and 60 days for the appeals arising therefrom. These amendments arose from petitions to the 6th National Assembly to amend the Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution.

The merit in President Jonathan’s statement is not that off-cycle elections would end, they have come to stay, but that there is indeed a need for amendments of the Constitution and the reform of the Electoral Act to deepen our electoral system. There are two arguments on the table: by those who argue that the time limitation in Section 285(6) of the 1999 Constitution often limits the intendment of Section 36 on fair hearing, and hence should be further extended, and the second by those who argue that in fact the time limitation should be reviewed to ensure that all election petitions should be determined within a shorter period and before anyone is sworn into office. In other words, it would amount to a miscarriage of justice for a person to enjoy the benefits of an undeserved victory only to be removed months later as in again Ngige vs Obi, or for the court to have its hands tied by the limitation of time as in Senator Adeleke v. Gov. Oyetola (2019). The prevalent opinion is that election petitions should be determined before anyone assumes office as is done in Kenya. Perhaps when this happens, the number of off-cycle elections would be reduced considerably. After every general election many issues are thrown up for further consideration and reform, and there are many that have been thrown up in such manner in recent times after the 2023 General election including time limits for election petitions, electronic transmission of results, the burden of proof, and whether or not our courts in determining election cases, should rely less on technicalities and lean more towards judicial activism as in Marbury vs. Madison, and Adegbenro vs. Akintola.

However, with regard to off-cycle elections, I recall that after the 1999 and 2003 elections, the dominant impression at the time was that such elections were necessarily good for the country’s “fledgling” (once upon a time, a famous phrase) electoral system. It was thought that they would provide the Electoral Commission and other stakeholders in the process an opportunity to correct whatever mistakes that they may have made in the main elections and respond also to omissions identified by the courts and the general public. Unfortunately, this has never been the case. Every off-cycle election is as bad as the main election, in many cases worse. Nigerian politicians and the various stakeholders are obsessed with their own greed, ambition and limitations. Nobody shows any capacity to learn any lessons, making every election the same of the same: the same incredulous pattern of criminality, conflict and capture. This is what the current off-season elections in Imo, Kogi and Bayelsa states have demonstrated. As usual, the various stakeholders observed the established pattern, elections having become hollow rituals in Nigeria.

Ahead of the elections, the National Peace Committee chaired by General Abdusalami Abubakar invited the gubernatorial candidates in the three states to a peace accord signing event. Out of the 16 candidates in Bayelsa State, 15 showed up, the only one who was absent, Udengs Eradiri of the Labour Party (LP) said his own party people hid the invitation away from him, so he did not know about the event and that in any case, even if he was invited, he was not interested in signing any peace accord in the company of the same perpetrators of violence, attending accord signing ceremonies they do not believe in. Indeed, in Bayelsa state, shortly after the signing of the peace accord, Bayelsa Governor Douye Diri (PDP), and his APC counterpart, Chief Timipre Sylva engaged in a war of words blaming each other for promoting violence.

In Imo State, 17 political parties signed the accord, but conspicuously absent were the candidates of the APC, the incumbent Governor, Senator Hope Uzodinma, the Labour Party candidate, Senator Athan Achonu, and Senator Samuel Anyanwu, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate who by the way, arrived the venue and not sighting the candidates of the other two major parties decided to leave. He obviously considered voting for peace a matter of ego and status. Also absent were the candidates of the All-Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Tony Ejiogu, and Ben Odunze of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP). The running mates to the Gubernatorial candidates (APC, LP, and PDP) who were sent to represent their principals were not allowed to sign the accord. Party Chairmen were allowed to do so though. In Kogi State, 18 Gubernatorial candidates signed the peace accord, with John Cardinal Onaiyekan appealing to the conscience of the political parties and their candidates, urging them to play according to the rules of the game.

Apart from the signing of the peace accord, other stakeholders in the process assured Nigerians that they were ready. This was going to be an election in three senatorial zones (South South, South East and North Central) with a total of 5.169, 992 voters, in 10, 470 polling units across 649 wards in 56 Local Government Areas. INEC deployed 27 Resident Electoral Commissioners, 2 National Commissioners and 46, 084 regular and ad hoc staff. The police mobilized a total of 92, 565 personnel, including 27, 000 in Bayelsa, 25, 565 in Imo and 40, 000 in Kogi, with a Deputy Inspector General of Police leading the operation in each state assisted by AIGs and CPs, helicopters and 15 gunboats in Bayelsa. The political parties on their part deployed 137, 934 agents to cover the polling and collation centres. An off-cycle election in three states, limited only to Gubernatorial elections, would seem to be easier to manage than a general election in 33 states of the Federation. Everything also seemed set on the eve of the November 11 elections, but what happened?

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), one of the many Civil Society Organizations that covered the election drew attention to the spate of violence, armed thuggery, and electoral fraud in the three states. HURIWA went further to advise losers not to bother to go to the courts to challenge the outcome of the polls in the three states because the judiciary cannot guarantee justice. HURIWA is wrong on that score. The judiciary is still the best forum for aggrieved persons in the electoral process, no matter how flawed to seek redress. Petitioners must always be encouraged to address their concerns through a recourse to due process and the rule of law, never through self-help. But as for violence, this was widespread in Imo where party Chairman of the Labour Party and an agent of the party were beaten up, in Bayelsa there were reports of shootings and killings before and during the election in Nembe, Basambiri, Brass, Southern Ijaw and Kolokuma-Opokuma.

In Brass LG, INEC officials were held hostage; in Yenagoa, there were street protests over results from APC strongholds in Nembe. The more astonishing report was the revelation that in Kogi state that certain persons were found with pre-filled election results forms even before the election commenced in five Local Government Areas, resulting in INEC’s decision to cancel the election in some polling units in the affected LGAs and to reschedule the elections for Saturday November 18 as follows: Ogoro-Magongo (9 wards), Adavi (5), Ajaokuta (5) Okehi (7) and Okene (5). The Civil Society Situation Room has asked that this should be investigated by INEC – how did sensitive election results forms get into the hands of unauthorized persons ahead of the election? Who did it? My fear is that the investigations may lead to nowhere.

Other election observers including Watching the Vote Initiative - YIAGA Africa, EU-sponsored TAF Africa and the Centre for Democracy and Development Election Analysis Centre (CDD-EAC) have all reported logistics challenges, vote-buying, and collusion between state government officials, security agents and electoral officials. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested 14 vote buyers in all three states. Udengs Eradiri in Bayelsa and Dino Melayein Kogi both further protested that indeed the level of vote buying was so overwhelming but they were not part of it. In many places, voting materials arrived late and the BVAS did not work as Senator Achonu claims. There were reports of discrepancies between the results at polling units and the data posted on the IREV portal. Even more bewildering is the report by YIAGA that INEC uploaded results for polling units where elections did not take place. How?

In all the three states, incumbency was a major factor, with Hope Uzodinma of Imo State winning by a wide margin of 540, 308 votes, his closest challenger, Samuel Anyanwu of the PDP- 71, 503 votes. Uzodinma has claimed this as a vindication of the fact that he truly won in 2019, and has won again leading in all the state’s 27 Local Governments. In Bayelsa state, incumbent Governor Douye Diri was declared winner with 175, 196 votes to defeat his closest rival, Sylva of the APC who polled 110, 108 votes (not so wide a margin in this case). In Kogi State, Usman Ododo, the anointed candidate of the incumbent and outgoing Governor, got 446, 237 votes to beat Muri Ajaka of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) who scored 259, 052 votes. But there is something even more noteworthy in the Kogi election. The people voted strictly along ethnic lines, with the people of Kogi West (the Okun people) playing the beautiful bride by pitching their tent with Kogi Central (the Ebira) to prevent the Igala (Kogi East), who had ruled the state for so long, and to prove to this dominant group that they do not have the advantage of the numerical strength that they claim. Usman Ododo is not necessarily a product of any grand strategy, but the Okun and the Ebira conspiring against the Igala, in the hope that if the Ebira end up spending 16 years in power as the Igalas did, they too, the Okun people will in the future be supported by the Ebira. This ethnic sub-text to Nigerian politics which rears its head at every cycle portends danger for the polity.

On the whole, there isn’t much to cheer about the conduct of the just-concluded off-season elections. The various stakeholders seem not to have learnt the right lessons. In all the three states, the opposition parties have called for the cancellation of the elections. Nigeria remains a work in progress.