“That decision by the PDP is instructive. And it raises a simple question for SDP and AA: If a party that polled over 40,000 votes can see reason to withdraw, what justification remains for parties whose votes, combined, are not up to 500?”
EKITI ELECTION: VICTORY WITHOUT CONTENTION?
By Segun Dipe
Politics in Nigeria is often defined by what happens after the votes are counted. Petitions, protests, courtrooms, and recriminations usually follow the announcement of results. It is in that context that Ekiti State was, until recently, being held up as an example.
For days after the June 20, 2026 governorship election in Ekiti and the declaration of Governor Biodun Oyebanji as winner, there was calm. No protests. No threats of crisis. It looked like Ekiti had chosen the path of peace over the path of protracted conflict.
That calm has now been interrupted. Reports confirm that two parties, the Social Democratic Party, SDP, and the Action Alliance, AA, have filed to challenge the victory of APC’s Biodun Oyebanji.
But even here, context matters. The PDP, which came second, also initially filed a petition. However, wisdom and common sense prevailed. The PDP has since withdrawn its case.
That decision by the PDP is instructive. And it raises a simple question for SDP and AA: if a party that polled over 40,000 votes can see reason to withdraw, what justification remains for parties whose votes, combined, are not up to 500?
Let us look at the numbers, because elections are ultimately about figures.
According to INEC, Governor Oyebanji of the APC polled 319,224 votes out of 375,777 total valid votes cast. That is an overwhelming 85% of the valid votes.
The PDP came second with 40,543 votes. The ADC came third with 12,872 votes.
The SDP, one of the parties now in court, scored 179 votes. The AA, the second party in court, scored 126 votes.
The margin tells the entire story. Oyebanji beat PDP by 278,681 votes. He beat SDP by 319,045 votes. He beat AA by 319,098 votes.
To put it in perspective, the combined votes of SDP and AA are 305 votes. Oyebanji’s margin over the second placed PDP alone is nearly 1000 times that number. He won with a margin larger than the total votes of 12 parties combined.
This was not a contest. This was a coronation by the people.
A mandate accepted is a mandate well managed. Elections are a contest of ideas, structures, and followership. When the people speak this decisively, the democratic thing to do is to respect the verdict and prepare for the next round.
The absence of litigation in the first days meant the energy that would have been spent fighting in court could be spent on governance. Civil servants, investors, and citizens could plan with certainty. The state could move forward without the distraction of legal battles.
This does not suggest that the election was perfect. No election anywhere is. But it does suggest that the process was credible enough, and the margin clear enough, for the people’s will to be obvious to all.
A winner can choose to gloat or to be humble, and that choice matters more than the margin itself. Governor Oyebanji chose humility. Instead of gloating, he waved the olive branch to the opposition. Instead of exclusion, he spoke the language of inclusion. Instead of “winner takes all,” he offered “Ekiti takes all.”
That matters because politics of bitterness leaves scars that last beyond one tenure, while politics of accommodation heals and builds. By reaching out, the governor signaled that the election was about Ekiti, not about parties. That governance would be about development, not vendetta. In a country where post-election alienation is common, that is leadership.
Ekiti is teaching Nigeria two lessons. First, that elections can be won and lost without dragging the state into crisis. When the process is transparent and the margin is this wide, losers can concede with dignity. Second, that governance must start immediately after elections. The real contest is not in court but in classrooms, hospitals, farms, and roads. Ekiti cannot afford to waste months on litigation when it has jobs to create and poverty to fight.
The decision by SDP and AA to proceed to court therefore feels needless. The PDP, with 40,543 votes, has chosen the path of statesmanship by withdrawing. SDP with 179 votes and AA with 126 votes should ask themselves what electoral ground they hope to recover in court that the people did not give them at the polls.
Other states can learn from Ekiti. Political parties can learn from this. If we normalize “victory without contention,” we will spend less money on lawyers and more money on people. We will spend less time in tribunals and more time in town halls.
Democracy is not just about voting. It is about what we do after voting. It is about how we manage victory and how we manage defeat. Ekiti has shown that it is possible to have a competitive election and still have peace after it. It has shown that a governor can win decisively and still extend his hand to those who opposed him.
Victory without contention is rare in our clime. When it appears, we must celebrate it and protect it. For Ekiti’s sake, and for Nigeria’s sake, let us hope that SDP and AA will also embrace wisdom and allow governance to begin in earnest.
Because at the end of the day, 384,940 accredited voters did not come out to vote for stalemate. They came out to vote for solutions.
* Segun Dipe is the Publicity Secretary, APC, Ekiti State
