Ekiti state elections: what can we learn about choosing a governor?
Like most Nigerian states, the competition for the governorship seat in Ekiti is often fiercely contested between the country's main political parties.
Key takeaways:
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For the first time, Ekiti state's residents elected an APC candidate twice in a row as their state governor. However, politically the state tends to sway toward the party controlling the federal government.
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The catch is that there have been economic improvements in the state to question this assumption. For instance, the state has recorded the biggest leap in its IGR growth and capital expenditure after 2016 and 2018, respectively.
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But when you probe deeper, Ekiti's IGR is still one of the lowest in the southwest region, its unemployment rate is almost the highest, and its capital expenditure is at least two times smaller than peers like Ogun state.
It's almost always a "winner takes all" election where the victorious governorship aspirant leads with a landslide by sweeping all or nearly all local government areas (LGAs) that make up the state.
The usual requirement in governorship elections is for the winner to secure one quarter (25%) of casted votes in two-thirds of the LGAs within a state for the governorship election. For instance, in 2014, Ayo Fayose, the state's former governor representing the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), recorded a 16-0 feat, winning all LGAs.
But by 2018, the political switch flipped.
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