A freshly declared governorship candidate is struggling to find sleep or rest, overwhelmed by an endless parade of supporters, party elders, youth leaders, women leaders, clerics, marabouts and godfathers who have descended on his home since his primary election victory.
The candidate's day and night have become an unending circus. Before one group leaves, another arrives. Party elders pledge to ensure his adoption as consensus candidate at caucus meetings. Grassroots party leaders swear they have mobilised family members, relatives, neighbours, market customers, tenants and in-laws to vote for him. State clerics assure him they have been praying day and night for his victory, just as they did for the governor's landslide win in the last election.
Then come the marabouts with their own promises. They claim to have supernatural powers to secure his victory, vowing to tie the hands of the governor and blind the eyes of the Returning Officer. Their price: two fat cows, four white rams, five black goats and ten red hens. The candidate is told that with these offerings, he will be adopted by consensus, and even if direct primaries happen, the Returning Officer must return him as winner, or suffer burning feet and trembling hands.
Even after his primary victory was announced, party elders showed up at his house again. They explained that they had wanted a consensus arrangement after the governor anointed him as successor, but two other candidates refused to accept it and threatened court action, forcing the party to conduct direct primaries instead. Now, the elders say, they must visit his house daily to protect his victory from enemies planning devilish things. Lawyers, clerics and marabouts are supposedly coming in and out of his opponents' houses, so eternal vigilance is required until he wins the main election and takes his oath of office.
The pressure from party structures is manageable compared to what the godfathers demand. One godfather presented a bill itemising his expenses across his local government. He settled clerics, traditional rulers, the DPO and police officers. He hired fifty buses to transport supporters to voting areas and back home. He commissioned ten food sellers to bring meals to the voting centres throughout the long voting day, and hired women to provide drinks and sachet water. He deployed town toughs to guard voting centres against what he described as potential hanky-panky by opponents, giving them money to buy sticks and cutlasses. He even paid the DPO and his men extra money to look the other way, since the law prohibits weapons near voting centres. The bill was hefty.
Before the candidate even reached home after his victory was announced, the Returning Officer caught up with him in the street, accompanied by other Electoral Panel members. The officer's message was direct: the panel members had come from outside the state specifically for the primary, and they too were expecting settlement.
