By Jimoh Abibat

The local government election recently conducted in Osun State exposes, once again, how capitalist elites undermine democracy in Nigeria. What should have been a moment for grassroots participation turned into another display of power manipulation, control, and political coercion. Violence was reported in several wards, while conflicts broke out between PDP and APC supporters. Despite warnings from the federal government and security agencies, the Osun State government insisted on proceeding with the election. The Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi, declared the election unconstitutional, yet the state government refused to suspend it (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/775838-agf-says-osuns-planned-lg-elections-unconstitutional-as-state-govt-remains-defiant.html?). Although, it should be stated that the FG, which by extension is under the APC, made this declaration due to the unfavourable situation the party found itself in in Osun, which implies that conducting that election will give way for a total takeover by the PDP. The declaration is not in the interest of the masses, but in the interest of the ruling elites.

When the results were announced, the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won all 30 local government chairmanship seats and all 332 councillorship wards. The chairman of the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSSIEC), Hashim Abioye, declared PDP as the winner of every single position. He made the announcement on state television, adding that the elections were conducted “in compliance with constitutional provisions.” (https://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/ssouth-west/776257-pdp-wins-all-seats-in-controversial-osun-lg-election.html?).  However, this total sweep was not the reflection of a democratic consensus but rather the product of political monopoly and administrative capture.

The process itself was marred with irregularities. OSSIEC’s offices were sealed by the police on election eve, preventing the commission from distributing press accreditation tags and hindering media coverage. In such an atmosphere of confusion and restricted transparency, the credibility of the election was fundamentally compromised (https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/02/breaking-pdp-wins-all-30-lgs-in-osun-poll/). Yet OSSIEC proceeded, and the ruling party’s candidates “won” across the entire state, a statistical impossibility in any genuinely competitive election.

In the lead-up to the poll, opposition parties like the Labour Party and the All Progressives Congress (APC) withdrew from participation, citing inadequate preparation, lack of credibility, and fear for safety. The Labour Party described OSSIEC’s arrangement as “a predetermined charade”, arguing that the process could endanger the lives of its supporters (https://www.thecable.ng/like-apc-lp-withdraws-from-osun-lg-poll-cites-poor-preparation-by-ossiec).

The legal confusion deepened when the Court of Appeal reinstated previously sacked local government officials whose term would supposedly last until October 2025. Despite this, the Osun State government ignored the court’s ruling. Meanwhile, the confusion between OSSIEC and the APC over interpretations of the same ruling shows another illustration of how capitalist institutions twist legality to fit political convenience (https://guardian.ng/politics/osun-lg-polls-confusion-over-ossiec-apcs-interpretation-of-acourt-ruling/). A state high court in Ilesa even ordered OSSIEC to “fill the vacancies” through elections, creating parallel mandates and deepening institutional chaos. That OSSIEC used this ruling to justify proceeding with the polls (https://businessday.ng/news/article/court-orders-ossiec-to-proceed-on-lg-election/).

These developments in Osun reveal more than a simple electoral dispute; they expose how the capitalist elite hollowed out our democracy from within. The local government system, constitutionally meant to be the tier of governance closest to the people, has been reduced to an administrative appendage of the state governor. Local governments are supposed to provide primary education, healthcare, sanitation, markets, rural roads, and community services. But when elections are rigged or manipulated, these institutions stop serving the people and become vehicles for patronage, personal enrichment, and political control.

Governor Ademola Adeleke came into office promising transparency, accountability, and participatory governance. Instead, his administration has reproduced the same authoritarian patterns it once criticised. The capture of all local government structures by the PDP effectively eliminates opposition voices, neutralises checks and balances, and ensures that every local council function as an extension of the governor’s office. This is not democracy; it is one-party rule disguised as popular choice.

Under capitalism, elections are often structured not to reflect the will of the people but to legitimise the rule of the elite. Whether it is the PDP or the APC, both represent factions of the same ruling class whose main interest lies in maintaining access to state resources, not empowering workers, farmers, or youth. The Osun election demonstrates how the capitalist state ensures that power remains concentrated, while the people are kept as passive spectators in the political process.

Even the notion of legality is weaponised. When it suits the ruling elite, court rulings are invoked; when it does not, they are ignored. This selective application of law reflects a deeper class logic, one in which the state apparatus serves the interests of those who control capital and political patronage. The state Independent Electoral Commission is neither independent nor impartial. It is an arm of the executive and operates to ensure the ruling party’s dominance. This is why both the PDP in Osun and the APC in other states like Lagos, Ogun, and Kwara have historically recorded similar “clean sweeps” of local government seats, which is clear evidence of systemic rot.

The implications for working-class people are weighty. When local government institutions are captured, they stop functioning as channels for community development. Federal allocations meant for grassroots development are diverted into private hands. Markets go without regulation, roads remain impassable, schools’ decay, and primary health centres are starved of funds. The poor pay the price for elite competition. And when protests arise, the state responds not with dialogue but with repression, policing dissent rather than addressing poverty.

A true democracy must mean more than voting every few years. It must be an instrument for collective control where communities can decide directly how resources are used and where representatives are accountable and recallable. Local governments should be financially and politically autonomous, with direct access to federal allocations and independent control over budgeting. Electoral commissions should be constituted through transparent public processes, not appointments by governors. Workers, artisans, youth, and community organisations should be able to participate meaningfully, with open access to campaign processes, budget records, and decision-making forums.

What Osun shows is that the problem is not simply about one election or one party, but the structure of capitalism itself. Both major parties exploit the same system, controlling local government elections, appointing loyalists as electoral officers, and using the police and state machinery to maintain dominance. Until this structure is broken, democracy will remain a façade.

The alternative is to fight for real people’s power at the grassroots, which will entail democratic control of resources, workers’ oversight of public funds, and participatory budgeting led by communities themselves. Councillors and chairpersons must be accountable to people in their locality, not governors or party patrons. All public contracts and local expenditures should be published and subject to community audit. The local councils should collaborate with trade unions, student groups, and farmers’ cooperatives to prioritise social needs like water, housing, education, and health over profit.

This transformation requires organisation. Working-class people, students, women, and unemployed youth must unite to build an independent socialist political force, one that stands outside of the PDP/APC/ADC framework and challenges capitalist domination from below. Only such a movement can dismantle the structures that make electoral fraud possible and replace them with institutions rooted in mass participation.

The Osun election represents the logical outcome of a political system that treats the people as spectators. It is the same system that underfunds education, privatises public assets, and enriches politicians while communities languish. The task before the masses is not only to condemn fraudulent elections but also to struggle for a new society, one where democracy is not a privilege of the few but the daily practice of the majority.

This struggle must begin with local organisation in communities, campuses, workplaces, and labour and trade unions to demand the restoration of genuine local government autonomy, abolition of state-controlled electoral commissions, and public control of budgets. It must also include a call for the overthrow of the capitalist structure and for a socialist restructuring of society, where wealth and power are democratically managed by the working class in the interest of all.

The February 2025 Osun Local Government election has exposed the emptiness of capitalist democracy. But in its failure, it has also reminded the working people that liberation will not come from ballots managed by elites; it will come from organisation, struggle, and solidarity from below. Until that movement arises, every election will remain a ritual of deceit, and every “victory” will be another betrayal of the people.