Ibadan Peoples Party - Body Politic

Body Politic

The Ibadan electorate did not take kindly to the defection of its elected representatives on the platform of IPP to the Action Group. They used the opportunity of the 1954 federal elections and the 1956 regional elections to express their aversion of the Action Group. In the 1954 Federal elections, when both parties went head to head; the NCNC won 22 seats in the House of Representatives of Nigeria while the AG secured 19 seats. In Ibadan, the capital city of the Western Region, the ruling party AG secured just one out of the five federal seats up for grabs. The loathing of the AG by the Ibadan electorate was further demonstrated in the regional elections, which was held on May 26, 1956. Despite the fact that the election was held after the AG had been in power for five years, and had implemented significant social projects, particularly in the area of education; the results for 1956 were: 48 seats won by the AG and 32 seats by the NCNC. However, a closer scrutiny of the actual votes cast revealed that, the margin of victory between the AG and the NCNC was just 39,270 votes. The AG got 623,826 or (48.3%) of total votes, while the NCNC got 584,556 or (45.3%) of the total votes cast. The battle lines had been drawn; the ensuing mayhem and ruthless machinations that encapsulated the Ibadan political scene, degenerated and continued to spiral out of control until 1966, when the military seized control of the government, and banned all political parties in Nigeria.