Today Nigeria is fatally sick from a deliberately self inflicted injury. Most of what is happening in Nigeria today amounts to national shame, our pain and disgrace. This shame is most manifest in our “New politics†which is marked by violence leading to loss of lives and properties, massive rigging and assassinations. The undeserving beneficiaries are quick to make efforts at convincing and confusing the masses into supporting the outcome of their political exploits. Almost immediately endorsement is rushed in from all over the country, especially from some Christian and Islamic clerics and other self-seeking leaders who pontificate on the fallacy that governments and leadership are chosen and ordained by God and that we should accept things the way they are in order to save our nascent democracy. But peace without justice cannot stand the test of time and is an invitation for anarchy.
Unlike what obtains in Western democracies and other stable polities where election results are declared less than 24 hours at the close of polls, in Nigeria, it could take three days. In some ridiculous situations like local government elections that are even smaller geographical entities to manage, it still takes days before results are officially released. This usual drag leaves room for manipulation and panel-beating of figures. In spite of all these, ridiculous figures are released as results. In some instances, there are more votes than the number of registered voters. Multiple voting is not uncommon. The tribunal judgment in Edo State revealed that fictitious voters voted and some others voted several times including supposed voters from across the Atlantic.
The bedrock for any stable and functional democratic state is the electoral process. This should be seen as the key issue in a country like ours. The electoral process represents a political choice by the populace. Next to market gossips and corridor discussions, voting is the one activity that demonstrates the extent of people’s involvement in politics. When free and secret ballot voting takes place, the direction and quantum of individual’s participation come out boldly in their true form.
In a survey carried out by this lecturer in 1998, the degree of apathy expressed by young people was startling.
Possible percentage participation in National Elections
S/NO
CATEGORY
NO OF STUDENTS RESPONDING TO EACH CATEGORY
TOTAL NO OF STUDENTS
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL
1.
Indifferent or undecided
162
250
65%
2.
Yes or Interested
63
250
25%
3.
No or not interested
25
250
10%
The above was almost a decade before the 2007 monumentally fraudulent election, yet the figure reveals high level of alienation or disenchantment with politics and the electoral process among young people. In most cases, this alienation or apathy leads to high level political-disinterest. Effective citizen participation depends upon a knowledge of how the system really operates.
Our citizens have not been systematically exposed to the methods of operations of our political system. A good number of our youths have been left to wander aimlessly in Nigerian political arena. This has resulted in either misinformation or the stifling of the political instincts in youths towards national affairs.
Our electoral process and the attendant protestation of results is unparalleled in the annals of elections in any part of the globe. Many Nigerians are now of the opinion that an individual’s vote does not count – that results are predetermined. This has led to serious apathy and despondency on the part of a large segment of the electorate (See Osakwe 1998, Ogini 2008). The June 12, 1993 election, adjudged to be free affair was annulled with ignomity to the chagrin of Nigerians. Since then, the situation has worsened. There is understandably now much cynicism towards election and the electoral process by several Nigerians.
Another disturbing dimension in this discourse is that politics in Nigeria is no longer seen as an avenue for service, rather it has become an avenue for quick ascendancy to wealth, and public recognition. This has led to the emergence of political upstarts with warped minds on the political expectation of the electorate. Their life style is marked by flamboyant living, luxury cars, including bullet-proof vehicles, escorts with sirens and intimidation of all perceived opponents and those who refuse to acknowledge their new found position and affluence that they find difficult to manage. What we now witness is a replay of the Biblical Haman-Mordecai saga. Haman, a political upstart paid a huge sum of money to ensure that the entire Jewish race is wiped out just because Mordecai the Jew did not bow down to him.
It is a mark of political immaturity to try to use political opportunism to settle scores. It is a show of shame and reflection of the struggle against a complex. Politics should be a very exciting part of our national life, but it is now an issue of life and death, sometimes sending shivers down the spine of the populace. That is why, organizing or conducting elections in Nigeria is warfare and several lives have gone with elections in Nigeria.
Political Assassinations
Between 1999 and 2009, 39 cases of politically – motivated murders were reported in the country. The timing of these assassinations reveals that it is usually more prevalent in the years preceding the elections and the election year proper. For example, there were 17 assassination cases between 2002 and 2003; 9 cases were recorded between 2005 and 2007 (another pre-election and election period).
Political Assassinations – 1999-2009 (- A Graphic Representation)
In the more recent elections in Nigeria, firearms were freely used. In the Jos crisis of November/December 2008, over 500 lives were lost in the mayhem that trailed that election. Several of those hospitalized were victims of bullet wound. How does this compare with what obtains in other parts of the world, where election results are respected and the electoral process is carried out in an orderly manner?
A common feature of the political terrain in Nigeria is the issue of recycling of individuals and families – giving the impression that there is some eternal mandate that these individuals and families must always be there. How do we explain a situation where some political actors who were contemporaries of the Late Sage, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, are still hovering around the corridors of power. There are some individuals who have remained in political flirtation all through the 29 years of military –rule into the democratic era in Nigeria. What a shame that almost two years after the 2007 general elections, there are still several yet-to-be-resolved court cases.
It is a fact that ever since the contentious elections, Nigerians of varying endeavors, have been united in seeking a reform process that waters the tree of a transparently, free and fair election in order to eliminate the rancour that greeted the results of the April, 2007 polls and literally created hatred and anarchy.
For how long will Nigerians live with this level of rancor and uncertainty? When will transparent elections be conducted so that at the end the loser is even quick to concede defeat and congratulate the winner? In the United States elections of November 4, 2008, Republican presidential candidate, John McCain gracefully conceded victory to the Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama in less than 24 hours after polls. The winner and loser in the American elections did not have to wait for the Electoral boss to announce the result of the most celebrated election result in the world. They relied on the results as announced live by the Cable News Network (CNN).
It is instructive to state here that Nigeria’s national television, the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) had a live coverage of the American election. Why has it not been possible to cover our national elections live. Some international observers were refused entry and their reports discountenanced by our electoral authorities, yet Nigerians went to Ghana to monitor elections! Our electoral process is not transparent and acceptable. It is yet to be made so nationally and internationally.
CORRUPTION
Corruption is used here to capture a condition or state of falsehood, impropriety, illegitimacy, illegality or injustice geared towards acquisition of power, money or position for private and sectional profit.
Corruption has become endemic in Nigeria and a culturally corrupt system would generate a corrupt society. A society and people would naturally produce its kind, except there is a drastic cultural surgery or there is a re-orientation as a result of time: Recall the Social Studies formula. The Nigerian society provides a very fertile ground for fraudulent practices, thereby leading to the institutionalization of corruption. A corrupt society according to Lewis (2008) produces corrupt leaders and followers; corrupt leaders copy or establish corrupt institutions and corrupt institutions create a multiple of corrupt systems. This may explain why there is hardly any institution or system that is corruption-free in Nigeria. Religious establishments are not exempt in this.Â