The cards are on the table again, as the political parties show their hands, and with the bleak picture that the future paints; one cannot but ask; is there any hope for Nigeria, as political desperation makes its return? The end of year report and balance sheet of every business must present a verifiable record of profit or loss, to enable the management, staff, shareholder’s and general public asses the viability or otherwise of the company, and for stakeholder’s to make informed decision on the competence of those at the helm of the enterprise. So, with this next round of elections round the corner, the need to check the end of year report and balance sheet of all present office holders should be an appropriate action.
It is 15 years into an uninterrupted democratic run but Nigerian’s are still waiting for dividends from our rulers. It has been a long night of ‘the more you look, the less you see’ satire. Fifteen years of this Peoples Democratic Party, hold on power at the centre leaves much to be expected. It is therefore normal to focus on incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan’s reaction to this serious breach of a court order. The President is watching this despite paying lip service to the rule of law. It is sad that even the All Progressives Congress, – led opposition has ignored this aberration and proceeded as if nothing is wrong with this serious breach of the electoral process.
Salvaging Nigeria from its hydra-headed problems requires a hands-on government that is capable of making willful projections without fear or favour. This has been largely lacking in our leadership. That is why the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s, which spoofs at the idea of liberalism and deregulation of the political parties, is creating a bad precedent that must not be allowed to stand. Its failure to release one of the frontline opposition parties, led by Rev. Chris Okotie, to contest the coming 2015 general elections despite a court order that voided an earlier deregistration order of INEC is the height of executive impunity. When legal, democratic processes are abused the way INEC is doing, they may unwittingly be sowing the seed of future rebellion because the election process is already flawed ab initio, because it excludes other legitimate parties.
Okotie, while reacting to this assault on the party with the belated appeal which the Commission filed in its ploy to use the legislature as a legal shield while illegally relegating FRESH, said that it “is an un-palatable reality that learned Prof. Jega seems to have evolved into a general factotum of the Jonathan administration. Those who have subscribed to ineptitude and mediocrity soon declare themselves to be abject vassals of ignominy”. It can therefore be understood why Jega will boldly say “that is the law. Until it changes, we will continue to enforce the provisions of the law”, despite the existence of an extant judgment which voids the contentious section of the Electoral Act, and which appeal they have refused to follow through, probably for fear of another loss. That law has not changed, yet Prof. Jega honoured Hope Democratic Party, HDP’s verdict, but refused to honour FRESH’s: two similar verdicts on the same issue. This disparity defies logical explanation. By this action, INEC has given the ruling Peoples Democratic Party is an opportunity to continue to dominate the political scene, while professional politicians who have lost sight of the realities of leadership continue to fun fool around the corridor of power.
The value of a practice cannot be rightly assessed by its universality, but by its productive yields in the light of the issues it is expected to remedy. The de-registration of parties does not in any way solve the issues that hamper INEC’s operations, the electoral system or the nations socio-economic sphere as a whole. INEC’s undue stifling of the electoral space to give the ruling party enough latitude is an act of institutional injustice by mediocres in power.
When a government upgrades its terror attack on opposition and threat level, without saying why, despite any attack having yet materialised, then terror flourishes. The outgoing and over pampered dynasty of Nigeria’s political aristocrats may be helping to precipitate this collapse of security, and a new paradigm of governance which can wrestle down these problems has become an imperative, and if this extinction prophecy by the United States intelligence agencies is to be extinguished, then integrity by INEC and the ruling cabal must become the primary concern.
Our inability to break away from the vices of our past has been our main albatross, which makes the future we envision a distant and uncertain prospect. Majority of our ruling elite today are fit for the political dustbin, as they have lost touch with the realities of present day problems facing the people. This is why the deliberate sidelining of our great party, FRESH, in the forthcoming general elections is unacceptable. Nothing short of the best leaders is good enough for Nigeria. Decadence and mediocrity of thought and actions cannot continue to domicile in a land flourishing with world-class contemplations.
• Ohio-Michael Elakhe is a Futuring/Trend Specialist, and wrote from Lagos