At last, Nigerians went to the polls yesterday, March 28, to elect the president and those who will make laws for the good governance of the country.
The result of the pivotal presidential election is yet to be announced. It is a referendum on President Goodluck Jonathan and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
If he is re-elected, that will be a significant vote of confidence in him. If otherwise, it will mean that Nigerians have passed a vote of no confidence in him.
A victory for Muhammadu Buhari, despite the negative campaign and profiling by the PDP since he won the presidential primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC), will be a remarkable comeback for a man many thought was politically finished after the 2011 ballot.
But while we breathlessly wait for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) led by Attahiru Jega to announce the result, hoping that the announcement itself will not precipitate any crisis, it is good to appraise the “democratic” journey so far, particularly in the light of what has happened since the INEC gave the green light for the campaigns to commence.
Some Nigerians frown at comparing the country’s democracy to that of any Western nation. They are just being smart by half. The bitter truth they refuse to accept is that by hitching a ride on the democratic wagon, we are not re-inventing its wheel.
Many other less developed and less endowed countries have proved that it does not take eons to build a democratic culture. Sixteen years is enough time to do so.
But what has happened in the past few months proved that, democratically, this country is not making progress.
Contest for power is a serious business not meant for the faint-hearted. Election is like the kitchen. Those who can’t stand the heat must get out. But even in this serious business of electioneering, a mere periodic event in the democratic process, there are rules and politicians must play by the rules.
The ultimate choice lies with the electorate. In a democracy, the people are sovereign. Their decision is supreme and immutable.
Election is like every other game. There must be losers and winners. Those who are losers today may be winners tomorrow, and those who are winners today may be losers tomorrow.
Nobody goes into an electoral contest to lose, but losing it is not a crime; it is by no means a humiliation. Election should not be a do-or-die affair.
But Nigeria has no democracy yet. The people have not imbibed the culture of democracy – tolerance, fair play, inclusiveness.
It is a shame that, to hold election yesterday, the entire Nigerian space was locked down between 8am and 5pm. The Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, restricted vehicular movement except ambulances, fire service trucks, and others on essential duties.
All land and sea borders were closed 72 hours before the polls; from midnight Wednesday, March 25, to midnight Saturday, March 28. Intelligence reports indicated that foreigners planned to cross the border to vote, Interior Minister, Abba Moro, claimed.
The democratic process has been so militarised that the security chiefs, particularly Abba, issue orders every day that make people think Nigeria is preparing for war rather than the civic chore of voting for those who would superintend national affairs in the next four years.
All over the country, schools – private and public – shut down and sent students home. In the past one week, scenes at both domestic and international terminals of airports have been chaotic. Those who can afford it fled the country.
In the North, there was mass exodus. A friend called on Wednesday, March 25 to say he was at the Abuja Airport with his family on their way “home”. For him, home is Imo State. Agha eyiri eyi anaghi eri onye ngworo (a pre-arranged war does not consume a cripple) was his parting shot.
His father was one of those murdered in the 1966 pogrom and he has vowed not to be caught in any web of electoral violence.
It was not only Southerners who fled the North. Northerners in the South, and even some who live in Abuja, left for their ancestral homes.
So worried was the international community that every world leader called, wrote, or visited, to advise Nigerians on the need for violence-free elections.
On Monday, March 23, United States President, Barack Obama, pleaded in a video address that we shun violence. “All Nigerians must be able to cast their votes without intimidation or fear,” he said, and called on “all candidates to make it clear to their supporters that violence has no place in democratic elections.” Didn’t our leaders know that?
While it is easy to see Obama’s intervention as condescending, isn’t that what we deserve? The Igbo say that a man who brings ant-infested firewood home invited the lizard for a meal. If not for the crass inanity of our political leaders, why would the West be telling Nigeria, the self-acclaimed giant of Africa, how to conduct its affairs?
Even before Obama’s rather patronising video, like errant secondary school students being admonished to be of good behaviour, the international community had sent Kofi Annan, former United Nations Secretary General, and his counterpart in the Commonwealth, Emeka Anyaoku, to get both Jonathan and Buhari to sign a peace accord in Abuja on January 14.
On January 25, as campaign rhetoric reached alarming levels despite the peace accord, America sent its Secretary of State, John Kerry, to come and talk to both Jonathan and Buhari in Lagos.
On March 18, U.S. Vice President, Joe Biden, called both Jonathan and Buhari, supporting the use of card readers for the elections, the efforts of the INEC to ensure free, fair and credible elections, and assured Nigeria of America’s support for its democracy.
On Thursday, March 26, it was the turn of British Prime Minister, David Cameron. In a statement issued through Edward Dunn, the Press Secretary at the British High Commission in Abuja, Cameroon warned Jonathan that failure to allow the elections hold would be a risk to national security and stability, and Nigeria’s international reputation.
“As Africa’s biggest democracy, successful elections in Nigeria are important not only for Nigeria’s future, but as a signal to the rest of Africa,” Cameroon lectured Jonathan.
How did we allow ourselves to plumb the depths of mediocrity so much so that the whole world noticed? Shouldn’t Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, conduct its affairs better? Why were the campaigns so incendiary? What was the issue of military coup all about?
While is it not possible to have a national democratic consensus 16 years after sending the military back to the barracks? How can anyone insinuate that the military had vowed that a particular candidate will never be allowed to govern the country even if he won the election?
It does not matter who wins this election. This is just not how to practise democracy. We cannot afford this simulated national crisis every four years. We must all sit down and agree on what it means to be in a democracy.
