2023 GENERAL ELECTION AND MATTERS ARISING ….BY EMEKA ILOELUNACHI
The long-awaited elections have come and gone but with mixed feelings and dashed expectations. It was an election that so many youths and Nigerians alike; looked up to, with so much optimism following the sad experience of the EndSars protest. The election was expected and rightly believed by the youths and generality of Nigerians, to be a veritable and peaceful avenue to further express their displeasure about the terrible state of governance and protracted hopelessness of the citizenry. They had hoped to use the election to call the political leaders to order since that could not be achieved with the very disruptive but unsuccessful EndSars protest.
One can boldly but disappointedly state that this was the most divisive and fraudulent election ever conducted in the history of Nigeria and the annals of mankind. A whooping N400 billion was simply shoved down the drain leaving another bigger hole in an already heavily pummelled economy with the sad consequence of additional impoverishment of the nation. Also, never has Nigeria ever witnessed this kind of ethnic, tribal, and religious chauvinism and hatred post-civil war. The nearest we have had to this kind of divisive and regressive politics was events preceding the 1966 coup and countercoup which ultimately and unfortunately plunged the nation into a regrettable civil war.
Unfortunately, 70% of the youths of today didn’t witness that war and neither do they even have a faint knowledge of the events that led to it (no thanks to the removal of history/civic education as a subject from our educational system-an act I believe was devilishly deliberate). Even the 30% of the citizenry who can vividly remember the sordid story and experience are part of the current political actors and perpetrators of this odium I would boldly tag as ” dictatorial democracy or toutocracy” – a government of the tout by the touts and for the touts .
In addition, this election has further battered our ailing image before the world. Imagine the myriad of international media headlines and captions on the election. I am even ashamed to quote any of them and I can imagine the embarrassment Nigerians will further receive from foreigners across the globe. We have lost any remaining pride in being called Nigerians as evidenced by the increased number of Nigerians tearing their passports on social media – a very disgusting video anyway! It’s a shame that we have degenerated to this level of lack of patriotism and loss of pride in our national identity. I recall vividly and with nostalgia those days when we all sing the national anthem and pledge with a great feeling of patriotism and heroism. Little wonder why the ‘japa’ syndrome has become so unprecedented.
Our situation has become so bad that even our national football team ‘the watery and wingless eagles’ lost 1:0 to Guinea Bissau (a footballing minnow in Africa) despite the presence of footballing stars who are currently dominating the world but are lacklustre when they adorn our national colours. Watch the game and you will obviously see a lack of passion to die for the country . Perhaps, Abuja has become our albatross both in soccer and national harmony. Isn’t the city the same location where President Buhari and Prof Mahmood Yakubu hatched and unleashed the most dreaded punch on our democracy, cohesion, and national development…? Yes, Abuja is increasingly becoming synonymous with ill luck!!!
Having said this, I must surmise that the election has some winners and losers with veritable lessons to take from it and improve us as a nation, after all, it is said that “what doesn’t kill you makes you strong”.
WINNERS
I. The Youths – Notwithstanding the massive rigging and seeming rape of democracy which denied the youths the opportunity to wholly sweep out the gang of oppressive leaders and avenge the EndSars protest, there was still a remarkable impact by the youths as (for the first time in the history of Nigeria), the political class became jittery and witnessed some political casualties. Not only did incumbents lose elections, but also failed to successfully Install their stooges. A good example is Lagos state where political actors suddenly ate the humble pie and started attending both churches for worship and salons to plait hair for the commoner. Omo, the masses for once became the beautiful bride and powerful! The youths should not relent but sustain the momentum into the next election. Politicians now know that it is not business as usual irrespective of their devilish manipulation of the people using our fault lines such as tribalism and poverty to balkanise us and perpetrate themselves.
II. The Media – politics and entertainment they say is the cream of the media industry. Both the mainstream and social media experienced unprecedented buzz and activity during this period due to the election. It became the most active and critical ‘boxing ring’ for political activism and marketing. Traditional political structures are now becoming obsolete, and the media suddenly becomes the ” new structure and platform” needed to impress and win the votes of the populace.
III. The Judiciary – never had the Judiciary had it so sweet as they are now bugged with so many litigations thus providing sufficient jobs and income and relevance. The number of political litigations is so overwhelming that commercial cases are really attended to these days. However, I make bold to warn the Judiciary to be careful how it handles this lest it comes to consume them as the youths and international community are increasingly focusing on them to see how they honourably restore the chequered trust of the masses on them and further determine their uselessness in the affairs of the country going forward.
IV. Women – Where the men failed, the women triumphed in this election. Amid prevalent corruption amongst male professors who supervised this monumental fraud called an election, one lady Prof Mrs Nnenna Oti stood out and defied powers and pressures to show the male folks how to lead a nation by example. Also, the naked protest by women in Nasarawa state, though a pitiable sight, has piled monumental pressure both spiritually and internationally on our political decision-makers and things will never be the same again. To these women, you are all heroes of our democracy! I hope Dr Alex Otti doesn’t bugle this rare privilege offered to him to right the wrongs of Abia state and make the Labour party the new darling of Nigerian politics. David Ombugadu will eventually emerge in view of this protest. Don’t Joke with the spiritual power of women when they chose to deploy it against injustice.
LOSERS
I. Buhari and APC – irrespective of the fraudulent outcomes of the various elections, the biggest loser is President Muhammadu Buhari who lost the only opportunity to redeem his bad image as a leader. His administration has been termed the most horrible for Nigerians and this election was the only avenue for him to redeem his image had it met the expectation of the masses. Pre-election, many thought he was consciously aiming to achieve that following the ill-fated naira redesign policy and the deployment and redeployment of security officers across the country. Everyone expected an election devoid of vote buying and use of thuggery coupled with the new electoral law and deployment of BVAS to the voting process. The enthusiasm was unprecedented and Nigerians would have hailed Buhari as a hero had the election met the expectation. Alas, it never was to be, no thanks to Prof Mahmood-led INEC!!! Also, the APC as a party is another big loser. I can tell for free that the party will greatly degenerate and eventually go into extinction in view of it being the epicentre of all that was wrong in this election. The choice of its flagbearer and the manner with which he emerged victorious in the election came short of any democratic ideals and became an opposite of the cause that progressive democrat represents. Its application of bribery, thuggery and fetishism was not only monumental but unprecedented in any political literature in the world. The trending video of Lagos Obas performing rituals openly for election victory for APC was very disgusting, disparaging, stinking, crude, and repugnant!!! It also introduced tribal sentiments and hate speech into its campaign leading to deep sited animosity and mistrust amongst its inhabitants who co-exist peacefully before now. That was something that even PDP in all its political malfeasance never did. The party will never recover from that blow it dealt itself. It has further lost its national appeal.
II. The Academic – The academic world in Nigeria have lost any remaining element of honour in their profession. How do you explain to anyone that the most fraudulent election in the history of Nigeria was conscripted and conducted by a bunch of professors and university dons led by Prof Yakubu Mahmood??? What moral justification do they now have to query exam malpractices, cultism, prostitution and other morally debasing behaviours of students? It appears it is even more honourable to be a yahoo boy than to be a professor in Nigeria.
III. Religious Leaders – Their level of partisanship in the election with so many unactualized prophesies and alliances really put a question mark on their faith. How come many of their prophecies and proclamations never happened? Just after covid made a mess of religious leaders and their power of insights, 2023 politics also added salt to injuries. I hope they have learnt to trade into the murky waters of politics with so much caution
IV. State Institutions – INEC, the police and the army were also villains in this election. A situation where politicians, touts and thugs raid and abuse the electoral process with impunity shows how these institutions have lost their authority and respect. The citizens don’t care anymore, and it means that they have lost their relevance. Jokes are now being made by comedians about INEC and the police. I hope we will not degenerate into a state of anarchy at this rate. I fear an increased emergence of militias as people lose faith in the ability of state agents to protect them.
WAY FORWARD
As bad as the situation may be and as actors pursue their legitimate rights to seek legal redress (hoping that the judiciary will indeed be the last hope of the common man), I will plead with all to first remember that no power grabbed on earth is permanent and we will all depart this world someday to face eternity and become powerless. Secondly, they should all know that both the winners and losers are nothing without a nation called Nigeria and therefore should be modest with their actions. Let the winners be magnanimous in victory and the losers be civil as they seek redress.
Having said this, I also further recommend the following action points to avoid a repeat of the last experience and even take us further as a united and purposeful nation where despondency will no longer be the order of the day:
I. Engraving of Rotational Arrangement in our political elections – This has become imperative in view of the deep distrust and disunity among the constituent regions as shown in this recent election. The presidency should not only rotate between the North and South but even when it moves to these larger divides, it should rotate within the constituting regions of NE, NW, NC, SW, SW, SS and vice versa. Once it is the turn of a region, all political parties must present their candidates from that region. The whole country will vote for the best candidate from the region and that way, we will kill tribalism, ethnicity and religious sentiments in our body polity. The electoral act should capture this and thus not leave it to the vagaries of political parties which are usually under the undue influence of political hawks and vampires. The same applies to governorship which shall rotate amongst zones and when it comes to each zone, it should also rotate amongst the constituting LGAs.
II. Single-term Government Tenor- Both Presidents and Governors should not do more than a term of 5 or 6 years and no one that has been governor or president should be allowed to smell the legislature at the federal level, especially the senate seats. You can’t be a governor and thereafter retire to the senate. The Senate isn’t a pension home!!! Also, no senator should be allowed to contest for governorship. If you have gotten to the senate as a legislator, then seek the presidency or at best a ministerial appointment. That way political offices will go around and reduce unnecessary acrimony and violence.
III. Reduce the incentive tied to political Office Holders – The salaries of political office holders should never be more than other professionals such as doctors, lawyers, bankers etc and any politician who leaves office should be subjected to harrowing post-tenure audit to ensure that they did not take advantage of their tenure to loot the state. EFCC under the control of a special commission led by the National Council of states should probe all political office holders and if found clean, be offered a national award (abrogate this current practice of giving GCFR GCON, OON, OFR etc to serving politicians) and if found guilty, should be jailed and shamed such that even their family members are banned from holding political office for about 25years.
IV. The management of the security agencies and electoral umpire should be insulated from the executive arm of government – While they are to remain under the instructional guide of the sitting government, their appointment, discipline and remuneration should be determined by a special commission comprising of the National Council of states (former heads of states/presidents and retired Supreme Court judges and perhaps some notable religious leaders selected equitably between the North and South Zones). These retired statesmen have no further political ambition and should naturally be neutral and nationalistic in their worldview and thus give us a neutral institution that their loyalty is not to any politician both to the state. Please return the headship of INEC and its state RECs to Retired Judges of only Supreme and Appeal Courts… If any professor is to be used, his or her pedigree must be duly known and verified. May I even say I prefer the female ones in such roles!!! EFCC should also be under this commission for the purpose of ensuring post-public office Audits.
V. Improvement of electoral law – the use of technology should be deepened in the process. The use of BVAS is good but insufficient. Let there be electronic voting too. Any person below 60 years is to compulsorily vote electronically while the rest above that age can continue with the current process, but BVAS must work. Result transmission should be automatic as there won’t be a need for result sheets that are validated by polling agents and susceptible to manipulation by collation officers. A voter’s card is not needed, we can use our NIN or even mobile phone number (if all phone numbers have been duly registered as required by law) to vote and a centralized and secured database is maintained between NIMC and INEC. Any qualifying citizen or parent who did not vote during an election will be denied access to state services like education, primary health care and things like international passport issuance. This will not only enable citizens in the diaspora to vote but will also foreclose the use of thugs and avert electoral violence. We even won’t need our security agencies for elections anymore and where needed, it will be minimal and thus their respect will be intact or restored.
Wishing Nigerian, a quick healing process from the pains of the election!!!
Emeka Iloelunachi is a banker and a public policy/development enthusiast.
