Election challenges: Which way Nigeria?

IT is imperative to emphasise that politics and power is not everything, especially when they are used against the citizenry. The people—civilians or military—that are justifying  dictatorial directives should know that politics is, to a great extent, about using and dumping people by desperate and selfish politicians. This story of a priest in Germany during Adolf Hitler’s days and his defining statement would suffice in this rendition. The priest had confessed, “When Hitler came for the Jews, I did not speak up because I was not a Jew. When he came for the media, I did not speak up because I was not a journalist. When he came for the communists, I did not speak up because I was not a communist. When he came for the Protestants, I did not speak up because I was Catholic. By the time Hitler came for me, there was nobody left.”

Just how could any normal civilian president in a liberal democracy, in a press conference, say, “Anybody who decides to snatch ballot boxes or lead thugs to disturb the process, maybe that will be the last unlawful action you will take… We have directed the military and other security agents to be ruthless.” In a civilian dispensation about to witness a generation election, any cautious president should be aware that military actions are not necessary in election matters, not to mention threating an electoral infractor with intentions of flunking electoral laws that “he will do it at the expense of his own life.”

#TribuneElectionUpdates on results as declared by INEC

In another development, the aftermath and ripple effects that came with the postponement of the tension-packed presidential and National Assembly elections caused a lot of strain in the polity and the security of the country. In the last one week, every nook and cranny of Nigeria has recorded  electorally motivated violence or verbal combat. The intriguing and surreal headlines emerging from traditional and social media is a saddening reality that Nigerian politicians, power brokers, moneybags and their marauding thugs are yet to learn from history and their own collective mistakes.

Before venturing into the dehumanising headlines, worthy of mention is the seemingly crocodile tears of politicians over the money they claimed they lost to mobilisation following the postponement of the elections. A governor seeking re-election in the North had cried, “Over N600 million was committed to the botched elections in my state. The implication now is that we have to spend more money to mobilise supporters and party agents.” An All progressive Congress (APC) senatorial candidate from one of the South East states had wailed, “I spent over N150 million between Thursday and Friday on mobilisation of party agents and supporters. Since the elections could not hold, we are going to look money again to re-mobilise.” This is interesting. In a country where the government is struggling to pay a minimum wage of 18,000 naira not to mention providing minimal basic amenities, politicians are busy flaunting money and muscles to gain power at the detriment of the commonwealth. Disappointingly, as many would swear, the money they claimed to have lost is tax-payers’ money.

Now back to the pro-election headlines. In the sensitive days following the election postponement, barbaric events and news left Nigerians wondering the kind of country they live in. headlines like: ‘NAMA: Weather didn’t affect distribution of INEC materials’, ‘Poll shift: Result sheets for Kwara found in FCT, Lagos’ in Kwara’, ‘Thugs plan to bomb INEC LG offices in Ebonyi, Gov. Umahi raises alarm’, ‘Atiku: APC trained card readers’ hackers in China’, ‘PDP privy to postponement—APC’, ‘Feb 16 poll: Facts show APC is sabotaging INEC’, ‘Four shot during Osinbajo’s campaign in Illorin’, ‘Five feared dead as APC, PDP supporters clash in Kano’, ‘Wike petitions Abdulsalami Abubakar over army, police chiefs’, ‘130 Fulani, not 66, killed in Kaduna, says el-Rufai’, ‘I advised el-Rufai against releasing causality figures in Kaduna crisis—CP’… and the disheartening list continues. What has the so-called giant of Africa deteriorated to in the name of routine elections?

On the other hand, the long-awaited presidential and National Assembly elections have come and gone with alleged rigging and counter-rigging, vote buying and selling, snatching and burning of electoral materials, shooting and burning of people. The sad truth is that when elephants fight, the grass suffers. Whether the vote of the electorate counted or not, there will be winners and losers. And the losers will definitely go to court to challenge the election outcomes. The campaigns, rallies, promises, lies, threats and propaganda of APC, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the others, as regards these conducted elections, have gone down as history, and would one day speak for or against them. However, the citizenry owe it to themselves to always speak truth to power at all times. Their fate and future are not only determined by elections, but also to a great extent, by their collective resistance or contribution to the polity the best way they know how. Since all the presidential candidates signed a peace agreement to accept the results of the election, one hopes congratulations are in order to whoever emerges as the next president of Nigeria.

• Alumona is of the Nigerian Tribune