Oya, let’s go to Edo

THIS weekend, it is all about the governorship election taking place in Edo State. As you read this, the state is on a lockdown. The Nigerian security apparatus, through the Nigeria Police, has announced the restriction of human and vehicular movement to or from Edo State and within the state while the election lasts. The security agencies have also carried out their usual “show of force” to instill that morbid fear in both the interested and the uninterested electorate. Not a few are scared away from elections due to this singular show, armed with what Nigerians know about ‘accidental discharge’ and stray bullets. Today, you cannot just move around as you would wish anywhere in Edo State. The order is Halt! Don’t Move! Interested demographic of the eligible Edo State population which has obtained the voter’s card, and is willing to use them, is exercising that right. Na our way.

I don’t know the number of Nigerians living in Nigeria who often wonder, like I do, why this is usually the case. I also wonder if we are interested in changing it, or if we are in any way ready to support moves to change it. Why should we stop breathing whenever it is time to elect our political leaders? Could it be that Nigerians enjoy this aspect of our life? I think it is ugly and undesirable that every aspect of our socio-economic life would be forced to an absolute halt all because we are carrying out our civic duty of choosing those who would represent us in government? The alarming contrast in this peculiar action of ours is that we tacitly adopted the definition of democracy as per Abraham Lincoln. He says what we see as participatory democracy here is the “government of the people, by the people and for the people.” But from the lockdown of Edo State, today is a way of saying something other than what we have adopted as our democracy.

On the political turf in the state, it is a different kettle of fish even though everything is geared towards achieving just one goal: Get a new governor to take over at the government house called Dennis Osadebey House in Benin City. All the political parties contesting today’s election are expected to have laid their markers at the 4,519 polling units in the nooks and crannies of the state. You must have presence everywhere in the state otherwise you would not be taken seriously by all the stakeholders. Today, each of the seventeen parties would have assigned roles to the various people they had employed for the election, and they are believed to be ready to roll now.

The police hierarchy in Nigeria announced that 35,000 officers and men had been deployed to work in the state toady. That number is about ten percent of the roughly 370,000 personnel in the Nigeria Police. So, about a tenth of the total number of policemen working in Nigeria has been deployed for this duty. Let’s leave out the personnel of NSCDC; NDLEA the EFCC. Our elections involve the Nigeria Immigration Service and the Nigerian Correctional Service.

The 35,000 police officers and men now camped in Edo would be aside those who would be carrying out their lawful duties of following our Oga VIPs about. They also do not include those attached to Oga Madams and the ones working as their domestic personnel. Many of our policemen would be on these ‘special duties’ in parts of the state even while the election is going on there.

Soldiers too are not left out. The Director, Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, said the military would play roles in the elections. “During elections, troops are required to provide security in order to encourage high voter turnout as well as ensure the safety of voters. The forthcoming election in Edo will not be an exception. The military is resolute on taking steps to ensure a hitch-free election in Edo State.” Ordinarily, this statement credited to our Defence chief would have been construed to be a war-time charge. But it is sadly about a simple civic duty of electing a political leader.

You may be wondering what the point is in all of this? The point is that we waste too much effort in our elections; we ruin unquantifiable human and sundry resources in our elections. This should stop. Apart from the huge sums expended by the individual aspirants/candidates as interested persons, political parties also deploy huge sums for the same purpose. What are the large sums expended to prosecute elections in Nigeria actually spent on? What do we use all the loads of money for – from that raked in from the purchase of forms by candidates to those amounts the aspirants donate to party leaders and supporters? In answer to these questions, like the Igbo will normally advice, ‘use your tongue to count your teeth’.

In some other democracies it has been proven that they do not collect humongous amounts of money from aspirants to political offices for ‘intention’ or ‘forms’. It should be your political party that will nominate you for election. And when this has been done, your political party will raise funds for the electoral campaigns. It is not different in Edo State as people file out to vote today. Despite the heavy deployment of security, there could still be reports of untoward events and violence. While these might call the sanity of some stakeholders and non-state actors to question, such actions naturally justify the presence of armed soldiers, policemen and others security agents at our polling centres. While our focus is on the ugly activities of some individuals, we ignore the dangers posed to life of personnel deployed in naturally dangerous terrains.

The solution to intimidation of voters, bloodshed during elections and the lockdown of an entire state, has been suggested on several occasions. How do other countries conduct elections and still run their normal life? Why can we not take a leaf from such democracies? How can INEC not be able to conduct elections electronically?

In the debates leading to the 2019 general election, the Senate discarded proposals to have the INEC conduct elections via electronic means. Their excuse was that parts of the country are still not covered by such telecommunication infrastructure that would support electronic voting. If that was the case at that time, should we not, by now, be using such infrastructure where they are adequate so as to make life easier for all of us and the country? Since the time of Buhari when that debate came up, we have not returned to it. We have forgotten about it and have turned on one another in biting ethnic and tribal slurs.

Edo political leaders are working so hard to create a path to the Dennis Osadedey Government House. The only problem with this labouring men and women is that they seem to be up against a very dark and dense thicket. May Edo be the winner today.

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