By Clement Uzoanya
Whatever has a beginning is said to have an end. But it seems that the deplorable Nigerian situation keeps reinventing itself, thus robbing citizens of the dividends of democracy. Is this God’s will for Nigeria and Nigerians or have Nigerians failed repeatedly to actualise God’s plan for a country that is rich in virtually every ramification?
Many Nigerians looked forward to the 2023 general elections for many reasons, among which were: the large number of youth population involved and interested; the fact that the elections were not the traditional two-horse race; the repeated assurances from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC; the signing of the 2022 Electoral Act which contained the deployment of technology; the increasingly depressing state of the economy, among others. So, the build-up to the elections was one filled with a nostalgia of anxiety, apprehension, hope that the time has come for us to get things right. But did we?
Prior to the elections, the traditional
political parties (PDP, APC) touted other parties, especially, the LP and its
presidential candidate, that they do not have the needed structures to triumph
in the elections. However, we need not ask what these structures are. They are
now very obvious even to the blind that these ‘structures’ are what have
perpetuated the quandary that we find ourselves as a nation – structures of
criminality, manipulation, rigging, thuggery, vandalisation, among other
untoward acts, which have continually circumvented and distorted what is
supposed to be a civil, peaceful, fair and credible process. In order to
prepare for and execute the elections, the umpire body, INEC, budgeted a total
sum of N355 billion!
In addition to the regular logistical
expenses, the budget was to take care of the innovations as contained in the
2022 Electoral Act, which included the deployment of the Bimodal Voter
Accreditation System, BVAS, and the INEC Result Viewing, IReV, portal.
Furthermore, the INEC boss, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, repeatedly assured
Nigerians not only that the election process would be free, fair and credible,
but that results of the elections would be uploaded in real time. This was a
major factor in what rekindled hope and trust in the process. Did the umpire
body live up to expectation?
On February 25, 2023, the much awaited day,
Nigerians, like never before, thronged out, in the rain and in the sun to
exercise their franchise. They did so with all the eagerness, passion, gusto,
enthusiasm and what others may describe as the last flicker of hope for a
better Nigeria. In fact, while some got to their polling units as early as 5:00
a.m, others slept over at their polling units till the following day, being
February 26, 2023, all in a bid to ensure that results were uploaded to the
IReV portal and that their votes actually counted.
Unfortunately, what was supposed to be a day
to remember, a day of birthing a new Nigeria, became a sad and regressive day.
The election was marred by irregularities, ranging from voter suppression,
intimidation, raw violence, sporadic shootings, snatching of ballot boxes,
burning of ballot papers, vote buying, among others. Both international and
local observers attested to the fact that the election was grossly below
standard. A key factor of uploading results from the polling units to the IReV
portal looked like ‘the more you look, the less you see’!
This heightened suspicion for the process and
loss of trust for INEC. However, commendations to some NGOs and Civil Society
Groups like Yiaga Africa, Civil Society Situation Room, Kimpact Development
Initiative, Connected Development, Centre for Democracy and Development for all
their efforts in promoting democratic standards in the electioneering
process.
Following the Presidential and National
Assembly Elections, with its attendant irregularities, INEC officials conceded
they experienced some glitches regarding uploading results from the polling
units to the IReV portal, but no details were given on the said glitches. Yet
again, after rounds of assurances from the umpire body and security operatives,
the Gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly Elections held on March 18, 2023
witnessed similar or even more irregularities.
Sadly, several persons were killed during the elections. The case of violence in Rivers State made the elections look like a proxy war.
This calls to mind Thomas Hobbes’ (1588 – 1679) brutish notion of the
nature of man. Some of the security operatives were somewhat complicit in the
process, because even after knowing or having intelligence reports on the flash
points or hot spots in the key states, they performed below par. Besides the
raw violence experienced in Lagos, reducing the cosmopolitan city to a
primitive village on the eve of the governorship election with some sacrificial
pots placed close to some polling units smack of threat, which is an offence in
our electoral laws.
So, while voter turnout during the
Presidential and National Assembly Elections was the highest in recent times,
the turnout during the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly Elections
seemed to be the lowest in recent times – a case of a climax and an anticlimax
situations of a response to a rekindled hope and a reaction to an eventually
dashed hope. At this point, we cannot, but ask ourselves: What have we learnt
since our return to democracy in 1999?
It seems that after 23 years, electioneering
has remained virtually the same! Who did this to us? President Muhammadu
Buhari promised to deliver a free, fair and credible election, but he may bury
his head in shame. It is just a similar situation of what brought him to power.
In fact, considering the way the country has been run in almost eight years, it
would be unwise to believe that the President would deliver on his word. Not to
mention the fact that he, the number one citizen, compromised and violated the
sanctity and secrecy of the ballot paper by displaying his ballot paper at his
polling unit during the election! The politicians have, no doubt, been the
weakest link in the electioneering process.
They seem not to relent in organising crime –
thugs and touts to violate, suppress and intimidate voters. They weaponise
poverty, religion and tribe in every way possible in order to subvert the will
of the people or circumvent the process and polarise the citizens.
It is appalling to note that there is
currently a tribal war, fuelled by hate speech, which is becoming the order of
the day. In Lagos, for instance, Christians and Muslims, Igbos and Yorubas have
coexisted very peacefully for decades, but politicians have repeatedly sown
seeds of prejudice and hatred. So, over the years, politicians have exploited
whatever obnoxious means possible to circumvent the process and polarise the
citizens in order to achieve their aim. One wonders how Lagos, Rivers, Kano and
indeed Nigeria would heal after the 2023 elections.
No doubts, some improvements were made by INEC. There were some gains and records of successes viz-à-viz previous elections, especially with the introduction of the use of technology, which reduced the issues of over-voting, and improved voter accreditation and authentication. This improved the seamlessness of the voting process. In addition, the level of awareness and participation made the 2023 elections to bring about the most diverse political parties (APC, PDP, LP, NNPP, APGA) into office.
However, considering the fact that INEC’s promises and assurances have
not paid off over the years probably because the task before them is enormous
and overwhelming, a more result oriented approach may be to unbundle the umpire
body. Considering the hydra-headed challenges, especially the issue of
leadership, which have plagued the country over the years, many have given up
on Nigeria. The reality today is that many have left, are leaving or are
planning to leave the shores of this country! Sadly, the Japa syndrome is real
and it is affecting us greatly.
What Nigerians have experienced in the past
few decades is definitely not God’s plan or his perfect will for us, but it can
be situated in God’s permissive will (cf. Thomas Aquinas ST. I, q.19, a.6). The
fact that God permits something does not mean that it is the divine will. In
the case of the permissive will, God still blesses the recipients, but they
will not enjoy the full blessings that come with His perfect will. In all of
the daunting challenges confronting us as a people, one is tempted to say that
Nigeria is beyond redemption! But the good news is that God has not abandoned
Nigeria.
God is still open to saving us from this
quandary. The redemption is within our reach. We only need to appropriate it
and work towards God’s plan for us. The redemption is embedded in the
system of government that we practise, and the submission in this piece is that
our redemption is hinged on a tripod of: the centrality of God in our national
life; the upholding of democratic principles and; the sanctity and supremacy of
the judiciary.
*Uzoanya
is a Doctoral Student of the University of Port Harcourt, wrote
via: uzoclem21@yahoo.com
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