Written By: Polycarp Onwubuike
It is patently worrisome that most elections are won, not on the final collation and summation total polls, but disparagingly at the election tribunals and as circumstances dictate at the Appeal Courts and Supreme Court. One would say that Nigerians have been short-changed as the demoralizing state of affairs was not what Nigerians bargained for at the country’s independent. One of the grave injustices done to the younger generation is the suspension of teaching of history in the schools.
Nigerians who were matured at the country’s independence learn that the election that inaugurated the First Republic was brazenly manipulated to assuage the covert agenda of the conservative establishments. To the consternation of well-meaning Nigerians, electoral malfeasance bounced back after military interregnum, depicting that civilians did not learn any lesson from the military intervention in governance due to the unconventional conduct of politicians in terms of leadership succession.
Political scientists pontificated that democracy cannot be said to be complete without free and fair elections whereby the eligible voters have unfettered access to the polling booths, cast their votes out of their volition without intimidation, coercion, material inducement, harassment, mindless killing and victimization after the elections. It is unfortunate that those ideals are far from being a reality in Nigerian since its independence in 1960.
No doubt, bastardization of elections was the seed that germinated and spurred political upheaval that snowballed into national conflagration. History taught that people learn from atrocious historical happenings and tread the path of caution in whatever they do.
Sadly, the tragic events of bastardization of electoral processes and the trauma of civil war never constituted an object lesson to some Nigerian politicians. Well meaning Nigerians were astonished when the late president of Nigeria, Alhaji Umaru Yar’Dua said that the election that brought him to power was flawed. Consequently, he promised to put measures in place to minimize the challenge as he set up committee and the committee came out with far-reaching recommendations for electoral fidelity. Similarly, Senator Ken Nnamani headed presidential committee on electoral reform but unfortunately successive administrations left the precious documents to gather dust on the shelf.
Other variant of possible electoral fidelity proposed by other well-meaning Nigerians include that of Professor Humphrey Nwosu, the former helmsman of electoral umpire. The election conducted under the novel Option A4 was acknowledged by Nigerians and even the international community who described it as “the freest and most credible election in Nigeria”.
Nigerians are looking forward to an electoral template that will not witness that type of governorship elections held on 16th of November at Kogi and Bayelsa states which left much to be desired. The scale of bastardization of the polls in addition to loss of lives calls for a pragmatic electoral reform and re-working of the Electoral Act to be in sync with the global standard practice.
Nigerians would not like to see a situation where general elections would be militarized and use of overwhelming force to safeguard the electoral process. For instance, a situation where two states held governorship election and attracted nearly 70,000 policemen and security agents, it stands to reason that at general elections, Nigerian government will appeal to neighbouring countries to lend it millions of police men to guard the polls and elections materials. In other words, Nigeria needs to recognize that the future is bleak going by the reality on ground. It needs to design pragmatic paradigms for sustainable growth and development in virtually all aspects of governance.
The National Assembly should therefore fast-track steps to bequeath the country an electoral template that will compete favourably with advanced democracies. According to a columnist, “The consequences of routinely stolen electoral mandate, is an arrested socio-economic development.
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