Chasing after elusive elections

–Why are you pottering about like a woman? Mutum asked.–Hey! Watch your mouth about women. I’m looking for a book-–To do what with and why now?-–To read, or more appropriately to re-read, of course; and there couldn’t be more opportune time than now-–I know you; you’re seeking a means of escape-–From what? – –From uncertainty-–Which […]

–Why are you pottering about like a woman? Mutum asked.
–Hey! Watch your mouth about women. I’m looking for a book-
–To do what with and why now?-
–To read, or more appropriately to re-read, of course; and there couldn’t be more opportune time than now-
–I know you; you’re seeking a means of escape-
–From what? –
–From uncertainty-
–Which uncertainty, you’re in my house. What can be more certain than that?-
–Stop clowning, you want to drown yourself in some titillating fiction so that you can forget the electoral and political uncertainty Nigeria has just been plunged into by the postponement of elections-
–It’s obvious you’ve not read Darkness at Noon. Wait until you read it, it’s even gloomier than the situation we’ve on our hands now-
–Good, now that we’re talking, what is your take about the postponement?-
–Honestly, I’ve no opinion about it. They say that INEC would not be ready by February 14th because there is a lot of confusion about PVC distribution and that Nigeria has war to fight against the insurgents and that you couldn’t be holding an election when there is a war on and so on and so forth-
–But Attahiru Jega, the INEC boss himself had said sometime back that not holding the elections was a conversation that wasn’t taking place in INEC, meaning he was going ahead with the elections, notwithstanding the orchestrated campaigns to postpone them at home and abroad…
–Yes, that was before he was summoned by Jonathan and his service chiefs and a gun literally pointed at his tight fitting cap to play ball!-
–Which he played by swallowing his own spittle and eating his own words-
–What? Are you blaming him now for doing as they told him to do? Is he now a coward, a weakling or something worse, because that is what your metaphors of swallowing his spittle and eating his words mean?-
–Look Mutum, I never wanted this conversation in the first place; I was whiling away my time searching for my copy of Darkness At Noon, when you came muttering to yourself like some deranged street- corner felon, badgering me about election postponement as if I was the one that did it. Why couldn’t you go ask those who forced Jega’s hand, no, blackmailed him to do the unthinkable, why? As for Jega; he still retains my admiration and respect as a professor of Political Science, an astute administrator whose tenure as VC at BUK was remarkable for being crisis free. As a scholar of political science, he certainly must have been aware of the treachery and the banana peel inherent in sitting atop the electoral body in Nigeria. He must have taught graduate students the electoral escapade of Humphrey Nwosu (1989-1993) and his ordeal in the hands of the then government. What’s more, knowing full well the utter humiliation and ignominy some INEC bosses, particularly those who refused to be pushed around, suffered by the end of their terms, it was a surprise he still accepted to serve. Still it is understandable that he must have accepted purely out of patriotic reasons.-
–With the encomium you poured on the man, one would think you’re looking for contract from INEC!-
–Suit yourself. You accuse me of blaming him for caving in to blackmail and when I reaffirm his standing in my estimation, you insinuate I am ingratiating myself to him for contract favours. You’re impossible!-
–So, where do we go from here?-
–How do you mean?-
–Postponed election, what next?-
–March 28th is the new date for electoral commencement and nothing can stop it.-
–Well, I admire your optimism. Or is it naivety? But don’t you think the postponement was done to test the ground for either acquiescence or opposition –a dress rehearsal for something out and out outlandish and ghoulish, that the real aim is to suspend the elections indefinitely. Some kind of coup by other means, after all, it is a natural progression from election postponement to election annulment and it will not be the first time something like that would be happening-
–You mean despite all the assurances and profuse profession of good faith on the part of Jonathan and his crowd, we may be in for a longer period of waiting to cast our votes-
–Something like that; that is until the government, sorry, the ruling party is ready. Look at it this way, when calls for postponement became strident from government organs, all the other parties, including the mushroom ones rose as one to argue against it, even the council of state cast its lot for holding the ballot, still the postponement occurred.-
–Waiting for government to be ready, but to do what?-
–To be actually ready for the elections. Right now, with the groundswell of support for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Buhari, it senses it is walking straight into an ignominious defeat. And Jonathan and his crowd are try to do everything to avoid it-including instituting cases against Buhari to get him knocked off through disqualifications and if that fails continue to push the election date forward indefinitely-
–Wait Mutum, I never knew you as a conspiracy theorists, but here you are propounding one about an indefinite postponement of the elections in the offing, even  when so far the postponement is for a few weeks.-
–Mark my words. One reason given for the postponement was to defeat the insurgency. But you and I know that is impossible. Having given the insurgents free rein for half a decade to kill and maim, they have become entrenched, consolidated and armed to the teeth and also difficult to dislodge. How easy then would it be to obliterate them between now and March 28? And don’t forget a nation at war cannot hold election, so said David Mark. Now do you catch my drift?
— I do. In other words, until we put out the insurgency there might not be an election. Considering that for upwards of 5 years now the insurgency has raged with no end to it in sight because soldiers are refusing to fight because of inadequate or shortage of weapons and fighting materials, how easy then would it be to uproot them?-
–Your guess is as good as mine-
–To take your argument further–insurgency means indefinite PDP government in place, and with the entrenched corruption that created the shortage of arms and ammunition and inability to match the insurgents fire for fire, it is anyone’s guess whether the elections that have become conditional on the defeat of the insurgency are imminent or not.-
–So, we’re now in a vicious circle that could engender a dictatorship. But it can’t happen here-
–Did you say something?-
–Yes Mutum, I say a dictatorship cannot happen here, and at this stage of our development, particularly with this unpardonable level of misgovernment and cluelessness, that have turned a part of Nigeria’s territory into a playground of foreign armies purporting to be chasing Boko Haram insurgents. No, it cannot happen.-
–Even with the top brass of the military in support of the whole malevolent design to the hilt?-
–Let the whole military structure, not only the top brass be in support, it cannot happen, must not happen.