End-game for old electoral order

The prelude to the polls has surprisingly revealed some not earlier publicized sides of the national life, leaving many hitherto uninformed Nigerians – young and older, equally bewildered.An aspect of the newdeal however is awelcome,tacit prospect of termination of the old electoral order. As has been an age-long aspirationofnot a few Nigerians, they had continuously […]

The prelude to the polls has surprisingly revealed some not earlier publicized sides of the national life, leaving many hitherto uninformed Nigerians – young and older, equally bewildered.An aspect of the newdeal however is awelcome,tacit prospect of termination of the old electoral order. As has been an age-long aspirationofnot a few Nigerians, they had continuously hoped that this electoral season will feature a new complement of outcomes that will bring cheers to country men and women. It is therefore with some sense of relief that after all said and done, the prelude to the polls has featured tendencies that indicate the imminence of change to the status quo. The only unknown is the sequence of eventual turn of events.
However the use of Permanent Voters Card (PVC) is the first level of confidence that change in around. Secondly is the resolve of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to proceed with the elections as scheduled.
As has become traditional in the country, a general election which should be a simple process of selecting a new set of leaders to run its public life, has transformed the whole nation into one huge cauldron of crisis, in which hitherto friends strive to kill each other, lovers turn mutual haters and families break up in mutual acrimony, to name a few. On the flip side,the dispensation has also ushered in new partnerships between hitherto strange bedfellows, with the common objective of sharing the spoils of political adventurism. Is it not said that in politics, there are no permanent friends or foes, but only permanent interests.
Meanwhile in the run up of campaigns not a few observers have lamented the medley of omissions such as the absence of attention to details with respect to issues of the day such as the economy, grinding poverty in the land, rape of the nation’s patrimony by foreign interests aided by Nigerian collaborators and insecurity; to name a few. This is not surprising.
Among the causes of this is the disposition of the typical political office holder in Nigeria who often maintains the mindset of a Spanish conquistador towards the masses in the country.With the exit of the colonial masters at independence, the succeeding indigenous political leadership was allowed by the ruled and oppressed massesof the country to appropriate to themselves the powers and perquisitesof office of the former, without a compensatory sense of service delivery to their pauperized compatriots. In the power matrix, the political class act as winners, and the masses remain the losers.
Experts describe the situation as a fallout from the competition between the indigenous replacements for the colonial officers and traditional rulers who enjoy deference from the masses. Every occupant of public office in the country since then sees himself or herself as a potentate whom the masses are duty bound to defer to.  Hence the rat race to join one platform or the other to climb into and remain in the political class, not for service to the people but to share the nation’s patrimony.
In another context the campaigns have also revealed other interesting features at various levels of activity. One of the most revealing is the transformation of the opposition front which hitherto featured a complement of mostly run-of-the-mill Nigerian political parties, into a formidable national political movement as the All Progressive Congress (APC). Equally captivating is the casting of its presidential candidate General Muhamadu Buhari (GMB) in various Nigerian traditional attires, with the ultimate show being the general’s masterly display of deft kukere dance steps at an Ibadan rally. Even if it fails to clinch the presidency the APC has in the hearts of many Nigerians changed the old political order in the country.At least electioneering can no more be business as usual, courtesy of the APC.
Meanwhile the PDP remained too long in a state of complacency, assured of retaining its traditional sway over the politics of the country until a self-imposed implosion threatened its fortunes. While it was basking in the euphoria of invincibility, its governors were shooting the party in the foot by executing a self-serving agenda throughstripping the party of valuable members in their various states, whose presence they nevertheless saw as threats.
Needless to say that many of such members became aggrieved and decamped from the PDP to other parties from where they plan to showdown with it, come the polls. How far they will succeed in the various states to whittle down the hegemony of the PDP is a truth that is blowing in the wind. Considering the potency of members of the PDP clan of the jettisoned, it is clear that the party is in for a fight from some of its hitherto prime assets.The party will need a lot of goodluck to contain the toxic fallouts from its enlarged enemy frontier.
Thanks that in the face of all of these convolutions the PVC will remain one factorthat puts paid to the old electoral order for good. Its primary utility is that it will facilitatethe ‘one man one vote’ dispensation, as well as better management of the numericsof the polls.
It is not surprising that its potency in fostering the end game for the old order may not be easily appreciated by some Nigerians. Yet what can lovers of Nigeria not give to see the end of ballot box-snatching, multiple thumb-printing and all other electoral malpractices that sustained the old order of non-accountable leadership in the country?
If all the PVC achieves is to dispatch the old order, even with disenfranchisement of some Nigerians, so be it. After all before its advent most Nigerians helplessly shad votes cast on their behalf.