Nigeria wins!

The galloping tsunami is of course the opposition All Progressives Congress, which as at last night when the official vote tallying was suspended had taken the lead over the ruling Party and seemed on course to produce Muhammadu Buhari, 72, as the nation’s next leader. For me, it is a mix of sadness and joy, […]

The galloping tsunami is of course the opposition All Progressives Congress, which as at last night when the official vote tallying was suspended had taken the lead over the ruling Party and seemed on course to produce Muhammadu Buhari, 72, as the nation’s next leader. For me, it is a mix of sadness and joy, because it is no secret that I have associated with many prominent personalities whose misfortunes I must share. Ahmadu Adamu Mu’azu the PDP National Chairman, several of the Governors, particularly Sule Lamido who I’ve had the honour of being some kind of aide to, these past 3 years, and decidedly the most promising Presidential hopeful in the PDP.
As I battle to write this column, former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs Peter Godsday Orubebe is just finishing with making a spectacle of himself before a stoic and unfazed Prof. Attahiru Jega, the INEC Chairman. He is rebuked like a child who stepped on go-cart and is ranting. Mr Godsday Orubebe, you are a former minister; be careful what you speak and what allegations you make”.
Already reputable watchers have given the victory to Muhammadu Buhari, and the international media particularly tipped the APC challenger as the clear winner. I write clearly seeing that there is a victory even now and even in favour of Muhammadu Buhari, it really is victory for our country. Our “own dear native” Nigeria is the winner.
To me, Nigeria came of age yesterday, to join the comity of successful democracies in Africa, succeeding in conducting an election that has in many respects, surpassed our celebrated June 12. The voters, once again spoke. It was orderly at my corner of the country, the citizenry voted without hindrance. There is relative satisfaction on transparency and credibility in the INEC’s conduct. Therefore we can proudly say, the system works. There were admittedly challenges in flashpoint States of course, but the beauty of INEC’s modular election is that challenges in one module can be addressed and corrected without any impairment of the whole as could be seen by the acceptance of the apparently incredulous submission from Rivers State. We have a conclusive election.
I wished it. It would be such a novelty if for once we had an election in which the loser called the winner to concede and to congratulate. It would be such a healing national balm. It has happened. President Goodluck Jonathan has called his rival Muhammadu Buhari to concede defeat.  How great is our God! A new statesman has emerged in President Goodluck Jonathan, for there is no quantifying how this gesture augurs well for our nation’s giant leap into a greater future and height.
Is the outcome all that there is about us, or is there more? Of course there is more. We stand as Nigerians who bound in freedom, made our choices. Nigerians we remain and await the future with hope to work hand in hand to perfect our collective gains and losses.
We all agree that it is the most keenly contested election ever for the much touted largest democracy on the African continent. As expected, the Nigerian nation is gripped by tension and anxiety as the nation faces up to the outcome. The Presidential election appears the most important, dwarfing all other elections for the National Assembly, the Governorship of States, and the State Legislatures.
The election and the time are both critical for a country that has failed to show example in several sovereign traits, least of them, even the practice of politics.  When a similar election was held in 2011, a bloody post election violence followed, causing apprehensions this time around of a similar occurrence.
President Goodluck Jonathan and contender Muhammadu Buhari who only last week for the second time met at the President’s instance and resolved to personally address their supporters to accept the outcome of the elections in good faith, without recourse to violence, must now live every letter of those pledges.  The elections must first be free and fair, and they are evidently so. INEC should ensure the continuity of the transparent process. Political leaders must comport themselves for peace in the interest of the nation. The weighty responsibility for peace in truth rests on the shoulders of the two main gladiators, President Goodluck Jonathan and contender Muhammadu Buhari, who of necessity must speak to their supporters immediately after the declaration results to keep calm and follow the due process of seeking whatever redress. It is such a novelty that for once we had an election in which the loser called the winner to concede and to congratulate. It represents such a huge healing national balm.
From a hard look, it is agreed and cannot be said loud enough, that transparency on the part of the Independent National Electoral Commission is the key to credible polls, and credibility is the only remedy to violence. In this case, the onus lies on INEC, and its capacity to be above aboard to ensure credibility, but more importantly, for the Federal Government to restrain itself from bringing any pressure to bear on INEC in promotion of the incumbent. In this regard, the stakeholders to the project are many. From both divides, politicians need comport themselves with a sincere resolve to salvage their own image. All parties often engaged in election sharp practices, each to a certain degree, and the biggest rigger tended to “win”.
In this 2015 election, I am not the winner. You are not the winner either. Our own dear nation Nigeria is the winner.
Even with All Progressives Congress’s Muhammadu Buhari as being declared winner, the celebrant and the carrier of the baton to this victory is President Goodluck Jonathan who at this moment, stands to go down in history as one Nigerian leader who organised the conduct of an election that has in many respects, surpassed our celebrated June 12.
For now, our armed forces, security agents and the police must strive to establish and protect a non-partisan image, ensuring fairness to all and performing their primary duty of preventing election criminal acts like ballot stuffing, or ballot box snatching. The INEC officials must be seen to ensure that the process which they have so painstakingly laid out is not compromised. We have a challenge to show forth as the leading African nation that we are, and it would be such a fulfilling occurrence if this once, we prove cynics wrong.