Re: Democracy Day and the Yobe paradox

Rarely has the nation also seen the level of mudslinging and campaigns of calumny to run down opponents using sections of the mainstream media that some candidates or their agents have resorted to. And then there were all the insults and innuendoes that were hurled online at the speed of light through social media. Our […]

Rarely has the nation also seen the level of mudslinging and campaigns of calumny to run down opponents using sections of the mainstream media that some candidates or their agents have resorted to. And then there were all the insults and innuendoes that were hurled online at the speed of light through social media. Our democracy has gotten rowdier and noisier but Nigerians across the board have emerged better for it. 
For instance, Nigerians are now infinitely more aware of their government and, certainly, their politicians. They know many of the details that were previously known only to a few – including the emoluments of public office holders and what to legitimately expect from elected representatives. They know when a point in a speech is fact or bluster; they know when or where they have been taken for a ride. In short, the level of political education and awareness can richly fit into the assumption that democracy is always nourished and enriched when there is greater public participation.
 The corollary to this is that the political class or, specifically, the politicians who run for elections are informed as well about the political process generally – about what an election truly is, about what to say or not say in the campaigns; about the obligations that come with being a candidate; and how to seek for redress if and when a candidate feels unfairly treated.
 Unfortunately, a section of the political class seems left behind by the electorate. While an ordinary cattle farmer huddled around his radio set in Yusufari Town, for example, is generally up to date about the goings-on in the political scene and is in the loop about, say, the various litigations filed by some of the candidates who ran and lost the elections, the Yobe PDP governorship candidate, Adamu Maina Waziri and some of his loyalists appear either ignorant of Politics 101 or are being deliberately contemptuous of the law regarding elections litigation.
 Paradoxically, Adamu Maina Waziri, who was a perennial governorship candidate, certainly knew what it means to run in an election, how to go to the courts if a candidate who lost wants to and what to do when he files cases that he wants the courts to hear.
 One of the basic things that a candidate who goes to the courts must do is not to pre-empt the courts or subject them to unnecessary influences or presume an outcome before the case is properly heard.
 Unfortunately, Waziri, who has filed two different cases at a Federal High Court and the State Elections Petitions Tribunal against the election of Governor Ibrahim Geidam of Yobe State, does not appear to heed this basic legal requirement. From talking to the press about his cases in a suggestive manner to having loyalists write sub judice articles that clearly pre-empt what’s before the courts, the Yobe PDP governorship candidate seemed in a rush to suggest to the courts what they have do for him.
 And this is really curious. If the case is right; if the facts are correct; and you believe that the courts are where you can seek redress, why not allow them to do their work? Why do you continue to suggest that your case must go in a certain way even though the case has not been heard and the other party has yet to move their defence?
 As mind-boggling as this is, some of the articles, such as the one published under Hajia Bilkisu’s name last Thursday in the Daily Trust titled ‘Democracy Day and the Yobe paradox’ continue to cook up unlikely instances as reasons to ‘smell a rat’ in the last governorship election in the State. For example, one of the interlocutors in the article, one Hassan, suggested what he called a ‘red herring’ because the number of people who turned up in the governorship election in Yobe was more than those who turned up and voted during the presidential election. A “red herring is being dangled before us”, he said, “that contrary to the equation nationwide, more people turned up for the governorship election in Yobe state than the presidential election. One can smell a rat here”.
 Really? The total numbers of people who voted for Akinwumi Ambode in Lagos State and Kashim Shettima in Borno State were more than the numbers of people in the same party who voted for Muhammadu Buhari in the same states. Is there a rat to smell here?
 In the same vein, only 25, 000 Yobeans voted for Goodluck Jonathan during the last election but more than 150, 000 Yobe people voted for Adamu Maina Waziri. Why is there no rat to smell in this particular case?
 By suggesting that there is a rat to smell because more people participated in the election that Governor Geidam won than those who did during the election that produced Muhamadu Buhari as president-elect in Yobe State (which in fact is not even true), Waziri loyalists appear headed in the direction of shooting themselves in the leg for standing facts on their heads and for the display of a palpable sense of desperation.
 In the end, the same Nigerians who are now more informed politically expect that candidates who lost elections and went to the courts will have the decorum and patience to wait for the courts to do their jobs. Nigerians won’t accept being fed lies and half-truths anymore.
 
Ba’ale wrote from Damaturu