Ten days hence!

I am the more disturbed because of our efforts to achieve a transition without going through the motions of a contest in an election seen as free and fair. Little foxes I thought had died with the Babangida Transition have reared their ugly heads, alas, and they have grown bigger and are sporting deadly fangs. […]

I am the more disturbed because of our efforts to achieve a transition without going through the motions of a contest in an election seen as free and fair. Little foxes I thought had died with the Babangida Transition have reared their ugly heads, alas, and they have grown bigger and are sporting deadly fangs. Our courts are awash with petitions whose treatment “the Nigerian way” cannot but scuttle the February 14 election. Our institutions must rise up to this. If there ever was a time for all of them particularly the judiciary to self redeem, the time is now. Nothing must be allowed to derail the ongoing process.
What I feel is shared by most Nigerians. A coming election brings with it anxiety, fears, and indeed some physical destabilisation. There have been movement of families and assets, particularly from the North of Nigeria, for the fear of post election violence, the type that followed the 2011 elections. The fears have been made worse by the nature of the political campaigns. It had been hoped that for all the years since 1999 when the current political dispensation began, issues rather than sentiment would dominate the campaign rhetoric. One trembles to use the apt phraseology for fear of being accused of inciting mishaps, but truth be told, many of our politicians have not only learnt nothing but have in many respects retrogressed. Old uncouth gimmicks are still in vogue, and are even more mischievous as we have seen over the years. Thus unfortunately, in terms of the growth and development of democracy, the whole nation has stood disappointed. Issues have not formed the basis for political rhetoric, but instead, the tired old issues of ethnicity, religion and provincial belonging are the ones being flogged with emotions rising to high heavens. We are unable to differentiate the programmes of one party from the other; and even in the difference the contestants offer, character and competence do not seem to count. Assassination of character, incitement of one group or region against the other, and conflicts on the basis of faith have dominated the political climate.
On top of this is the lingering insurgency, which has left the North East of Nigeria, so volatile and unstable that it is doubtful that the communities there could enjoy their political franchise. This is even as hard as the Federal Government has tried of late to ensure the liberation of territories hitherto being held by Boko Haram. It is hard to imagine that the normalcy that we may achieve in the next ten days will allow the conduct of an election. All told, no one is sure that the country will survive the election exercise.
We are anxious because of our 2011 experience, when, particularly in the North, incensed mobs reacted to the outcome of the elections and vented their emotions physically destroying property, looting, injuring and indeed killing people. We are anxious because we do not seem to have taken any sincere steps to prevent a reoccurrence of the violence we saw in 2011. Yet, the 2015 run is reminiscent of 2011 – essentially a two-horse run between incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan (PDP) and challenger Muhammadu Buhari (APC). The fault lines have remained the same, North versus South, with ethnic and religious emotions spewing like volcanic larvae.
Incidentally, same way as the nation is torn between Jonathan and Buhari, minds are confused as to the practicability of the elections. Here is an election everyone wants conducted and done away with, and here is the ombudsman the Independent National Electoral Commission, wobbling in uncertainty as to whether it can conduct the polls. There is no clear picture of the state of the distribution of the Permanent Voters’ Cards, particularly the percentage of the collected ones against registered voters.
The key to a violent free election is the credibility of the election itself, the onus of this lies on Independent National Electoral Commission. There is so much distrust that all contestants are urging their voters to vote and protect the counting. That is why it is disheartening that one notices INEC acting as if it is working in careful steps to a calculated failure that can only cause chaos. INEC must not only publicly address lingering fears about its readiness for the conduct of the polls, but must work assiduously to ensure that an election adjudged to be credible and transparent is delivered.
The current state of affairs, particularly the uncertainties result from the failure of our political institutions. Political parties have not so developed as to organise and control supporter behaviour and diligence, this itself is a reflection of the capacity of our politicians. We are unable to offer to the developed world what it has shown as a functioning democracy. We take political steps that are unheard of in any democratic practice, and yet want to produce the admirable results prevalent in lands we try to copy. Our new breed politicians, for instance, despite being more educated than the old breed have shown intolerable deficiencies in the practice of democracy, which can only be a factor of their unschooled nature. Educated they are, but unschooled.
It is therefore pertinent that in the next ten days our politicians must put their houses in order and address the behaviour of their supporters. We have seen that no political party is less guilty than the other. They are all equally adept at engaging their supporters to expressing violent atrocities to intimidate opponents. In fact politicians, who are supposed to show example, pay gangs to disrupt rallies and cause mayhem as we have seen at many rallies. We do not need to be told. It is not about individuals. It is about Nigeria, over and above all, in importance.