In choosing their leaders a couple of years ago, Ghanaians adopted a slogan “let’s have guns free elections”. The relatively free and fair elections recorded in that country became a benchmark for the conduct of elections in West Africa if not Africa as a whole.
Although Nigerians did not create such a slogan for election 2007, the electoral process in the eyes of the losing camp and some election observers was a sham but to the winners and INEC officials, a level of success, comparable to that of Ghana was achieved. Without prejudice to comments by election monitors that lives in excess of fifty were lost in the course of both the Governorship and Presidential elections.
Clearly, electoral violence which had almost become synonymous with Nigeria’s electoral process is on the decline and has the potential of going into extinction before the next general election in 2011. This optimistic prediction of the imminent demise of the scourge of electoral violence in Nigeria is informed by the relatively peaceful conduct of voters and law enforcement officers alike at the just concluded April 2007 polls.
This assertion may not be acceptable to those who are bellicose about election 2007 and aver that the April polls are worse than the previous elections in Nigeria. But compared to the 1960s and early 80s when the sobriquet “wetie” was the euphemism for dousing a victim with combustible substance with a view to burning him or her alive, particularly in the Western part of the country, Nigerians have every reason to celebrate election 2007.
One of the factors responsible for the new trend is political awareness in Nigeria which has grown exponentially as demonstrated by the massive turnout of voters.
Without doubt, efforts of non- governmental organizations, NGOs, engaged in the enlightenment of the citizenry about the importance of taking their civic rights very seriously has yielded results, hence the average Nigerian now braves the vagaries of natural elements to vote as acknowledged by international election monitors who, despite INEC logistic woes, applauded voters’ endurance.
Of course, the impressive turnout of voters across the country might have overwhelmed INEC which would have underestimated the capacity of Nigerians to rise to the occasion.
This explains a number of deficiencies such as late arrival of voting materials and INEC officials at the polling stations, variations in the type of registers used and confusion over identification of names in the voter’s register (leading to the inability of some notable leaders to exercise their civic responsibility) as well as omission of some party symbols on the voting papers. But anybody familiar with Nigeria would agree that logistics excellence and administrative efficiency have never been the forte of this country.
This is why since independence about 47 years ago, Nigeria still suffers frequent power outages, the health and education systems are not up to international standards, just as the aviation sector recently suffered multiple air disasters and until a couple of years ago, motorists still spent days at fuel stations trying to get some petrol to keep them on the roads even though Nigeria is a major oil producing nation. In view of our past woeful records which the present administration is trying to address via a plethora of reforms that have been initiated, INEC’s logistics and administrative lapses notwithstanding, election 2007 is a watershed in the annals of Nigeria’s political evolution.
This is more so because it marks the first hand over of government from one democratic ruler to another. Elections, Censuses and everything else involving the enumeration or aggregation of citizens of any country always generate controversies depending on the level of development of the society.
It is so easy to forget that the dust raised by the recently concluded national census in Nigeria is yet to settle and it is needless pointing out that when it comes to the time that the figures will be used to allocate revenues, the ghost will certainly raise its ugly head again. So there is no such thing as perfect election or perfect census since what is considered below standard in the advanced society could be regarded as top standard in the developing world.
A good example of how a tried and tested system can become imperfect even in an advanced society is the election of President George W. Bush of the United States of America, USA in 2000 which was anything but perfect given the controversy which trailed the vote count.
Allegations by opponents that Florida Governor, Jeb Bush, brother to George W. Bush rigged the votes to favour his brother tainted the exercise. But for the sake of national interest, the Democratic Party did not further contest the verdict of the Supreme Court which was at that time populated by conservative Judges who were essentially pro-Conservative Party having been earlier appointed into office by former President Bush, father of President George W. Bush.
As a way of promoting and protecting national interest, Nigerian opinion moulders should make conscious effort to commend positive developments such as the increasing political awareness of Nigerians demonstrated by determination to vote by Nigerians and the growing independence and integrity of the judiciary evidenced by impartial judgments which are slowly but surely evolving in our political landscape. This can be done by applauding those who made it possible with a view to reinforcing such positive attitudes, so that they can be motivated to improve in future.
Now skeptics may dismiss the pursuit of national interest as unethical. Nothing can be further from the truth. Every country in the world has her national interest. Very often, it is at variance with local or global ideals, but it is often considered to be in the best interest of the country. Call it national sacrifice or sustainability policy, but it is often entrenched in a country’s grand strategy if she has one and given vent by Think Tanks who review, modify and identify new national interests in line with the prevailing socio-political dynamics of that country. Brookings Institute and American Enterprise Institute are some of the notable Think Tanks in the United States of America.
In Nigeria, the only institutions which may be referred to as Think Tanks are perhaps, the Nigerian Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, NIPPS, and the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA. I do not know if Nigeria’s national interest has been identified by the aforementioned establishments but suffice it to say that the sustenance of democracy in Nigeria, through positive advocacy and promotion of noticeable positive democratic tendencies in the polity should be encouraged.
In pursuit of national interest, authorities of the United States of America recently banned journalists from taking the photographs of the bodies of soldiers killed in Iraq as they arrive in the US in body bags and the US media accepted the decision, irrespective of the fact that it is supposed to be the freest in the world.
Similarly, the US put national interest above all other considerations when she decided to bend its own constitutionally provided rights of privacy of citizens by authorizing wire tapping in the bid to identifying suspected Al-Qaeda operatives in the country.
Guantanamo Bay Prison was established outside US territory so as to enable security agencies extract information from prisoners through extra judicial means and the so called “Rendition” also known as outsourcing of torture to Europe are some of the extra ordinary measures taken by the greatest democracy in the world to safeguard national interest which is aimed at protecting US home land from further terror attacks like the September 11 terrorist strikes in New York and Washington, D.C.
Just like the US has ‘worked around’ legislative and societal norms in the pursuit of their national interest which is to protect the homeland from further terror attacks, Nigeria should consider the sustenance and sustainability of democracy as her own national interest and subordinate every personal, ethnic, regional or religious interests to national interest which is to make democracy work in Nigeria, no matter the price we pay.
If Nigerians could bear repressive military rule for 30 years of nearly 47 years of existence, why can’t we tolerate an imperfect democracy which is bound to improve in the course of time since practice makes perfect? Certainly, calling for cancellation of election 2007 is not in our national interest. Instead, let’s go to the electoral tribunals and as the judiciary has proven to be impartial arbiter as evidenced by recent court judgements, we can look forward to getting justice.
With consistent judicial victories and increased voter awareness coupled with the people policing their votes, the political system would self adjust in the course of time. So in the mean time, why don’t we look at the bright side of democracy by encouraging the strategists amongst us to review the election exercise with a view to identifying the loopholes which were capitalized on by riggers and come up with a counter strategy? Unarguably, truncating democracy via anarchy being advocated by some which would amount to throwing away the baby and the bathe water as we recently experienced during the aborted constitutional conference is not in our best national interest.
*Magnus Onyibe, a development strategist is the Commissioner for Special Duties, Governor’s Office, Delta State.