23rd December, 2014
By Akido Agenro
As Nigeria approaches the general elections beginning on 14 February, 2015, there is palpable fear of post-election violence attending the polls to an extent of having its toll on the economic environment already. Post-election violence is rampart in the nation’s political history. It goes without saying that the do-or-die mind-set with which Nigerian politicians pursue their political ambition in the country exposes the polls to avoidable conflict often leading to bloodshed during or at the end of voting.
For this ugly state of affairs to be properly addressed there is the need for those aspiring to public offices to uphold the ethics of decorum and adopt the spirit of sportsmanship in the pursuance of their political ambition and to also caution their supporters not to take the laws in their hands. On the other hand, the electorate should be enlightened to turn out en mass to forestall a situation whereby poor turnout renders the polls susceptible to manipulation by desperate politicians, since no sane human being will invest a life saving in an enterprise only to discover that they have been cheated out of the deal and left low and dry then goes away without a fight.
Sadly, less than two months to the election indications are that many people are election shy as they have at every given opportunity blatantly expressed a desire to stay away from the poll for one flimsy excuse or the other and will then go further to explain to whoever cares that the reason they went through the whole hassle to register and obtain a voter card is not actually to enable them vote but for other exterior reasons, the most common being to arm themselves in case the government makes its tendering compulsory for the registration of children in public schools. Yet the time and place cannot be traced in Nigeria’s checkered history when voter’s card presentation was made a prerequisite for the enrolment of children into school from the bungled First Republic through to the ill-fated Second Republic, Third Republic and the present Fourth Republic.
Voter apathy is not helped by elected officials’ opulent lifestyle in contrast to the common people who live in grinding poverty, a difference that has created a virtual chasm between the leader and the led. This disconnect has generated a subordinate complex wherefore the people have come to see themselves as the servant and the leader as the master. The high sounding titles, prefixes and suffixes attached to their names go further to emphasize this master/servant relationship- Honourable, Senator, Ambassador, Grand Commander Of the Federal Republic [GCFR] etc. The same misplaced subordinate attitude goes on in the public service where one finds members of the public approach public officers with subservient attitude fawning and grovelling “Sir, yes Sir and thank you Sir” to express their reverence to the public officer whereas it should be the other way round.
Most of the problems assailing the nation arose from the fact that democracy is not firmly established in the polity in all its facets. Worse still, attempt aimed at placing human rights, rule of law and democracy on a sound footing is not receiving encouraging response from members of the public. The majority of the people are in agreement that they are not getting a fair deal from the government, that they are not getting what is commensurate with the revenue accruing to the government and that while elected officials are having a bazaar on daily basis, the people are abandoned to their fate with decayed infrastructure and poor utilities that make life hellish for them. To act in solidarity with fellow sufferers in pursuance of a common cause is difficult for many of them.
Why a good number of people will prefer to be excluded from the decision making process when a crucial resolution as to who presides over the affairs of the nation at the federal and state levels is in the making is baffling, given the general consensus that the people have continued to be shortchanged by the political leadership. This anomaly tended to vindicate anti-suffragists who insisted that the procedure of electing government officials is too cumbersome, complex and important for men and women below a certain mental capacity and social standing to appreciate its full import and to appropriately apply themselves thereto. Indeed, no one can retain for long that which is not achieved through personal struggle, effort and hard work.
Interestingly, while a number of people are searching for excuses to provide them an alibi for avoiding their civic responsibility a group of convicts serving various terms in Nigerian prisons have secured a judgment mandating INEC to make arrangement for their registration to enable them participate in the 2015 elections since there is no provision in any section of the Nigeria Constitution that prohibits prison inmates from exercising their franchise. A Federal High Court sitting in Benin, Edo State presided over by Justice Mohammed Lima on Tuesday 16 August 2014 gave the ruling that inmates of prisons in Nigeria have the right to vote in all elections conducted in the country.
A research study jointly conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission [INEC] and Friedrich-Stiftung Foundation in 2011 showed that three main factors were responsible for voter apathy in Nigeria- [1] electoral fraud, [2] fear of violence erupting at the polling centres and [3] elected leaders’ poor performance. According to the research findings, the percentage of voters that cast their votes at the 2011 general election as in most other previous elections since the return of democratic governance was put at a mere 35%. The three reasons are mutually dependent- electoral fraud begets violence while a combination of the two factors leads to the enthronement of clueless and corrupt leaders.
The underlying significance of this report must not be glossed over. The fact that it places the responsibility of a credible election on the shoulders of the electorate more than any individual or agency in Nigeria is worthy of note. Where the electorate turn out in large numbers to cast their votes an infraction at one or two polling stations will make little impact on the total number of votes cast at the elections. Once this is established other issues will fall in place. Voter apathy is at the root of the nation’s multifaceted political travails.
We find it bewildering that whereas a lot of people have developed a passion for the forthcoming elections with the tempo of political activity increasing by the day to an extent that a number of enthusiasts have taken it upon themselves to campaign vigorously for the candidates of their choice with counter argument from those with opposing viewpoints, there are people who have remained cold, lukewarm, and indifferent towards the elections. If there is any Nigerian who doesn’t consider the impending elections important enough to attract their interest as activities gather momentum and draw close to a crescendo then it’s either that person is insensitive, irrational and timid or an utterly irresponsible character cast in the same mould as those soulless renegades on aimless killing spree in the northeastern part of Nigeria. Chairman Mao [1893-1976] got so irked by such apathetic temperament that he said “Not having a correct political orientation is like not having a soul”.
It is a pity that many people in Nigeria approach political affairs with halfhearted, carefree and simple-minded attitude as if politics is of little or no relevance to their lives. They fail to understand that even the lives of their children and grand children will be deeply affected by the direction whether upwards or otherwise where the politics of the moment leads the nation.
Most politicians on their part are crafty and employ all the tricks in the book to outwit their opponents. Circumventing the rules and thereafter proceeding further to loot the treasury on attaining power is in their nature. The people thus stand to lose from the consequences of being sidelined following from this wrong orientation. In politics, if you snooze you lose, if you snore you lose more, to borrow a phrase from the American journalist, Phyllis George. Voter apathy undermines the conscientious effort to have a credible and smooth election. Ironically, a lot of people have expressed a reservation at participating in an electoral process which outcome is predetermined by master fixers in ignorance of the corollary between voter apathy and fraudulent election results. At a parley with pro-democracy activists held at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja in July 2010 ahead of the 2011 elections, the former governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke painted a grotesque picture of how all voters who abstain from the polls are guilty of rigging by default since presiding officers apply thumbprint on unutilized ballots in favour of their preferred candidates. His conclusion: “We must ensure mass participation. In an election where there is a very high turnout the results are usually genuine. The most celebrated election in Nigeria June 12, 19993 what happened? People came out. The more the people who come out to vote the fewer the fraud. There may be mago mago (sharp practices) here and there but there wouldn’t be much in such a critical manner to upset the will of the people.”
Let the point be reiterated that by the time elections commence in February next year and people who, in self-delusion, imagine that the difficulties confronting Nigeria will on their own evaporate into thin air, and decide to remain indoors for fear of exposing themselves to violence at the polling centres, even the four walls of their bedrooms may become too hot for them if things go wrong with the elections.
•Agenro is Coordinator Democracy Orientation Movement, 18, James Street, Iju-Ishaga, Lagos. Tel: 08055410516. Email: [email protected]
