EDITOR’S NOTE: Nigerian democracy, the largest in Africa, must move forward in the interest of millions of Nigerians, who are intelligent and largely young and who are not saddled with a dictatorial regime, as many developing nations are.
There are highly educated societies in this world, with a great deal of technological capabilities. But neither do they have democracy nor is there an easy way to move them towards a democratic set up.
There are nations, endowed with much greater resources than Nigeria is. But they are saddled with autocratic rulers, who may not easily give power back to the people.
A democracy, however flawed it may be, is a blessing. Every democracy has the intrinsic strength to progressively improve itself and it has been proved again and again in democracies, hundreds of years old or relatively young. No dictatorial autocracy has been able to find the internal strength to ever empower its people.
So Nigerian democracy must be preserved and made more effective.
It can be done. It only requires faith, patience and civic sense in a good number of the citizens of the democracy.
God will help those, who help themselves.
Let us decide to help ourselves and let us not think that others will make our and our family members lives better.
However dark the clouds may be, the sun will shine.
A BRIEF RECAP by Babakehinde Aderemi Owolabi:
Nigerian Presidential Elections of 1993:
“Nigeria on the march again
Looking for Mister President
MKO, is our man o”
Those of us Nigerians born before the 1990s would have no problem calling into remembrance the very popular advertisement jingle of the Presidential Candidate of the defunct Social Democratic Party, Chief Monshood Kashimawo Abiola. Chief M.K.O. Abiola contested and won the 1993 presidential election under the banner of his party, the Social Democratic Party. He convincingly defeated his only rival; the Late Alhaji Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Congress. A powerful cabal in the then Military junta will go ahead to annul an election that was internationally adjudged as the freest and fairest in the history of elections in Nigeria. The unannounced but popularly recognized winner of the June 1993 elections will later die in detention during the regime of another military junta headed by General Abdulsalam Abubakar.
It’s a season of intrigues and manipulations and absurdities.
The history of presidential elections in Nigeria is always characterized by intrigues, manipulations and the promotion and protection of primordial selfish interests; even when it is that such scheming and manipulations will jeopardize the stability of the polity. I will give two illustrations.
It is almost given and an unwritten pact that presidency must rotate between the largely Muslim north and the largely Christian south. The incumbent President has governed Nigeria as President for the constitutionally allowed maximum two terms of four years each. The expectation of the generality of the people of Nigeria is that presidential power must of necessity rotate to the south. However, the leading opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party has bowed to the manipulations and scheming of political heavyweights and moneybags from the North. It has jettisoned this revered national convention by voting to field another politician of northern extraction to take over from the incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari, who is also from the north. The controversies and disagreements generated by this decision is threatening to crash the presidential ambition of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar.
Similarly, the presidential candidate of the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, a Muslim from the south of Nigeria, has gone ahead to pick a fellow muslim from the North as his running mate. Political observers do not know which of the presidential candidates will get away with these flagrant disregards for societal norms and principles.
It is a season of financial recklessness and extravagance.
Well-meaning and informed critics have always described Nigerian democracy as too expensive. All the processes from the grassroot political canvassing and campaigns to the actual casting of votes for the candidates tend to lean toward financial recklessness.
It was reported that the candidates of the two leading political parties resorted to open financial inducement of party financial delegates with amounts ranging from $2000 – $12000 per delegate.
Coming to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), it plans to spend about 470 billion naira, ($ 1 billion) for the purpose of organizing the 2023 elections. This amount is more than the budget of some African countries.
It is the season of organized political violence and thuggery.
Nigerian elections and politicking are always characterized by thuggery and election related violence. As of today, about 22 offices of the election organizing body have been set ablaze.
There have been abductions and attempted assassinations and assassination of local politicians. Nigerians are becoming very apprehensive of the outcome of the events leading to the 2023 elections. Nigerians are openly asking if the 2023 presidential election will actually result in the people’s choice getting elected. That is a question only time and vigilance can answer