When it’s all been said and done

Many years ago, a Local Government election was scheduled somewhere in Southern Nigeria. On Saturday morning, information filtered into the community that there were logistic problems and voting materials had arrived late and the election would now hold on Sunday morning. The communities accepted the twenty-four hour delay. However, on the 6pm News that Saturday, the State Radio station announced the results of the elections! Life went on.  The most powerful politicians may have the officials of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) and the security services on their pay roll and the highest bidder has the last laugh. Those who cry foul are usually the ones who lose out in the electoral auction. About a decade later, “carry go no shaking” became the order of the day.

A lot has been said and written about the forthcoming election this weekend. Nigerians have a date with destiny. Everyone knows that the Obi/Datti partnership has brought a new dispensation in Nigerian politics, I dare say, never seen before. I don’t know what it was like in the First Republic but I haven’t seen anything like it. On social media and through personal conversations with people of all ages from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria at home and abroad, a critical mass of hitherto indifferent Nigerians have risen to echo the voice of change. Can you smell the coffee? Whether their words can translate to action is a different ball game.

Let’s take a look at the 7Cs of Nigerian elections:

1. The Coordination: Here, one refers to all the logistics involved in getting things ready. I have always marvelled how the process looks so simple in the UK, stlll largely analogue but eventless and effective. There may be “conscious bias” in getting electoral materials to polling stations. If a candidate or political party is popular with the voters but not with the “powers that be”, electoral materials are known to be delayed or not get their at all.
2. The Centres: Some voting centres are like war zones. Voters arrive and their patience is tested to the limit. Security personnel, agents of political parties, even the INEC officers can intimidate voters, some of whom may have to pass through the eye of the proverbial needle to cast their votes. While legitimate voters are going through this exercise, in the comfort of some homes,  people may be thrumbprinting and stuffing ballot boxes. On the other hand, ballot boxes can be snatched or law and order break down, gunshots heard and people run for dear lives.
3. The Casting: Despite timing of arrival of INEC staff and voting materials, security, crowd control, finding one’s name on the Voters’ Register and other challenges, lucky voters finally cast their vote. We had the interesting phase of queuing behind candidates – the Open / Secret era.
4. The Counting: There is a well known saying that the more you look, the less you see.  The counting of votes is another hurdle and as they say in a wonderful fictional place called Ikebe Super Hospital, anything can hapen here. There’s a well-known saying, “It’s not the people who vote that count, it’s the people who count the votes.”
5. The Collation: This is another intersting aspect of voting as INEC Officers ‘collate’ results that have been counted and duly signed by Returning Officers and Party Agents. Like Chinese whispers, the information being collated could change as it moves from one Officer to the other and the final result may have no semblance to the actual votes cast.
6. The Cacophony: No thanks to social media, no one waits patiently for votes to be counted, collated and formally announced by INEC officials. Many versions of the results are likely to be announced before official announcement of the winner and losers. We have seen University Professors struggling to announce election results so don’t hold your breath.
7. The Chaos / Celebration: It’s unusual to hear election results in Nigeria and the loser accepts the results. Former President Goodluck Jonathan won the hearts of the world by making that call to President-elect Muhammadu Buhari as he famously said in 2015, “Nobody’s ambition is worth the blood of any citizen.” For most politicians who have bought votes with huge sums of money, the battle very quickly shifts to the courts as the songs of celebration ring out in some quarters. On a lucky day you could be declared winner of an election without participating in it

The forthcoming Presidential elections on Saturday 25th February 2023 will probably pass through many of these hoops but there are interesting factors at play here. PMB appears to have starched his Army Uniform. The armed forces have prepared a bullet for ballot box snatchers. One hopes there’s an equal presence of troops in all six geopolitical zones, not forgetting RIvers State! No New Naira, No PVC, No Fuel, Soja on the Streets. All man for himself, God for us all! We just want a level playing feet for ALL VOTERS and ALL PARTIES.

Obi/Datti have connected with the masses. We know they have not given us shishi but all over the country, people have risen, saying “enough is enough” and given their personal resources and time to support the Obidient Movement. Obi/ Datti will have to contest elections in heaven if they are saints. The good book says, “there is none perfect, no not one” but every Nigerian knows that Obi/DAtti represent a  departure from the kleptomania of a cohort of the PDP/APC political class and a promise for an energetic, visionary, frugal and transformative leadership that carries the masses along.

One wishes Obi/ Datti a landslide victory but my mantra in life is, “Expect the best, be prepared for the worst.” What if they don’t win? The forces of evil in Nigeria (those who have kept billions of naira in their homes or millions of pounds, euros and dollars that add zero value to our nation while leaving millions of the people in abject poverty) are hard at work. They will do everything to maintain the status quo. What if they succeed?

I am convinced the time has come for Nigeria to become a great Nation. I’ll wear my spiritual garment and say the Obi/Datti movement has felt the pulse of the nation and apart from the professional politicians looking for their next meal ticket, the rest of us who are concerned about the next generation are on their side. When it’s all been said and done, we will perhaps stand before our Maker one day and answer the question, “When you had a chance to turn the fortunes of Nigeria around, how did you vote?”

There is a popular lottery quote, “You got to be in it, to win it.” However much you want Nigeria to become the nation of your dreams, unless you confirm your Voting Centre, go out on Saturday and cast your vote, change will not come. We all deserve a better nation. As I conclude this artice, my thoughts drift to 29 May 2023: Peter Obi sworn in as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. What a wonderful day that will be.