Nigerians go to the polls Saturday to choose their next President. If all goes well, it would be a fresh mandate for the lucky winner and a new lease of life for Nigeria. The two main contestants, Buhari and Jonathan, by now have a pretty good idea what the problems of the country are simply by going round the country and listening to the people.
I am sure Jonathan knows more about the needs and yearnings of Nigerians in the past six weeks than he was allowed to know in the past four or six years. In a way, one can say Obasanjo did not do him or Nigerians a favour when he anointed him without preparing him. Buhari also knows how people feel about his past and how to better govern the country should he get the chance again.
Neither, I hope would be the same man again. As for the voters, many already know who they are voting for and the next week should offer very little surprise in the voters’ perception. But we should never discountenance the power of money or other lucrative inducements.
But if next week goes on cruise control electorally which is unlikely given the country we live in, the past month has witnessed many distractions; chief of which is the clamour for the removal of the INEC Chairman. It is probably the first time one is seeing a ruling party discredit an umpire it chose and foisted on the people’s consciousness.
The same umpire that presided over the same two main contestants in the 2011 election that chose the candidate of the ruling party. The reason Jega can no longer be trusted is known only to the ruling party because it is not telling. I believe INEC is better prepared today than it was in 2011 when it conducted a similar poll. Then it was the opposition that cried foul that INEC was not ready. It seems to me that whichever party cries foul in Nigeria is sending a coded message out concerning its low chances of winning.
I personally don’t see how the likely disenfranchisement of voters due to insufficient PVCs can favour one party over the other; or how a malfunctioning card reader can favour one party over the other. Yet PDP has been very strident over these issues in the past month. It makes one wonder why. And if it has any evidence of Jega’s partiality, it should say it.
My conclusion is that the party knows something the rest of us don’t know and it is not sharing. Another distraction is the debate on whether the military should be drafted to supervise the election. The Ekitigate episode makes a strong case for those who don’t want the military while the likely eruption of pockets of violence makes its case for those who want the military. I suppose the military will be involved at some stage; but the military hierarchy itself has to think about its image and reputation in deciding the extent of its involvement.
The concern of all of us at this stage should be how to curtail post-election violence. It is on this note that I want to make a final appeal to all the stakeholders in the electoral process to think of Nigeria. We should all think deeply before we embark on actions that are capable of destroying the country as we have no other country outside this one. Even those who have dual nationalities will quickly realise they are not exactly wanted in those countries.
Specifically, I want to appeal to the voters coming out on Saturday to think beyond religion and ethnicity in casting their lots.Like an online statement credited to Lagbaja said: ‘ The issue is not Buhari vs Jonathan. It is ‘you today’ vs ‘you tomorrow.’ ‘And if you think the falling value of naira does not concern you, wait until you want to buy a car then you know what 220 naira to a dollar means. Or until you want to pay school fees.’ Poverty does not know religion; hunger does not know tribe.
Besides, these two ills can cause a violent upheaval that can engulf us all. We must realise that every choice has its consequence. Our choice, and the consequence, can affect our destiny for good or ill. And having cast our votes, we should make sure they count. It would be a major victory if our will, represented by our votes, could decide who became our next President.
My next appeal goes to the security agencies whose primary job is to ensure that our votes count. Their presence should have a calming influence on the whole process and not the other way round.
Their employers are not the State Governments or the Federal Government but the people. The extent of their impartiality will help to determine the extent to which people will accept the outcome of the election which in turn can prevent post-election violence. It will also have a major bearing on how people regard the agencies in future.
My next appeal is to INEC. It had been much vilified in the last couple of months. But it can still have the last laugh if it can conduct a relatively free, fair and transparent election. The key is not to favour any side nor be perceived as favouring any side. All imperfections can be forgiven if they are neither deliberate nor manipulated.
The next appeal goes to the two main political parties. There are have been too many hate campaigns. Fani-Kayode and Fayose have been most uncouth and have been unnecessarily personal.
This is not to exonerate the other side which has also given back in good, if not equal measure. Hate campaigns bring hatred and animosity which can translate into pre and post- election violence. It is now time to sheave the sword and calm their supporters down. It is now decision time and the decision of the electorates must be respected.
My final appeal goes to the Federal Government in whose hands the enormous coercive powers of the country lies. We have seen the uses and abuses of some of these powers in recent past. We have seen how the security agencies were made to postpone the elections. The country is bigger than the PDP and a repeat of what happened in Ekiti can and will cause trouble.
The race is nigh well run. This last week should be about Nigeria and its survival. One sure way of making sure there is a Nigeria after the elections is to begin to douse tensions now. There is no other alternative to having INEC as our umpire. It is in our interest to empower and not discredit it.
– See more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/03/final-appeal-to-fellow-nigerians/#sthash.NIsRq7ho.dpuf
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