“One of the truest tests of integrity
Is its blunt refusal to be compromised” – Chinua Achebe
In the last few weeks, I had written about two individuals of African descent who had passed, a footballer, Sam Okwaraji, who died in 1989 in a game Nigeria was playing with Angola. The second, Kofi Annan, who just passed at eighty in Geneva. Mr. Annan worked as the United Nations Secretary General for two terms. These two individuals led exemplary lives; lives of integrity, hard work, commitment and other sterling qualities which are not too common in the world.
There have been accolades and tributes for the two at varying degrees given that an Annan was more of a global icon. But an Okwaraji got his due as well as a Nigerian footballer. However, these two individuals were never politicians but their images loom larger than almost ninety five percent of politicians. There is a reason; they earned their individual adulations as individual entities. No team work to the extent of their choices as individuals. They decided to make deliberate choices that endeared them to the human spirit at a global level.
Then fast forward to the Nigerian political scene – chaos and mob mentality looms large and in a bid to hide incompetence and greed and selfishness, there are deliberate collaborations of individuals who must act in a mob-like fashion to operate and usurp power from the people (think of seamless nocturnal meetings). This is the reason the Nigerian brand of ‘nascent’ democracy has so far failed to uplift the people since 1999 literarily.
As I write, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has registered 91 political parties to contest the 2019 general elections and the world is outraged at the circus we run here. 91 political parties in a country with more than forty percent illiteracy rate, that has overtaken in India in the global poverty index is as disgraceful as it is symptomatic of a dysfunctional system. How can a very chaotic INEC pull through this seeming hay stack in 2019?
But in a very delusional nation, we move on to discuss the most mundane of topics – defection of politicians, impeachments or lack of same in the National Assembly, INEC budget for the elections etc. Sad.
In 1993, there were just two political parties, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Republican Convention (NRC). The system of election used then was the Option A4 Open/Secret ballot system that delivered a watershed in Nigeria’s electoral history. An MKO Abiola presumably (this word again!) won that election and defeated his opponent, Alhaji Bashir Tofa even in his native Kano state.
That MKO Abiola presumably won showed a man with huge electoral value. His detractors might propound theories about his failings and idiosyncrasies, but the truth is, he put himself up for election; it was adjudged the freest and fairest election in Nigeria’s history. An Abiola had a National electoral value. He knew it and he put his best efforts in.
Today, Nigerian political space is peopled by politicians who cannot win any election on their own merit. They must look for ‘support’ from other ‘gang’ members almost to wrestle power through all the electoral ills that have bedevilled our politics over time. Bribery of electoral officers, security agencies, under age voting, financial inducements, deliberate voter disenfranchisement and all sorts of underhand dealings by politicians from different Party Primaries to general elections.
The huge problem is that most politicians in Nigeria know that they lack the integrity and charisma to win votes in free and fair elections, so they deliberately oscillate from one group to the other while deodorising such acts of political perfidy with a euphemistic title of ‘defections’. Sadly, the same group keep moving back and forth and only move for the political expediencies any movement can offer.
It is equally sad that the citizens seem incapable or reading through the shenanigans of the politicians who form groups at different levels to perpetrate political crimes in mob-like fashions. The very reason the same group of people saunter from one party to the other without any sanctions. By the way, the people that ought to make such movements conditional are the chief beneficiaries so the status quo remains while the people who are supposed to have a better life through proper democratic practices suffer untold consequences.
It is time for the Nigerian electorate to begin to demand for the verifiable integrity records of Nigerian politicians contesting for any elective post. This is the only way to fight their mob actions against the people. Let the people demand individual ‘result sheets’ that stand as proof of private and professional lives and achievements.
The idea of people without any visible qualifications and/or professional achievements in any field holding on to political spaces is the reason our elections are some of the most flawed and litigious in the world. We do not request for saints (very unattainable) but there must be a certain level of requirement for political players.
Countries that set a certain minimal requirement for political players avoid the mob mentality that most Nigerian politicians employ to intimidate the people and usurp power seeing that the system is weak for any sanctions to get through. Our elections are too expensive because individuals without electoral value on their own use financial power and violence to get elected.
We must stand at the barricades to stop political mob actions. But will we?
Leah sharibu is still in captivity!!!
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