By Bola Bolawole

The  Saturday 23 February  Presidential and National Assembly elections are sad reminders of how elections generally have been in this country since pre-Independence period – warped, rigged, and discredited; thus tearing us apart rather than uniting us. This is one major reason why this country is not meshing into a nation. It is why we pull apart rather than pull together. It will not matter who wins an election once it is free and fair and the will of the people is allowed to stand but where not, loyalty is not kindled in the polity and no patriotic zeal can be engendered in any so-called national project; least of all nation-building.

We have learnt nothing from our previous experiences – the good, the bad, and the ugly – and in so doing, we seem to have forgotten nothing. We fall into the diverse errors of the past and move in circles. Yet, those who fail to learn from history, posits George Santayana, are condemned to repeating its mistakes. And the consequences could get more fatal as we go by!  Why are we like this? Where lays the fault, O Caesar? Is it in us or in our stars? O Oedipus, are we to blame or the gods are to blame? Doing the same thing the same way all over again, how come we expect a different result? O Paul, which is to blame for this, is it too much knowledge or too much religiosity?

Going by our history, one should expect our politicians to look over their shoulders and be wary of tainted elections. This has been one excuse that soldiers have latched onto to truncate democracy and impose military rule again and again. The other excuse has been the corruption of the political class. Both usually walk in cahoots. Corruption taints elections while tainted election itself is corruption personified. It delivers corrupt leaders who in turn make free and fair elections impossible. In January 1966, those were the excuses given by Major Kaduna Nzeogwu and his colleagues to sound the death knell of the First Republic and usher in the first in a series of military misrule.

The ills have not abated ever since. Except with the June 12, 1993 presidential election which was adjudged free and fair by all, no other election in this country has passed the mark. It is the hallmark of corruption that the only election that broke with the tradition of warped elections was itself annulled and the winner carted off to prison where he pined away and never came out alive. O Death, where is thy sting? Umaru Yar’Adua, a president forthright and determined enough to do the needful had terminal disease to contend with. He had hardly started the task before he gave up the ghost. His dithering successor threw feeble jabs at the monster before he himself was swept off his feet.

Since then it had been back to square one. The great hope that the populace pinned on those who campaigned as CHANGE agents has proven grossly misplaced. For every step taken forward in the direction of credible polls under Yar’Adua and Jonathan, we have taken two backward under the current powers-that-be. The vilest of election-rigging methods have returned full blast: Ballot-box snatching, ballot-box burning; ballot-box stuffing; falsification of election results; conjuring up of figures; intimidation and killing of voters; maiming, kidnapping, and killing of electoral officers; name it!. These days, election is war. Or to quote war theorists, election has become war continued by other means!

Chairman Mao Zedong, leader of the Chinese revolution, said, “To have peace, prepare for war” Now in Nigeria, to go for an election, prepare for war. You need a standing army. You also need humongous sums of money in both local and foreign currencies. You have got to hire a Josef Goebbels to lead your propaganda army, diverting attention from your crimes and focusing every gaze at your hapless opponent. Sitting governments are at an advantage; especially the Federal Government which controls the State apparatuses of power, such as the military, but not forgetting the Central Bank and NNPC, among others. And make no mistake: Emasculate the Judiciary to boot!

Military power and power of the purse win elections here hands down. The will of the people take the back seat. Not only do we have errant politicians to contend with, we now also have openly conniving military commanders shamelessly barking orders to the rank and file to file behind the government of the day. Is it illiteracy or reckless partisanship that makes them confuse their loyalty to the Constitution and the State with their taking illegal orders from mere agents of State power? It cannot but be deliberate choice because these same elements are wont to say “soldier come; soldier go but barrack remains the same” Interpolate that with governance and they should have no problem understanding that they stand on slippery grounds when they side with the temporary wielders of State power.

Even the EFCC was a visible participant in last Saturday’s election! That was taking the most ridiculous to subliminal level. They were said to be on the look-out for those buying votes. They never looked in the direction of Trader Moni. Bullion vans and private jets ferried money to a location that was known to all; they never ventured there with their sniffer dogs. Never mind that the photographs were awash on social media. Such shenanigans! It is appalling how little-minded are the people ruling this country! Don’t they know they are killing this country by instalments?  No country dies at just one poke; damages inflicted incrementally inexorably kill a nation. Those who have eyes to see will notice that Nigeria, haemorrhaging for quite some time now, has lost a lot of blood. Under the present undertakers it has lost much blood than under all past handlers put together. Today, Nigeria looks pale and forlorn. Drained of life, it totters at the brinks.

Who will rescue Nigeria? Has Atiku Abubakar the spine? Has he the stomach for a fight? Fat cats seldom take up dangerous fights. Class suicide is not an easy thing to commit. Not everyone will be an MKO Abiola. Even in the present climate, you must have a willing horse before you talk of the Venezuelan option. Of course I recognise that at the appointed time, situation and circumstance do revolutionise even the most conservative of conservatives. Is this the hour? Will objective and subjective conditions find a historical meeting point to give Nigeria the push that will CHANGE its history for good and take it to the NEXT LEVEL properly so-called?

Some may ask: Is he already giving up when INEC is yet to announce full results (as at Tuesday afternoon when this column was being put to bed)? It reminds me of the PDP presidential primaries of 2006 at Eagle Square, Abuja. Few days before the D-Day, word went round that the powers-that-be had settled for Umaru Yar’Adua. If there was any doubt about that, it was dispelled immediately delegates filed into the venue. It was obvious to everyone but day-dreamers that the event was a formal coronation of Yar’Adua as PDP’s presidential flag-bearer. One of the aspirants told his other colleagues they should step down there and then and spare everyone the ordeal of a bitterly cold night but the day-dreamers insisted on sitting it out. Eventually, it was Yar’Adua who carried the day. Sniff the air! Miracles do happen, though. Cloud technology may come to the rescue. A hobbled Judiciary may still manage a bite. The international community may do the needful. Except that, the APC template is such that winning elections here has become an uphill task for anyone not controlling State power and sitting atop the Federation Account. For Atiku and PDP, this may be a long-distance race; not a 100-metres dash.

Dino Melaye’s sweet victory

Apart from ex-Ekiti State Gov. Peter Ayo Fayose, Dino was the gadfly that gave no respite to the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. He trod where angels feared to. His theatrics put him in a class of his own. State apparatuses were unleashed on Dino – DSS, police, EFCC, the courts, name it. He also had a ferocious governor to contend with. At a point even INEC was dragged into the melee as it tried to recall Dino – but all the efforts failed. Not many expected Dino would escape the avalanche of forces ranged against him. His underdog status must have helped in some way. He was relentlessly pursued that the people must have concluded he was being victimised. His opponents over-acted and, usually, it backfires. Dino is a special political breed that must be watched out for in the next political dispensation. Dear Dino, last Saturday’s feat deserves an LP from you. I am sure many cannot wait for the lyrics, dance-steps and theatrics that will show the depth of your gratitude to God and everyone else. Of course, plus jives and jabs!     

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