#SomberTuesday! Contestations on the results of the elections continue. But there was at least one reported effort to persuade the Labour Party’s Peter Obi (made by former Governor of Enugu state, PDP’s Senator Chimaroke Nnamani) to drop his lawsuit and negotiate a deal for the Southeast. The Party has also raised an alarm alleging that Lamidi Apapa, whose chairmanship of the party is still under contention, has approached the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, asking it to dismiss all the cases filed by the party and its presidential candidate.
Disputations over the results continue at the governorship and National Assembly levels. The most serious case is in Adamawa State, where there was a runoff between APC’s Aishatu “Binani” Dahiru and the incumbent, PDP’s Ahmadu Fintiri. The debacle that erupted involved the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Adamawa, Hudu Yunusu-Ari, prematurely announcing on April 15 that Binani had won before the conclusion of collating results for the runoff election. INEC declared the announcement null and void and had the returning officer declare Finitri as the winner.
In the meantime, in a case of mistaken identity, the ex-Vice Chancellor of Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Prof. Abdullahi Zuru, who is an INEC National Commissioner, was brutally attacked, and even stripped naked by people who thought he was Hudu Yunusu-Ari, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC).
Binani made a victory declaration. When INEC declared the announcement null and void, Binani brought a lawsuit against INEC. The next hearing is on April 26. Many Nigerian women have lamented the situation as Binani would have been Nigeria’s first elected female governor if elected. She has also been criticized for not following due process. Frankly, to succeed in Nigerian politics, the women have had to accommodate themselves to the practices already normalized in the system. Binani is no exception. In preemptively announcing her victory, she did what many male politicians have done in similar situations.
The deeply contested nature of Nigerian elections and politics continue. It doesn’t help that INEC is inefficient, reactive and that its haphazard management of the elections further decreased the confidence of the electorate in the integrity of both INEC and the elections. Ethnic divisiveness and hate speech are increasingly normalized, making it clear that the project of nation-building is still challenging. Nigeria is democratizing but democracy remains elusive. So is electoral integrity.
The currency scarcity combines with a weak and declining economy to make life difficult for everyone, particularly the masses due to the technological logjams and hiccups.
Majority of Nigerians are youths, and the country’s political, economic, and social conundrums cause them hardships serious enough that many have embraced japa–leaving the country by any means necessary to seek better opportunities abroad, as the only avenue to success and upward mobility. In a country with so many young people, the political leadership at the highest levels are octogenarians. Who repesents the youths? Why are patriarchy, oligarchy, and gerontocracy so entrenched in Nigeria? Where are the women in leadership? How about the people with disability? Can poor Nigerians aspire to political office? What is the essence of democracy?
Why have we allowed personal and human insecurity to become banal realities? Why are there so many abductions and kidnappings? Why are our political institutions so weak? Why is infrastructure so woefully inadequate? Why do we have such high unemployment and underemployment? Why so few decent jobs? Why is fulfilling the social contract between the people and leaders so impossible?
Nigerians need democracy and economic development, personal and human security. They want a country that prioritizes its citizens’ wellbeing and welfare. The masses need to meet basic needs as a matter of urgent priority. They should be able to hope for a brighter future just like the elites.
#EndSARS youth protesters were active participants in the elections, who were confident that voters would be free to choose their representatives, but they were made to understand that our democracy provides no such opportunities. In their #EndSARS demonstrations, they demanded good governance, an end to police brutality, extortion, impunity, economic inequality, marginalization, targeting of youths and other minorities, and cessation of political violence but were brutally suppressed.
The 2020 Lekki massacre should be seared in our collective memory. Peacefully demonstrating youths at #LekkiTollGate & other locations faced state-sponsored violence and repression. What is the meaning of democracy if peaceful protests are so handled? There is a need for deep reflection on how to address our challenges of nation-building, democratization, and sustainable development.
#NigerianWomenArise #EndPoliceBrutalityinNigeriaNOW #EndSars #EndSWAT #EndImpunity.
Howard Zinn’s statement should be taken seriously by Nigerians interested in democracy: “Civil disobedience, that’s not our problem. Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves, and all the while, the grand thieves are running the country. That’s our problem.”
Now to my weekly repetition: Let the kleptocrats give back our stolen wealth so that we can fix our infrastructure, schools, hospitals, and also offer worthwhile social protection to our people. Let the masses enjoy the full benefits of citizenship in Nigeria. Let the leaders and political class repent and build peace with justice.
This is no time for politics as usual. The people elected should be those trusted to bring justice, equity and human security to the entire country, not expedient, unethical and egocentric individuals determined to dominate for self aggrandizement or sectional gain. We don’t need oligarchs’ continued domination. We also need a government that puts the interests of majority of citizens first.
