By Linus Aleke
“Discourse and critical thinking are essential tools when it comes to securing progress in a democratic society. But in the end, unity and engaged participation are what make it happen,” Aberjhani
The above quote by an American historian, columnist, novelist, poet, artist, and editor, Aberjhani aptly captured a very important segment of this discourse.
Meanwhile, it aligned with the thoughts of American female law professor, Kimberly Wehle who said, “If voting didn’t matter much, foreign governments wouldn’t try to influence it.
And if voting didn’t matter much, we wouldn’t see efforts in America to make it harder for certain people to vote. Your vote does matter,” that Nigerian politicians are constantly evolving undemocratic strategies to rape the system and bulldoze their way to power.
Some of these evil and undemocratic tact include; vote buying, ballot box snatching, use of thugs to intimidate opponents, weaponisation of poverty amongst others.
Nigerian politicians are also perfecting the strategy of moving electoral contests away from the ballot to the electoral tribunal and regular courtrooms. The Imo State example where the Supreme Court favoured the candidate who came fourth at the poll against the first second and third readily comes to mind.
It was on the premise of these that the Bishop of Nsukka Diocese, Anglican Communion, Rt. Rev. Aloysius Agbo observed that the consequence of this negative practice is an increase in voter apathy.
Agbo who was the keynote speaker at a summit organized by Nsukka Journalist Foundation (NJF), with the theme, “Our Vote Our Power,” opined, “there is no gainsaying the fact that since 1999 there has been an increase in voter apathy as a result of the glaring instances of electoral violence and fraud, which have made millions of Nigerians conclude that “our votes don’t count, therefore, what is the need of bothering ourselves with coming out to vote?”
“Voter’s apathy has grown by the day. For instance, reliable statistics show that in 2015 it was only 15.3 per cent of the voting population voted to determine the result of the presidential election. And this number was just about 42.4 per cent of the registered voters that year.
“The 2019 statistics were worse. It was 18 per cent of the entire voting population that voted, which represented about 35 per cent of registered voters; which also means that while many did not register at all, many others registered but did not vote. Why?”
The Anglican cleric gave the following insight, his answer was simple, “The fears of being killed by political thugs who have been saturated with money and the conviction that the election figures would be manipulated have kept millions of Nigerians from coming out on election days.
“There are three reasons why election figures have always been manipulated in our elections and these are only some of the cankerworm eating and destroying the fabrics of our democracy. They are:
*Disguised One Party System
Constitutionally, Nigeria is a multi-party system democracy, where more than two parties are expected to present candidates in the general election at all levels. But in reality, we know that some states are practicing a one-party system because of the Machiavellian theory of the winner takes all.
Instead of people forming strong opposition parties to create a healthy competition with the ruling party, everybody wants to join the bandwagon. This is why at the turn of every election in this country we see people defecting shamelessly from one political party to the other.
This is because they have no political ideology to defend but simply see politics as a walk of life. This is why many people did not know when the last local government election took place in the state where they are full-fledged citizens let alone participating in it.
How would they know and how could they participate when the so-called primary elections ended practically with only one party presenting candidates? What was the need of coming out to vote in an election where there was no challenger?
In a disguised one-party system, other political parties are either intimidated by naked power or silenced by infiltration and this is dangerous to any nation. Of course, there is no democracy in this kind of process where 99 per cent of the population is excluded in deciding who should be their leaders.
It is this kind of politics that promotes the idea of zoning political offices, which I consider a scam. Yes, I mean that zoning is a scam! The idea indeed seems to be a display of fairness, justice, and equity but one needs to ask: why do people agitate for zoning?
Injustice and marginalization birthed the agitation for zoning. If governance should be devoid of self-aggrandisement and hunting of perceived enemies, agitation for zoning will die naturally”.
Agbo identified another negative phenomenon in Nigerian electoral problems as “godfatherism”.
He averred, “One inevitable consequence of disguised one-party system is godfatherism. The situation where an incumbent “anoints” and imposes a candidate on the ruling party (and consequently on the entire electorate) as his sacrosanct successor is abhorrent and inimical to true democracy.
“These anointed successors are not chosen based on any excellent pedigrees but simply because of their sheepish and dubious allegiance to the godfathers. When this imposition happens, the people with the right leadership qualities, people who have the interest of the people at heart are silenced and pushed out of the race and the masses continue to suffer.
“This is why the local government system which is meant to deliver democracy dividends at the grassroots has become a colossal failure. Why? Because the godfather-governors always choose (not elect) their loyal party boys as chairmen of the local governments, thereby ensuring that they have absolute control of the allocation to the grassroots. Again, the masses suffer.
•Money Politics
The only factor which makes a disguised one-party system and godfatherism thrive in our polity is money. Money politics means power to the highest bidder, whether he is a thief or not. It is not demo-cracy but money-crazy. People sell their conscience to remain in perpetual penury. We have always seen it play out in Nigerian politics but we saw it play out in the recent conventions of the two major political parties, where some delegates betrayed their leaders who took them to the convention because they saw dollars.
What type of democracy are we practicing in a situation where the presidential form is sold at N100m? Yes, N100m, and if what we heard was true that each of the delegates to the presidential primaries went home with not less than $25,000 as inducement from the contestants, does it not imply that the presidency goes to the highest bidder and not the best man for the job?
If it is true that each of the delegates to the gubernatorial primaries went home with not less than N400, 000.00 and were directed by the incumbent on whom to vote, does it not portray us as a money-crazy nation instead of a democratic entity?
These pertinent questions must be asked: “Is there any hope in the type of candidates presented by this money politics? Is it not a national shame and tragedy that our universities are closed down for more than three months because of staff emoluments and yet politicians are paying hundreds of millions to indicate their interest in becoming our president?
Is it not painful that even our primary school teachers (primary school – o! – the very foundation of any nation’s formal education) are on strike simply because of minimum wage and yet the powers that be are busy campaigning for the 2023 election instead of securing the future of our children?”
He further queried, “Where then is the patriotism and commitment to social contract which are the hallmarks of elected public officers?
“Why won’t people be demoralised and disillusioned? Why won’t there be voter apathy? What confidence do people have that if they come out to vote their votes will determine their leaders? This is more worrisome in our region, the South East, the Igbo states, who have been at the receiving end since the inception of democracy in the country.”
The Anglican Cleric posited that the eagerness and enthusiasm with which people are struggling to get the PVC this year is a sign of this revolution.
He further theorized that the fact that youths are rising against the recycling of old-time politicians is a sign that this revolution will bring about the natural dismantling of the one-party system, godfatherism, and money politics.
Speaking to the theme of the summit, the emeritus professor of English and Literary Studies, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN), Damian Opata identified the lack of political literacy amongst electorates as one of the factors that embolden politicians to subvert the system without commensurate resistance from the people.
He recalled a funny electoral incident that happened in 1979, where a village woman went into a polling booth to vote and tore the ballot paper into two, one for Zik, and the other for her son who was in GNPP, and put all into the ballot box.
Incidentally, Opata said, the election was a state House of Assembly election.
While querying the powers of the electorate to vote in political office holders and their inability to remove the same people from office when the need be, the literary scholars asked, “What is this power that is our vote? If we can vote in people, why can’t we vote them out? If we vote a governor or a president in, why can’t we vote the person out? What happens to our power?”
“One probable answer is that it is the State that prevents us everywhere from
The Chairman, Nsukka Local Government Area, Mr Walter Ozioko thanked the organizers for mainstreaming discussion at the summit on the participation of the electorate during elections.
He charged NJF to continue to galvanize and mobilize the people to participate in the coming election, through this kind of coordinated advocacy.
Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman, Organising Committee of the summit, Mr. Chijoke Attah, said that there is no better time to awaken the political consciousness of Nigerians, especially Nsukka residents than now.
He hailed the upsurge in the number of eligible citizens trooping out daily to register and obtain their Permanent Voters Card (PVC).
It is on this premise of this array of opinions that one is confident to conclude that more and more political advocacy is needed to mobilize eligible voters to take their destiny into their own hands by coming out to exercise their franchise during the elections.
