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Thursday 26 June 2014

Ekiti Election: A show of Democracy in Nigeria

cartoonBeyond the pantomime of backslapping and the euphoria of excitement that attended the outcome of the June 21, 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State, the victory of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has some fundamental lessons. One, it has confounded the bookmakers who dismissed Mr. Ayodele Fayose of the PDP as simply a “thug” who would not match the intellectual fireworks of a presumed philosopher-king. The outcome of the election also made nonsense of the alliterative desperation of headline casters who openly denigrated the PDP flag bearer and
gave a phantom or paper victory to the incumbent without recourse to Edmund Burke’s dictum in political prediction, that the platoon of the politician is his home front, not his intellectual or academic prowess. In fact, another huge lesson from the Ekiti electoral tango is that pathological riggers often cry more than the bereaved but eventually become losers if there is no conducive atmosphere for them to ply their trade.

Yet the biggest lesson is that the Ekiti election should serve as a better guide to the future of electoral contests in Nigeria. The presence of unbiased and disinterested security forces helped to forestall rigging and other forms of lawlessness including outright violence. While the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) must be commended by all well-meaning Nigerians for a job well done, kudos must be given to President Goodluck Jonathan for the courage to manifest the political will to ensure that the election was free and fair. The incumbent governor, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi, the quintessential public intellectual and urbane journalist who lost out to Mr. Ayodele Fayose, is the ultimate winner. This point is very important and may be emphasized by an anecdote. The emotional legacy which Fayemi has created in Ekiti by accepting defeat and attributing the verdict to the will of the people is so intense in Ekiti State, but it is yet deeper and even more fervent across Nigeria.

Therefore, the crowning achievement of the Ekiti 2014 governorship election is that it illuminates today’s profound changes through the great sweep of history. The election conveys the new reality of Nigeria’s politics with a sure grasp and unique vision. It is a resounding achievement. Indeed, the past and future of Nigeria had been simultaneously on sale before the emergence of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan as President through a curious twist of fate and ironies. It is this that has made Jonathan to be wholly driven by the pulse of the nation. In 2011, he superintended a general election that was accepted by both local and international observers as generally free and fair and thus won a pan-Nigerian mandate through a landslide victory. But, unfortunately, those overzealous but shortsighted Nigerian spin doctors and self-styled political pundits desperately bent on frustrating Jonathan out of power have lost all sleep in a veil attempt at disguising the meaning of “progressive politics”.

Yet, indeed, to imagine that even at the turn of the twenty-first century, Nigerian politicians could be so manifestly crude and villainous as to sponsor the grueling assassination of their opponents is to contemplate the mere labeling of a man who plays politics by the rules as “clueless” a generous exercise. The only stock-in-trade of the opposition politicians and their media yes-men is to abuse the sitting president, employing the most acidic language to ridicule him. It is not as though they possess any ideological superiority. No! They are only deepened in the narrow provinces of tribal and religious advocacy. Just see how Kwakwanso and Nyako manifest arbitrary disoriented latitudes in the gallery of power. See how the opposition could descend so low as to employ the tawdry spectacle of self-absorption and the incredible badge of democratic identity to insult the president of this country.

If progress in politics is all about character assassination, employment of volatile language to disparage others and inciting the governed against the government, then this opposition is yet to evolve alternative measures to replace the ruling party in the corridors of power. The opposition has caved into insignificance for lack of internal cohesion and necessary progressive plans and impetus to achieve their mission except by threat of violence. Rather than issue-based, elections in Nigeria are still largely personality, religious or tribal stunts. How then can we now set aside age-old prejudices and play this game of politics according to the rules? In the realm of planning, ideological depth and profundity as well as purity of intention, patriotic fervor, legitimacy and popular acceptability, the 2015 general election promises to bear a redeeming grace going by the spectacular outing of INEC on Saturday.

More than fifteen years of uninterrupted civil rule is enough for Nigerian politicians to be particularly immersed into real democratic culture. This democracy must be anchored on a series of informally agreed conventions and operating ground norms best referred to as democratic agreement. As against what obtained in the past when there was a constant diatribe between political parties which attested to a deformed polity, there must be a genuine re-alignment of forces this time around. A democratic agreement is vital for the smooth operation of this civil rule and it will guarantee its acceptance and longevity. In the absence of one, it is inevitable that the politics of blood and thunder would replace discourse as the acceptable means of settling disputes. But all of this comes at a cost. It is the fear and loathing over the politics of do-or-die promoted by those who go into politics not to serve the people but their narrow interest that is keeping men and women of credible disposition from partisan politics.

If Nigerian politicians would be courageous enough to drop their pull-him-down syndrome and develop the political will to lift the nation from the stranglehold of underdevelopment, the people will be the ultimate beneficiaries. But it is potentially disastrous that ours is party politics gone mad, where opposition politicians no longer have regards for the exalted office of the President. The Ekiti election has come primarily to prick the bloated ego of the opposition, that politics is not about noise-making but that of building bridges of love, hope unity and peace. This, exactly, was what Fayose did in Ekiti between May 29, 2003 and October 16, 2006 when he was impeached by powerful forces in Abuja for failing to do their bidding. The Ekiti verdict has thrown a pebble on the opposition’s pool of complacency and placid hypocrisy. Without internal democracy, it is difficult for any opposition party to beat the PDP.

• Amor is of the Communication and Strategy Directorate of Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN).

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