Is general election the solution to our crises or will elections aggravate the problem? With parts of the North under the siege of Boko Haram insurgents in the form of outright territorial control in some cases and guerilla styled terror attacks in others and with the government failing to bring the situation under control, what is the guarantee that there will indeed be general elections in 2015? Even if elections are held successfully in some parts of the country, would results be conclusive without elections in the troubled parts? How would displaced persons cast their votes or are they automatically disenfranchised? How safe would massive campaign rallies be? With politicians and their militant cronies on both sides facing up to one another ahead of the elections and sounding the drumbeats of war should the elections not go in their respective interests, what would be the aftermath of a general election? We may argue that elections have been successfully held in some states under heavy military presence but let us not forget that we do not hold staggered elections in Nigeria. We are talking about general elections. If one were to ignore the atmosphere of intimidation and the warlike environment that such massive military deployment across the nation at the same time would create, do we even have sufficient security/military personnel for such a mission? What would be the impact of such a thin spread of our military on the safety of terror-stricken areas? In whatever way the results of the general election go – North or South – are we prepared for the reactions that could ensue?” Against the structural and systemic backdrop of the chaotic state of the nation, what is the wisdom in holding elections without dealing with these foundational problems? If the politicians ignore these salient questions and go ahead to juggle for power in the midst of chaos, then that would seem to lend credence to the allegation that the politicians do know what the Nigerian people do not know and are behind the crises in our nation, competing among themselves to see who can best manipulate the situation for political gains, not caring how many lives are lost in the process as long as personal ambition is achieved. We need to address firstly the underlying problems by joining forces to deal with insurgency, seeking national reconciliation and integration, forging a new people’s constitution, developing a blueprint for development along zonal lines, organizing an accurate census and establishing a truly independent electoral commission whose head is not appointed by the president and whose financial allocation will be obtained from the first line charge of the federation account. We must understand at this crucial stage in the history of our nation that this is no time to engage in the blame game that has torn us apart these past 100 years: the blame game between the North and the South, the blame game between the Christians and the Muslims, the blame game among political parties and the blame game between the leadership and the people
Posted on: Mon, 17 Nov 2014 07:47:14 +0000
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