THE FALLACY OF 16 VOTES GREATER THAN 19 VOTES: THE 2015 ELECTION: SHALL MINORITY CONSENSUS VOTES PREVAIL OVER THE MAJORITY VOTES? By James Ode Abah Esq. During my elementary days in school, I was taught with the cardinal principle and made to believe that in any electoral process, the majority carries the vote. The reason behind this was not fetched and was easy to comprehend as it is commonsensical that the desires of the minorities cannot prevail above the desires of the majority. I remember my early days in Jos, Plateau State where this principle of majority desires prevailing over that of the minority was constantly and reasonably operated and recognized in my immediate family. Since I was raised in a family of 12, it was normal sometimes for my mother to ask the children in the house which food to cook for dinner. I was always in the opposition when it comes to my mother offering to cook yam porridge for dinner, which I hated with a passion. As far as I was concerned the sole purpose of yam is best maximized when same is used as “pounded yam” with my mother’s sweet okro soup which was my favorite meal. Unfortunately for me, I can remember losing all the elections on whether my mother should cook yam porridge for dinner. All my campaigns against cooking yam porridge for dinner were in vain, as almost all my siblings in our beautiful simple home loved yam porridge. At that point, I realized that the minority hardly had a say in the game of politics which was a game of numbers. It was easy to relate to this concept which was not rocket science. The general good is better than the specific good as in any society majority rule is important in making decisions as alternatives. However, experience has taught me regrettably that, despite been raised in a family of democrats , it became glaring that I was born in a country of oppressive aristocrats or rather self imposed oligarchies who shamelessly lay claims to be democrats practicing democracy. With the emergence of what I call the tyranny of the minority in Nigerian politics, I have indeed come to the conclusion that we are living in a country of cosmetic democracy operated cosmetic democrats. If the events following the fall outs the Governorship Forum Chairmanship elections held in May 24 2013 are anything to go by, then it is obvious that the democracy we claim to practice in Nigeria has been given a descent burial. Moreover, I have held a strong opinion that there was no democracy in our modern Nigeria in the first place as what we have practiced since 1999 was a mere cosmetic democracy and a fake imitation of the real thing as a practiced by civilized countries abroad. However , it is rather unfortunate and indeed disheartening that despite the urgent, pressing issues plaguing our nation, the polity in Nigeria is been over heated as a result of the fallout of the Governors Forum Chairmanship Election. Despite the fact that the so called Governorship forum is nothing more than a fruitless jamboree at the expense of tax payer’s money, the forum election has regrettably added another dimension to the glaring undemocratic culture in Nigeria with the latest funny and senseless fallacy of 16 votes greater than 19. This is only not a display of shameful judgment but a shameful display of brutish and insane anti-democratic conduct by our political elite. It is clear beyond doubt that on watching the video recordings of the process of counting the tally of votes, Governor Rotimi Ameachi secured a total of 19 Votes as against Governor Jonah Jang who had 16 votes. Using the democratic culture of my early days as regards the practice of my mom conducting elections as to what to cook for dinner which I mentioned earlier that the numbers where against me as regards yam porridge, you will agree with me that the numbers 19 and 16 no be mate, using the Nigerian street language. Therefore it will be a reasonable conclusion to assert that Governor Rotimi Ameachi won the 2013 Governorship Forum Chairmanship election on the bases of the total votes casted in the exercise. However, the ruling party in Nigeria, which have been preaching the propaganda of observing due process and governance hinged on the rule of law has come out with a fallacy of 16 votes greater than 19 which I find very intriguing and of course beyond doubt a dangerous precedent to any contemporary electoral exercise. This new arithmetical political invention of 16 votes greater than 19 as elucidated and pronounced by some so called elders of the ruling party is indeed condemnable and shameful. It is my passionate submission that same is grossly unsound, unethical, and baseless and a clear manifestation of the lack of respect and appreciation of elementary and basic democratic alien ideals that originated in Athens. The history of democracy that I am familiar with traces back to the classical Athens in the 6th Century B.C which had a political system in which members of the society have an equal share of formal political power which have laid the foundation in modern representative democracy where formal equality is embodied primarily in the right to vote through a democratic process. However in Nigeria we are experiencing the emergence of a new democracy where the consensus of a few is made to prevail of the votes of the majority. In spite of the inept and clueless government of the day to successfully the address quagmire paralyzing the nation, I watched with disgust recently some faceless sectional individuals, parading themselves as the elders of the south-south region and the Middle Belt region endorsing President Good luck Jonathan for the 2015 presidency. All I can say is that these so called elders are speaking for themselves and their decisions do not represent the interest of the people from these regions. The practice politics of mediocrity practiced with Impunity is now the constant religion endorsed by our so called political elders who cannot reason beyond their pot-bellied stomachs. There seems to be no more room for intellectual excellence in Nigerian Politics. The senseless argument from some quarters within the party that Governor Jonah Jang was the preferred consensus candidate to emerge as the purported chairman of the forum does not hold water and is a desperate attempt to tell a lie that only a fool will accept. If there was indeed a consensus candidate, why then the process of voting? How come did the so called consensus candidate which happened to be Jonah Jang secure 16 votes against Ameachi’s 19 votes? We are yet to get answers to these questions. This dangerous display consensus nonsense spells doom for the upcoming 2015 elections as it is quite obvious that our leaders lack the moral etiquette to conduct free and fair elections for the world’s most populous black nation. It exposes the truth that the interest of the majority does not matter in electing persons to occupy public offices. To think that this is happening at a time we claim to be celebrating 14 years of democracy is rather a painful irony as we are actually celebrating 14 years of beautiful packaged nonsense. The future of this country is in total shambles if doing the proper thing is relegated to the trenches. Take it or leave it, the minority consensus vote shall prevail against the majority votes in the 2015 general elections as the zealots who are against positive change have started laying the political foundation to endorse nonsense. My concern is whether the Nigerian people are ready to wake up from their slumber in fighting these evil wicked politicians to a logical conclusion. Arise o compatriots. We must put in the good fight. This so transformation agenda of the ruling party is a transformation of good to evil. We owe the generations unborn a better Nigeria free from the culture corrosive political recklessness. I am just sick and tired of this country.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:13:18 +0000
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