New Era in Nigeria Politics
The 2019 Presidential Elections set for the 16th of February looked poised to be free and fair based on the gospel of integrity the sitting administration had been preaching and the precedent set by the previous president who bowed out peacefully. Then the news of a postponement came at 3 am on the morning of the elections. We had to wait a week. All sorts of stories flew around about logistics, allegations of incompetence, lack of preparation, the whole nine yards. February 23rd (the new election date) rolled around and the elections proceeded as planned.
In terms of choices, we didn’t really have the cream of the crop — we had the same old problem of picking the lesser of two evils. The title of a recent Bloomberg article summed it up quite well: “Nigeria’s Brutal Decision: Former Dictator or Alleged Kleptocrat” (Bloomberg, February 2019). We also had a bunch of other candidates selling snake oil who only served to splinter off votes (we need to have a serious conversation about the number of political parties allowed to field candidates. LOOK AT THAT SHEET OF PAPER…..).
President Buhari’s first four years had been froth with all sorts of problems including dire economic forecasts, a surge in middle belt insecurity and herdsmen killings, a failure to deliver on his anti-corruption crusade, and a slow chipping away at our systems of law of order. His entire re-election campaign was pretty much a plea for more time while he continued to polish the righteous upstanding image he had sold to his loyalists, a man of honour, of the people, strongly against the elite (a said class he also belongs to), and the corrupt structures they had enabled and sustained while destroying the country for decades.
Atiku, on the other hand, wasn’t really proposing anything new, just some gloss over some of his party’s recycled ideas, but he rode in on the perfect canvas (PDP). With this, Buhari could use it against Atiku and paint him as the poster child for the elites and old guard he came to rid the nation of. Atiku was the Vice President in a previous administration that left its own dirty stains on Nigeria’s history. He was the perfect villain. Mind you, he was a previous Buhari supporter, a long time friend and a sponsor of his previous attempts at running for president.
During the build-up to the elections, a lot of efforts were put into voter education by various campaigns which sensitized people. A lot of propaganda, fake news, and lies were also pumped out to voters but essentially, there was an abundance of information out there and voters were well prepared. There seemed to be a lot of interest and energy coming from the populace. People were proud to have their voter cards and were looking forward to having their say in the elections by voting. Emotions were high: people were fed up, frustrated and there seemed to be a shared sense of a need for change, or at least, that was what was being projected.
As the elections were wrapping up, all sorts of videos started to surface, from voter suppression and intimidation to blatant acts of rigging. All sorts of ballot stuffing operations captured carefully. The idea of a free and fair election was shattered and in a sense, the election was tainted. If the weirdly timed postponement wasn’t enough to convince people things were afoot.
It has been a month and the Incumbent still sits on Aso Rock after being declared the winner. Atiku has refused to accept the conclusions of the election and has decided to fight it in court. His camp claims they had agents on the ground who collected evidence of rigging carried out by Buhari’s party, The APC. But one thing I have noticed is Atiku seems to be running this last lap alone. The Fight has been left to him, it’s now his responsibility to fight for the “Change” he was selling. His name was the one on the ticket after all. The group that surrounded him and the people who bought into his message have faded back into the shadows. Abuja is full of people looking for where to land next, currying up favours with the next administration and pretty much a political realignment is happening in preparation for the next four years of Buhari’s administration.
There will be no autopsy of the elections, there will be no reflection, no one will take responsibility for things that went wrong, there will be no accountability.
All the noise has died down, the elections are a thing of the past, the trending topics have shifted, attention has moved, the anger and frustration have been re-channeled and we have all returned to our regularly scheduled programming. There will be no autopsy of the elections, there will be no reflection, no one will take responsibility for things that went wrong, there will be no accountability. The lives that were lost were in vain. The deed is done and there is no political will to fight the blatant theft of our voices and choice we all witnessed as a nation. In four years, we will probably be back here, in the same quagmire, picking from a different set of lesser evils.
There is no New Era, yet. We are currently in Q4 of the current era. We will check-in in a few years and get back to you on that New Era forecast.
My favorite part of the recent Nigerian election cycle was this headline:
“2019 polls: Police, civil defence demand N317m to feed dogs, horses”
Samson is Chief Creative Officer at 3WP. Learn more about 3WP at 3wp.io
