By Chidiebere Onyemaizu
At a joint in the highbrow Lekki phase 1 area of Lagos last Saturday, the dominant topic among a group of men over cold bottles of beer was the United Kingdom, UK’s election which was lost and won without fanfare, violence, ballot paper snatching or electoral heist coordinated and abated by rogue elements of the election management body. There is no gainsaying that electoral malfeasances have become the inelegant features of electoral exercises in many third world countries including Nigeria. One of the men, wearing a sad mien and continuously tapping his legs on the ground conclude his contribution to the topic with a hiss and a lamentation laced with melancholic exclamation in pidgin English: “ Nigeria no bi UK and no fit be UK, even in the next 100 years. I no sure say we go ever get am right!”
The above scenario underlines how enamoured a majority of Nigerians are with the flawless election and the seamless transition in the UK which saw the defeated Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak of the Conservative Party leave office moments after his party’s crushing defeat became public and his successor, Starmer Keir of the Labour party mounting the saddle almost immediately.
While President Bola Tinubu in his congratulatory message to Starmer described the UK as a “model of democracy and Nigeria’s longstanding partner” and looked forward to deepening relations and strengthening of democratic institutions”, member representing Ogbaru (Anambra) Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives and the Leader of Labour Party caucus in the House, Hon. Victor Afam Ogene characterised the UK election as “stark contrast to our recent experience in Nigeria”.
Said Hon.Ogene in a statement: “the UK election tells vivid tales of hope for the opposition, competence and integrity of the electoral umpires in the UK, in a manner that elicits public confidence and trust in the electoral process.
“Unlike what was witnessed in Nigeria in the last general elections, the process in UK was free of glitches, as about 40 million voters took part, polls closed around 10 pm Thursday and by daybreak, the results were out; there was no judicial ambush, as immediate transition took place to the admiration of all lovers of democracy and free and fair elections.
“If we must practice democracy, we must also love, copy and abide by the transparency and accountability of democratic institutions in nations of the world that allow the rule of law and democratic principles to thrive.
“Indeed, one of the potent lessons of the British elections is the fact that, the concept of ‘snatch it, grab it, and run away with it,’ has no place in modern democratic practice.
“The UK’s electoral process stands in stark contrast to our recent experience in Nigeria. The smooth, swift, and transparent election in the UK is a shining example for our electoral umpires, INEC, to emulate.
“The British Labour Party’s victory inspires hope and optimism, demonstrating that positive change is possible when people come together with a unified objective”
A broad spectrum of Nigerians who spoke to Daily Sun rue the inability the country’s political class to learn from the UK kind of electoral process.
A social media user that goes by the name “Anuntu Stanley Chukwuemeka, using the UK election as a stand point, satirically summarised his frustration over Nigeria’s inability to get its electoral system right this way:
“On social media…I saw our own Nigerian sister, DJ Cuppy – Sir Femi Otedola’s daughter – in the UK rooting for Labour Party. I was ‘flabeber-whelmed’ and ‘over-ghasted’!
Oh yes..!
“This is because her head wasn’t broken. Her clothes were neither torn nor bloodied. She wasn’t politically disenfranchised in any form. The Brits didn’t tell her to go to her fatherland and talk that trash even as she’s legally resident in the UK. No one threatened to throw her into River Thames or any of the canals and channels that dot the UK…no! She even exercised the effrontery to campaign for an opposition against the run of play…in another man’s country!
That’s preposterous!
“She voted peacefully in an election that had near zero – if not zero – electoral malfeasance. So also did my friends – Emeka, Maduka, Amaks, Agbuna, Ezii and a whole lot others. They might have even voted at the comfort of their homes and sent the damn thing by post or electronically.
Their ‘BVAS’ machine worked
“There were no mutilations on the results sheets (if even any was used). Papers were minimally used anyway.
“They (the British government) didn’t budget or used over N300 whooping Billion for such a chicken exercise.
No ballot box was snatched
“Their (British) Army, Police not to mention thugs were not seen anywhere colluding, aiding and abetting any malfeasance. In fact, they’re not needed on the process at all!
“Rishi Sunak didn’t threaten anyone who may be aggrieved to ‘Go to Court!’; rather, the process was so crystal-clear for anyone to “Go and Verify”
“Glitches didn’t happen despite having enough time to prepare for a seemingly normal (and not do-or-die) exercise.
“The winner, Sir Keir Starmer, 61 – is an Oxford graduate. His name, genealogy, age, academic records, ‘State’ of origin et al are all in the public domain for anyone to ‘go and verify’.
The election was free and fair”
Adegoke Ayomide, a former local government aspirant in Lagos told Daily Sun that “it was indeed interesting seeing Rishi Sunak leaving No 10 downing street( the UK seat of power) like an ordinary man with just one saloon car and his successor arriving to resume office with just two salon cars and police van- no coterie of political hangs on who “worked” for his victory, no Amanda of intimidating security convoy, no elaborate swearing-in ceremony, in fact, London was not shut down or locked down just because one man and his party won an election or defeated an incumbent and a ruling party in an election.
“If UK were Nigeria, violence, killing and maiming of opponents, ballot boxes snatching by hired thugs and electoral heist, most often supervised and aided by some compromised officials of the electoral umpire who ought to be neutral, would have changed the course of event, foist a losing party on the people and deny the winning party and its candidate their deserved victory.
“Then the losing candidate and party that had been foisted on the electorate would have asked the victims of the electoral heist( candidate and party) to go to court, fully aware that the judiciary will be pocketed. Nigeria has a long way to go and it will be a long difficult task unless our leaders summon the courage and political will to introduce radical electoral and political reforms.”
However, pundits believe that the UK kind transparent and efficient electoral system as exemplified by last week’s exercise will be difficult to achieve in Nigeria as all political parties, especially the ruling party at any given democratic dispensation and at every election exploit the country’s flawed electoral process to their advantage to earn undeserved victories.
Chekwas Okorie, the founding National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, agrees. According to Okorie, the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC is reluctant to introduce electoral reforms because it benefits from the skewed system.
“The electoral system we are operating is flawed. It is easy to manipulate election results and our judiciary has been unhelpful even when unfortunately it seems to be the last arbiter in judicial matters…today, the APC is not enamoured about electronic voting systems because the flawed system we operate is also favouring them”, he told Daily Sun.
Chief Okorie’s assertions brings to mind the outcry that attended the declaration of the late Umaru Musa Yar’dua as the winner of the 2007 presidential election. Opposition parties and political commentators had insisted that the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, then under the chairmanship of Professor Maurice Iwu ought not to have returned Yar’Adua as elected as the presidential election was characterised by massive rigging by the then ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The electoral umpire was also accused of complicity in the alleged rigging.
Upon assumption of office, President Yar’Adua acknowledged that the election that brought him to power was indeed flawed and tainted with massive irregularities, prompting him to set up the Justice Uwais panel to recommend ways to improve on Nigeria’s electoral system. The report of that panel is however, till this moment, gathering dust in the archives.
The zero election result dispute, zero bickering, zero violence, zero electoral malfeasance and zero election thuggery that birthed the UK election and the effortless transition from Sunak to Starmer contrast with Nigeria’s blurry electoral system and bloody elections and political transitions which is spine-chilling.
Political analysts note that pre election violence and disputed electoral outcomes that later degenerated into wanton maiming, killing and destruction of properties have been a reccurring decimal in Nigeria’s electoral process since independence.
History records that the first ever large scale, deadly electoral violence in Nigeria which was, tagged operation “wet e”(operation wet him/ her) was recorded in the defunct Western Region in 1964 following a rift between the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, leader of the Action Group, AG and his estranged lieutenant and Premier of the Region, the late Samuel Ladoke Akintola resulting from a battle for supremacy in the party between the two leaders.
Akintola whose faction of the AG, now renamed Nigerian National Democratic Party, NNDP, allied to the Northern Peoples Congress, NPC led central government was accused by the Awolowo led mainstream AG of rigging the 1964 regional election thus triggering a volcanic violence that resulted in the wanton killings, maiming and destruction of properties on both sides of the divide.
It is believed that the Western Region crisis was one of the immediate reasons the military terminated the First Republic via the January 15, 1966 bloody coup.
The most memorable blood-chilling electoral mayhem in the Second Republic was the fallout of the debacle between the late Governor of the old Ondo State, Chief Michael Ajasin of the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN and his estranged Deputy, Akin Omoboriowo. The latter had fallen out with his principal, defected to the then ruling party, the National Party of Nigeria, NPN on which platform he contested the 1983 Ondo governorship election and was declared winner in hazy circumstances by the then electoral body, FEDECO.
However, Ondo people, knowing that their electoral choice (Ajasin) had been torpedoed, wasted no time in rising in anger against FEDECO and Omoboriowo’s controversial victory. This anger would boil over and snowball into an orgy of violence that only equalled the operation wet e of 1964.
According to different eyewitness accounts of the violence on the streets of Akure and many other parts of the state, “Some people were roasted alive, some had their heads chopped off, while others had their bodies mutilated….people were roasted publicly and turned around over in the fire like a goat or sheep being prepared for barbecue.”
In this current democratic dispensation, the debilitating violence that rocked Anambra State in the wake of former governor Chris Ngige’s disputed election victory in Anambra in 2003 in one hand and the prolonged feud between him and his political godfather, Chief Chris Uba, on the other, is still fresh in the minds of many.
In the run up to last year’s presidential election, an orchestrsted pre- election violence and intimidation were beastly visited on the supporters of a certain political party in the course of their electioneering campaigns in Lagos by hired election thugs. One of the victims had recounted the harrowing experiences thus: “They attacked us in Ajah and other parts of Eti-Osa LGA
“They damaged our cars and injured many of us. A guy was just rushed to that place for treatment because he was stabbed by hoodlums.
“We had a plan to move a convoy from Jakande to TBS. So, what we did was to arrange a truck, DJ, and a convoy of cars…When we got to Jakande to make a U-turn and wait for other people to come, two buses loaded with guys came.
“They came down from the buses holding machetes and guns and they started attacking us. They scattered the cars and beat some people. To save my life, I laid at the Lekki-Epe expressway to obstruct traffic so that they won’t kill me.”
Outlining why Nigeria may never record the kind of flawless election the UK has just had, a Social Affairs commentator, Patrick Elesiokwu told Daily Sun that “Nigeria is too divided along tribal and religious lines to achieve the kind of electoral milestone we are applauding the UK for” According to him, “ethnic and religious loyalty are more entrenched in people’s political culture than nationalistic fervour hence, for example, supporters of a presidential candidate belonging to the “right religion” and from the “right” geopolitical zone are prepared to sacrifice competence and qualification on the altar of religion and ethnicity and go the extra mile, including employing, rigging, violence, ballot box snatching, killing, intimidation etc to ensure that their tribe’s man is elected”
Elesiokwu lists factors that fuel electoral violence and malfeasance as money politics, tribal politics, religion, nepotism and corruption.
Ephraim Onyejiaku, a Lawyer and crusader for accountability and good governance blame desperation, greed and self- aggrandizment for Nigeria’s lurid electoral system and political process. He maintained that the process of getting it right must start from making politics and political offices unattractive.
“The lesson we must learn from the UK election is that if we want free, fair and transparent and rancour-free elections and smooth political transition as the UK just had, we must as a matter of urgency drastically make politics and political offices unattractive. Politicians are desperate to get into power because there is enormous financial resources, free financial resources at their disposal; to them politics is the quickest and easiest way to get rich because it is the most lucrative industry in Nigeria; there is almost zero accountability and good governance is none of their business”, he told Daily Sun.
According to Onyejiaku, “free money which our flawed political process pampers politicians with is the oxygen that sustains their greed and self-aggradizement; cut the oxygen off and many of them will not come near politics or aspire for political leadership, and that’s when you will see Patriots who genuinely want to offer service to the people rise to take the lead. It may interest you to know that in America for example, there is nothing there for political office holders except service. Amassing wealth is never a factor for going into politics in America.
“An American President, for example pay from his pocket for his personal needs. If he wants a new wristwatch, he buys from his personal purse, if he wants to drink coffee, he pays from his pocket, the state does not fund his personal, private needs but in this clime, reverse is the case. We can get it right if we change the way we play politics.”
Meanwhile, Daily Sun has been informed that the ease with which the UK election was conducted and the seamless, simple manner the winner immediately assumed office has further strengthened the resolve of pro- parliamentary system National Assembly members to push on with their campaign for a return to that system of government which was in place from independence in 1960 till 1966 when the military struck.
“We have seen how less cumbersome, less expensive, less rancorous and flawless the UK election was and that is the beauty of the Parliamentary system of government. The UK election has further buoyed our resolve and inspired us the more to continue to push for a political system that is best suited for our environment and this the parliamentary system of government. We won’t stop until we get it right” a sources close to the 10th National Assembly quoted a House of Reps member and one of the Pro- Parliamentary system members as saying.
Chief Ingram Osigwe, a marketing communication practitioner and a commentator on national issues believes that Nigeria, nay the political class, will get it right someday despite several false steps.”The UK election was concluded by 10pm and the new Prime Minister took over within 14 hours. This is a heartwarming and salutary step developing democracies, Nigeria inclusive should emulate.
South Africa and India achieved the same feat some weeks ago and I believe Nigeria will someday attain the same height electorally.
“However, let’s have it at the back of our minds that no two democracies are the same, electoral environments, socio- political, economic and cultural settings differ from one country to another and these are the factors that shape the political and electoral process of each country”, Chief Osigwe told Daily Sun.