FEATURE ARTICLE

Olanrewaju AjiboyeThursday, December 11, 2008
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YAR’ADUA’S SALLAH GIFT

t is almost mid term into the four-year term of the president Yar’Adua controversial election which all ambiguities would have been put to rest before this article gets published or as it is being published. If his election is confirmed by the Supreme Court, then we as a people would digest the awful concoctions Obasanjo and Iwu forced down our throat in 2007 and hope for a better deal in terms of elections when next we go to the polls.


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This hope is predicated on president Yar’Adua Sallah message which is a sort of Sallah gift of hope to Nigerians. If this promise is fulfilled then it will make up for the ‘locomotive train’ journey of the present government since May 29, 2007. We will also take solace in the fact that we have put behind us, the bad rubbish of a overheated polity that characterised the period of May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2007.

President Yar’Adua’s Sallah message reassures of his determination to bequeath a culture of free and fair election to a country in dire need of one when next another takes place. Going by the antecedents of past leaders, one may be sceptical of such promise. Past leaders had invoked the name of God for deceit, but one’s intuition is pointing to the fact that this Yar’Adua can be given benefit of the doubt. So far, he seems to have the fear of God in him and the blood of humility and civility runs in his veins.

Free and Fair election is the quintessence of Democracy and democratic culture; its violation rubbishes and threatens other attributes of political and social equality. To underscore its importance to the survival of Democracy especially in the so called third world and developing countries, it is imperative we examine its potency against democratic encumbrances:

First and foremost, it enervates the vibrancy and vitality of potential tyrants who will rather thrive in an atmosphere where people’s voice does not count at every suffrage interval. Furthermore, it has the capacity to minimise damage to the polity as the electorate have the option of change at a periodic interval. A good example is Bush 43, of the United States of America who embarked on a policy he believed was in the best interest of his country by waging wars on terror and “taking the fight to the enemy”, it backfired with colossal damages to the economy and collateral damages to social cohesion at home and the image of U.S. and her citizens abroad. Americans responded by closing ranks about race and colour and voted for change with Barak Obama as the metaphor. Were it not for free and fair election, the winner could have lost out despite overwhelming resolve for change. The same process had seen other leaders exited their positions of power in different parts of the world where free and fair election is sacrosanct.

It also fosters healthy alternatives in policy formulation and direction. The essence of politicking is to gain power in order to implement a vision, for politicians it is not enough to gain power; they strive to remain in power, whereas politicians in the opposition strive to dislodge the incumbent. Both parties bearing in mind that there is a nemesis of election that cannot be manipulated strive to bring the best out in their arguments, programs and vision if only to convince the people who are the ultimate deciders of who gets what in terms of political power. The people’s power is in their votes but this power is rendered useless in the absence of free and fair election(s). Hence an election that is not free and fair is coup d’état by other means but not guns and tanks.

When election is free and fair; tax payers money are not expended on litigation expenses through the constitution of election tribunals as is common in Nigeria; people are saved the anxiety of endless wait for resolution of political power mandate through judicial process which ought not to have arisen in the first instance; and tax payers’ money are not expended on usurpers who will later be thrown out through court pronouncements.

Free and fair elections engender rapid growth and development especially when political power holders want to advertise their political camp as living up to expectations and that superior arguments on a better alternative are likely to alter their political calculations. The people are the best for it that when they are over taxed under a government formed by Party A, they can look forward for succour from party B that promises tax cuts, when next they go to the polls at the next interval.

Free and Fair election is capable of curbing politics of the highest bidders; quality people who are more interested in service can now come on board knowing full well that they do not have to be money bags to serve their fatherland.

On a final note, and this is peculiar to Nigeria, we can start to hope that our artisans will now come back to terms that there will no longer be free money for volunteers or mercenaries in acts of political hooliganism. If elections will always be free and fair, why would politicians have to hire and sustain thugs? Why would they have to keep security agents on their pay rolls? Why would ‘Area Boys’ now become above the law? Why would Miscreants become role models? Why would people without skill or any knowledge of trade become affluent on the basis of the quantity and quality of violence they can unleash to compromise the outcome of election results?

One may be tempted to postulate on how much change would come on the electoral reforms? Will president Yar’ Adua go the whole hog to supervise an election where his party can lose and concede defeat to the opposition if the electorate so desire?

If the president is saying it from the bottom of his heart which my intuition tells me is the case, may Allah grant him the will, the courage and the wisdom to overcome the hawks within his party who are anathematic of free and fair elections. If this is all he can achieve in his four years, if eventually confirmed by the Supreme Court, his name will be etched in gold as one leader who made the impossible possible.

Olanrewaju Ajiboye is a member, Board of Nigeria Foundation www.nigeriafoundation.org

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