FEATURE ARTICLE

Babs AjayiTuesday, February 18, 2014
[email protected]
Gatineau, Quebec, Canada

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FOLLOWERSHIP AND THE PROBLEM WITH NIGERIA (PART 2)

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Continued from Part 1

mala politics took root in some parts of the South West because the majority allowed it and because the electoral process was not transparent enough to discourage rigging and vote-grabbing by those who have no other agenda beside looting the treasury and stealing security vote. The rights of the people were criminally subverted by motor touts under the leadership of Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, and suddenly Tokyo and Eleweomo became enforcers on election matters and determinants of electoral outcomes. The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) suddenly developed into the go-to union for those hoping to win elections in Oyo State! There are enformers of equal influence even in Lagos State. But in Oyo State Tokyo helped Alao-Akala into office and also ensured his defeat from office four years later! How on earth did it get to this that thugs, touts and miscreants became the people who decided winner(s) of elections? Where were the people? I know it was very difficult for the people to do much considering the electoral process in place, a process that lent itself to rigging, ballot box stuffing and other electoral crimes. The Nigerian people must never abdicate their duties and roles if indeed there is going to be any improvement in our nation. We know for a fact that Option A4 will make motor touts irrelevant and give the people their rightful place in the electoral process. The civil society must demand an electoral process that is open and transparent, which Humphrey Nwosu's Option A4 represents. There is almost the certainty that every vote will be truly counted and make a difference.

As a people and at this crucial time in our nation, we need to demand that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) consider the reintroduction of Option A4. I want to see all votes counted as soon as voting was over. I want to see results announced immediately after counting at every polling centre, and the results displayed right there and then for all to see. Nothing should be hidden or kept secret because voting outcome should never be kept secret from the voters. We need to demand Option A4 now and make INEC to agree to it. Has INEC invited community groups and interested parties to discuss the voting process that is best for the nation and most suitable to achieve fair and transparent results? If INEC has not realized that it owes the people such a duty, then we should demand it from INEC. Are we not tired as a people that an atmosphere of crisis, chaos and confusion tend to pervade and overtake the nation every election year, and the economy suffers decline and set back around election time? Our election time is the time all expatriates and foreign nationals return home for months to allow Nigerians to sort out their electoral troubles and voodoo politics. It is because our current electoral process makes anything and everything possible; rigging, vote-looting, ballot box stealing and voter apathy are the gains of the current electoral process/arrangement. We must admit the fact that so many people do not often vote because they suspect (or are sure) their votes will be stolen and would not count, and voting will be a futile effort and a waste of their time.

This is the time for citizens groups, social clubs, communities, and big and small organizations to work independently and also collaborate to make sure INEC reintroduce Option A4. It is also very important for every citizen to write INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru M. Jega demanding that Option A4 be introduced. Let everyone of us send an e-mail to Professor Jega at [email protected]. Each of us should encourage at least five others to contact Professor Jega. Civic organizations and associations should gather their members and visit Professor Jega in his office with a letter signed by all members demanding that Option A4 be introduced. If we fail to do our own part and carry the load we ought to shoulder as citizens, we should not have the audacity to complain. We have to build the nation we want and desire; no one will build it for us, not the Americans, not the British, not the looters who are happy the way things are, and not the politicians - most of whom are enemies of the people. Everyone has to get involve and be counted. You have to do something and not just stand by. Too many followers are behaving like unconcerned bystanders in a nation where they have a lot at stake. You will be narrow-minded if you regard your homestead, small community or ethnic group as the areas that you should be solely concerned with. When a building goes up in flame every flat in that building will be affected and every resident will suffer losses. We must wake up, stand up and take up the responsibilities of our citizenship very seriously, and build the nation we all desire.

Our electoral process deserves some stability and must be seen and known to be reliable, dependable, and reassuring to all parties involved, its outcome valid and the result of the intentions/voting decision of the people. We should gradually work very hard - collectively and individually - to get to the point where the outcome of any election is seen as the decision of the Nigerian people. Our election result should indicate that the people have spoken, and no candidate will see any need to go to court to challenge it, or to send out thugs to tear the nation apart.

Nigerians have several issues and problems thorough which they have contributed (and continue to contribute) to the failure of the nation and the emergence of terrible, horrible leaders. The major problem with the average Nigerian is ethnic-defined. Most Nigerians find it very difficult to look beyond their ethnic colouration and sectional interests. It is often alright with a man from Ethnic Group A if the president of the nation is from his area even if the man is a thief who also lacks what it takes to lead. Ethnicity and the various extractions in the Nigerian nation ought to be a source of strength, but that has not been so because of the way ethnic leaders have exploited (and are still exploiting) issues relating to our differences for personal gains. Ethnic organizations have done more to exacerbate the division and discord in the nation than they have supported development. It is time when state and local government of origin no longer feature on national forms in Nigeria. Nigerians should be able to live anywhere they wish, school there, work there, and thrive there.

The roles and place of the followership have been hijacked by such faceless bodies as Neighbour-to-Neighbour and several other one-man managed associations set up by the very same people who are mismanaging the system and their beneficiaries, sidekicks, errand boys, agents, fronts, and friends. The mushroom organizations who pretend to speak on behalf of the people and sections of the society are mostly set up and being used to fan the selfish agendas and interests of those in power. It is a page borrowed from Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha, who were edged on by their messengers in contraptions such as Arthur Nzeribe's the Association for a Better Nigeria (ABN), one Daniel Kanu's Youth Earnestly Ask for Abacha (YEAA), which held a dubious pro-Abacha rally in Abuja for which an estimated 400 million Naira was said to have been spent, the National Council of Youth Associations (NAYCAN) and the National Committee of Youth Associations (NCYA) where one or two people make up an association, or even represented multiple associations.

Politicians in the current dispensation have borrowed from the dirty and dreary legacies of corrupt military juntas who did everything for themselves and nothing for the people. But if faceless associations and organizations are speaking up and making so much noise in the media, then what stops the people from speaking up, from going out to demand a new deal for themselves and for generations unborn? It is not Professor Wole Soyinka or Pastor Tunde Bakare's job. It is not a task set aside for Joe Okei-Odumakin or Femi Falana to do. We all have roles to play and can no longer stand aside or stand akimbo expecting Wole Soyinka and his comrades to deliver a well cleaned and scrubbed nation to us all. Professor Soyinka will be the very first person to tell you that the task of reshaping the nation is a task every Nigerian should be actively involved in. You cannot use one hand to lift the load to your head; both hands are required and every part of the body is actually involved. You cannot ignore your civic duty to your nation and fail in your citizenship responsibility only to see something you could have corrected with either your vote or agitation and you want to complain. You would have lost every quantum of respectability and the right to talk or condemn any elected official.

Continued from Part 1

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