By
Godwin Onyeacholem
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President Jonathan (right) votes during the PDP primaries.
Pic: Premium Times
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The primaries of the
political parties which produced candidates for the 2015 elections have ended. However,
Nigeria is the poorer for it. As it was in 1999, so it is in 2014. In fact,
rather than getting better, things have indeed taken a turn for the worse. Give
it to Nigeria’s rotten political space. Everything that has changed remains
shoddy.
Suddenly, within a
decade and a half, party politics, in the reckoning of genuinely fair-minded
observers, has earned its place as the unyielding reservoir of frightening national
depression. And as this feeling intensifies among the citizenry, the inclination
towards national disbelief would hardly be kept at bay.
Every day, the urge to
dismiss that animating dream of a vibrant democratic nation gets stronger as Nigerian
politicians – especially the ones holding offices at all the levels of
government – perpetually exhibit a brazen betrayal of the promise and optimism
held out for democracy at the end of military dictatorship more than fifteen
years ago.
In their typical self-declared
effort to ‘move the country forward,’ our politicians have systematically
thrown it into reverse gear and heedlessly guided it toward the precipice,
thereby priming a hard-earned democracy for an annihilation of unimaginable
consequences. And so in view of what is fast turning out to be a gradual
replacement of hope with horror, one would not be exaggerating to say that this
democracy is in full retreat.
A clear indication of
this dismal outlook is the primaries recently concluded by the various
political parties. Except perhaps the presidential primary of the All
Progressives Congress (APC) which has a convincing trace of a transparently credible
process, all other primary elections across the parties can only be summed up
in one word: travesty. Should you ever attempt to look for what conspired to
consummate the mockery that defined these events, look no further than the
petty-minded state governors, the corrupt party organs and the dishonest
‘godfathers’ lurking around shamelessly in all the political parties and
governments across Nigeria.
In most cases, these agents
of extraction already had ‘anointed’ aspirants including but not limited to
governors themselves, party stalwarts and their spouses, their sons and
daughters whom they imposed on others, thus forcing those willing to contest
alongside the ‘anointed’ to back out by whatever detestable means including
threats.
Those who had the guts
to defy such orders and insist on testing their popularity at the polls succumbed
to the clout of the clique who ensured they were duly rigged out by the party
machinery which easily denied them equal chance of success with the ‘anointed.’
In other words, there was a glaring absence of a level playing field all
through – the same problem over which concerned Nigerians have been shouting
themselves hoarse since the start of this democracy.
One way in which
blatant rigging was perfected in these primaries was through the delegates who
voted at the elections. The list containing delegates’ names, which can be
described as a micro voters’ register of elected ad hoc and statutory delegates
that ought to be available to all stakeholders including the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC), was hijacked and manipulated by some
party chieftains.
In a desperate move
that bespeak pure fraud, governors, together with a few top shots in the
parties, commandeered the list of delegates and ensured that only the names of
those who will carry out their wish formed the majority. While the ‘anointed’
aspirants were helped with easy access to these delegates with whom they mapped
out strategies for dubious victories, disfavoured aspirants were effectively
shut out, and thus forced to go into elections without the benefit seeing the
list of delegates, let alone knowing who they were.
On occasion, as many as
three different lists of delegates were circulated for a particular election
with only the ‘anointed’ aspirants knowing which one was authentic. Delegates themselves,
shorn of any modicum of reliability, basked in their status as the ‘beautiful
bride’ and purchasable commodities mainly available to the highest bidder.
Even when delegates
were identified, other aspirants who didn’t enjoy the favour of party bigwigs
were unable to access them as did the preferred contestants as a result of the numerous
stumbling blocks planted in their way. In many places, delegates were
quarantined in government houses, rendered incommunicado and subsequently
bussed to election venues with government vehicles. As a result, accreditation
that ought to have begun at 8.00am did not start until well after midday.
In addition, sensitive
materials were not on display as required by law, and in what must qualify to
be one of the worst forms of recklessness, non-delegates were accredited to
take part in the exercise. There were also cases of intimidation, and violence
broke out in many areas as rival supporters of aspirants engaged themselves
with guns and other dangerous weapons.
By and large, instead
of real elections, what the people witnessed was simply selection and the
emergence of ‘consensus’ candidates. This led to many parallel primaries at
which with many contestants who felt cheated declared themselves winners, thus
sending their enthusiastic supporters into long hours of wild jubilation.
Those
who found that cause less honourable simply dumped their parties and moved on
to other welcoming parties to try their luck. This is the reason the gale of
defections has intensified at this moment.
As mentioned earlier,
apart from the APC presidential primary none of the primaries just concluded
passed the test of what elections should be in a democracy. And it comes down
to one thing: lack of internal democracy across the political parties.
It is a
nagging subject that must be promptly resolved appropriately. Until that is
done, the 2015 elections, and the ones that will come later, will be another
charade. And the ultimate casualty? Nigeria’s democracy.
Godwin
Onyeacholem is a journalist based in Abuja. He can be reached on
gonyeacholem@gmail.com
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