Whenever a child is misbehaving and about to put a seal on the dreaded application of the whip, my grandma will say in Ijẹbu dialect, ‘`iyà rẹ jùnù’. Literally, ‘your flogging is lost’. This means you are desperately doing your utmost to reach out to the whip. This is an apt description of the choice of the Nigerian electorates in recent times. We do our utmost to vote for politicians with policies that will bruise, bleed, and sometimes bury us.
 |
| Buhari displays his ballot paper |
Recent Presidential election results show that politicians need votes
of electorates outside their comfort zones. Ostensibly, in the last election,
all the major parties got votes from all states, but in reality, they were no
competition in many of them. Voting along ethnic and religious affinity is a
dangerous trend for a country like ours and this brings me to wonder how we
failed to run convincing campaigns. How did the candidates get their messages
across to the electorates? Or should we ask, what message was put across?
While being the least educated in the country, electorates from
Northern Nigeria play a decisive role in who becomes the next president. A
large portion of the northern voters are malleable, yet they are the golden
geese. This means that politicians and indeed supporters need to change their
language, tone, and mode of communication with the electorates. Peter Obi
merely scratched the surface of available votes in the north. While this is not
an outright disaster for a candidate given no chance from the onset, the
campaign model needs to be reformed, rebranded, and redirected.
Indeed, while being an obidient is a badge of honour for
some, it is also a trigger for others. I am obidient, and I will always
support for Peter Obi’s bid because he is an outlier of a Nigerian politician.
However, it is a fact that some obidients have made it difficult for
others to join the ranks. Some have gone to the extreme with comments that make
you gasp for air, while a few seem to be interested in stoking a civil war.
Many obidients are crude while playing a game that requires tact and
diplomacy. Some obidients of eastern extraction sometimes show they are
inhumane by gloating over unfortunate incidents befalling people of other
regions. This gloating is an aggravating factor that culminated in northerners
attack on easterners before a full-fledged civil war decades ago.
Till now, no one has provided empirical evidence that Peter Obi
won the last election beyond rhetoric. Not Dele Farotimi. Not Aisha Yesufu. Not
Peter Obi himself or his legal team. None of Peter Obi’s foremost supporters.
With respect, these associates keep telling us that Peter Obi won because they
are yet to come to terms with the fact that he lost after all their efforts.
The consensus within the extant legal framework is that Tinubu won – albeit
from a very flawed process which we are constrained to accept.
We all know Nigeria needs an about-face and needs to be
deconstructed and rebuilt. People who threaten to form a parallel government
cannot turn around to condemn one who says the current President is not her
President. However, statements denouncing the legality of the incumbent's
office should be avoided if there is to be an acceptable outing for Obi in
2027. Phrases like ‘…illegitimate President’, ‘…Nigeria has no President’,
‘…masquerading as President’, ‘…imposter President’, are not palatable, but
since it is proven by Aisha that Tinubu did the same during Jonathan’s
presidency, we have no moral justification to condemn her. You cannot be
comfortable with her activism against Jonathan and Buhari and oppose her when
it comes to Tinubu.
Fellow obidients, you are not more Nigerian than other
Nigerians. If you want your candidate to win, you need to convince the
electorates. The people you call almajiris at the slightest provocation
are the ones you need most. I had doubts about polls positioning Peter Obi to
win because the poll respondents are online while the greater percentage of
real voters are offline. They remain offline and should be targeted and
converted with a clear message. The ‘shege’ they go through may
eventually reveal to them that they messed up, but the gospel of the need for
an outlier as a President needs to be better disseminated. Whether they like it
or not, Peter Obi is an outlier for Nigerian politicians and a better option,
but have we convinced the voters about this?
The selflessness and pursuit of a saner country by Uncle Dele and
Aisha in print and visual media are there for all to see – I respect them both.
They desperately want a country to be proud of. But it appears to me that they
have been subjective on this occasion. I hope they will untangle the elements
of this loss, one of which is the failure to sell the Peter Obi candidacy to
the Northern electorates. It may well be impossible, and they need to accept
this if that is the case. But the fact that there were pockets of votes here
and there means it is possible.
As an INEC ad-hoc staff in an off-cycle election in a northern
state during my youth service, I would reject the assumption of INEC declaring
non-existent votes in the north because they take elections more seriously than
other regions. But I do not excuse underage voting or the violence that comes
with it. From the moment Buhari openly displayed his ballot for the world to
see as he did years before, he set an ugly start for the election. The secrecy
of the ballot was foregone, vote-buying was easier, and intimidation was
sanctioned. But voter intimidation was not restricted to APC strongholds.
Yet a whimper has yet to be said by our courts on the need to improve the
electioneering process by INEC. Our courts cannot continue to certify the
non-compliance in our elections every four years as insignificant and expect a
better electioneering process next time. It won’t happen.
Dear obidients, just like some of you, I campaigned and
spent money because of my faith in Peter Obi. But we can’t keep acclaiming
victory that has eluded us to make it valid. We need to assess the situation
objectively. There is no doubt that the Peter Obi movement needed northern
Nigeria and failed to clinch important wins there. A post-election cold war is
already worsening his chances in the next election if he does throw his hat in
the ring again. The task of educating the electorates should have begun. But
when we remain fixated on the unproven assertion that Obi won without empirical
evidence, then we are already losing the plot to victory in 2027. I know it is
difficult to start again after all that you said and did, but the Nigeria we
deserve is only possible when we have the leadership we deserve.
No comments:
Post a Comment