Recently I wrote here about how angry Nigerians are. I did not think then nor do I think now that it was something novel. I have always thought it was part of the deal; one is young, educated and angry! But some people are surprised to hear that folks are angry in Africa – Richard Dowden for example recently wrote how surprised he is when he discovered that Africans are actually angry. Bear in mind, it was not the poor sufferer-smiling Africans that Dowden saw in Lagos, Nairobi and in Uganda. It was the middle class who are affluent enough to be happy, but opted to be very angry. Again, a warm welcome to the Commonwealth of the Angry.
Recently, Rueben Abati opened a new can of worms at the dinner table that is already filled with opened cans all stinking in one accord up to the high heavens. Until Abati’s piece about “yesterday’s men”, I used to think that the same political party with the same political elite has been in power in Nigeria since 1999 (if not before then), therefore they ought to be counted as one regime. But when Femi Fani-Kayode wrote an unhappy response, we learnt that yesterday’s men worked with President Obasanjo while “today’s men” are with President Jonathan. But we don’t know if “tomorrow’s men” are the unemployed youths or if yesterday and today’s men also own the tomorrow. So much ado about men!
Recently, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) – the 4 leading opposition parties in Nigeria, have merged to form the All Progressive Congress (APC). It would appear that the sole motivation of the new APC is to unseat the ruling PDP and replace its government with one of their own. Sorry, but there is nothing new or noble about this quest; political parties have been scheming and voting against each other since the Garden of Eden. It’s just their modus operandi, nothing new there.
But before the APC merger was announced though, Jaye Gaskiya and others have been campaigning very hard and recruiting for a new Democratic Party for Socialist Reconstruction (DPSR). Now, I am not sure which one is The Opposition that is destined to ‘topple’ PDP. On the one hand, the DPSR has put forward strong arguments on its vision for Nigeria and seem to have some ideas one could expect from a political party. On the other hand, the new APC now boasts of having 9 Governors, members of the National Assembly and by default, the combined membership of 4 political parties in its fold. It could be rich enough to give a real challenge to the PDP. That is, if the challenge of selecting party flag-bearers does not tear it apart first.
Just within the last week, the 9 Governors of the APC have met in Maiduguri, Borno State to discuss their party matters. I am not very sure who asked, but Ahmed Gulak, one of the many Presidential aides has revealed that President Jonathan is not afraid to visit Maiduguri. To me who visited (or can visit) Maiduguri is not the most useful question to ask right now; but if the Presidency considers it crucial to prove possible armchair critics wrong, then perhaps a trip to Maiduguri by the President would be a little more convincing and conclusive.
But frankly, in my view, the trouble with elections in Nigeria has never been the absence of an opposition political party (be it APC or DPSR) – at least, not since the ‘Five Fingers of a Leprous Hand’ were ‘amputated’. Even in one-party elections, voters could cast sufficient ‘NO’ votes to force out the incumbent if they wish to. In Nigeria, unfortunately we have recorded some success stories in government in spite of not because of our political parties. Leprous or otherwise.
It is true that electing trusted public officials becomes harder if the party system is shady and characterized by so many deals and ‘gentleman agreements’ such as the current one on whether President Jonathan should seek re-election or not. In such a lopsided system, the voter is reduced to a passive onlooker in a zero-sum game of democracy. But there is an error common to most of the strongopposition crusaders: they seem to think Nigeria’s sole need is a good political party. Equating new ‘good’ parties to good leadership and development is simplistic to the point of myopia.
Changing the voting pattern of Nigerians is likely to remain the greatest challenge for those who seek elections in Nigeria. The situation where access to public facilities are denied to some parties, advertising is monopolized by the incumbents and where there are no policy debates makes the goal of changing Nigeria for good seem an elusive utopia. Unfortunately, the sad truth about the anger of Nigerians is manifested in three dimensions: a) how fast it dissipates b) how often it is wrongly channeled, and c) how it fails to motivate positive action.
It is perhaps true that there are more critics per capita in Nigeria than anywhere else. It is not strange to spend however long time it takes travelling from Kano to Lagos by bus complaining about roads, hospitals or schools which are forgotten to rot or about the mind-blowing sums alleged to have been looted in any of our many scams. Often though, we fail to appreciate that the looters are from our communities. Also, that they are looting-in-peace either because we voted them in, or we failed to vote to keep them out of office. So abstract is the problem of bad governance to many Nigerians that when the ballot paper is placed in front of them, they cast invalid votes. Or they vote for a person from their tribe or religion.
Those who vote for their “own” do not do so because it would be easier for them to challenge the elected official should they fail to deliver; that would have been a noble thing to do. But they do so because it is okay to loot if this is done by one of their “own”. Unfortunately, invalid votes on the other hand are not a sign of illiteracy and poor ‘voter education’ as some seem to think. Keep in mind, 1,256,506 invalid votes were counted in the 2011 Presidential election – that is, 1 in about 40 voters casted an invalid vote. In other words, 1 of your 39 friends is guilty (if you have 5000 friends on Facebook, please do the math). Casting a valid vote is not any more complex than correctly loading 12-15 digits of mobile phone credits, for example. To cast an invalid vote is a sign of nonchalance that is worse than apathy; it says “I don’t care about this routine (of yours) well enough to bother to know how votes are casted; but I think it is fun, so I came out”.
To my mind, the invalid vote more than anything else is an indictment of our (‘nascent’?) democratic process. It is bad already that some 30 million (out of about 70 million) prospective voters who actually registered to vote did not turn out to vote for a President in 2011. With different agencies of government; political parties and NGOs conducting voter education programmes, why did 1.2 million voters cast invalid votes? Why did 30 million people stayed at home?
Slowly Nigeria is beginning to set its sight on the 2015 general elections. At least the court has decided on the eligibility of one of the candidates. My free tip to whoever wants to win elections is this: talk to those who cast invalid votes and those who do not come out to vote; they are the ‘swing votes’ you will need to win. And the time to act is now. Forget about men; both yesterday’s and today’s. Think about the future, our collective tomorrows.
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Daniel Nengak
Nengak Daniel Gondyi is presently a post-graduate student in International Migration and Ethnic Relations at Malmö Högskola inSweden. He is also a Senior Programme Officer of the Abuja based Centre for Democracy and Development, CDD. He holds a Bachelors’ in International Studies from the Ahmadu Bello University. Read his full profile here.
