Once again, we are on the familiar road. Every approach to general elections in our country since independence has come with a peculiar pattern. The atmosphere must change from peaceful to that of apprehension. Everyone becomes a leadership expert with very loud threatening voices from all corners.
Those who stayed quiet all three and half years suddenly regain their lost voices, everyone talking but only a few making sense. We see frenzy. The political parties that ought to be busy putting their house in order and streamlining structures and processes come alive unfortunately on many fronts from the wrong angles.
Groups fight to take over party organs not to offer better alternatives for credible internal democracy, but rather to position men and women most of whose integrity fall below the standard required to push progressive ventures.
One of the consequences is what we know: internal democracy in the political parties has turned shambolic. If truth be told, party primaries have become a selection and a game of might. The strong, powerful and very rich take the stage. Oligarchs produce the candidates. Again, it is a case of continuous implanting of contradictions. Contradictions don’t build, they rather throw up convulsions.
Also, at such periods the job sense and professionalism of officialdom, especially the one at the centre doesn’t help matters. Appointment of electoral officials still carries partisan stamps. The electoral body has stuck to the ugly trend of leaving important matters and preparations until a few months to the polls before they begin to act. For the 2027 elections, voters’ registration is either ongoing or just ended a few days after it started and would end in a very chaotic outcome when it is time to collect the voter cards. We have seen it before. A new electoral law was also rolled out about two or three months ago, put clearly this year with first elections scheduled for January 2027. Those who are conversant with things that make electoral process and democracy thick do know predictability is a cardinal component. Political parties and even aspirants to public offices should know ahead of time the policy and legal foundations that would regulate their activities. It aids preparations and calculations. We don’t have that luxury and all the positive variables it throws in for peace, credibility of process and outcomes. We stumble on. Critical observers agree that this is not healthy.
The consequences from this pattern are legion on the negative indices graph. We are on the retrogressive lane right now. It is crucial to alert us that we have reached the periphery of the destructive circle. On the edge of the cliff, just one powerful wind and the much feared tumble could happen.
As is usual we have said the atmosphere is charged. Political office holders are talking as if what we run is democracy but monarchy where people can be picked anyhow and given a role to play. They give the impression everything about 2027 is a done deal. Truth is the polls won’t pass the credibility test. We repeat: it won’t. Even before giving no such assurance. The citizenry are apprehensive, loud voices everywhere, the last major one being the advice from the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria to President Bola Tinubu penultimate week.
Was the action of the Bishops right or wrong? The crux of democracy is mass participation. So, within this prism they are right to give feedback and demand stewardship and accountability. But the timing gives away something: this visit would have made far greater sense if it happened after the second year in power so the state actors could have time to readjust their direction. Happening five months to another election raises posers.
The response from the President to the Bishops and later the aides of the President reminds us that we have a task to begin to train our spokespersons on the finer nitty-gritty of doing the job. Image making includes interfacing with the principal and letting him know what could be expected and how to react. They too are principally there to absorb damage, take it to a corner and usher in peace and fresh bonding not to enter the arena and become the fighters themselves. They should win friends for their master.
Rudeness, it has been said, is a weak man’s imitation of strength. Disrespect can never be acceptable. Our president must be taught he has to act presidential all the time. A simple straight forward answer to the visiting Bishops would have been: “We are trying, we would do more to make sure dividends of democracy trickle down to the masses, the elections would be credible, fair and free.” That would have been appropriate and made more sense. Our President lost it on this score.
Our critical class isn’t well built; there is no clarity to what they ought to be doing. Their style can’t be attacked all the time with intensity growing as election season draws close. They should be more of contributors of ideas and alternative options.
Surprisingly, the opposition we have run on ambition instead of vision. Otherwise they would have had a long term plan “A” and “B”; they would have poured themselves into one political party and of course given a southerner the ticket and in addition find a credible northerner as vice presidential candidate, divide the rest of the other key public offices among the other prominent figures within the party and by now President Tinubu would have had his hands full. They failed to do so and that has left the country with a deeply fragmented opposition group up against a ruling party.
Last week, President Tinubu announced a salary increase for military personnel, and applause greeted the action. That is the kind of direction, policies and programmes he ought to have pursued, especially after the well intentioned removal of fuel subsidy with the attendant dislocations that followed. We can go further. Imagine if electric buses were everywhere, available health centres and hospitals offer very affordable healthcare attention across the land. The President’s rating would have been different today.
Let me end this outing on this note: the issue is system and structure, it doesn’t matter who is the country’s president per time. If either Peter Obi or Atiku Abukakar, for instance, assumes office as president today and the administrative structures remain what they are, and with no well distilled national vision in place, nothing will change, not even when there could be enhanced momentum. It will end up the same way: motion without movement.
Nigeria requires a rethink. We have left gaps that must be filled if anything good is to begin to happen. One of them is securing a buy-in. No leader sets out to fail; the truth is that the soil is full of sulphur. Good intentions aren’t enough to run good governance. Our leaders in office understand this fact very late when they are already far into their tenures. Perhaps in the coming weeks we would be able to tell why President Tinubu appears to have run into a storm.
(The Sun)