THE ELECTION FEVER: POLLS, RESULT AND VIOLENCE ALL PREDETERMINED
By Kay Aderibgbe
Majority of our people have
been made to adjust their allegiances to either of the two leading political
parties (APC and PDP) in the current scheme of politics in Nigeria today. The
raison d'eter being the 2015 general elections. Hardly would one see anything
without political implications these days. Imagine when you are told to come back
for your debt that is due after election. In fact, political issues are
deliberately blown out of proportion by politicians. Nigerians in their large
numbers suddenly became politically conscious as a result of number of reasons.
Factors such as the
country's economic condition; security situation; cost and standard of living; religious
affiliations; political deprivation; terrorism; meaninglessness of education
achievement; general defrauding of our people through the use of public
utility; and what has been vigorously argued as the perennial failure/success
of the present political regime accounted for the reactionary posture of
the politically aware public.
As perfectly plausible as these factors seem today they have always
remained the same policy narratives that have been featuring on our political
agenda ever since the days of Balewa. How come Nigerian Politicians
do not think positively about the situation of things if every thinker ought to be greatly influenced by the circumstances of his day? The
circumstances surrounding electoral politics in Nigeria cannot be discussed
outside the larger concept of ecology of Nigerian politics. The said ecology of
politics was a product of thoughts, doctrines and proclamations that were
reluctantly arrived at. This body of rules form the substructure upon which
every other driving forces of Nigerian politics was laid.
underpinned the formation of the state itself" (Aderibigbe, 2014)
The problem nowadays is that "the ecology of Nigerian politics revolves around visible and invisible ethno-cultural, religious, class cum political mentalities that have in the recent times transgenically metamorphosed the Nigerian people from the overwhelming notion of Nigerianity to that of 'individual selves', who are primarily and absolutely concerned with self and other 'extra selves' who can unquestionably work intermingled for the same 'self-propagation' at the detriment of the state. (Aderibigbe, 2014).
Let me identify certain
issues that altogether form the skeletal framework of the organization of
Nigerian electoral politics. This can at least help to unravel the annoying
subject of 'do or die' affair and 'electoral violence'. One, the elitists mindset
and the idea of 'class in itself'- which is the bedrock of any legislation made
for us. Two, the psychological mind frame of religious and ethnocultural
defence- which is the problem of the common people. Three, the composition,
power and value of the electoral regime- which is de jure factor in who gets
what. Four, economic fulfillment, and lastly national security- which affect
both the rich and poor and how they fare.
The perception of election by
the political class is different from the expectations of an ordinary Nigerian
because the democracy that hosted election in the first place came at a cost
(political mortgage), and also feature party system of 'political office for
highest bidder'. The dichotomy therefore, is the reality where politicians
employ numerous antics including fascination for policy failures in order that
politicians can always stay around and preach 'change' or 'transformation' that
will not encapsulate our problems.
My position is that Nigerian
politicians and the so called administrators are socio-economic individual
selves which through politics have stood above an average Nigerian and the
collective self of the Nigerian state. The reason is
obvious, "different kinds of government do not derive their legitimacy
from the people, but rather from the pool of elitist individual wealth which
was in the first place stolen from the state and reinvested into the process of
retaining governmental powers". (Aderibigbe, 2014)
This is why elections in the past have been characterized with
violence and would continue to result into chaos. Certainly, those state actors
that invested their money are irrevocable committed to be dogmatic, serious and
desperate to win; haven realized that political power is the only possible and
viable means through which they can steal, store, display and buy cheap respect
in the public realm with the fund meant for the development of the state.
Since the process of electoral politics in Nigeria is mostly characterized
with interactions that have been schematically calculated by actors that do not
expect any outcome other than positive. Politician ensured that programmes that
aid peoples' participation, electoral manipulation, and organization of crises, are inherent with the organization of economic life.
It can therefore be deductively summarized that it is inchoate, inconclusive and also an
inertia argument to have concluded that the popularity or public support for a
political party will determine the success or failure of the party because
politicians have game plans that have been segmented into (i) economic
deprivation (ii) religious/ethnic divisionism (iii) intimidation (iv) rigging
and (v) violence, all erected on 'money politics' which must not fail. So, where is the place of those aromatic mass of our people
singing CHANGE or TRANSFORMATION?. I guess another four years in the miasma of
deprivation as usual. What a shame!
