THE ELECTION FEVER: POLLS, RESULT AND VIOLENCE ALL PREDETERMINED

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.  

 

"Such foundation is the idea of political federalism which was informed by the ever-complex and ill-perceived tribalcentric concepts that
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!