Democracy is all about the people; their dreams and desires, their aims and aspirations as well as their collective mandate. That, they do by freely exercising their franchise at the polls during elections; to vote in candidates of their choice. But in doing so, they believe in the key element of trust; that the elected politicians would identify their most crucial needs. And muster the wisdom, vision, courage and compassion to meet those crying needs through selfless service. That makes it a socio-political contract.

More often than not however, not a few politicians here in Nigeria view their exalted positions as platforms for self-aggrandisement, greed for money and material acquisition thereby neglecting the people whose valid votes saw them to their plum positions. The people so cruelly and criminally relegated to the shadows wait patiently till the next set of elections to express their power. Of course, the constitutional responsibility of seeing that their votes count rests squarely on the shoulders of the electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission.

While the general opinion is that the Attahiru Jega-led Commission has substantially improved on the conduct of elections since 2011, the obvious hiccups that characterised the 2015 presidential poll were most unfortunate, as they were all clearly avoidable lapses.Talk about logistic challenges resulting in the late arrival of voting materials, the failure of the controversial card readers across the land and the shoddy behaviour of some ad hoc staff. Yet, the Nigerian voters in their millions trooped out of their homes, enduring the rigours and drudgery of queuing up for hours to perform their civic duties. Men and women including pregnant ones, the aged and young all stood under the scorching sun and sometimes suffered from the whipping rain. This piece is therefore, in honour of the Nigerian electorate, for keeping faith with the dictates of democracy.

For instance, in Ebonyi State people queued up till night to vote in their candidates. So it was in Nasarawa, Plateau and Taraba, where voting ended in some parts at 2.00 a.m. on Sunday. Elections had to be postponed in some states, including Lagos where in parts of Oworonsoki people had to wait up till the evening of Sunday.

Beyond the blame game, INEC should have performed much better given the fact that it had four good years to prepare for these crucial elections. Had it gone ahead with the elections on February 14, they would have been a complete disaster. This calls for a lot of proactive measures to be put in place while planning for the April 11, elections. It should be able to project how many vehicles would be required to transport the sensitive and non-sensitive materials; the nature of the terrains to be covered across the hills and also the waterways. The training of the logistics and supply staff has become imperative. This, in addition to tidying up contract arrangements with members of the road transport union, would stem the recurring decimal of the undue delay in the delivery of electoral materials. That the menace reared its ugly head at places such as Utako, Jabi and Karu on the outskirts of Abuja is simply inexcusable. That such a delay led to the beating up of an INEC official at Jalingo and the victim had to be rushed to hospital for treatment necessitates more preventive mechanisms.

Furthermore, INEC has to partner both the political parties and the media in voter education. This should start months before elections with the content of some jingles and handbills presented in the local languages. It should also desist from experimenting with new technology during a nationwide election of this magnitude. Though Jega claims that only an inconsequential 0.25 per cent of the card readers proved faulty, the sheer waste of precious time its use caused in some states could well have been prevented.

And still on the hazards of new technology, the gross misuse of the social media calls for urgent concern. Yours truly, out of a patriotic concern had on Friday, March 27, 2015, urged fellow citizens through my Facebook page to desist from posting fake, fictitious and frivolous election results on social media. One had reiterated that only INEC has the constitutional mandate to do so. But the mischievous ones would not heed the caution. As of Sunday, there were several of such going viral and throwing some people into frenzied dance of victory while INEC had yet to announce any candidate as the eventual winner!

This sordid and sad development calls for a bill to be sent by INEC to the National Assembly barring any Nigerian from posting part or full election results online, with appropriate sanctions to offenders as it happens in China. The misuse of the social media has gone beyond the boundary of decency. One has cautioned several times that while Facebook and the like provide veritable avenues to express one’s opinion, it is the height of insanity and dishonour for people to call national leaders unprintable names for whatever reason. Too bad, that some sitting governors, who ordinarily should act as role models – both in words and action – have used the political podium to cast aspersions on opponents instead of selling their party’s manifestoes to the electorate. The senseless use of uncouth language is not only unAfrican but desecrates their exalted positions. Such politicians were simply undeserving of their vantage positions, at least on moral grounds.

There must be legal frameworks in place to rein in the demons of democracy from rising to occupy public offices. And that includes any Nigerian facing allegations of financial impropriety. One lesson learnt is that the cost of accessing political office is too high and injurious to the economy. Above all, Nigerian voters and the security forces have amply demonstrated their faith in democracy. The victory therefore, belongs to them all.



Oyoze Baje, A media consultant wrote it from lagos.
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