FROM PRIMARY SELECTION TO GENERAL SELECTION?



We have heard about elections and see it as a period for the electorate to cast their votes for the candidates of their choice for different political offices. Most elections take place or are held every four years. The electorate are expected during this period to perform their civic duty by voting; the electorate are people in a country or an area who have the right to vote. But now, the right to vote people into political positions has shifted from the electorate to the people I chose to call the “selectorate”.



Many of us have at one time or the other watched the Grammy awards, Kora awards, Oscar awards, MTV awards and other award ceremonies with all their razzmatazz. Whenever it was time to handover the awards to the winners, we usually get the feeling that the judges and nominators were biased in their selection process. We usually had some people in mind we believed would have won but who were not even nominated. The same is true of other award ceremonies. I have witnessed some occasions where the audience shouted and protested the decisions of the judges because their criteria and sense of judgment were doubtful and questionable. But inspite of the noise from the audience, the awards still went the way of the people the judges considered winners. It is obvious then that awards may not go the way of the people qualified or who merited them.



The Nigerian situation during elections had become selections. The vote of the electorate does not seem to count any more. Certain people in certain quarters determine who is declared the winners of the (s)election process even before the votes are cast. Like it is seen during the aforementioned award ceremonies, many who emerge as the eventual winners do not in any way reflect the mind of the electorate. But who are the electorate to question the limitless or unreserved prowess of the folks I chose to call the “selectorate”? The drama we have been watching in Nigeria since the 2003 elections made the electorate to boycott the voters’ registration until the government attached some conditions to the exercise. Many registered not because they wanted to register to be able to vote but for fear of losing their salaries or not being allowed to do their personal business or procure anything from the government.



The primaries of the different political parties have come and gone. But many are still in court challenging the process that produced the candidates representing their parties for different positions. Some who did not want to go to the court cross-carpeted to other parties. Those who crossed over to the opposition parties have all come under attack from their former parties. The federal executive and some state executives are still trading words over allegations of disloyalty and anti-party activities. Many are of the opinion that INEC and EFCC are the tools that can be used to settle the scores or be used to make the opposition settle for the “anointed or selected” ones and endorse them. Many are questioning the independence of these two commissions when they are like acting out the script written by the incumbent.



Many who are now in the opposition parties, were part of the rigging and selection process of the 2003 polls. Some of the traits they got from the Peoples Dehumanised Party was also manifested in their new parties primaries. The question now is whether they will allow themselves to rigged out or be part of the rigging. From what we saw at the different primary selections of the different political parties, it means it may translate to general selection in April polls. The machinery that produced the selected or anointed candidates may also be put in place to produce the winners of the April polls. The problem may be how and who will be selected for the positions. We may not have seen the end of the menace of the political godfathers; the selectorate.



There has been a power shift and we may witness another level of power shift in April polls. The power shifted from the electorate to the incumbent in 2003 and we had second term for the incumbent and few changes by the godfathers. This time many of the incumbent are in the bad books of the anti-corruption agency and the power will shift from them to the selectorate  as witnessed in the primaries. I advice the judiciary to prepare and roll up their sleeves for work ahead. It is apparent that many of the results will be decided by the court and tribunals. Many allegations and counter allegations of rigging are already on the lips of many aspirants before the polls. What will happen during and after the polls?



My question has been, “WILL THESE PRIMARY SELECTIONS NOT TRANSLATE TO GENERAL SELECTIONS IN APRIL? If the selection process is also shifted to the April polls, it should then be called secondary selection. And it is very dicey that it will not be so. But let’s wait and see who carries the day. It will either be the incumbent, the ‘selectorate’ or the electorate. How I wish the electorate will carry the day.



ARINZE ALINNOR

P.O.BOX 17985,IKEJA,LAGOS.

08033001782.