Saturday, April 2, 2011 will stand as a day in infamy in the annals of elections in Nigeria. Even though I was not in the country, from all the posts in the internet, I could sense the energy drained from the populace, together with a sense of helplessness and frustration. It reminded me of that fateful Saturday in April 1993, my last year of sojourn in the British Isles, when the Grand National Race, which had been eagerly anticipated by the entire population in England, was botched right at the start.

The Grand National, usually held at Aintree in England, is like America's Super Bowl, and there is usually a sense of anticipation throughout the country. In the days leading to the Grand National, in the market places, at the pubs, even in the hospitals, the talk of the town was always the Grand National as the national anticipation explodes into four minutes of climax. But the 1993 race, held on April 3, almost to the day of Jega's fiasco, was the race that never was. After a first false start, the horses were called back to the starting blocks easily enough. But the second false start did everyone in. For a very strange reason, the jockeys never heard that there was a false start and that they were being asked to return. The red flag was ignored by all, as the horses galloped in full steam round the track. It was a fiasco that drained the energy out of everybody. The race had to be canceled as there was no way to ask the horses who had run to total exhaustion to be asked to do it again. I got sick to my stomach just watching on TV. At the House of Commons the next Monday, Labour Party leader, John Smith blamed the Prime Minister, for "presiding over a country where the Grand National could not hold"!

Ironically, until last Saturday, April 2 used to have a better rap in Nigeria's folklore. It was on that day, at 6 a.m. in 1972, on a beautiful Sunday morning, that Nigeria changed from driving on the left side of the road, like the British, to the right side, like most of our neighbors. Maybe it was the "curse of the British", which was invoked when we dared abandoned the British side of the road in 1972, which event all but foreclosed further importation of cars from the Mother of the Commonwealth. Now after what Jega did last Saturday, all what is left of that memorable day is "the day of the Nigerian election that never was."

Perhaps Attorney Carol Ajie was right after all: Jega should probably not have been chosen to lead INEC. If I had known also that JEGA stood for Jonathan Ebele Goodluck Azikiwe, I would have lent my voice against Jega. I still think that he was bold to have postponed the election when he knew that disaster was looming. But it probably should not have come to that with proper planning. After the deflation of last Saturday, it remains to be seen whether the people can be motivated and energized to come out in good numbers next Saturday and vote again.

Emmanuel O. Fashakin, M.D.; Esq.
Attorney at Law & President/ Medical Director,
Alpha-K Family Medical Practice, P.C.
79-35 153rd Street, Flushing, NY 11367,USA
Tel: (718) 591-1600; Fax: (718) 591-0265
web address: www.alphak.org
alternative e-mail: mdfash2@gmail.com
Mobile phones: +1-347-217-6175; +1-267-907-3127

"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." 1 Cor 2:13