It is no longer news that Barrack
Obama is back to the White
House for his second term as
President of the United States of
America. His eventful first term no
doubt paved the way for the feat. In earnest, the man’s vision,
passion and general demeanour
present him as a person who can
win an election any day. It is probably on this score that
my friend, Paul, spent a whole
day sermonizing to me the other
day about how great Nigeria
would be if she could get a
President like Obama. While I agree that we need a dynamic
President I imagine quite vividly,
that Obama cannot win election
in Nigeria. In the first place, getting a
platform to participate in a
Nigerian election would almost
be an impossible task for an
Obama; yet he has to find one
because the Nigerian political system does not allow for an
independent candidate. To use
the platform of the largest
party in Africa – the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) is
probably the surest way to win but getting its ticket is dicey in
view of the difficulty in
understanding the party’s all-
important zoning policy.In 2011, when the slot was zoned
to the North for example, the
way the party handled it left
some people to begin to see
Bayelsa as a Northern State. On
the other hand, to be the candidate of the Congress for
Progressive change (CPC) is ruled
out because the position is not
available as the members are
reportedly anxious to see the
founder of the party contesting again. There is also no chance in the
Labour Party (LP) which usually
fields no candidate of its own
but merely endorses that of
another party. If however
Obama decides to look up to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN),
he is not assured of victory
because the party members can
vote against him as they did to
their own Nuhu Ribadu in 2011. All the other political parties
being moribund, the way out
would appear to be for Obama
to set up his own party – an
option which has its humorous
but ridiculous challenges. With some dollars, it would be easy to
find 37 Coordinators in the
States and Abuja but the seed
money for the take-off of the
new party across the nation is
unfortunately likely to be embezzled. It would indeed be a disaster if
some of the Coordinators turn
out to be like one character I
know who uses the one room
accommodation he secured as a
party secretariat in the day time and as a ‘beer-parlour’ in the
evenings. This is however not
serious compared with our
absurd electoral process. To
start with, our Electoral Act –
the law which governs elections in Nigeria is temperamental. The legislature which is made up
of politicians who have interests
in elections may decide to
endorse open ballot as the
voting system for future
elections. All they need to do is to sustain the argument that it is
the system that best suits voting
in our illiterate society. Oh yes
that is the argument with which
they have refused to allow
electronic voting. We all know however that the
reason for the refusal is because
electronic voting would prevent
any voter from thumb printing
more than one ballot paper and
would thus invalidate thousands of votes that politicians score
through massive thumb printing
of ballot papers by some rented
hooligans in hide-outs. Otherwise, why would our
politicians continue to argue
that our so called illiterate
population that can easily use
the GSM cannot understand
electronic voting? It only suggests that if an Obama
decides to contest a Nigerian
election, he should be ready to
contend with a multiplicity of
electoral manipulations. Again, the argument that our
electoral process has improved is
only a theory and at best a
fiction as children who are
legally excluded from the
process still participate in it and openly too because of the bogus
nature of our voters register. A
person’s name can be in it this
year; and out of it next year
while it can return there in the
third year. Notwithstanding assurances, no
one is sure as at today that he
would get what our electoral
commission describes as a
“permanent” voter’s card before
the magical year 20-20. Not long ago, the commission announced
as one of its achievements, the
likely completion of the printing
of the cards next year. In the case of election results,
there are still many areas where
votes often outnumber
accredited voters. An Obama
would probably wonder aloud
about the porous security system which allows such
malpractices. In the USA, the
electoral process is technically
secured whereas in Nigeria it is
manually experimented upon by
law enforcement operatives Soldiers are rarely seen in
American cities except in the
airports when departing to
assignments abroad. For this
reason, Obama may be disturbed
by the number of soldiers on the road during elections. It should
not bother him because our
soldiers are these days part of
the lucrative police business of
mounting check points
supposedly to apprehend criminals. Our soldiers are also quite active
on an election day where under
the guise of ‘securing’ our
electoral process, they
intimidate voters in favour of
wealthy candidates. As if to make the system look credible,
Vice Chancellors of Universities
are then appointed as returning
officers to read the results.
Interestingly, some of these ‘holy’
men are yet to stop examination malpractices in their institutions In all democracies, election
petition is provided for by law.
To utilize the provision may be an
option in America but not so in
Nigeria where almost every loser
usually challenges the outcome of an election. In fairness, some
petitioners are not necessarily
bad losers as Obama may gather
from our media, rather such
‘losers’ are incensed by the
impunity with which elections are manipulated. If an Obama is in
their shoes, he may be forced to
petition. Unfortunately Nigeria courts are
often compromised. Indeed, clean
judges are so few in our clime
that a blanket condemnation of
the Nigerian judiciary is not
uncharitable. So, Obama is likely to lose not only a Nigerian
election but also the election
petition. I rest my case.

mtchew