As expected, tears from the just-concluded governorship elections in Ondo have started flowing. Pressed down, shaken together and running over – that’s the quantum of tears flowing from those who feel shortchanged by the system. Make no mistakes, their grievances may be right. Their allegations may be true. Yet, this is not the first time.
Every now and again, circumstances throw up a handful of Nigerian politicians who come out to bemoan the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Take for instance the people who cried that Anambra 2021 was rigged. Three full years is about to pass since that alleged rigging. Can we ask, what substantial efforts have they made to make sure that the INEC that will conduct the next round of #AnambraDecides is better than the INEC of the previous one? Ask the same question for all the off-cycle elections before and after the 2023 general elections.
Where are those embittered politicians? Why didn’t they convert that pain of loosing in an unfair manner into a movement that finally dismantles this deliberately vulnerable electoral system? My thesis is that Nigerians are mostly selfish. And our politicians are even more so. Only very few are interested in solving a collective problem. The rest either want to solve it personally for themselves or find a way to avoid being victimized, or to actually profit from a terribly flawed system.
Now, let’s escalate this. Where are the people who shed tears about the operational (INEC) and judicial (Supreme Court) outcomes of the 2023 general elections? What substantial steps have they taken since then to insist on electoral and judicial reforms?
Why have we gone back home hoping that INEC will reform itself? Who bewitched us to assume that the people who have all the leverages needed to exert themselves on the system will willingly reform INEC/Judiciary without a strong, persistent and coordinated action of the opposition?
My observation is this; that the political class is not interested in reforming INEC or the judiciary. They are only hoping that the weaknesses of the system will be exploited in their favour. They only cry foul when they succumb to the superior rigging firepower of their opponents. The others, are the “perfect gentlemen” politicians with fairytale assumptions who come back every four years hoping that INEC has reformed itself. There’s a reason these two set of politicians always end up with tears.
It’s not too late. If all the people who feel shortchanged in 2023, and the elections that followed, including the just concluded exercise in Ondo State, will give it all it takes to reform INEC and the judiciary. Believe me, a lot can be achieved between now and the next cycle of elections.
I pray they don’t go home to save up tears for the next electoral cycle.
Reforming our systems is admittedly difficult, but very doable. After all, Goliath is only as strong as the absence of David.
Dear brothers and sisters, weeping may endure for the night. Africa’s morning is at hand. ✊🏽
By: Chima Christian
