Some Lessons from Nigeria 2023 Elections
There is no problem in Nigeria that Nigerians can’t solve. But will they do it?
Dear Reader,
Kindly stay for AT LEAST 30 SECONDS. Don’t kill the writers’ reader ratio.
Non-Medium subscribers, read this story here — FREE.
Follow up as you may on Nigeria politics and the 2023 general elections, a single post or story won’t be enough to educate you convincingly.
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Gregory Obi, is the single greatest human catalyst that has galvanized and changed the direction of Nigerian politics in living memory.
Before the election, the prospects of electing him as the president of Nigeria was the force that prompted the majority of new Nigerians voters to register for their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVC). Erstwhile “ambivalent to politics and elections Nigerians”, especially the youth trouped out in their thousands to register for their PVCs.
Even Obi’s traducers agree that, Nigeria will be transformed in a generation if only the country has more of his likes as either politicians, principled aspiring leaders, and followers.
A week before the presidential elections, the country was deep in the agonies of an ill-timed new currency notes “cash-swap” policy.
Nigerians of all classes no longer had access to their own cash! Profiteering and extortion immediately took-off in the wake of this well intended but badly executed policy.
Blood, tears, sorrows, and sufferings.
Already poverty-ridden Nigerians had to forego part of their moneys to get some of it. Literally, Nigerians were buying back their own hard-earned barely enough money at POS terminals at rates of 20 to 40% charges where they were formerly paying 1 or 1.5%.
Overnight, paying for basic needs like groceries, taxi, having a haircut, paying for medicines, etc, became impossible to get hold off.
The people couldn’t get access to their money. In some places, our people even had to resort to trade-by-barter.
O my God, Nigerians were starving. I have never experienced such sufferings in my life and I won’t ever wish the same on my enemy — if I have one.
That was when it dawned on me that Nigerians are not yet ready for “A New and Better Nigeria”. We were returning home from Church service the Sunday before the presidential elections when I shared my thoughts with my young man.
“Son, from the look of things, I don’t think Nigerians are ready for any change that will make our country better. It seems to me that the majority of our people are still insistent on their old, discredited ways of doing things.”
He waited for me to finish and as if he was reading my mind replied, “Dad you are correct. It seems to me that we Nigerians have not yet been pushed to the wall enough ….”
The elections have since come and (not completely) gone. The echoes and ripples of its divisive wake will linger on for many years to come.
Here are the lessons I learned from the Presidential elections of February 18th and The Governorship Elections of 25 March 2023
1. Large Voters’ Turn-Out is paramount for successful elections.
Voters trouped out for the presidential elections. In my place, the number of polling stations were increased from one to four. The overall level of participation was more than six fold compared to past elections.
This made it more difficult for election rigging to get easily covered up. Had voters not turned up in large numbers as they did, it would have been easier for thugs to carry out their evil plans unhindered.
2. Election rigging cannot take place without the complicity of the government in power.
People voted peacefully despite the delays of the INEC officials. During the counting stage, when it became apparent that the incumbents have lost out massively, their political thugs swung into action.
They scattered the polling stations and made away with the ballot boxes. Later on, we heard to our chagrin that the votes for our polling station were cancelled. This same pattern of electoral irregularities was reported throughout the state and across the nation.
3. Security officers cannot kill innocent Nigerians without government’s involvement.
On election day, voting was going on at snail-speed.
At my polling booth, it was apparent that the delay from INEC was scripted. Yet, the people exercised patience.
It was well past midday when the police officer assigned to our booth dared voters waiting their turns to vote with, “What will you do if the INEC officials decide to stop the balloting before the others have voted?”
The voters present shouted him down in unison, daring him to try it.
“Don’t even think about it. INEC people are not departing from here until we’ve all voted and counted and BVAS transmit our votes.”
The police officer kept quiet afterward. Some of the police officers advised us, “You people should vote well o. You all know that we don’t have any say in this matter. Please ensure you vote well. Our own is to obey what our ogas (superiors) commanded us to do.”
Our polling booth was near the expressway. Police officers were milling round us while dozens more were jammed tight inside three trucks parked nearby.
Some of the senior officer tried to intimidate us by attempting to snatch the ballot boxes away. Not once did they shoot or rough handled any voter. Not once were they able to break through the human ring of protection formed by voters around the ballot boxes.
Some other locations were not so lucky. Political thugs still had their way at other polling booths. The police stayed put until the vote was counted and recorded by the parties agents.
Worthy of note, late into the night (around 8.30pm) all the BVAS results transmission machines went dead throughout most parts of the country on that day.
Many Nigerians do not care or wish to change. Know this and no peace.
4. Divisive ethnic and religious bigotry campaigns instead of dwelling on issues.
Instead of campaigning on issues, the two main political parties (PDP and APC) started their campaigns with their divisive ethnic domination agenda and born to rule religious bigotry against the upcoming challenger, Labour Party.
Many Nigerians love their religions so much that they prefer lifelong poverty and destitution, if that is what it takes to uphold their bigoted beliefs.
The nation cannot stand, so long as politicians based their campaigns on ethnic and religious cleavages instead of dwelling on issues close to the hearts and welfares of Nigerians.
5. Nigeria cannot unite or progress so long as do they politics on the basis of religious bigotry and ethnic supremacy.
Some Nigerians are so ethnocentric to the detriment of others and our common national interest. For as long as politicians keep on basing their elections and campaigns on ethnic loyalties and religious bigotry, this country can never be united.
Rather, Nigeria will keep crumbling into dust to be blown away by the wind of history while other nations march on. God forbid it. But that will only be if Nigerians forbid it as well.
6. Many Nigerians in diaspora are still deeply entrenched in ethnic and religious bigotry.
Despite their having sojourned in democratic, merit and rule based-societies, many Nigerians in diaspora still come back home to fuel the fire of ethnic and religious division.
Tribalism and religious bigotry are still in their DNA.
While some Nigerians are embracing changes and building bridges of a united country, other Nigerians are digging deeper and wider ethnic and religious cleavages.
7. The future seems more bleak and uncertain for many Nigerians.
INEC and the country's insincere ruling party have ensured that. Neither of them can ever be trusted again. Now, their handling of the last election has further dampened and worsened the loss of faith in future elections.
Prior to these recent elections, the concern of many Nigerians has been,
“Will the government respect our choices this time around?”
They didn’t.
At the end of the day, it was self-evident that at the federal level and for many of the other elective posts, incumbent politicians imposed their wills and “selected” their successors, against our people’s choices. Brazenly.
8. Many Nigerians are comfortable with their alternative truths so long as it favours them or their tribes.
So long as the results of the “selection” favoured their preferred candidates, they are OK. They urge Nigerians to Manage It Like That (MILT) in an election that was egregiously corrupt and rigged against the people’s choice.
Ingeniously devilish, corrupt politicians and their minions have become purveyors of Stalinist Russia and their discredited murderous doctrine. Putin is their hero, but they are constantly japaing to Europe & America.
… what we witnessed on 25th February, 2023, was not democracy in practice. … The last election was nothing but a sham and shambolic election of “first-kill-maim-allocate-thumbprint-ballot-papers-select-and-win-at-all-cost-and-let-them-go-to-court”. It was not democracy, but “electionocracy” and “selectocracy” in action.
The new refrain in town has since become “GO TO COURT”; an obvious addition to our warped political lexicon. The election in my humble view, was the shame of a country that has been held down for decades by the jugular by insensitive and insensate elite state captors.
9. Nigerians; “Sidon Look” (Sit down and Look), apathy will kill us all.
During the governorship election, I nearly ended up being bloodied by thugs. Among those thugs and at the forefront of my assailants was somebody I’ve been charitable to in the past.
True. You heard it from me. That gives you a picture of how much poverty and ignorance has been weaponized by our corrupt rulers and politicians.
Another chap that I squirrelled away from being bloodied and blinded (in a fight during the presidential election) looked the other way while I was being attacked. He even used to attend the same church with me.
It was an “et tu Brute” (“even you too, Brutus!?”) enigma for my four family members who were there and also voted. A church member denied his “brother” to do thuggery for corrupt politicians. I narrowly fled and escaped with my skin.
When we later confronted our betrayer, his response was, “Ehnn, you know, this is politics. We know that your candidate won the election. But our man has made so much noise that if he fails to deliver the state to his party and preferred candidate, it will look somehow. …”
The aforementioned incident is to let you in on the level to which some already (pauperized) Nigerians were complicit in the rigging of the elections. Yes, ordinary people were massively complicit.
They succumbed to rigging their future for peanuts of a few thousand naira notes.
More painful to watch were docile Nigerians. Instead of rallying round you to help you, they tell you, “Leave them alone. They are thugs. Don’t let them injure you o.”
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing
~Edmund Burke
10. Many Nigerians have again embraced cynicism.
Some rightfully aggrieved Nigerians have vowed never to vote in any future elections again. But tell them, such a move makes it even easier for evil actors to perfect and carry out their evil deeds. And that was exactly what happened during the governorship election.
In my place, voters' turnout during the governorship election was about 33% of the turnout during the presidential. Even then, the Labour Party still won overwhelmingly. But the low turnout of voters made it easier for ballot box snatchers to make away with the transmitted or unrecorded votes. The police people were looking the other way. They were all in the game.
As of today, the rulers can’t be trusted to conduct fair elections. The people were willing, prepared and “fought gallantly” for changes. But, the corrupt politicians and rulers who hold the reins of power keep on dividing and destroying our land.
In Nigerians, evil is celebrated as good and good is pronounced as evil. How they can we stand? We are primed to fail.
There is nothing wrong with Nigeria that Nigerians can’t fix. But will they do it?
This election signifies the first time Nigerians were willing and ready to fix their country. Unfortunately, the government in power, aided by complicit politicians and some incorrigible “the devil may care citizens” have conspired to ensure that “A Better Nigeria is Possible” may not happen in my generation.
Final Words
It’s so hard to maintain one’s sanity in a country that insists on taking everything from you, draining your life’s blood by 1000 cuts.
There can be no hope for a renegade nation so long as they and their rulers refuse to repent and change from their evil ways.
No matter how they wish to carry on as if all is getting better and more rosy for our people, this is the unfolding tragedy of the Nigeria of our times.
In this Guilty Nation, some beneficiaries of Nigeria’s 2023 electoral heist are already celebrating that their daughter is going to be Nigeria’s First Lady. Yet, this is an election that has been adjudged to be the most flawed in the nation’s history.
This is the nightmare of the self-accursed hell that has been unleashed on me and other Nigerians and their Guilty Nation. Present, continuous, and every day.
In Nigeria, general elections were conducted on 25 February and 18 March, 2023. I was both a participant and an observer. The opinions expressed here are my personal impressions.
Here are my other stories covering Nigeria’s politics and Nigeria Election 2023.
- Nigeria’s Generation of Evil Normalizers | ILLUMINATION (medium.com)
- Nigerians, I Bring You Hope | Muse 2 Muse (medium.com)
- The Umpire That Crashed Nigerians’ Hopes | ILLUMINATION’S MIRROR (medium.com)
- Of Flies, Nigerians, and their Toxic Rulers | Muse 2 Muse (medium.com)
Thank you for reading.
- If you love writing, join me here 👉 Muse 2 Muse.
- Connect via my Telegram channel or Discord server and share your insights on this topic.
