By Igbotako Nowinta
Never before has our country reached a new level of visionlessness and missionlessness, recorded under the watch of any President. Given the crises churning around the country as a result of bad leadership, collapse of systemic responsibilities and responsiveness, we must respond with fierce challenge; we must make those Senators climb down from what they have done. Now or never, we must recognize the importance of building new agile partnerships with like minds across the country, to stop this affront, coming from the Senators. This is the battle of our lives. It is crazy nonsense that a group of selfish Senators are trying to force their will against the wishes and aspirations of the Nigerian people. It is unimaginable that in this very time, and this century that we as a people, are still struggling to get it right concerning how we elect our representatives, after more than sixty years of nationhood. How do we classify ourselves as bonafide citizens of Nigeria, when we cannot demand with everything we have and know, that the next general elections must be conducted using instant electronic transmission of election results, and all available digital facilities? How did we get to this modern day slavery, where the process that would act as a catalyst to our collective greatness, is still not transparent, secured and absolutely credible?
On July 15, 2021, the Nigerian Senate, threw a burning spear at our hearts, and brazenly challenged the true meaning of our citizenship, when it shamelessly voted against the inclusion of Electronic Transmission of Election Results in the nation’s Electoral Act.
50 members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and 2 members of the main opposition political party – the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), voted against the expectations of the people of Nigeria, when considering the much talked about Electoral Amendment Bill for passage.
As soon as the news of the position of the Senate got to me, my mind immediately went memory lane, back to 1776, when the people in the British colonies were conscientized to put a stop to the rule of King George lll and his imperial madness, in what we know as United States of America now.
For me where we have found ourselves in Nigeria is odiously that of a few gangs of desperate individuals, privileged to be our representatives, but have transformed themselves into malevolent imperial Lords over the masses.
This stark display of insensitivity to the incessant sufferings and demands of the people, occasioned by the gigantic flaws in our electoral process, by those who would have gladly done so in the Senate, is utterly unacceptable to us. We can no longer take it.
Thomas Paine, an English born American political activist and revolutionary, in January 1776, in Philadelphia, United States, published a 47-page material, which he titled:” Common Sense.”
In ‘Common Sense,’ Thomas Paine began by saying: “These are the times that try men’s soul’ and went on to rally the colonists into seeking immediate independence and not tax relief, from the British government and the royal monarchy.
According to Paine, “Heaven knows how to put a price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated.” This book swept through the colonies like a firestorm destroying any final vestiges of loyalty to the British crown.
That was the genesis of the historic process that led to the declaration of Independence from Britain, by the colonies on July 4, 1776, using the then Continental Congress.
“It would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated,” now, in the Federal Republic of Nigeria; and the freedom l am talking about is freedom for Nigerians, to freely elect their representatives without any hindrance or hiccups.
What we have on our hands is a dark picture, we have been sucked into a dangerous corner, as reign of reckless policy summersaults and gambles have turned our people into stark slaves, in the midst of inherent abundance.
Never before has our country reached a new level of visionlessness and missionlessness, recorded under the watch of any President.
Given the crises churning around the country as a result of bad leadership, collapse of systemic responsibilities and responsiveness, we must respond with fierce challenge; we must make those Senators climb down from what they have done.
Now or never, we must recognize the importance of building new agile partnerships with like minds across the country, to stop this affront, coming from the Senators.
This is the battle of our lives. It is crazy nonsense that a group of selfish Senators are trying to force their will against the wishes and aspirations of the Nigerian people.
It is unimaginable that in this very time, and this century that we as a people, are still struggling to get it right concerning how we elect our representatives, after more than sixty years of nationhood.
How do we classify ourselves as bonafide citizens of Nigeria, when we cannot demand with everything we have and know, that the next general elections must be conducted using instant electronic transmission of election results, and all available digital facilities?
How did we get to this modern day slavery, where the process that would act as a catalyst to our collective greatness, is still not transparent, secured and absolutely credible?
The reason spelled out by the Senators, that network availability is a challenge; that Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), cannot go ahead with electronic transmission of election results, is watery and pedestrian to me.
The Senate is directly unleashing a continued vicious debilitating selection ordeal on us all. We simply cannot take or swallow that harvest of hypocrisy displayed by the Senators; it was the most draconian method to put us in electoral darkness.
They have only shown us the kind of ruthless insensitivity necessary to keep us perpetually in electoral bondage. We must not forget that, it was the instant transmission of election results that turned the boastful political hunters of Governor Godwin Obaseki, to be the hunted, during the Edo State Governorship Elections on September 19, 2020.
That is why we as a people must try desperately to extricate what they have done out of our way. This is the battle of our lives. ‘These are the times trying our souls’ in Nigeria now; we must stand up and fight this slavish mess; we must set ourselves ablaze to burn down this monstrous barbarism called electoral process here.
Have we forgotten what we all did collectively in February 2010 that led to the ‘doctrine of necessity in the Senate’, which elevated Goodluck Jonathan to the Presidency properly? We can certainly do better than that now.
This is the real freedom we need now, if what we call democracy in Nigeria will still be of any meaning to us? Elections is supposed to be a way and a kind of conflict resolution mechanism, that will ensure that the comprehensive needs of the society is being met practically and scientifically, but in Nigeria, democracy is peopled by buccaneers, mean scoundrels and characters that are very far from the aroma of merit, progress and patriotism.
Even, as vibrant and honest Nigerians are being compelled to retreat into political oblivion or retirement, it is incomprehensible that, we continue to be backwards, simply because our selection process is ridiculous, short changing and scary.
And that is the reason we must align ourselves with the position of the State Governors in Nigeria, on the electronic transmission of election results.
We must seek permanent and profound changes in our electoral processes, on a massive scale; the kind of drastic changes needed to prevent further scuttling of our electoral process, by insane, idiotic and retrogressive elements.
We must find in our heads or brains, the common sense (according to Thomas Paine), and humanity, to actually take this absolutely meaningful steps: that we will not allow 2023 general elections, to take place, unless INEC is given free hands, to not only access the instant electronic transmission of election results, but to do wholesale digitalization of subsequent elections.
This battle is winnable only if we are ready (all professional cum pressure groups; civil society organizations, seasoned prodemocracy activists; National Association of Nigerian Students NANS, etc., to struggle like hell, and fight uncompromisingly, whoever and whatever want to stand on our way.
This is the battle of our lives!
Nowinta wrote: Where We Are – A Call For Democratic Revolution in Nigeria.
