Speaking to my friends and family, there’s a unanimous understanding that none of us is happy with the shape of things in our country. Everyone’s convinced that we have yet to see the full gains of our most recent experiment with democracy; the popular vote just hasn’t delivered the goods – yet. But as Nigerians are an optimistic lot, we expect that it will one day. I sincerely hope that this happens concurrently with my youth, lest I approach my latter years with this same pervading sense of disappointment with the land and people of my birth.  

If the people closest to me are taken as representative of the entirety of my fellow countrymen - and there is no reason not to - then we can rightly surmise that Nigerians are not very happy with our lot at the moment. Frankly, we expect more, most especially from our leaders, the biggest beneficiaries of our nascent fourth republic. We expect more from them, as individuals, and a group of people whose theoretical responsibility is to represent us and work tirelessly to better our lot as a body corporate, a nation of 150 million souls sadly impoverished by their predecessors. We deserve good leadership indeed.  

It would not be a leap of faith to declare that Nigerians are looking for good leaders. But where are they? Surely, they will not fall from the sky? One would expect that given our sheer number, it would be a small matter of statistics to find individuals with the requisite measure of personal and professional qualities to occupy and judiciously execute the responsibilities of the offices which will come up for occupation at each elections. Thus far, this recent embarkation on the odyssey of popular rule has produced two elections, and it would seem for the most part that we have not yet found the right leaders. If newspaper reports of corruption and the obvious evidence of non-existent infrastructure and mismanagement is to be believed, thus far we have been batting well below average.  

It must be lucky for us then, that a new round of elections is around the corner, offering a new chance for us to “elect” new representatives to serve. One would expect us to grasp with all our limbs and connected attachments, this opportunity to defenestrate the mass of our current crop of elected misfits with their overfed entourages; and to ensure that the favoured few retain their offices, but it seems that we would rather not seize the initiative. So what seems to be the problem? What are we waiting for?  

Talk to the average person on the street, and they lament the lack of quality candidates, particularly in the race to occupy the country’s highest office. We seem to have no shortage of aspirants to presidential office, yet we cannot find many individuals who seem acceptable when their credentials and pedigree are held up to the cold light of objective scrutiny. There are the usual cocktail of retired generals and their former cronies, men who rose to prominence on the back of armoured tanks and mass subversion of the freedoms of the collective, but the question that comes to my mind is: should these men even be allowed to stand on the platform of democracy? They want to “lead” us again, even though we are still feeling the ill effects of the last time they wielded the reins of control, and we seem eager to give them the opportunity to do so again. We also have the tainted and the unwashed, men whose sole purpose for competing can only be the popularity and the crumbs that might well fall off the eventual victor’s plate if they can be persuaded to gracefully bow to his superior candidacy. Indeed.  

If standing up for election amounts to giving an offering at the sacred altar of the deity Democracy, then I say most of these men should have their offerings rejected as surely as Cain’s was on that day so long ago, when God rejected the substance of his gift in favour of his brother Abel’s. I think that our vote gives each one of us the right to tell our would-be leaders if they are worthy of the privilege of serving us or not; surely that is the essence of democracy? Is it not our right to accept or reject their offerings i.e. their candidacy by casting our votes as we please? I recall a man who is distinguished by a single act of defecating with impunity on Democracy’s sacred altar over a decade ago; he asks for a chance to stand at the altar again, and from all indications he might well get another chance to do so. Already, the sycophants and praise singers are gathered to cheer their benefactor into office, while the unbelieving mass does nothing. I hear that most Nigerians don’t see him as the messiah our country so desperately needs, yet we do nothing to ensure that he never gets a chance to prevent his usurpation of our collective sovereignty again. How and why do we let these things happen? The answer is rather obvious to me - because we have institutionalised apathy and made it a national past-time. The truth is that if we let another retired soldier “lead” us, we are merely extending the yoke of military dictatorship over our overburdened backs, and most of us know this already. Perhaps the time has come for a change of direction, a change that thankfully does not need to come over the barrel of a gun, given the power that each adult in our nation possesses – our vote.  

If our vote is our power, then why are so few people turning up to register for the forthcoming elections? I think as a people we are guilty of waiting for God or His angels to come down and transform our country by himself, magically altering our surroundings by the mere utterance of a phrase that expresses his Almighty will. I know that He is capable of this, but is He really going to do so? Perhaps He has already done so; He certainly did something that day when a self-perpetuating hedonistic general expired spectacularly - reportedly in the process of revelry - to the joy of an entire nation, miraculously clearing the way for elections and the installation of democracy in our land. And despite numerous hiccups, has the might of the military hand not been stayed these past eight years, giving us the longest spell of popular rule we have ever had in our polity? How many miracles do we expect?  

Most of the people I have spoken to back home have said the same thing: they have not registered to vote, either due to apathy or the resignation to the inevitability of a rigged election. My learned friends would say that they are “sleeping on their rights” and I would agree, because in the grand scheme of all things democratic, your vote is your primary right and weapon; not employing it amounts to laying it on the ground, so that other people can trample on it. What if the elections are rigged, is that reason enough not to vote? I recall the 1993 elections, which were celebrated for the fact that they were widely adjudged to be the freest and fairest elections ever held in this country. I doubt that till this moment anyone questions the final outcome of that poll, truncated though the course of democracy was on that occasion. Yet no one can say that there were no irregularities in some places. But the popular verdict was not distorted. Is that not reason enough to turn up on election day, trusting in the sheer weight of the popular will to triumph over the machinations of evil men and despots? Why have we not registered to vote? After having fought for democracy for so long, at the expense of countless lives, why are we happy to let this opportunity go to unutilised? Or is democracy really about not exercising your rights?  

The Americans woke up to the dangers of voter apathy a few years ago, and some people would volunteer that they are still paying the price. In response, they coined the phrase “Vote or Die” as a call to the eligible to turn up at designated centres on Election Day so that each can do his bit to ensure the protection of their way of life. If you do not vote, you really cannot complain about the leadership of your country can you? because like it or not, you helped whoever it is that you are opposed to get to his position in your own unique way: you didn’t turn up to vote for his opponent. It’s that simple; its one of those situations where not making a decision is exactly the same as making one. It is that simple. Really.  

I have heard that the voter registration exercise is fraught with problems at the moment. But that is hardly a surprise, given the way we do things in our country, and what appears to be the master plan that’s being played out behind the scenes. It is probably easier to manipulate the election results if very few people turn up to vote, an outcome that is inevitable if very few people register to start with. Who knows these things anyway? But since when have seemingly insurmountable obstacles ever stopped us from reaching our goals? When we faced down an unrepentant military and forced a dictator into retirement, were the odds, and a heavily armed army not stacked against the will of an entire nation? Did we not triumph in the end? When we struggle to survive everyday despite the overwhelming weight of poverty, do we not defy adversity with our every breath? So how hard can it be to register to vote?  

Living outside Nigeria has taught me a series of valuable lessons, most importantly that there is no place like one’s home. I live in a democratic country, where a few months ago my friends were stopped and brutally harassed by at least 18 policemen, who later released them with neither a charge nor an apology. The man driving was born and raised here, so he’s more British than Nigerian, but that did not matter to the Nazi-like policemen who handcuffed them and held them face-down on the tarmac while they interrogated them like common criminals. This despite the fact that the car belonged to him and was fully taxed and insured - they weren’t even stopped for any infringement of the law; it was just random profiling of two black men in a car. Their offence? They were driving a brand new BMW, a privilege apparently prohibited to black people - who knew? I learned one thing from this: that the best place for me is ultimately in my own country, where the colour of my skin is not the most important criteria that defines me. In the end, my destiny is tied to my home, as it is with the overwhelming majority of us. Why should we then act as though we have no stake in Nigeria’s future?  

I am going to echo that exhortation: Vote Or Die indeed. If you haven’t registered to vote, what are you waiting for? Is your spouse old enough to vote (I would hope so, but that is a matter for another day). Are your children old enough? Have they registered? If next year you look at Nigeria’s new crop of leaders, and realise that you don’t like their faces, know that you will find scant relief in the statement “at least I didn’t vote”, because it will be hollow. In truth, you probably will not feel any better knowing that you voted for his opponent, but you might at least draw some consolation, however fleeting, in knowing that you tried your best at least. Maybe we should have a new movement just to urge people to go out and vote; a mass mobilisation exercise to get people out to the polls. But do we really need to, when we can all just go out there and do what is intelligent and right, and free to boot? 

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NIGERIANS: VOTE OR DIE!

Robot  Villager

# 1 Speaking to my friends and family, there’s a unanimous understa...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 01.12.2006 18:42