I was at a friend’s place in Ikeja on Sunday evening with my wife and two children. Their first child had turned six the previous day. Because it was election day, she had told me on Friday, as we were leaving the office, that she was inviting two or three families to lunch the following day to mark it. She was emphatic that I should be there with my family. What she did not add, on this occasion, was that it would be a test of our friendship.

Honestly, this particular Sunday, the day after the gubernatorial and state assembly elections, was one day I really wanted to stay indoors. I was too weighed down by the unfolding events in our polity to think of where to go to. It was so bad I even towed with the idea of not going to church. That was quite unlike me, as I would be in church on any Sunday to carry out my assignments, except I was not in town. The only reason I went to church ultimately was because my wife insisted that we should go if the coast was clear. She however did not subscribe to the idea of leaving home very early as it might be too risky or dangerous.

You can therefore imagine my chagrin at having to drive some fifteen kilometres from my home after service to prove my friendship. What if the results of the elections were suddenly announced and there was violence on the streets? It is true the elections did not witness much violence in Lagos the previous day. That could be attributed, in part, to the presence of military personnel and other security operatives on the streets on the day of the election. Now that the security seemed porous, what would happen if violence broke out unannounced? And I was going to be carrying my entire family with me!

I called my friend to find out when she was expecting us and, good enough, she said four o’clock. “That should give us enough time to monitor the situation,” I said to my wife. You never can be too careful, you know. But soon, we had to leave home and it turned out to be the most tortuous drive of my life. There were a lot of cars on the road, all right, but it was obvious that a lot of people were apprehensive. As I tuned my car stereo to Ray Power to monitor the situation while driving, I was shocked that there was no signal. I searched endlessly for another station, and fortunately I soon found one.

It was almost five when we got to my friends place and the lunch was almost over. Even there, there was a lot of apprehension. Who is going to win the Lagos State gubernatorial election? Would there not be trouble on the streets once the results were announced? As the studios of Channels Television brought the announced results of some states from INEC headquarters in Abuja , everyone waited for that of Lagos State . At about six, there was a new flash: INEC had declared Babatunde Fashola the winner. That was all that was needed to send everybody scampering. How was Musiliu Obanikoro’s camp going to react? I grabbed my younger daughter, threw her into the car, waited anxiously for my wife and older daughter to join us, and off we went, half anticipating trouble on the way. Expectedly, almost everyone we passed was doing some crazy driving to get home fast.    

The question that played on my mind all the way was: How did we get to this point? How did we come to be living in utter fear, whether real or imagined? It is true that too many things have not been the way they should be in recent times, but how did we slide into this state of ominous fear?

On the eve of the elections, a friend of mine who is a senior police officer had called to warn me about the looming dangers ahead, especially in Lagos .

“Please tell your wife to pick up everything you would need at home for the next few days this evening,” he said.

“Why,” I asked him.

“I am on the field as I am talking to you. We are doing our best to ensure that the elections are peaceful, but the politicians are not helping matters. So ask your wife to pick up everything you would need, and if possible do not come out at all tomorrow.”

I had already concluded that if I had to choose between my life and casting my vote, I would choose the former. So staying at home all day, if necessary, would therefore not be a big deal. The truth is, there had been palpable fear in the air for some weeks based on the utterances of some political bigwigs, the actions of politicians and the happenings at political rallies. The death tolls at some of the rallies were on a steady rise before the elections and they were naturally expected to reach a climax during the elections. Nothing short of a miracle was going to stop the situation from escalating.

Most of us had to stock our homes with foodstuff and other basic necessities of life to last us at least a month because of the things we had heard and seen. Someone got a call from his father in the village asking him to be sure that at least one of his cars had a full tank in case things got out of hand. I had personally asked my wife to get her international passport ready because I did not want to leave this country with only our children. Somehow, there has been every reason to fear that the worst would happen, but the prayer of all is that it would not.   

Now that we have scaled, or almost scaled, the first hurdle of elections, I personally do not think that the fact the country did not witness violence in the dimension almost everyone envisaged means that there were no genuine threats to national peace and security. I think much of the credit for the level of peace witnessed in some parts of the country during the elections should go to whoever acted swiftly to forestall the imminent anarchy by drafting the military to assist the police. Although some have questioned the constitutionality of such a move, I believe it was the only wise thing to do under the prevailing circumstances.

If INEC had done its homework well, it is possible that much of the violence witnessed in some areas last Saturday would have been avoided.  One hopes that it will wake up to its responsibilities before the next elections and give us less reason to fear.   

Robot  Villager

# 1 I was at a friend’s place in Ikeja on Sunday evening with my wife and two children. Their fi...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 16.04.2007 11:44