Nigeria’s recent presidential election has attracted once more unwanted attention from the international community. And the outgoing president’s comment to the BBC yesterday 23 April more or less confirms international community’s concerns about the outcome. For European Union observers to describe the outcome as a “charade” is regrettable. Considering the tribal and religious differences in Nigeria, I find it incredible for any political party in the country to achieve 70 percent of votes cast in any presidential election.
What comes to mind is Saddam Husssein’s 99% victory in his last election. For Olusegun Obasanjo to deride the west for their concerns literally confirms his anger at not being allowed to rule Nigeria for ever as he had intended – i.e. trying to alter the constitution to suit his own warped agenda. Second, if Nigeria is aiming to raise her standards in the international arena, then Nigeria must be seen to be above election rigging and stuffing of ballot boxes with ghost names. Last week, in the local election, BBC Radio 4 reported that in one constituency, a 105% were achieved. It would appear that even those who were filling the ballot boxes did not know when to stop. And for Mr Olusegun Obasanjo, to deride the comparison of Nigeria’s electoral practices by western standards just confirms that ex military men, old delusional and dinosauric in their mentality MUST not be allowed to contest let alone be involved in the governing of Nigeria.
If Mr Obasanjo had issues with western practices, why did he spend most of his presidency travelling to different western countries? Why did he try to emulate and copy western lifestyles, security measures? This not to say that the west is free of faults – far from it, in the UK, we have had of postal voting malpractices and the difficulties when George W. Bush first came to power, but efforts were and continued to be made by these governments to tackle any malpractices. After, America impeached Nixon,. In the UK, Jonathan Aitken MP and Lord Archer were both imprisoned for misconduct.
For a more decent Nigeria, the population must be educated and their eyes opened for them to see how these so-called politicians have been pulling wools over their eyes. These mass of illiterate population and entrenched in tribal differences (or warfare) have been contributory factors in allowing these idiots and corrupt dinosaurs to continually hold on to power – for their own selfish interest.
With Nigeria’s massive oil wealth, the country should have been in position to challenge and contribute to world affairs – instead the country is only known for her corrupting influences. The only time that Nigeria was praised by an international media - BBC Worldservice’s programme “The Black Superpower” was not on improvement of populace’s welfare or security of the nation but more on her military commitments around the globe!! It is time that the country begin a process of detribalisation otherwise, we will be perpetually left in the doldrums for decades to come.
