A simple, decent, organized society for equally simple, decent, organized people!
If you are reading this, it means you made it! Congratulations! You saw the presidential election come and go. It’s now all over. All the sleepless days and nights of campaigning are over. It will not happen again until another four years. The billions of naira or whatever other currencies spent are gone. It is now time to just sit down and wait. Put on your television and watch. Listen to the radio and hear what they are saying about the election in places you did not go to and never would have been, because you could not split yourself into two and go there to see what was going on in those places.
And I am sure you know that’s how life truly is. All the fever-pitch emotions, the pent up anger and the letting off of steam have all seen the main actors back in their situation rooms collating results from the fields from their eyes and ears sent to the polling booths. Those who felt like they had wool over their eyes can now see clearly. Those who did not have wool over their eyes, but thought one way or the other that they are seeing clearly how it would go, I am sure that they now know better. At least the results from their field officers must be telling them some home truth.
The truth though is that even as you are reading this, as all the noises that have been made in the last few months die down, you’ll find that it is morning yet on creation day, to borrow the title of that collection of essays by the sage himself, Chinua Achebe. For whichever direction the pendulum of this presidential elections swings, this period represents a momentous period in the history of Nigeria. Short of over flogging the Yakubu Gowon’s “no victor, no vanquished” slogan, what shall come out of these elections is victory for Nigeria and Nigerians.
My fellow indulgees, things shall never be the same again, I can assure you. If Buhari wins, he shall have to put into practice the promise of change that he has been talking about and selling to voters all this while. If Jonathan retains his seat, I am sure that he now knows that
Nigerians can no longer be taken for granted and that he has history waiting to judge him. I can bet you that he would want history to judge him fairly. After all, what’s the point if you consider yourself an intellectual, an educated former university lecturer, who is not a tyrant, a killer or even a sadist to allow history take note of you, “here was a man who, given a second chance, went to sleep and did nothing to change the course of Nigeria’s history!” Trust history to be that brutal to those who fluff the opportunity to affect history positively.
All leaders have a date with history. They may choose not to let it bother them. But such a position will be a selfish one. For to think that once you are dead it doesn’t matter what history makes of you is to deny that your history is intrinsically tied to the history of your family. It is the reason why I sometimes wonder what became of the genealogy of Adolf Hitler; and why it is that in truth history has not only visited him brutally personally; but has done so too to his lineage! So, it is indeed, morning yet on creation day.
These elections are what I have chosen to call the rebirth elections; for this country has, indeed, been in need of a rebirth for so very long. And rebirths occur in different ways. But it is at specific junctures in the journey through life, either by individuals or by nations. And it only takes men and women of goodwill and upstanding realism of the world, and of their place in that world, to bring this to life. That’s what these elections mean to me. And it doesn’t matter who has won yesterday’s presidential polls. Here is how the idea of historical junctures work to satisfy the notion of rebirth and the notion of morning yet on creation day in this case.
The hard lesson for both leading political parties is that they have seen that Nigerians are no longer prepared to just be bystanders in the process that throws up their leaders. You’ll no longer find electorates who are quick to say, “This does not concern us. It is their government, let them go and do whatever they like.” And it is also not about insisting that their votes must count; for there was a time when they said their votes must count and we still had a National Assembly full of people that are not up to it in terms of delivery on the grundnorm of legislative business. The insufficiency that exudes from the National Assembly is the result of a voting population that is, itself, unable to understand and then question the purpose for which an individual offers himself or herself to proceed to do legislative business on its behalf.
This time around, political parties would have seen how heavily involved the people have become, able to drop their ‘I don’t care’ posturing to elections and voting; and ready to question the character and competence of individuals thrown up by a contrived system of godfatherism that has re-defined the essence of governance.
A historical juncture presented by the return to civil rule in 1999 was largely wasted by a National Assembly that was expected to come together and right the wrongs of the past and set the country on a part to genuine progress. But it quickly became clear that the purpose for
the Assembly by men and women who had come from the different reaches of the country was more personal than carrying the hopes and aspirations of their people who had given them mandates to represent them. I am still strongly of the view that the enthronement of democracy after all that went down from 1983 to the June 12, 1993 crisis was a historical juncture righting the wrongs of the past. The class of 1999 missed this; and so did subsequent classes.
And so, here we are at another historical juncture. Hard lessons have been learnt, by the incumbent political party and the leading opposition party about the thinking of Nigerians regarding how they want their country to be run or managed. If any of the parties say they did not hear the people loud and clear, they would need to have their heads examined. It is the reason why I think that whoever has won yesterday’s election, when the results are announced, would have to take on board that there is a need to make a shift to begin to put the people first.
Jonathan or Buhari would have to think about building a true modern state; a country with a realization that it is a part of a modern world and that needs to make progress along modern lines. There would be a lot to repair, but building a simple, decent and organized society would need to come with a genuine desire to understand that this is a country with equally simple, decent and organized people!
PHILLIP ISAKPA