"I wish our government is here to see how we casted our votes," said Monsignor Hypolite Adigwe, the National Chaplain of YCSN, at Awka, shortly after declaring the winners of the 2009 national elections.
Monsignor's statement sounded plain, but only few deed-thinking people with the gift of discernment made meaning out of it. I spent sleepless nights pondering on the comment. Could it be there were some lessons our government needed to learn from the 2009 national elections of YCSN in order to improve on the manner in which Nigerian elections were carried on? Yes. Unlike voting in Nigerian elections, the 2009 election of YCSN was credible, fair, transparent and acceptable.
Voting in Nigerian elections has over the years degenerated into a thing of national embarrassment wrought by several decades of corruption, bribery, egocentricism, vaulting ambition for power and possessions and a legion of weird electoral practices. The lust to perpetuate oneself in power obliterates natural justice and good conscience. Polemical fire becomes the only available tool for achieving flawless victory. These political vices culminate into something best described as "a do or die affair" with politicians tuning into night marauding beasts.
Similarly, rivulets of tears ran down the cheeks of YCSers as they listened to Governor Peter Obi of Anambra state narrating his agonizing experiences during the 2007 elections. The dinner night organized for YCSN at the Governor's lodge, Amawbia was an opportunity for catholic students to get a vivid picture of what voting in Nigeria looked like. YCSers were shocked to hear from the governor that he alongside Professor Charles Soludo, Professor Dora Akunyili and the Arch Bishop of Onitsha Arch Diocese could not find a polling unit to caste their votes. Yet, at the end of the day results were manufactured by some political gods. Obi summed up the story thus, "I decided to challenge that political rascality in the court by demanding my constitutional right to complete my tenure."
In the meantime, threats of political thuggery, snatching of ballot boxes, over counting of votes, disruption of polling units and other electioneering malpractices are some of the features of voting in Nigerian elections. There are also reports of some journalists who had been captured, unlawfully detained, molested, raped and even killed. This has got to STOP!
Nigerian leaders need to learn some lessons from the 2009 elections of YCSN and the recent free and fair US elections that ushered in the first black President in the White House. God is the giver of power not man.
It is often said that any man who decides to spend his time in "the fields of war harvesting blood" should note that his last banquet will be his "children's children's blood". There is always the balance of life! As 2011 general elections draw near, politicians and electorates should note that Attahiru Jega is not only the one in charge of INEC, God in heaven takes records of everything, including riggings carried out in dark places.
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