The Race to Nigeria 2023 General Elections: A Perspective on Maturing Democracy
The past few weeks have been politically interesting in the Nigerian democratic space. Aspirants to various elective offices for the 2023 elections have been making moves to clinch tickets to become the flagbearers in their different political parties. While many people have been reading the events as morally below good, I have instead been seeing a maturing democracy and I will explain my reasons. It only reminds me of the events of the presidential race in 1992 in the botched 3rd republic. In a democratic style of government, it is important for every observer of the game to understand that you have to play politics in order to gain political power, politics here implying any legitimate means (morally acceptable or otherwise, as long as it is legitimate). It is when you play politics and win that the mantle of governance can be given to you and it is after you have the mantle of governance that you can actualise your vision for development. In other words, no matter how lofty your ideas are, the starting point is to play politics. It is therefore not out of place to have things like; I was poor like you vote for me, I am from the North/South, vote for me, I am a Christian/Muslim, vote for me, I am a youth, very energetic, vote for me. All those are politics and if anyone falls for the emotional purchase, know it that you have been captured by politics.
Focusing on the presidential aspirants, I observed that our politics has further matured, we now have aspirants going round to meet with delegates/ wouldbe delegates to canvas for their support. I played back the bit of 1992 that I could remember when the likes of Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola, Shehu Yaradua, Umaru Shinkafi etc were going round the states long before the general elections, not to campain to electorates, but to members of their parties for their support to enable them to emerge as candidates. It is how it should be, but unfortunately, because of immaturity, we have not done this so well in the 4th republic like it is being done today. Aspirants would usually wait till the day of primaries and try to outdo one another with spending, but it seems different this time, there is a popularity test which I admire. In the next few weeks, the candidates would emerge and we would know whether the impression of popularity translates to actual popularity.
To be clear, there has always been primary elections to nominate the party’s candidates, it is strictly an internal affairs of the party and it remains so. The 2022 Electoral Act simply introduced the dynamics of timing nto it, candidates are now required to emerge at least 180 days before the elections. The Legislators probably elongated the timeline so as to take care of possible litigations from the emergence of candidates and to give the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) enough room for candidates substitution where it would apply. Otherwise, the United States of America which we patterned our Presidential style of government after theirs, do not require 180 days timeline for the emergence of candidates.
On the cost of party nomination forms that was as high as N100,000,000.00 (One hundred million naira) for a particular party. For everyone that has asked for my opinion, I have been very clear that I do not see it as an issue, it is a zero issue for me. It is laughable that even parties that set their own cost at N10 millon, N40 million etc are also complaining that a party put its own price at N100 million. We need not be emotional about these things, it is a legitimate right to dislike the idea that a party put its form out at a price, but it is important to note that N100 million is as unaffordable as N1 million and that a popular candidate serious enough, would not find it difficult to raise N100,000.00 each from 1,000 Nigerians to purchase a form, popularity being the key success factor. It is not expected that the candidate must be able to afford it out of pocket. That said, it is important to note that;
1) INEC does not charge any amount to contest elections.
2) A political party is a VOLUNTARY organisation, if they charge too high and you feel it is morally not correct, you are at liberty to move to another platform, some parties offered theirs for free.
3) It is electorates that will vote for eventual candidates once a party presents you, therefore, you do not have to emerge from a particular platform, all candidates from the different parties are of equal standing before the electorates.
Lastly, to people who tried to bring the angle of economy into the N100 million cost of form discussion, I look at such things from the angle of facts and not emotions. It is true that many are lamenting that the economy is bad and therefore, why should anyone be able to afford such amount just for form. I advised earlier, that it is not mandatory that it is paid for out of candidates’ pockets, they can be crowd funded. People said that the state of the economy does not suggest that people can contribute such, I will argue with figures. According to NIBSS Plc, the aggregator of inter-bank settlements, we do electronic payments (POS, Transfers, Cheques, ATM transfers etc) of about N30 trillion on a monthly basis. This sum excludes cash deposits at banks, cash payments and intra-bank transfers). The NIBSS figure suggest an average of N1 trillion per day in electronic transactions. If we decide to buy the N100 million forms from one day’s electronic payments, we could buy for 10,000 candidates. In simple terms, the sum total of electronic payments done in a day in Nigeria can buy N100 million forms for 10,000 candidates, the argument that the candidates that bought the forms MUST have stolen has therefore, been noise to my ears.
