Addressing Divisions

[Jibrin Ibrahim]

Post-Election Agenda: Building Social Cohesion in Nigeria

 

Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy, Daily Trust, 21^st April 2023 

 

The cost of the 2023 general elections on Nigeria’s social fabric has been very high. Many Nigerians felt threatened by strong ethnic mobilisation aimed at harassing them with the intention of stopping them from exercising their franchise. Voter suppression emerged as a core electoral tactic precisely because in many parts of the country, the assumed inclination of Nigerians to vote along ethno-religious lines were significantly undermined. In other words, political warlords were concerned that votes they had considered theirs for the taking were going elsewhere and breaking up their hegemonic control. In response, they intensified negative ethno-religious profiling to revive latent bigotry imbibed by Nigerians over the generations. Their political objective then became to intensify national disunity for the sake of preserving their political domains. The consequence of voter suppression is to question the right of belonging and participation in the political community causing deep pain and hurt. 

 

I saw the video clip of my favourite poet and defender of the Nigeria idea, Dike Chukwumerije describing his feeling after spending 24 hours patiently waiting to vote, for the votes to be counted and for the counted votes to be transmitted and SEEN on the IReV viewer’s portal. He waited on his computer for three days without ever seeing his polling unit result, that was his pain. Subsequently, he wrote about the deepening of the pain as he watched the unholy alliance developed between unscrupulous politicians and thugs in Lagos to stop people voting because of their ethnicity and he asks: “Yes. So, what is the struggle? Not for a non-indigenous Governor. No. But for all Nigerians, wherever resident, to have the uncontested right to vote – freely and in accordance with their conscience – wherever they are. That is the struggle.” This is the struggle we need to keep alive at this moment of hurt.

  

Increasingly, there are questions about the idea that the existence of Nigeria and Nigerians is self-evident. There have been tons of Nigerians doing japa out of Nigeria in the years leading up to the elections. These people had decided that the best way is out. There are yet others who would have loved Nigeria to be but have deep doubts about its future and live paralysed in the agony and fear of what could have become. The majority of us however are very conscious of the challenges facing Nigeria but believe with pride that its promise could become a reality and work for its coming greatness with the skills, pride and assertiveness that Nigerians are known for worldwide. The divisions deepened by the elections presents a challenge in this regard.

 

In the 2021 social cohesion report by the Africa Polling Institute, they interrogated a cross section of Nigerians and the results are interesting. 49% of Nigerians are disappointed in their country while 42% feel truly proud of Nigeria. Not surprisingly, 65% of citizens expressed concerns that Nigeria is today more divided than it was four years ago. It is however revealing that 82% of respondents said that they are comfortable with their dual identity of being both Nigerian and member of their ethnic group. That is the comfort zone from where we can build the ranks of the believers in the Nigeria project. The problem is that we are in an unfortunate period of decline. In the 2019 survey, 55% of citizens said they were truly proud of being Nigerian. In the current (2021) survey, the number has declined dramatically to 42%. The key finding is that governance matters and most Nigerians believe that there is lack of equity and justice in governance, a challenge that can be addressed. The lesson is that building support for the Nigerian project requires the building of trust, equity, social justice and inclusive governance. If and when the next government takes that path, pride and commitment in building the Nigeria of our dreams will begin to grow again.  

 

The survey revealed what we all know. That Nigerians are angry at the massive corruption in government and the on-going run of looting the treasury. Secondly, that there is a crisis of citizenship summarised in what Nigerians call the lack of “true” federalism, accompanied by the neglected call for restructuring. Thirdly, there is widespread consternation on the inability of the political class to deepen democratic practices as they remain self-serving in their actions and are actually rolling back democratic gains. These issues are even more highlighted today following the acrimony that followed the elections.

 

The important learning from the election is that it is still possible to generate hope, even enthusiasm about the future of Nigeria. The question that is posed is what happens when such hopes are once again dashed? I would like to believe that it is still very possible to regenerate hope, enthusiasm and belief in the Nigeria project. It is all a question of governance. If Nigeria is governed in an inclusive manner, social cohesion could be generated. Nigerians have always defined the country as a plural one so no one is looking for a homogenous society. What we need in the next government is the capacity to create pathways to inclusiveness in a diverse society. There must be concrete action aimed at healing the pains and hurt from reckless ethno-religious mobilisation and action. It is even more important to develop narratives of nation building. Central to the hurt people have against the current government is the belief they have disdain for Nigerians and rarely address issues of concern. They do not even pretend to care.

 

Nigerians are a resilient people and can surmount present challenges and so while nation-building is hard work, we should all commit ourselves to do the work. It can only happen however if the in-coming government demonstrates a real commitment. It must have a body language that says power is not about self-aggrandisement for the persons exercising authority. It has to be about addressing the security and welfare of the Nigerian people. If the mind-blowing level of corruption in the country today persists, saving the Nation would be almost impossible.

 

At the end of the day, the success of the Nigeria project will depend on our ability to engage in the task of the reconstruction of the Nigerian State. We cannot allow our political community to continue to crumble and suffer the outcome of State collapse, which Thomas Hobbes had assured us will make our lives “nasty, brutish and short”. Rebuilding the State must take the form of a new approach based on good governance in which there is effective, transparent and accountable use of public resources to provide public goods for citizens.  

 

 

Professor Jibrin Ibrahim

Senior Fellow

Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja

Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17

[Oluwatoyin Adepoju]

Magnificent.

The Chukwumerijie example is eloquent  on the INEC disappointment.

The tragedy of anti-Igbo mobilization by APC in Lagos is superbly described-

''The cost of the 2023 general elections on Nigeria’s social fabric has been very high. Many Nigerians felt threatened by strong ethnic mobilisation aimed at harassing them with the intention of stopping them from exercising their franchise.

Voter suppression emerged as a core electoral tactic precisely because in many parts of the country, the assumed inclination of Nigerians to vote along ethno-religious lines were significantly undermined.

In other words, political warlords were concerned that votes they had considered theirs for the taking were going elsewhere and breaking up their hegemonic control. In response, they intensified negative ethno-religious profiling to revive latent bigotry imbibed by Nigerians over the generations.

Their political objective then became to intensify national disunity for the sake of preserving their political domains. The consequence of voter suppression is to question the right of belonging and participation in the political community causing deep pain and hurt. 

...

 Subsequently, he wrote about the deepening of the pain as he watched the unholy alliance developed between unscrupulous politicians and thugs in Lagos to stop people voting because of their ethnicity and he asks: “Yes. So, what is the struggle? Not for a non-indigenous Governor. No. But for all Nigerians, wherever resident, to have the uncontested right to vote – freely and in accordance with their conscience – wherever they are. That is the struggle.” This is the struggle we need to keep alive at this moment of hurt.''

Thanks

toyin

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[ogunlakaiye]

Nigeria is governed in English language of which most Nigerians are either total illiterates or semi-literates. The Constitution and the electoral laws are written in English language and not translated into any of the indigenous Nigerian language so that every citizen can understand how he or she is being governed. The government is not compelled to see to it that the imposed language of governance is spoken and written fluently by all citizens, at least, of voting age. The Nigerian democracy is dead on arrival. Jibrin Ibrahim is emotionally captured by the narrative of "Dike Chukwumerije describing his feeling after spending 24 hours patiently waiting to vote, for the votes to be counted and for the counted votes to be transmitted and seen on the IReV viewer's portal."  It is unbelievable that Mr. Chukwumerije could spend a sleepless night at his polling station in order to vote and still have the strength afterwards to wait for the votes to be counted and uploaded into IReV portal for public viewers. Nowhere in the Electoral Acts 2022 or the Constitution of Nigeria is it stipulated that after voting at a polling station, one should wait for the votes to be counted and results transmitted electronically. Dike Chukwumerije and fellow OBI'POBs might have been disappointed that their desired candidate for the Governorship of Lagos State, Mr. Gbadebo Chinedu Rhodes-Vivour, lost the election. Nevertheless, they should realize that the ideal Nigeria we all yarn for, where a Nigerian can be elected a governor outside his/her state of origin is still far away in the future.

In his post-election agenda, Jubrin revealed, "Nigerians are angry at the massive corruption in government and the ongoing run of looting the treasury."  In Nigeria, public office is a personal possession and not something held in trust to serve the masses. Euphemism for stealing public funds in Nigeria is called corruption although Section 15 (5) of the Constitutions says, "The government shall abolish corruption and abuse of power."  Public officials in Nigeria steal public money with impunity because the masses believe that stealing government money is no crime and I think it is a gross misinformation of fact to state that Nigerians are angry at the massive corruption in Nigeria. Rather, Nigerians are passive onlookers at the looters of treasury. Immediately after assuming office in 2015, Bishop Mathew Kukah was a Secretary of a group that met with President Buhari who was warned by Kukah against fighting corruption in Nigeria. Mathew Kukah reminded him that when he, Buhari, was overthrown in 1985 as a Military Head of State while fighting corruption, nobody came out to protest against his removal. When the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on corruption, Professor Itsy-Sagey, drafted a Bill for President Buhari which if passed by the Senate would allowed Special Tribunals to be set up for acceleration of the trial of Treasury looters, the then President of the Senate, Bola Saraki, and later Ahmad Lawal, in connivance with the Attorney General of the Federation and Federal Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami prevented the Special Tribunal Bill from seeing the light of the day. Supporting official roguery in 2016, Moses E. Ochonu posted on this forum an article titled, "BRING BACK CORRUPTION." His reason being, "Because the flow of illicit government funds created a sense of economic opportunity and prosperity."  Against what he termed, "Buhari's narrow obsessive focus on corruption,"  Moses E Ochonu pointed out that in, "pre-Buhari era, corruption was rampant but life was easier, cheaper and more liveable. Without realizing it, ...//... corruption is the fuel of the Nigerian economy, sustaining everything from major real state transactions to the patronage economies of petty retailers. In Nigeria, the trickle down effect of governmental corruption is enormous. Corruption generates secondary and tertiary ripples and transactional economies that benefit even the pepper seller in the market."  Nigerians are not angry at the rogue officials in government although they can be so awed at a N20 pick-pocket to the extent of roasting him to death and yet remain aloof when the educated elites steal their socio-economic welfare development funds in trillions.

S. Kadiri        

[Ayoola Tokunbo]

Why are you so obsessed about what happened in Lagos alone? Your attitude and disposition are tending toward ethnic baiting and a deliberate attempt to set two ethnic groups against each other. What do hope to gain? Stop forthwith.

 

There were voters suppression, intimidation, rigging, and violence during the last elections -  across Nigeria.  

 

Nigerian politicians across the country and political parties are virtually the same: reckless, irresponsible and corrupt.

 

Sent from Mail for Windows

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