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Rivers State, Borno State, Kano State- and they harbour about significant 10% decisive votes – are contending on which State wins the dehumanising crown. For three consecutive elections it has been seen that results from Rivers had always shown that the ballot boxes do not count. The current Minister of Transport exhibit well that notion as reported on STV by an analyst on Nigerians Vote programme. Fake results sheets could be made available to the presiding polling booth officer but the real result sheets could be found elsewhere like reported of results sheets meant for Enugu found in Kogi. As a returning officer you are just handed a ‘do or die’ result sheet to announce and so be it.
A place that ought to be declared emergency zone like Al-Bashir had declared selfishly Sudan for the interest of his foreign acolytes in the exploitation of Africans. Note also that Paul Biya came to power recently without counting on elections in the northern part of Cameroun where Cameroun shares with Nigeria and Chad. Note also that Chad sees the zone as emergency zone and can deploy French military to crush any suspected insurgent group as it did recently crushing a group it suspected as coming to overthrow Idriss Derby Itno. In effect Borno ought to be exempted from Nigeria’s election till the State is stabilised. Kano State was known to have taken the life of the entire family of the electoral officer in the last election and it is still a contending base for dehumanising Nigerians as Kwankwaso and Ganduje throw the poor of the State to kill themselves.
Going through the market of Sabo where I buy commodities from certain people from either Kebbi or Kano, I discovered that most of them were not there and I was told that they travelled to the north to vote and I wondered on whose expense. How is it that they could ignore their means of livelihood and, indeed, part of informal trade that sustains Nigeria’s GDP for mere GDP unfriendly election. The hopelessness and desperation could tell on Lagosians if they decide to unleash their pains on the State as it is happening with the Tanker drivers who are daring the devil in their bid to get to the seaport.
Fortunately Nigeria still show some humanness or should I say adroitness in approaching the election issues. Ladeinde of STV reported that on Ahmadu Bello Way in Victoria Island where a polling area had a number of about 1060 listed and only about 116 turned out to vote. It is either sold out card readers or mature way of protesting. That is an area where the rich people live and even where they decided to come out in V/I they covered the place with their vehicles with ease not fearing any upheaval.
If they can come out in their big cars it seemed they know in advance what is expected. It could be interpreted to mean that whoever wins is bound to face the hard job of being challenged by their adroitness just as the current governor found it difficult to execute the tax regime he wanted to introduce or even the ‘LAWMA imbroglio. That is how government is made competitive or not and any elected post becomes a target for those who opted out to prove that it was their own way of protesting for the rejection of the politicians who presented themselves for the post. Check France where the ‘Gilets Jaunes’ are protesting, they are mostly those who opted out against the two main contenders – Marine and Emmanuel though getting the confused support of those who voted for Marine, the far right.
This is where ballot boxes could be burnt to avoid any witnessing or even card readers could be bought in advance to stop any unwanted voter to be in an area designed as no go area. In effect you are asked to surrender your card and take a sum as preventive measure against exposing yourself to danger. There are, however more to the Lagos case than meet the eye. The important thing is to keep it to less dehumanising process.
Africa is interested in having Nigeria get its elections right; and the processes must show that Africans are also human beings that know what is good for their livelihood as against animal instinct of ‘what can I get to eat now’. Food and shelter are basic things any government should strive to provide for its citizens so that they can overlook or attach less emotion to whoever intends to rule over their affairs that is quite temporal and comes every 4 years. Like they say every electoral mass killing justifies a recolonization intent and it is seen as African youths troop to Europe or America on do or die bases. And mind you, for every six Africans on the street or amidst other races in a cluster of 100 humans representing other races, one is surely expected to be a Nigerian.
•Ariole, Professor of French and Francophone studies, wrote from University of Lagos.