Saturday letter2
Anyone who observes other democracies of the world would sense that certain key economic indices are key determinants of a political party’s possible progression or regression in a regional or general election; one such key index is rate of consumer-good inflation and this is a factor in advanced and bludgeoning democracies whilst for developing countries (why do I still prefer that “Third World” designation?) rising prices of stable foodstuff matter a lot, assuming those rising prices haven’t led to riots yet. Thus, politicians and their political support structures are aware of the consequences of bad governance to their legacies; of course, there is a big caveat here, and this is the assumption that fair and just democracy is being practiced.
On the basis of this “fair and just democracy,” in truth and absolute truth, the APC political party of Nigeria should lose overwhelmingly at the polls at the local, regional, and federal levels; alas, this is not what Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the INEC, tell us if we must believe their poll figures. The question now is, “why are Nigerians different from the rest of humanity?” Are we truly that different from others or is it a crooked system that portrays us as inherently anti-progress? Could we be suffering and still vote to continue in that misery? Whatever the APC and INEC do to perpetuate electoral fraud, this ultimately reduces our claim to rational humanity; who can comprehend the recent mess at Kogi State and Bayelsa State? It is even very discomfiting to contemplate that the present head honchos fancy Nigeria as a pseudo, de facto theocratic state where the “favoured slaves are destined” to be led by “the favoured and ‘incorruptible’ one.” If this mindset is surreal to anyone, then bad dreams do come true in Nigeria; the bad honchos misrule and the people do not gripe in their docility.
- Sunday Adole Jonah, Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State
