Naija Election Timetable
Suffice to express my pessimism with regards to the 2011 Election, I hasten to draw your attention to what still needs to be addressed by our nation’s democratic process in relation to INEC's announcement below. The election planning process is already flawed if all INEC is concerned about is to fix make-believe political atmos for the coming election without addressing other strategic areas of our socio-political systems to permanently keep the nation from encountering such haphazard electoral system.
I’ve just returned from 4 weeks leave to my country where, I witnessed the birth of 4 babies in my tiny little village tucked away in Imo state and no single one of them was up for any form of registration with any census bureau; none was acknowledged by anyone except their parents and next of kin. This 2011 Election preparation makes no bones about registering eligible voters on time (Jan’11) when as early as at birth we are no citizens of our country until when perhaps we get to the right age of ‘discipline’ and regular send off from school for lack of school fees! Only then do our citizenships miraculously manifest itself..only then do we come to the realisation that we are Nigerian citizens . I mean how do we prepare these young generations for democratic process of our nation if their profiles are not recorded nationally anywhere? And what guarantee do we have that those eligible voters still unregistered would have their names on the INEC voting list come January 15th-- 29th, 2011 and, their votes would count? In fact, what makes you think the electoral results depend on number of votes caste?
A look at the planned political activities begs the question, what difference it would make from what we are seeing and hearing so far? Let’s examine the following statement from the piece below that –
The first electoral activity begins with the issuance of notice of election on January 23, and the commencement of conduct of party primaries running through January 26 to 30th, 2011. The political parties, Jega said could embark on campaigns in public places as from December 1 and end the campaigns 24 hours to the day of each election. Registration of voters which has been scheduled for January 15 will end on January 29 with the display of Voter’s Register for claims and objections coming up between February 3 and 8, 2011.
To start off, electoral activities have long been going on in the country – that of the usual suspects (‘prospective’ candidates!) who are at the centre and across the nation’s billboards on federal/state/local/highway and all the way to the international airport, women’s wrappers; private and commercial vehicles.
You have them everywhere even on not-road-worthy vehicles; you have the Head of State grinning with the statement ‘…a breath of fresh air!' Could this be one of the sure-banker strategies to grasp voluntary votes to win the race? One of our political figure was quoted whilst I was down there to say that, they are totally against any vote rigging or corruption and would step down if they lost the election as they are not prepared to bribe anyone….it just so happens that we could all pretend not to know who controls the national treasury's purse-strings!
Undoubtedly, a picture is worth more than 10,000 words. Over half of our eligible voting population are illiterate or just can’t be bothered to read therefore, who better to vote for than the figure you wake up daily to see on your way to market, to buy your food & recharged card for your phone; your petrol (black market) to work your generator for the night or just standing/sitting there and wondering why your luck is so out of tune in such a non-caring nation with built it mendacity in everyone. A nation where people acquire house help just so that they belong even where they do not really need one as working parents or with any other form of career move on their hands; even where it would pay them to run their own errands to aid their weight loss; no, one has to have helpers around the house to take out one's daily frustration on.
These images are everywhere including and in particular in the media positioned in people’s living rooms where one feels brainwashed and ready to walk into the polling booth on the day and apply X against the recognised images on the ballot paper. For this, I would say there is no contest since you could hardly come across the images of the remaining contenders – those uncharted, fresh and more articulated oppositions overshadowed by the old chips from the block that are continuing to play on our vulnerabilities. We are completely at their mercy as we are abandoned to our own devices to –
· Buy bagged and NAFDAGed rain water as suitable for human consumption without any form of research/validation
· Educate our children ONLY in the weeks / months we could afford their school fees
· Continue endangering our lives by living with petrol close-by to satisfy our elusion of round-the-clock electricity experience
· Conceive and raise children without possible forward thinking/plan for their future
· WORST OF ALL, Self medicate as we FREELY buy antibiotics and tranquillisers off pharmacist counters without a medical practitioner’s advice
The list goes on but my open appeal to all voters in the land is 3-folds
1. that they support Diaspora’s plea for voting eligibility in the next round
2. that they demand the review of the nation’s constitution to include the registration of birth and death of all citizens thereby reducing the chaotic situation running up to general elections
3. that, whatever the ruling party, they make the pledge to look after the vulnerable of our society, the old age/pensioners, children and young people and people with learning difficulties/mental health.
Comment by Ify Adenuga
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