Funmi Iyanda

The really interesting thing about these elections and its troublesome
fall out is that it was all completely unnecessary. It is my opinion
that Yar' Adua would have won the presidential elections without any
arm-twisting basically because the other top contenders had too much
baggage. My gut instinct is that the majority of Nigerians may have
nothing for him, but they have nothing against him either. The
roforofo fight between OBJ and Atiku had tarnished them both
irrevocably and Buhari does have the albatross of past human right
violations and accusations of religious intolerance. Yar' Adua on the
other hand is an unknown but unthreatening entity that with the deep
campaign pocket and support of the incumbent was almost certain to
win. What might have shifted the equation would have been a coalition
of all the other candidates and a pooling together of their resources,
political machinery and emotional capital. That would have been
strategic and perhaps effective but it would have required a subsuming
of personal ambitions and egos, something we are truly terrible at.
This was the case in 2003 when the elections were marred by massive
rigging and violence which have now been surpassed. It was true then
that Obasanjo would most likely have won and PDP would have had a
majority at the federal legislature as well as in the executive and
legislative arm in several states. It would not have affected their
majority if they had conceded a few states in a free and fair
election. 2003 landslide victory amidst blatant irregularities paved
the way for 2007's clean sweep in an election described as one of the
worst ever conducted on the continent. It is unnatural in any
political sphere especially one as diverse as Nigeria's is to have
such a monolithic power structure, it is untrue to life. If you look
closely however it is symptomatic of a deeper cultural phenomenon that
(as my wise friend Kwabena says) is rooted in our ego based
patriarchy.

Our leaders, our men and by extension our society thinks that being in control is a complete annihilation of contrary thought, opinion, ideas, ideal, goals, religion and worldview. The most haunted people in Nigeria are the most rational, problem solving, questioning, individual, creative, systematic, process driven and non-religious. Even worse when any such accursed is female. So power and respect would mean a clean sweep of opposing viewpoints by any means necessary be it in the home, school, office or political office. This of course is a strategy that belongs firmly in the 16th century, which is where we insist on staying in many aspects of life.

A strategy that the majority of the world has found to be least effective in contemporary times, recently resuscitated by George Bush to colossal failure. In a world were the talk is about leadership based on skills that women are in particular suited to i.e. persuasion, negotiation, team building, adaptability and nuanced diplomacy based on deeper understanding of other cultures and people. Did you see Pelosi is Iran? It is that intolerance of difference (camouflaging fear and ignorance) which is often manifest as egoistic aggression and violence that is at the root of our gradual descent into a homogenous society polarized by religion
and money, with only one possible bleak outcome.

So l sit here this morning pensive, it took all of 3 minutes for me to
cast my vote on Saturday, 3 minutes. The week before l had stood in
line in the sun for two hours, hat and sunglasses firmly on, large
bottle of water in hand as resolutely determined as most of my fellow
country men to cast my vote. This weekend, the polling booth was a
ghost town, my people had lost hope, l voted and left, because l had
an access car, l had observed proceeding from the Alimosho area,
through Agege, Ikeja, to Maryland and the apathy was palpable. The
streets were empty as boys took to the highway playing football. Close
monitoring of news reports (galaxy TV was commendable) all day showed
that this was the situation nationwide along with late or non arrival
of ballot material and the usual ballot snatching/ stuffing,
harassment and intimidation.

I am therefore in a bit of confusion as to how the high numbers that have and are coming in have been achieved. In the past hour l have read most of today's headlines and top stories online and the most unsettling are the foreign ones. Unsettling because one is forced to see one's self and nation through the eye of the outsider and we look like all those little malfunctioning nations (some pre war) that one reads about with a mixture of pity, disrespect and alarm. Just read this report as an example. 2003 elections set a bad precedence that smoothened the path for the perpetuation of such temerity as we are witnessing. It is as though Nigerians are being told to do our worst by those who know that our worst is to sigh, complain and leave them to God.

As we countdown to tomorrow's elections, the tension on the streets
has reduced, at least in Lagos but l suspect that voter apathy has set
in as the shenanigans of the past week has convinced many that their
votes will either not count, be counted or allowed to happen. One
interesting footnote to these elections of course is the vigour of the
media campaign especially in Lagos. The debates in particular provided
much beer parlour fodder, however is it just me or is everyone else
tired of the unending political bulk text messaging? Just as it happened last week, less than 24 hours to the commencement of the next set of election and my phone service has gone wonky, l hear the other networks are no better. One of the alleged reasons is the last minute campaign bulk text messaging to subscribers. As a rule, no more electioneering advertisements can be done on the conventional media platforms 24 hours to elections so the text and phone campaigns are intensified by those candidates who can afford it. I don't know what the "legalese" is or clearly understand how it works but isn't this aninvasion of privacy?

In fact before last Saturday's elections one candidate had a system in place that means you get a phone call from a 444 (my phone has erased the record) number and a recorded campaign message plays into your ears. At first l thought, it was a crank caller but it soon became clear that it was a rather desperate campaign strategy. That phone call came in over 5 times in a 7 hour period, even during a meeting, ensuring that l did not vote (not that l intended to in the first place) for such an irritant candidate. I am all for innovation and using IT solutions for sundry challenges but the text/phone political campaign is vexatious. Worse is the effect it
seem to have on the efficiency of the system, surely it cannot be more profitable for the networks to trade such wanton use of their networks for customer satisfaction and efficiency? Or am l being hormonal??

The President said it was going to be do or die, apparently he was serious. Found this story by the Independent of UK, which confirms what we already known. Question is what will Nigerians do about it? We go sidon look?