LOOMING DANGER

“But in this (last) week alone, I have got two 4kg bags of rice and N5,000... N5,000... (for emphasis) from my merely showing up at ‘Governor’ Fayose’s campaign office in his hotel (Spotless Hotels, Onigari, GRA, Ado-Ekiti). Tell me, Mr. Journalist, how am I supposed to vote on Saturday? I should vote for continuity from which nothing will come my way or give my vote to somebody that will benefit me directly?"

These were the words of a registered voter just prior to last Saturday's Ekiti State governorship election. Is it then too difficult to see and understand why the average Nigerian voter is unashamedly short-sighted? Talk of the future is tripe when the needs of now have not been addressed or met. Basically, it doesn't matter how much infrastructural development has taken or is taking place, the voter's eyes do not see past his nose. The choice of the average voter is dependent on what he gets now (no matter how insignificant), the visible manifestation of a better tomorrow for all is of absolute irrelevance. That, sadly, has always been the state of play. A phenomenon some commentators have referred to as 'the stomach infrastructure'. Trading one's precious vote for the proverbial bowl of porridge has, in this context, effectively enslaved one for the next four years. When the atrocious performance, that is sure to follow, commences, such a voter has no justifiable moral right to moan. He has sold his soul.

Some misguided commentators may deem this approach 'grassroots politics', when it is in fact 'opportunistic politics' at its most shameful worst. Opportunistic in the sense that the voter's immediate lack is being exploited, just as much as his basic lack of understanding of the cost of perpetual improvidence and imprudence. The notion being bandied about by some is that the election was free and fair is, put simply, nauseating. How could an election conducted under the cloud of exclusivity be fair? Supporters and officials of the incumbent party were denied entry into the State and a great deal many of them simply rounded up and detained. Freedom of movement (a key component of our Constitution) was brazenly denied to Nigerians. The military and police presence was even more than that needed to be deployed to the Sambissa Forest, manhandling non-PDP officials and sympathizers. Those arrested thumbing ballot papers prior to election day were released without charge. An election where one of the main contenders could never have even been nominated by a sane party, a contender whose hands are soiled with blood, a contender who was impeached and indicted for mass corruption. If this was a free and fair election, then there's a looming danger. If this is going to be the gold standard for future elections, then suddenly, the return of the military (as ominous as it may sound) does not look as unappetizing as it did only a few years ago. Then, the average voter would have himself to blame for succumbing to the politics of NOW and believing only in political paradigm of THE STOMACH INFRASTRUCTURE.

The main opposition party (the APC) now know they have an uphill battle for predominance in 2015. It is okay to plan and execute for the future, but do not take your eyes off the present needs and fears of the people. Like an old friend said to me over the phone from Nigeria yesterday, "people are practically dying of hunger in the APC- run States in the South West. Yeah, they are constructing new roads and making good old ones. Yeah, they are making inroads into sanitizing and beautifying the environment. Yeah, there's better security than at any time in the recent past. BUT people are getting hungrier and angrier." So, the APC has to rejig its policies to amalgamate the NOW and the LATER, while at the same time removing the notion of aloofness that was leveled against the now ex-governor of Ekiti State, Fayemi. 

To the average voter, I say 'SHINE YOUR EYES.'