EKITI 2018 GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION: SHOW OF SHAME AND RAPE OF DEMOCRACY.

EKITI 2018 GOVERNORSHIP ELECTION: SHOW OF SHAME AND RAPE OF DEMOCRACY.

BY

ANTHONY AKEJU

akejuanthony1@gmail.com

http://tonycharisma.blogspot.com

Democracy is the most popular form of government, which has become a benchmark for measuring the level of socio-political civilization of any society or a nation in the international community.

The word democracy is a derivative of two Greek words ‘demos’, meaning people, and ‘kratia’, meaning rule, which implies the ‘rule by the people’. Democracy is a difficult concept to define because of the relativity of its meaning to different societies.

American scholar Larry Diamond defines democracy as a “Meaningful and extensive competition among individuals and organized groups (especially political parties) either directly or indirectly, for the major positions of governmental power in addition to popular participation in the electoral process and respect for the civil and political rights of the people”. Further attempt at the exercise of defining the concept may drag us to the conclusion that it is a system of government in which a majority of the people participates in the decision making process. A system that recognizes everybody as a stakeholder in a joint stock company or venture. However, the most popular definition of democracy is the one given by Abraham Lincoln who sees it as 'government of the people, by the people and for the people'.

From the above definitions, one can right say that democracy is characterized by the people; and periodic free, fair and credible election is one of the pillars of democracy. In other words, every democratic system is required to embrace an electoral process. It is through this process or procedure that the people (electorate or voters) elect those who would govern their affairs in a free, fair and credible process without internal or external interference of any sort.

Election is at the heart of a modern participation in politics. A vote sends a direct message to the government about how a citizen wants to be governed. The right to vote is known as suffrage. The critical question here is who has the right to vote? Usually, the qualified electorate in most countries today is the adult citizen; both male and female. This is known as universal adult suffrage. However, universal adult suffrage is a product of the 20th century. Up till this period, suffrage was based on religion, sex, property and qualification. The adoption of universal suffrage is a product of a century-old bitter war of many separate and hard-fought campaigns against the entrenched oligarchy. Property, religion, race, education etc. requirements for voting were eliminated one by one in the face of bitter opposition from those who were eliminated by such requirements.

Elections remains a fundamental tool of making political choice by the act of voting. It is used in the selection of  leader(s) and in the determination of issue(s). This implies that the electorate  are presented with alternatives that they can choose from; it is also designed to settle issue(s)  of public concern. Therefore, electorate can be likened to the contemporary kingmakers.

The July  14th, 2018 Ekiti State Governorship election that produced        Dr. Kayode Fayemi as governor can best be regarded as a show of shame and rape of democratic principles. Right from the party primaries to electioneering campaign and even the voting process, the will of the majority were not taken into consideration as few elites worked asidiously towards making sure that their candidate emerge victorious at the poll. Even the blind can attest to the fact that several things are no longer at ease with the nation's democratic institutions. The assertion that things has fallen apart is not unconnected with the fact that practices that include thuggery,  ballot snatching, rigging, human rights violations and vote buying are now the key attributes of Nigeria electoral process. It is highly pathetic to realized that the supposed kingmakers are the primary cause of the ongoing unfortunate situation. The situation is so pathetic to the point that The Human Rights Advancement, Development and Advocacy Centre (HURIDAC) expressed concern about the commercialisation of votes and impunity that characterised the July 14 governorship election in Ekiti State.

This was just as three groups of domestic election observers, New Initiative for Social Development; International Federation of Women Lawyers, and the Centre for Social Justice, Good Health and Community Development called for an amendment to the Electoral Act to criminalise vote buying.

But come to think of it, amending the electoral act to criminalise vote buying would not be the panacea to this act aimed at sabotaging not only the electoral process but also the future of our great country Nigeria. After making relevant legislations, there is still need a to have necessary mechanisms (security and other law enforcement agents) that would be ready to enforce the provisions of the electoral Act and other relevant laws to the letter.

In a report made available by HURIDAC’s Director, Shina Loremikan, said the observers sent by the organisation to Ekiti to monitor the election witnessed purchase of votes at polling booths, adding that the act took place in the presence of police who ought to be the custodian of orderliness in the election.

If this report is anything to go by, it does not only exposed the rot in our institutions but also to a very large extent exposed the disconnection between law making, law implementation and enforcement. With the presence of thirty thousand (30,000) policemen and other security operatives, Nigerians and indeed the world were expecting a near perfect election devoid of vote buying and other acts that are fremd to democratic principles; or should we agree those who were of the opinion that the deployment for the security personnel was meant to favour a particular candidate or political party? But honestly, I do not go with that assertion; because vote buying was not limited to a particular candidate or party, it was between the two major gladiators and political parties in the election, that is, Professor Kolapo Olusola and Dr Kayode Fayemi of the Peoples Democratic Party and All Progressive Congress respectively. Another question begging for answers is: why deploying such a huge number of security personnel for a governorship election in a state with a total number of six hundred and sixty-seven thousand, two hundred and seventy voters while there are incessant killings of innocent Nigerians in the Benue, Taraba, Kaduna, Adamawa, Zamfara and Plateau states, yet the All Progressive Congress (APC) led Federal Government is not doing enough to contain these killings.  It is in this sense that politics deviates from ethics inasmuch as any means could be used to get whatever is desired and whenever it is desired for as long as it serves the purpose.

Using Anthony Downs' perspective of Rational Choice Theory is an analytical tool for this research work, one can deduced that individuals always make prudent and logical decisions. These decisions provide people with the greatest benefit or satisfaction, given the choices available  and are also in their highest self-interest. This theory posit that  an individual has preferences among the available choice alternatives that allow them to choose which option they prefer. These preferences are assumed to be complete (the person can always say which of two alternatives they consider preferable or that neither is preferred to the other) and transitive (if option A is preferred over option B and option B is preferred over option C, then A is preferred over C). The rational agent is assumed to take account of available information, probabilities of events, and potential costs and benefits in determining preferences, and to act consistently in choosing the self-determined best choice of action.

In the case under review, majority of the actors (electorate) made their choice based on pecuniary inducement, that is, their choices were made based on which political party is paying more for any vote cast in favour of its candidate. While those who neither prefer Party A, B nor C were mere onlookers throughout the voting and vote buying process. That was why James Coleman admited that "actors are not always rational" because their actions are sometimes influenced their ego and selfish interest as against the national interest.

The height of the unpleasant occurrences that played out during the Ekiti State 2018 governorship election was the event that led to the suspension of the state owened  Radio/TV station by National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) over illegal announcement of election results by the state governor Mr Ayodele Fayose. According to NBC, the shutdown became necessary following the illegal announcement of the governorship election result by the state Governor Ayodele Fayose of his deputy and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Prof Kolapo Olusola as winner of the election when collation of results was still ogoing. This singular act by the governor if not condemned in strong term may be the new order of some elected representatives and it pose great danger to the nation's democracy and also capable of creating disaffection in the society. Mr Ayodele Fayose as the costodian of law and order in Ekiti State and as the chief security officer must put emotions behind him and learn how to obey the Laws of the land not only as a leader but also as a true democratic. Two wrongs don't make a right; if by any means,  any of the parties is not satisfied with the conduct of the election, the best constitutional option is to challenge the outcome of such election at the Tribunal instead of engaging in acts capable of causing rancor in the already heated polity.

The youths,  which are the most enlightened segment of the society must shun acts capable of jeopardizing their future. Your vote is your power, vote right so as to enjoy the dividends of democracy. We can not claim to be a global citizen and still be operating under the business as usual mentality. Whatever decision we make today will surely have a great impact on us in nearest future. The Independent National Electoral Commission must work towards resolving any difficulties sorrunding the use of the Electronic Card Reader and always strive to organize free, fair and credible elections. Security agencies must live up to expectations, any officer found aiding or abetting any act of rigging, ballot box snatching, vandalism or unprofessional conduct, should be severely dealt with according to the extant laws.

Finally, congratulations to the governor-elect Dr John Kayode Fayemi of the All Progressive Congress (APC). It is my hope and desire that Fayemi would use the mandate given to him to work towards improving the living standard of the masses.

REFERENCES

Anifowose, Remi and Francis, Enemuo (ed). (1999). Elements of Politics. Lagos: Malthouse Press Ltd.

Ball, Allan R. (1971). Modern Politics and Government. London:  Macmillan.

Downs, Anthony (1957). An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper.

Larry, Diamond (2008).  The Spirit of Democracy: The Struggle to Build Free Societies Throughout the World. Henry Holt.

Vanguard (2018). NBC suspends Ekiti Radio/TV over illegal announcement of election results: Vanguard Newspaper.