By Festus Okoye
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Some Nigerian politicians project an image of infallibility and superiority over the Nigerian electorate. They convey this through public statements suggesting that they control their states, particularly as elections approach, and that voters will line up behind them regardless of what they say or do.
They do so although Section 14(2)(a) of the 1999 Constitution, the fundamental law of the land, vests sovereignty in the Nigerian people.
They are aware of the constitutional and statutory implications of acquiring or retaining political power through means other than those prescribed by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended). Others are neither charitable nor humble in their claims to control votes and voters in their states and constituencies.
To this group of politicians, voters are irrelevant and must not determine who gets elected. They devise strategies and tactics to prevent voters from reaching polling units on election day. They create a violent and toxic environment and arm political thugs to terrorise voters who dare to come out and exercise their right to choose their leaders.
Some politicians simply chase voters away, take election officials hostage and write the results they want. Sometimes, they succeed, get away with it, take seats in executive councils and legislative chambers, and claim they are duly elected. This class of politicians also welcomes voter apathy.
They welcome those who stay away from the electoral process because democracy has failed to deliver the good life, as well as those who regard voting and the electoral process as a scam.
In effect, these politicians benefit from the very disengagement that weakens democracy. Does the attitude of politicians who claim they will deliver their states and constituencies, even though their states are not pregnant and they are not midwives, reveal the powerlessness of the vote or the powerlessness of the Nigerian voter?
Can democracy and the electoral process thrive in a toxic environment where voters are treated with contempt and their rights trampled upon? In genuine democracies, politicians do not treat voters with contempt. Voters are the employers of the candidates who eventually occupy executive or legislative office.
In such democracies, voters engage with the electoral process and remain involved beyond election day. They register and vote without inducement.
They also monitor the process and hold those entrusted with electoral responsibility to account. In genuine democracies, politicians do not merely play to the gallery. They know that they must renew their mandates at every electoral cycle. They engage voters, and the voters keep a scorecard of their achievements, actions and utterances.
In some advanced democracies, and even in fledgling ones, voters choose their representatives based on party ideology. Sometimes, they also consider the character and disposition of candidates running for office.
Political parties, therefore, are expected to remain faithful to their ideologies, programmes and policies. In genuine democracies, political parties in government earn the people’s trust through targeted programmes and policies.
Those outside the government continually monitor the ruling party and its candidates. They point out shortcomings and try to convince the electorate that they can govern better.
Unfortunately, in Nigeria’s brand of democracy, political parties and politicians seek to supplant the Nigerian voter. They seek to appropriate the sovereign right of choice that the Constitution entrusts to the Nigerian people, and they are already doing so with audacious impunity.
During campaigns and elections, politicians declare that they will deliver a particular candidate or an entire state, even though they are not midwives.
Yet, we cannot be entirely certain that some Nigerian politicians are not, in their own peculiar sense, midwives. Midwives deliver babies; Nigerian politicians package and deliver votes.
This must be the case because, more often than not, we hear them insist that there is no vacancy in the Government House or in various constituencies, even though the Constitution and relevant statutes provide for elections to the offices of the President, governors and members of the National and State Assemblies every four years.
They confidently predict how many votes a particular candidate will receive because, by their own claims, they control the votes. Some make these assertions months before an election. What does this reveal about some Nigerian politicians?
Does it mean that those who go to the polls on election day are embarking on a voyage to nowhere or engaging in a futile exercise? Does it mean that democracy can exist without the participation of the very people in whom sovereignty resides?
If some politicians claim that they can determine electoral outcomes on behalf of the Nigerian people, why must Nigeria spend public funds to organise elections every four years?
Those who genuinely fought for multiparty democracy, as distinct from those who joined the struggle only after experiencing political exclusion, are horrified by the attitude and disposition of some of those who assumed power after the military’s exit.
Some who took over the reins of power behave as though they will remain in office forever and do not need Nigerian voters—or, indeed, Nigerians—to sustain their hold on power. To a certain extent, they are right. Some have perfected the art of voting on behalf of the people and getting away with it.
They have perfected the art and continually refine their methods with every electoral cycle. Their contempt for the people begins within their own political parties. These parties are among the least democratic institutions in the country. The Supreme Court of Nigeria, the apex court, insists that parties manage their internal affairs.
At other times, it has intervened decisively to curb anti-democratic practices. Parties organise sham primaries and sometimes don’t even pretend to conduct them. They impose candidates in the name of consensus.
When some of these politicians encounter a political storm over the legitimacy of their mandates, they play the ethnic and religious cards at every opportunity, claiming that they are being opposed or humiliated because of their ethnicity or religion.
These cards have long been available to them, but for how long? Unfortunately, the current crop of politicians appears to have learnt little from the collapse of previous republics or from the factors that contributed to it. Had they learnt those lessons, they would exercise greater restraint in their abuse of power, their insensitive comments and their despicable claims to electoral infallibility.
You cannot have democracy without voters. You cannot claim to vote on behalf of the people and call it democracy. The Nigerian people must assert their sovereignty and reclaim their right to choose their leaders.
The present arrangement strips them of their political agency and, in effect, diminishes their citizenship. They can reclaim that agency through courage, vigilance, organisation, knowledge and integrity.
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