Nigerian politics is seriously contaminated. Without doubt, Nigeria democracy is a mess; every political landscape is being controlled by thugs rather than INEC and highly intelligent people. How can this culture lead Nigeria into a progressive nation?
We must be tough on political crimes, which have become part of our culture. Laws should be established to punish such crimes in order to bring sanity to our political system. This can start as early as 2023. The popular statement from most Nigerians is: who will make the policy? But we have the power to force our legislators to make the policy that will work for us, though it may take time. But it can be done.
When any politician wins election by rigging, the constituency and the country will suffer because such person may not have any clear agenda than to steal money; and if there is no development agenda, there will be no progress. We should have it in mind that political fraud comes with serious consequences
The only leaders that can move Nigeria forward are not the ones installed through electoral fraud, but the ones that have good agenda that can contribute to society development and have the potential to develop people who can produce a wide range of advanced technologies.
Rigging election is one of the ways the people put inefficient politicians in the office and with inefficient people running the country’s affairs, there can be no progress. This is bad because people who helped them to rig election didn’t do it because they are seeking the most efficient politicians to represent them. They did it because of their selfish interests; that is one of the reasons why corruption is spreading and development is zero. The average voter does not know the consequence of rigging. They are not politically educated enough to know that whatever they want can only come from the politicians who have passion for development not the ones that have only appetites for money and power. Voters must be trained to know the truth.
We must develop high-quality political system designed to work for the progress of the people. Because when it comes to creating value from innovation, the government backed by thugs cannot do this.
Lack of true political competitions is undemocratic. Competition between candidates should drive the outcome towards efficiency. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, our politicians seemingly don’t care about development. Our poor democratic process has many weaknesses: competition is hampered by poverty and voters’ lower education.
We must beware of desperation. With it comes bad decisions – and a desperate politician is a dangerous one.
Nigerians cannot afford to be going back and forth to electoral tribunals to settle election matters. Though the outcome may be good for ‘robbed’ candidates and make them feel like winners, this demon has sucked time and resources away from almost every other area and draws the affected state back and may make it poorer.
Yes, we need total reforms of all our institutions and a new orientation. Development never comes without deliberate planning. Our leaders must find the best way to design what will make the citizens love and die for the country. As at now, many Nigerians are being killed, kidnapped, harassed, molested and they don’t know whether Nigeria is safe anymore. Most Nigerians only experience pains and hopelessness. Not until we can stand up and condemn electoral crime, nothing will change!
Joseph Adams writes from the United Kingdom
josephaaadams@gmail.com
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