Whatever you make of the outcome and the controversies surrounding it, the 2023 presidential election has marked a seismic shift in Nigeria’s political landscape. And this is all credit to the vast army of Nigeria’s youth, and the older citizens with them, who sent a strong message to the effect that an end to the old, destructive political order is in sight, and the long-suffering citizens of Nigeria will no longer take it lying down.
Tension in the land has not abated, mind. A close friend, who is otherwise apolitical, sent to me the screenshot of the results in his polling unit which was overwhelmingly won by Peter Obi. He was there till the end, in Lagos. As of 1st March when we spoke, he said that result had not been uploaded and tallied on the INEC portal. In other words, the anger felt by many aggrieved youth is not merely an emotional reaction of sore losers. INEC needs to account for its below-par performance in the presidential election. For good measure, the LP and PDP candidates should challenge the irregularities in court. If for nothing else but for the records. We all know the state of Nigeria’s judiciary.
Nevertheless, until and unless I am persuaded otherwise, I do not support the call for outright cancellation of the presidential election. Perhaps more evidence will emerge in the judicial challenge to warrant outright cancellation. Another possibility, more realistic if not overtaken by events, is for election rerun to happen in specific locations where there are proven evidence of fraud. The legal obstacle to this is two-fold, as I see it: one is that there is arguably more widespread cases of fraud than can be proven legally beyond reasonable doubts. The other is that you need a significant turnaround of figures in a future rerun to be able to overturn the outcome of the election itself, either in terms of the simple majority or the 25% requirement for the winner in two-thirds of the country.
Having said this, the scale of the achievement of the “Obidient” cum #EndSARS movement cannot be overstated. Their impact should not be overshadowed by the lamentable shenanigans of INEC and the desperate reactionary contrivance of expiring politicians. The outcome in Lagos State is the ultimate myth buster, if you were ever in doubt. It is the equivalence of a political tsunami, precipitated by a movement derided by establishment politicians as having “no structure”. It was an appellation that the determined youth of Nigeria took in their strides, and must now embrace as a monumental badge of honour, going forward. Make no mistake, “No Structure” is the one movement that can save Nigeria from itself.
Battered and bruised in battle, the vast Army of Nigeria’s youth are yet poised to win the war in the long run. Undimmed and unbowed, they must stay the course and refuse to be broken by a system that has long been skewed against them. To retreat now is to snap defeat from the jaws of victory, a victory that is already underway. For the victory needed is not just electoral, it is also cultural.
Since the first republic, Nigeria democratic order has been dominated by the politics of “stomach infrastructure” and weaponisation of poverty. Like the Biblical Esau, famished people invariably make the wrong decisions. Even at the most critical moment, desperate hunger overrides human rational side. As Abraham Maslow suggests, the primal driving force of human is physiological imperative for survival and safety. Pushed to the precipice, the youth of Nigeria are upending this debilitating dynamics by summoning the higher levels of consciousness. The days of “stomach infrastructure” are nigh. We dare hope, at least. The numbers in Abuja and Lagos tell a striking story, to wit: when you take poverty and ignorance away, citizens are most likely to make the kind of choice that set complacent, self indulgent politicians quaking in their boots, and invariably raises the bar of performance across board. I suggest that, by and large, the same people who voted in Obi will not bat an eye to vote him out should he win and then give a mediocre performance. This is exactly what Nigeria needs, and what “no structure” has given us at this point in time.
‘No structure” has opened new vistas of opportunities for Nigeria’s otherwise flailing democracy. It is thanks to “No Structure” that no military adventurers will be having “ideas”. Nigerian citizens are done outsourcing their civic responsibilities to armed soldiers. It is thanks to “No Structure” that Nigerian voters can now shed the self-rosetting toga of servile acquiescence and dream the possible. It is thanks to “No Structure” that the restructuring agenda, in its full authenticity, must now return to the front burner of the national agenda. It is thanks to ‘No Structure” that the next president of the federal republic must eschew “dot nation” mentality and govern for all or risk losing all. It is thanks to ‘No Structure” that the performance expectation for all political office holders have been raised to much higher levels, upon the risk of being kicked out of office. “No Structure” has invigorated the nation with new hopes. Take a bow, “No Structure”!
