Since the Operation Wetie crisis of the 1960s, and from the 1999 return to civil rule till today, every election in this country has followed the same tragic script: violence, ballot box snatching, soldiers patrolling the streets as if we are fighting a war, malfunctioning election machines, bribery, distribution of money, rice and food items at polling booths, thugs unleashed to intimidate voters, INEC colluding with the government of the day to write fake election results, and citizens prevented from exercising their right to vote etc etc.
When will Nigeria ever learn? When will we act like human beings living in a decent country rather than as animals living in a jungle or banana republic? Which kind rotten country that cannot organise elections peacefully be this sef?
We don’t have uniform election calender today because former president Obasanjo and the thief Maurice Iwu presided over one of the worst elections in the history of Nigeria, the 2007 general elections. Don’t we ever get tired and bored of nonsense and evil?
Also see: Osun Election: Adeleke Accuses APC of Bringing ‘Port Harcourt’ Police Officer to Disrupt Poll
Meanwhile, in decent nations, elections take place on ordinary weekdays. People cast their votes casually during lunch breaks from work. Ballot boxes remain untouched until election officers collect them after voting ends with no gun weilding security in sight. No chaos, no thuggery, no wahala.
But not Nigeria, where all things evil happen, a thoroughly shameless country led by unpatriotic rulers and a mostly daft followership. Na why during elections for Nigeria, no movement…we go declare emergency or war during something as simple in the life of a serious country, as elections…and yet it will still not be free, fair and credible…see ordinary Osun State, 29 people dead because of election, and the old hag in Aso Rock thinks he is a reformer.
Albert Afeso Akanbi
