Yes! This election is worth doing well

I don’t know if most of you watched last week’s episode of the hottest selling Nigerian movie: election 2011. I did and I was not too disappointed in what I saw and the many intrigues and tensed drama showcased by the various actors and actresses.  Well for those who are still new to the Nigeria political arena, this is the final show of strength and magu- magu by all the contesting political parties in the forth-coming general election.  And as visualized by yours sincerely, our white bearded prof gave them a shocker, an upper cut that stopped all their planned rigging,ballot snatching and vote buying,etc.  And trust Nigerians the show was superlative with various chain reaction and different version and sub-plot emitting from various groups throughout the week.

While some group accused INEC of a deliberate attempt to rig the election in favour of the PDP,other group accused the electoral body of a plot to award the election to certain tribal group in the country and others fired at the prof for negligence and failure and demanded  his head. But one of the hottest accusations was the rumoured interception of ballot boxes in the hands of some serving governors and their aides. Like wildfire the story soon burnt across the streets, and more conspiracy theories were easily concocted to embellish the already charged atmosphere. 

This is Nigeria for you where everything is different. A prudent observer might have noticed that we are always in a rush in almost everything we do, never with the patience to do anything worth doing well. The daily rush and mad haste by most of our motorists and cyclists across the country is a typical example of how we are. Always rushing to get somewhere and at the end getting nowhere, after breaking the various traffic laws and instigating multiple accidents along the way.

And like the various daily madness along our roads and other part of our system, election 2011 has been co-opted into our rush-rush trademark. And our desperate politicians are too anxious to snatch, steal and rig the election in their favour. Some of them have even gone as far as shamelessly swapping the real electoral officers with their cronies, brothers, sisters and other political mercenaries. Wonder they say shall never end, and in Nigeria wonder will always grow above the average.

I think the prof was right when he said anything worth doing is worth doing well. But most of our political elite would hardly subscribe to this sensible logic; instead they are more comfortable with their fire brigade approach to sensitive and important issues. They feel proud in exhibiting their illusive power and cutting cheap corners in getting things done, part of the reasons why almost everything seems not to be working in the country. Thank God the white bearded Prof called their bluff  last Saturday and boldly cancelled the slated election across the country, taming and exposing their plans, and all the magu-magu they had planned to unleash on the innocent electorate.

Yes! Whatsoever is worth doing must be worth doing well, and the 2011 election should be worth doing well and better than the previous orchestrated elections in the country. I think it is important for the Prof to close his ears to the selfish agitation of some of our desperate politicians and give Nigerians a free, fair and transparent election. He should hold on to his vowed transparent election slogan and let his conscience guide him towards stamping his name in gold in the eyes of the world.

This election is worth doing well and should never be the normal undemocratic do-or-die affair mantra of Baba Otta. We must try to get it right this time around and do this trillion  naira election with prudence and ensure that all those volume of billions channelled towards this expensive exercise  don’t just go  through the drain; to the selfish satisfaction of our over-desperate politicians, who want everything to continue as usual.

We should all stand up to our rights this time around and insist that this election is worth doing well, if it means cancelling it again to checkmate those political thieves  around us, whose mind- set are already programmed to steal, snatch and rig election. This is actually the time for all patriotic Nigerians to come out and defend their votes from invading political mercenaries and vote robbers threatening our political freedom and overall development. We should insist that this election is worth doing well for us to have patriotic councillors, chairmen, legislators, senators, governors and president.

Perhaps nowhere else under the sun apart from Nigeria are citizens of a country yearly out-winked by their politicians despite all the intellectual capital and enlightenment among the various groups. It is important that we say no to these political fraudsters among us, who over the decade have been using the police and other security agencies, including the judiciary,to intimidate and steal our rights to proper representation and prosperous living condition. This election for the tax payers’ money, time and lives that have been sacrificed along the way, I believe is worth doing well, and Nigerians should be ready to sacrifice as they troop out en masse to cast their votes again.

We should insist on quality of the highest and finest standard of electioneering, since we are practising and paying for one of the most expensive democracies in the world.

The  movie is still running and the drama daily unfolding as we near the end of one of the most controversial and expensive  political movie in the world. Please let us insist,like the prof,that anything worth doing, must and should be done well.

NEW  NIGERIAN  ON  SUNDAY, APRIL 10,  2011