That Nigerians' votes become sacrosanct

Sanni Azeez Olusegun


TWO weeks ago, Great Britain had its election and the ruling party lost to the new order. Ever since, debates have been held at different fora analysing lessons to be learnt from it by Nigeria. The main lesson is the sacrosanctity of the votes. This of course is not the only lesson, there are other lessons to be drawn from the election if indeed Nigeria wants to achieve smooth election in 2011.

Though, this is the first British election since 1974 to produce a hung parliament, our focus should be centred on the smoothness that characterised the election. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, though unhappy, as he told reporters shortly after his resignation, moved out quickly as though there was urgency attached to it. He moved out his family and the rest is history. So many governors have been unseated in this country and still will tell the world that they are still consulting their legal advisers on the next line of action. A case study was when the then Governor of Oyo State, Senator Rasheed Ladoja, was impeached and his deputy, Chief Adebayo Alao-Akala was sworn in. The impeached governor went to court and the court ruled in his favour. But even then, his supposed deputy was still spitting fire and brimstone that the judgment was ambigous and that until he speaks with his lawyers, he cannot leave office. What an effrontery to the judicial system. Presently, a senator's election has been quashed by a competent court and yet, the concerned senator is still parading herself as a senator of the Federal Republic. This is a shame of a nation. There are other cases like this and now is the time to borrow a leaf from the advanced countries that we so claim to follow their footsteps in our quest for development. Moreso, almost all their cultural innuendos, either negative or otherwise, have crept into our lives. If we can desecrate our culture through unchecked importation of culture, which has caused us embarrassing cultural pride and has led to unmitigated cultural lag, then we should be bold to take some clues from what they do well too.

The election that was held in the United Kingdom on Thursday 6 May, 2010, to elect members into the House of Commons is supposed to be an eye opener for Nigeria as the country moves towards a general election. The general election took place in 649 constituencies across the United Kingdom, under the first-past-the-post system. The Conservative Party under David Cameron won the largest number of votes and seats, but fell short of the 326 seats needed to have an overall majority. It was the first time since 1974, and only the second time since the Second World War, that a British general election returned a hung parliament.

For the first time in a British election, the three main party leaders engaged in a series of televised debates. The third largest party, the Liberal Democrats, achieved a breakthrough in opinion polls after the first debate in which their leader, Nick Clegg, was widely seen as the strongest performer. However, on the election day, their share of the votes increased by only one percent, and they suffered a net loss of five seats. Still, this was the Liberal Democrats' largest popular vote since the party's creation in 1988, and they found themselves in a pivotal role in the formation of the new government.

On 11 May, as coalition talks between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats seemed to be drawing to a successful conclusion, Gordon Brown announced his resignation as Prime Minister, marking the end of 13 years of Labour government. This made way for David Cameron to become Prime Minister just one hour after Queen Elizabeth II accepted Brown's resignation. Just after midnight on 12 May 2010, the Liberal Democrats emerged from a meeting of their Parliamentary party and Federal Executive to announce that the coalition deal had been "approved overwhelmingly", meaning that Cameron would be leading a coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

This was the first time since 1979 that none of the three main party leaders had headed a previous general election campaign. 35 percent of voters supported a party other than Labour or the Conservatives—the highest such figure since the 1918 general election. The Green Party won its first seat in the Commons, and the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland won its first seat at the ballot box.

Another lesson from this is that the so called minority parties can win elections into the legislature, thereby giving the ruling party a run for its money as their status will begin to grow. Many political parties in Nigeria have resigned to fate that they can never clinch anything in elective offices but just hang on for the stipends being doled out to political parties for further sharing among elite members.

One major incident that struck my attention as I watched the run-ins was the ideological background of the numerous campaigns. You could see quite well how different candidates presented their manifestos and the reactions of the voters through the ballot. How I wish that somebody can come out in Nigeria with good manifesto and be voted for on that basis. The ruling party did not fight the case in court because it trusts the electoral system. The personality of the electoral chief was so hidden that some of the candidates admitted not to know him, unlike the case in Nigeria.