Akeem Lasisi
Nigerians have cause to demand and ensure they get good governance from those who will lead them from May because the price they are paying for democracy is overbearing. Beyond the usual theft and institutionalised corruption that many government officials indulge in, the cost of the polls starting tomorrow (Saturday) is huge and getting more expensive in cash and kind almost by the hour.
Here is an election for which N189bn was budgeted, with N143bn approved by the National Assembly last year. The remaining sum was/is to be released later. So enormous does the amount sound that some people still wonder if it is not better to forget elections and share the billions among the people. The philosophy is based on the fear that the Nigeria’s type of democracy has brought more of stagnation and retrogression than development.
Others who put the argument in perspective note that if N189bn is diligently and conscientiously spent on any of the ailing sectors, a breakthrough would be permanently achieved. They imagine how much N180 plus nine billion naira would do in health, education or in creating employment for the millions of jobless youths still being called out to vote. Well, even those who are marketing that philosophy know that democracy is good and elections are necessary. All they are demanding is making the billions being spent – as was spent in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2015 – meaningful and fruitful.
Yet, the 2019 elections are expensive not just in budgetary terms. Although they are meant to enhance freedom and economic growth, they unfold in such a way that the people still have a lot to pay. The Federal Government has, for instance, announced that land borders will be shut between 12 noon today and 12 noon tomorrow.
A statement issued by the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) Comptroller-General, Muhammad Babandede, said, “Further to the presidential election taking place on the February, 16, 2019, the Minister of Interior has directed the closure of all Nigerian land borders with effect from 12.00noon of Friday, February 15 to 12.00noon of Sunday, February 17, 2019. This is to restrict movements across the borders during the election days. The public is to take note and ensure compliance.”
The government’s calculation that shutting the borders will enhance the security and sanity of the polls is also understandable, but it is more than a patriotic sacrifice for many people whose businesses and other plans will be affected during the time. The border closure, of course, has a foundation in an earlier order given by the police, which restricts vehicular movement from 6am to 6pm on Saturday. Just see how great hours are being irredeemably rendered useless!
“As part of efforts in furtherance of the overall interest of public order, public well-being and safety and national security as it relates to the general elections billed to take place on Saturday, February 16, 2019, the Inspector General of Police, Ag. IGP Muhammed Adamu, has ordered the restriction of vehicular movement from 6am to 6pm on Saturday, 16th February, 2019.
“The IGP notes that the restriction will assist the security agencies in effectively policing the electoral process, thereby preventing hoodlums and criminally-minded elements from hijacking and disrupting the electoral process,” Police Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, has said.
Even if the Federal Government has no plan to tinker with telecom flow as some people – especially the opposition – have alleged, the non-movement of people within the country and across the borders will mean that everyone has to besiege the internet/phone networks during the period. And we know the hassles that will become the lot of almost everyone, knowing how ‘very, very smooth’ the services of most of the telecommunication providers are on a normal day.
The issues are compounded by the fear that has been unleashed on the polity, by many politicians and their allies who are so desperate that, as the Yoruba saying goes, ‘won ko ko kile su ni Aila’, meaning that they don’t mind if night suddenly displaces afternoon. Threats of rigging and electoral violence are rife and the same democracy that many people believe has yet to bring fundamental development has become a source of psychological upheaval in Nigeria.
The beauty of the dilemma, however, is that this one too shall pass away. Perhaps what is most important is for Nigerians to bury docility and do far more to ensure that those who will be produced by the elections – or even those who will produce themselves – are made to perform and stop taking the country for granted.
