Nigeria: Opportunity to Get it Right, This Time

Daily Trust

1 April 2011

Nigeria: Opportunity to Get it Right, This Time

editorial

The much-heralded general elections in Nigeria are finally here. Eligible voters go to the polls tomorrow for the first of three-tier elections that will mark a further consolidation of democracy in a journey that began twelve years ago.

Tomorrow's exercise is for the election of members of the National Assembly, to be followed by presidential election on April 9 and election of state governors and assemblies on April 16. There is no doubt that this cycle of elections will be a defining moment for the country whose image has been badly tarnished by its false starts and rigged polls. Since 1999, when the current democratic dispensation started, each election cycle appeared to be manifestly worse than the preceding one - at a time when even smaller and poorer countries like Ghana and Niger conducted free, fair and non-contentious elections. Will this cycle of elections be therefore the opportunity to break the jinx, or will it reinforce the nation's negative image as a country that can still not conduct simple elections?

There are grounds for optimism, however. For instance, despite its imperfections, our democracy has endured since 1999 - the longest, uninterrupted period the country has ever been under a democracy in its political history.

An additional ground to be hopeful is that for the first time after several disappointments, many Nigerians appear to have regained some confidence that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), thanks to its current leadership-is sufficiently neutral in this election process.

INEC's chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega and his team deserve praise for re-positioning INEC and engendering this important level of perception among Nigerians.

However, the true test will be with the conduct of the actual elections. INEC on its own cannot organise credible elections unless all Nigerians-voters, politicians and security agents show a conscious determination to make the exercise a success.