It is no longer news that after maintaining till the last hours of the election eve, of it’s readiness for the process, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) came out like a thief in the night to announce the postponement of the elections.
Citing logistics and operational plan constraints as reasons for the postponement, Nigerians were told to just accept it and roll with it. Materials and resources had been deployed but no worries. Schools shut, establishments and institutions both private and public closed, markets shutdown… no qualms. Our economy is so much on a sound footing that the nation can be put on hold. Accountability and prudence count for nothing.
A nation where competence is sacrificed on the altar of who I am most comfortable to work with, what else do we expect as the possible outcome.
The rumour mill had been bursting at the seams with a purported letter from the Attorney General of the Federation seeking poll postponement, INEC resolutely debunked and insisted on the elections holding. Even when it’s offices in some locations were going up in flames. So, what happened? Definitely as usual we have not been let into the full and true story behind the postponement. It is surreptitiously a hand of Esau, voice of Jacob scenario.
Serial loyalist to the government in power have come out to defend the charade saying it is normal as previous administrations had done the same. How very convenient. The ruling party has come out to recriminate INEC and castigate the leading opposition as the bad boys behind the postponement. The ones that are trying to derail our “Demoncracy”.
The devil has since possess the soul of this nation, serious exorcism needs to be conducted to free it. A nation of 180 million plus mumus, drifting aimlessly to nohwere. A quarter of what we are enduring did not happen in the Arab world before the great Arab spring. Let us keep enduring.
For as long as we keep tolerating mediocrity, the more things change the more they would remain the same. We are too quick to make excuses for our failed leadership.
Whatever the outcome of the polls, looking at the two likely winners the populace will still be left with the short end of the stick. 20 years of experimental “Demoncracy” is too costly even for a nation like Nigeria to bear.
So who will underwrite the wastage from this wee hour postponement? You and me, the citizens. And absolutely no one would be held to account.
May God help us!
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