Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Monday, April 18, 2011

New success, old divisions

The Nigerian elections have apparently been pretty honest and relatively peaceful. However, the old divisions are still evident, as this report from Next makes clear. (And as a treat to political science students and teachers, the headline writer uses the concept of "nation" correctly.)

Nigerians still struggle with their national loyalties

There are reasons to be proud of yesterday’s presidential election. But these reasons, strong as they are, do not include the voting pattern.

The relative lack of violence, the large voter turnout, apart from in the southwest and the manifest integrity of the process are causes for cheer.

There was a strong desire by Nigerians to defy authority, to conquer apathy and to change their destiny. In the north where women usually take little interest in politics, yesterday’s election showed a clear change of attitude. Many men went hungry as their wives abandoned domestic chores to cast their vote, a process so cumbersome that in some cases required spending the whole day at the polling unit. Some took permission to travel to their villages on the eve of the election to avoid the curfew…

All over the country, women and youth seemed to have taken keener interest in the democratic process and reports of how they had waited the whole day to ensure the sanctity of the exercise were many. But the way they voted showed that not much has changed about the psyche of the Nigerian voter.

Although it initially appeared that these formerly apolitical groups were going to help unite the country by voting across religious and cultural lines; this initial hope was dashed on the hard back of primordial interests…

Saturday’s presidential election, in which President Jonathan beat Mr Ribadu in the southwest and Buhari won practically all the states in the northwest, showed how little things have changed. Everybody won their home turf; Moslems mostly voted Buhari and Christians voted for Jonathan: no surprises anywhere…

There are, of course, Nigerians who voted their conscience and supported candidates from ‘the other side.’ But they were too few to change the pattern.

So we may have made progress in the organisation of elections, in the sensitization of voters to come out and defend their rights, but we have failed where it really mattered – in making Nigerians vote for the best candidate, wherever they come from.