WHAT REALLY IS THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE?

On today's session of night thoughts, we will attempt to answer together, a fundamental question that begs answers if our democracy will ever grow.

What is the will of the people (electorates)?

On April 11, 2015, I witnessed all manner of despicable undemocratic practices at the various polling units that I was privileged to visit. The memory of that fateful day, coupled with recent happenings at the tribunals, has prompted me to ask this very important question. What is the will of the people? Is it a PDP-led government? Or APC-led? Or LP-led? Or what?

In one of the polling units I visited, I witnessed firsthand the attempt by one sycophant to intimidate members of an opposition party. He had a field day shooting sporadically in the air, while the police officers looked without concern. As the opponents mobilized to retaliate, the police began their own round of shooting and this festival of gunshots went on for almost two hours. In this scenario, the police obviously helped the troublemaker to oppress his opponents. This troublemaker was APC, the opponents were AP.

The night before the elections however, I witnessed the attempt by one of the political parties to rubbish one electoral officer based on devilish accusations. She was manhandled, embarrassed and handed over to the police for an offence she did not commit. Her release took the combined efforts of members of another party. The liars in this case were AP while the rescuers were APC.

On the day of the election again, I witnessed the unruly behaviour of one party agent. He was so unlawful that he attempted to confiscate the card reader from the APO II for his unit. His reason was, the officials refused to show him the card reader after every scan. It took the combined efforts of several elders to calm the situation. The troublemaker in this case was LP while the peacemakers were APC and PDP.

In another polling unit, I witnessed the trouble-ready disposition of one of the party agents. He was so badly mannered that he picked fights with every person whose opinion differed from his at the unit. We were able to control his troubles eventually though. He was PDP.

The irony of this illustration is, all of the parties involved acted illegally at one point or the other. Their actions were tailored at every instance, towards intimidating voters and creating undue advantages for their parties. Yet, these same parties will go on air today and claim to be fighting for the mandate of the people. Which mandate?

During the Presidential elections, Prof Attahiru Jega did the unexpected. Around midday, he instructed that all poll officials revert to manual verification of voters since the card readers were malfunctioning in many places. Factually speaking, this instruction gave the APC undue advantage in a State like Kano and the PDP undue advantage in a State like Rivers. Both parties exploited the situation and committed grave electoral offences. These actions were repeated in the Gubernatorial election.

You ask me, why are all these facts necessary? To answer two other important questions I'll tell you.

1. As majority of the judgement delivered at the tribunals have favored APC so far, majority of their supporters have been describing the situation as 'victory for democracy', 'victory for the rule of law' and in some cases, 'victory for the will of the people'. Do we call it true victory for the rule of law or political manipulations?

2. Most politicians of PDP extraction are claiming the APC has been victimizing their party at the tribunals thereby jeopardizing the free will of the people. Do we call it jeopardizing free will of the people or we call it survival of the fittest?

Clear instances have seen all of the political parties involved in electoral malpractices. We can therefore not adjudge any of them to be running on the free will of the Nigerian people. They all hijacked the will of the people at locations where they were stronger than their opposition. Would that still qualify as the people's will?

If the will of the people is being hijacked at the polls, it means the will of the people is still unknown. This is not good enough for our democracy.

What this should also mean to any right-thinking Nigerian is, we must brag moderately about the acceptability of any of these political parties. They all are hijackers of political will!

What then, is the will of the people?

Sleep good!