DAKUKU PETERSIDE FROM INDEPENDENT
Nigeria’s general election, the largest democratic exercise in Africa, begins on 25 February. All the parties and candidates are jostling to get the voters’ attention and convince them to vote for them in the elections. The wait is palpitating, and the electioneering campaign drama is thus far exhilarating. Everything but issues facing Nigerians is fair game and the political satire playing out even keeps the unapologetic patriot ashamed of our political process. Conventions and rules of the political games are written and broken with recklessness. Many parties’ political strategy seems to be “no strategy”. They seem to go with the flow of things with such fetish adherence to parochial and sentimental politics that is not based on decorum and pragmatic attempts to stabilise our country and put it on the growth path.
This make-or-mar election promises to be a referendum on the political orthodoxy and will chart the way forward for Nigeria in the new epoch. The seeming awakening of the youths, especially in major urban areas, for political participation, if appropriately harnessed, will reshape the political map of Nigeria. For this to succeed, there are unwritten rules and conventions embedded in the electoral process that shapes the context and outcome. Here are five unwritten rules you need to know about this election.
The first rule is that voters must be ready to be patient as the process may be cumbersome. The 2023 election will be the first time INEC will be deploying BVAS on a national scale. Like everything novel technology, it would come with challenges. Previous experience has shown that even passionate voters are easily discouraged when long queues appear or machines malfunction. In the past, long queues in elections had forced some officials to extend voting hours to accommodate the crowd. But that helps only voters who can stick around for hours. However, long waiting times discourages people from voting.
This is even worse when the weather is unfavourable – either the sun’s scorching heat is unbearable, or the heavy downpour of the rain soaks the voters. These in-climate conditions test even the most trusted and passionate voter. The reasons for long lines during voting include logistical nightmares that lead to voting starting late, poor staffing, untrained staff, and technical malfunctioning. INEC must anticipate these problems and have solutions before election day. Adequate preparation for the election will minimise most of these contingencies and alleviate long queues and waiting times during voting. However, when long lines and waiting times are inevitable, voters must develop the patience to do whatever it takes to vote and protect their voters. They are responsible for voting and supporting INEC to conduct a free and credible election in Nigeria.
The second rule is that voters are easily confused about choice of candidate versus choice of party . The 2023 general election is gearing to be such that voters may not vote according to party lines but according to the candidates fielded for the election. It is becoming more apparent in most places that a voter may vote for a candidate in one party for the presidency, vote for another candidate in another party for the governorship and vote for another candidate in another party for the national and state assemblies. A recent African Polling Institute poll confirms that citizens are increasingly not fixated on voting along party lines but on specific candidates for the elections, though there are exceptions to this in some regions.
If this is anything to go by, many illiterate and semi-literate voters may need clarification and enlightenment . Political parties need to do more about voter education, and they ought to take responsibility for voter education. Parties must strive to teach their supporters what their emblems are so that when a voter is in the polling booth to vote, he will remember the party emblem of the candidate of his choice.
