It is expedient to mention that our country is now 58 years of age. And though we might fly that green and white flag, and make declarations and hold festivals, in celebration of decades of unity and independence, our 58-year-old nation has achieved precious little and we know it.

Surely there is a nagging thought in the minds of all but perhaps the most callous Nigerians about the country’s future, and what it may hold for her people. The green and white wagon, liberated from Britain in 1960, continues to blunder down the road of her history, damaged in many places. As a people, we have endured many years of austerity, which has hit the poor majority the hardest. Ease of thought in spending, devoid of stern calculations is a fantasy in the minds of many Nigerians; security is alien to most of us; a good business environment has eluded us.

It is no wonder we are angry, and wary, as a people – anger and wariness founded upon disappointment from the past, when we have cast our votes in expectation, only to see those to whom we have trusted our wagon’s steering drive us further into unemployment, scarcity, insecurity, the list goes on.

Despite the fact that we do not expect miracles, nor demigods to tackle the problems of the nation, we know that a good government is central to a better Nigeria. We need a credible and transparent government that can curb corruption, address the issue of why there are so many poor people in a wealthy nation, and perhaps unmake the greatest oxymoron of all time: rich country, poor people.

For now, that seems far-off. Our politics has become a crime-filled system, base and thuggish, with each group determined to bloody the noses of the others. Take the just-concluded Osun governorship elections, for instance. It was a close-run contest, with INEC declaring the election inconclusive, and ordering a rerun poll in some areas. By the end of the election, accusations of rigging, violence, and victimisation abounded the state. In their statement, the All Progressives Congress (APC) accused the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of having made elaborate but failed attempts to manipulate the election, saying that “they attempted to win by fraud… [but] failed in the first round and eventually lost the re-run election.” The PDP, on the other hand, accused APC of rigging the elections as well, reporting what they called “the brazen theft and daylight swindling of Osun people who were criminally denied their rights to vote and be voted for by an anti-people conspiracy among INEC, security agencies and the ruling All Progressive Congress.”

Who rigged the election then, if it was rigged at all? From what living in Nigeria has taught us, we may assume that both parties attempted to rig it. Whether they succeeded or not is a different question. There were also many reports of arrests, attacks by hooded thugs, and even deaths of people. A woman was allegedly killed for insisting that she be allowed to exercise freely her right to vote.

Take also, the on-going primary elections. There are already allegations of malpractices trailing the contests; woes, violence, and infractions characterised the elections of the two major political parties – PDP and APC. After APC’s primary presidential election which saw President Buhari emerge as the convincing winner, the PDP claimed in a statement that APC posted “fictitious results” as votes secured by the President, supposedly in a bid to hoodwink Nigerians and create massive support for President Buhari ahead of the general election next year.

During the governorship primary of the Kwara State chapter of the PDP, suspected hoodlums invaded the venue – the Banquet Hall, Government House, Ilorin – and disrupted the process. The state governor, Abdul Fatah Ahmed, some aspirants, and other government officials escaped through the back door. In Akwa Ibom State, the APC governorship primary ended in a stalemate as party leaders engaged in a fight that got to the exchange of blows. There have also been reports of accusations of abuse and hijacked materials with fakes presented in their stead.

As the elections draw nearer, the political climate gets darker. If primaries can generate so much bad blood, then we must shudder to think how things will be next year when the presidential elections (this one has the potential to be the most keenly-contested) arrive.

The solution to corruption cannot be born of corruption. How can a government that assumes power on the back of gross misconduct, victimisation of people, and bloodshed be genuinely expected to work towards a better Nigeria? It is difficult to imagine a credible, transparent and effective government that comes into power with such distasteful events as we now witness.

Granted, politics is generally known as a “dirty game” to humanity, and there is a reason why it is a race, not a lucky draw – each party uses any legitimate means it can to knock others out. But the key word here is legitimate. Misconduct, rigging, violence and thuggery now characterise our politics; this is hardly the path to growth, and nothing would be more corrosive to our future than its continuance.

Read more: https://thenovita.com/are-violence-misconduct-and-the-blame-game-all-our-politics-has-become/

This is obviously the situation of things right now, but the question is, how do we go about it?