GO TO THE ANT THOU SLUGGARD, CONSIDER HER WAYS AND BE WISE!

The Presidential Election in the Republic of Senegal - a small French country of about 15 million people in the West African Sub-Region, was conducted on Sunday 24th February, 2019, and the incumbent, Mr. Macky Sall, (57), emerged re-elected for a second term of five years, with no gunshot fired, no act of thuggery reported, no ballot box snatched, no one hurt, no single death recorded nor any human blood shed anywhere across the nation!

According to reports, voting was calm, peaceful and international observer missions signalled no major security issues as he won with a clear margin of 58.27% of votes cast with his closest rival trailing behind at 21%! Mr. Sall who was first elected in 2012, was adjudged to be a moderniser who propelled the nations economy growth to more than 6% a year, a feat described as one of the highest rate in Africa and which endeared him to the Senegalese Electorate of more than 6.6 million people, with 66% turn-out, who cast their ballot to vote CONTINUITY!
In his first term, he was quick to focus on major people-friendly capital projects which enhanced the social life of all citizens. TWO popular opposition candidates, among the seven short- listed, a former Mayor of Dakar, Khalifa Sall (not related to the President), and Mr. Karim Wade, the son of a former President, were unable to contest having been found guilty of CORRUPTION! Senegal had maintained stable democracy since independence and always recorded a history of peaceful elections!

NIGERIA'S 2019 POLITICAL MODEL!
Unlike SENEGAL, the Republic of Nigeria, a large country with an unofficial population of about 200 million people, the conduct of the Presidential Election was a complete opposite of the Senegalese outing! Nigerian registered voters was put at 87%, of which at least 50% of that figure should turn out to vote during the Presidential-National Assembly/Governorship-State Assemblies/Local Council polls at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), registered a total of an unwieldy 91 political parties out of which 78, presented presidential candidates, while 23,000 candidates were to vie for 1,558 seats across board!
Although, Senegal also registered over 80 political parties, only SEVEN presidential candidates vied for the number one position!
SHOULD THOSE INTIMIDATING STATISTICS PROVOKE VIOLENCE? According to unofficial figures, at least 39 lives were lost in election-related issues because some thugs, ballot box snatchers, and gunmen reportedly disturbed electoral processes in Rivers, Bayelsa, Kaduna, while some politicians alleged that the entire process was MILITARISED! Ballot papers were openly seized in some polling units and publicly torched in the full glare of the electorate and global viewers while the sitting Governor of Rivers State and one of his Commissioners alleged threats to their lives and families by some soldiers!
In spite of all the electoral commotions, President Buhari was re-elected for a second term in office with a total of 15,191,847 votes as against his main opponent's figure of 11,262,978, although the loser, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had already approached the Appeal Court to challenge the president's victory at the recently concluded polls which was postponed from 16th to 23rd February, 2019, due to logistics issues!

Like Mr. Sall, President Buhari was also endeared to the Nigerian electorate because his first term was dedicated to catering for the down-trodden who had been denied all dividends of democracy by past administrations, through execution of capital projects of national road networks, aggressive resuscitation of the ailing Power Sector to boost industrialization; financial support to Small and Medium Scale Industries, diversification to Agriculture and Solid Mineral exploration as new sources of internally generated revenues to support Crude Oil, which had been the nation's major foreign exchange earner product; Unconditional Monthly Cash Transfers to the poorest of the poor; Home grown School-feeding programme, University Graduates N-Power Employment Programme, which has absorbed over 500.000 applicants within a short period of three years; etc, etc. AND in spite of all of his achievements Buhari, in his 2019 New Year's broadcast before the elections, appealed to all citizens to ensure total peace adding that the exercise needed not be, "A-DO-OR-DIE-AFFAIR" but all of his entreaties fell on deaf ears because the Fifth Columnists who sponsored and perpetrated violence for selfish reasons did not factor God into the electoral process as canvassed by the President and so would face divine justice, if they escaped the long arms of the law on Earth!

AN EXCERPT FROM THE PRESIDENT'S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH!
"I am very sad at the grievous loss of lives during these elections. Security agencies will step up their efforts to protect voters in the forthcoming State elections," he added, but commended them that though they were overstretched, they were still able to secure the country in spite of the difficult task!

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES!
Senegal was peaceful before, during and after the presidential elections but Nigeria was rather volatile throughout its outings - not excluding, Supplementary Elections of Saturday, 23rd March, 2019, conducted in 17 States of the Federation! The same rowdiness/unruly behaviour greeted the polling units in some States; especially, Kano's Nasarawa Local Government Area and also in Benue! The conduct of elections should normally be peaceful if all stakeholders - especially if the voters had no ulterior motives other than to vote for candidates who offered superior ideas of good governance in their manifestos. Was Senegal peaceful at election because it was a small country and Nigeria was volatile because it was a large nation? NO! The size of a country should not be a yard stick for measuring the rate of crimes and criminalities committed in such clime, but the mien, civility, patriotism, socio-political indoctrination of the citizens and above all, individual character orientation/reformation! Has it not been globally established that all forms of insurgency, insurrection, civil disobedience, terrorism, etc, were always ignited by few people - a motley crowd?
Unstable minds needed just some promptings of wrong doctrines or warped ideologies to turn them into uncontrollable monsters within a very short period! The indoctrination of infamous terrorist groups of the ilk of Boko Haram, Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hisbola, Taliban, Islamic State terrorists (ISIS), etc, began in small cells by the master-minds through false religious indoctrination like Nigeria's Boko Haram, which had troubled the nation since 2009, until very recently when their ranks have been totally militarily devastated like never before, through the determination of President Buhari to end the recalcitrant war at all costs!

Senegal and Nigeria attained independence from France and Britain respectively in the year 1960; both countries derived their names from their major rivers, Senegal and Niger; they practice the presidential system of government but with a slight modification and insertion of a frugal parliamentary system by Senegal which ensures no wastages in administration by any tier! Also, the two Presidents ran for second terms in office and providentially won with clear margins! BUT that is where the similarities ended because while Senegal enjoyed peaceful elections, Nigeria's Security agencies are still struggling to maintain law and order across the nations following post election eruptions and violence and though the Courts are inundated with over 640 post-primary litigations more are expected at the Tribunals as soon as all elections are concluded!

LESSONS TO LEARN FROM SENEGAL?
Senegal may be small in size, political clout or stature, it is crystal that the nation's economical viability has been largely responsible for the constant peace it has enjoyed in 58 years of independence. Nigeria's cluster of 36 States could individually borrow a leaf from the Senegalese success story by starting economic frugality through which Internally Generated Revenues (IGRs), could be regularly actualized to boost the living standards of the Workforce and by extension their entire citizens! FOR each State to achieve sufficient and regular IGRs, more hands would be employed , able-bodied youths would be taken off the streets and the labour market simultaneously and in the event of such synergy among the 36 States of the Federation, including the FCT, evil politicians would not have opportunity to employ them as THUGS during electioneering seasons!
ANOTHER lesson to learn: Political offices in Nigeria MUST, as a matter of urgency and priority, be tailored to conform with Parliamentary norms, even under a Presidential system, in order to reduce fund wastages and create a spirit of general inclusiveness in all citizens, since there would be more funds to cater for all social amenities: education, health, power, transportation, housing, security etc. To achieve this feat, the SENATE must be scrapped during this 2019-2023, CHANGE Administration, through a BRAND NEW CONSTITUTION OR A REFERENDUM, as may be desired and a 74-member House of Representatives to work on part-time was established to serve the people who have suffered enough hardship, torture, pain and death for too long!
SINCE MONETISATION OF POLITICAL OFFICES in Nigeria is largely responsible for the mad rush and crave which always resulted in the loss of precious lives during elections as is being witnessed currently, a DELIBERATE AND DETERMINED EFFORT MUST BE MUSTERED BY THE BUHARI CONTINUITY GOVERNMENT TO TERMINATE THE ILLEGAL UNCONSTITUTIONAL HUMONGUS SALARIES & ALLOWANCES BEING PAID TO SENATORS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE MEMBERS, GOVERNORS, STATE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY MEMBERS AND ALL POLITICAL APPOINTEES, AND ENSURE THAT CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS THROUGH REVENUE MOBILIZATION ALLOCATION AND FISCALCOMMISSION (RMFAC), IS STRICLY ADHERED TO!

BREAKING NEWS? BREAKING NEWS? BREAKING NEWS?
ON 19TH SEPTEMBER 2012, LAW MAKERS VOTED TO DO AWAY WITH THE SENATE TO SAVE AN ESTIMATED USD$ 15 MILLION DOLLARS UNDER THE WATCH OF PRESIDENT MACKY SALL! SINCE THEN, THE SENEGALESE SENATE REMAINED DEAD AND BURIED! PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI WILL DO SAME AS WE MOVE INTO THE NEXT LEVEL!
"Go to the ant thou sluggard, observe her ways and be wise." (Proverbs. 6:6).


I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon. 08130669886, 08098194390. 08080243066. G-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com.

In as much as we agree Buhari is a failure and this present INEC boss is perhaps the worst after Maurice Iwu,it's intellectually naive to compare an election conducted for a 15million population to that for about 170m people with about 80m registered voters.
I don't buy the comparison and there is no basis to compare Senegal's and Nigeria's

The population of Senegal is less that the population of Lagos. So, it is wrong comparism to compare Senegal election to Lagos State Local Government election. Therefore, only an insane nincompoop will compare Senegal 15 million total population election to Nigeria's about 200 million population election.

seborrhic:
In as much as we agree Buhari is a failure and this present INEC boss is perhaps the worst after Maurice Iwu,it's intellectually naive to compare an election conducted for a 15million population to that for about 170m people with about 80m registered voters.
I don't buy the comparison and there is no basis to compare Senegal's and Nigeria's

dear seborrhic, you probably did not read through before forming an opinion.