The elections is already here, and yet again nothing has been done to mitigate our fear of the outcomes. The apparition of the election violence, as witnessed in the 2019 general election, is here again.
Our fears are not mitigated and it is not because of the people’s lack of faith in the security agencies combing major towns and villages across the state in armoured tanks and vans full of men that seem like the cast of a Rambo movie, threatening and harassing motorists. Our biggest fear is the fear of ourselves, of that politically charged brother who practises do or die election, of that loudly partisan citizen who has threatened people not to come home for election if they wont vote his preferred candidate or of that political campaigner whose idea of change is the victory of members of his ethnic group, all indoctrinated in different measures by their political affiliations.
Our fault-lines aren’t blurred as assumed due to the way our brothers that are with the government chased us away from our villages and harmlet during the last general election; Tools you can bet on to win election shouldn’t be rigging and to cause voter apathy.
As I write this, a lot of potential voters have already been disenfranchised by this fear of ourselves; the people, threatened by the apparitions already lurking around in fears and have been moving to “safe zones”, away from Kogi, packed in confluence express and private buses; members and supporters of a party unpopular in the state have been sending signals of violence with some even going as far as instilling fears on electorates. And, thus, it’s ironic that a people previously more interested in “rescue mission” have realised that “safety” is the basic necessity of our existence in this polarised space.
We have built a dangerous state! Why would any party’s stalwart or supporter send message of violence to discourage electorates from coming out to vote? Electorates are scare of being assaulted or killed by a band of political zealots who won’t accept a defeat in an election that doesn’t assure any contender of a victory.
While the key actors in the Gubernatorial election, Yahaya Bello and Engr. Musa Wada won’t be enemies during and after the election, they may even meet in posh hotels to sign a Peace Accord, fanatical defence of their ambitions by Kogites who can’t even spell “Accord” threatens us all.
This is a democracy, Ojima in Ochaja and an Omeiza in Agassa are just as enfranchised as us to oppose Musa Wada and Yahaya Bello, respectively, refusing to subscribe to senatorial district solidarity or sentiments.
No Ebira should be harassed for supporting Musa Wada, the same way no Igala should be for supporting Yahaya Bello. Democracy is a game of interest and convictions, personal or popular, objective or mischievous, and whoever chooses to go against us commits no crime at all. Our vote is our only tool against perceived political dysfunction or oppression. Violence solves nothing; it only destroys a democracy!
And while we always lament and abuse ourselves on our social media platforms, becoming estranged over expressed political differences, I have yet another fear about the elections. It’s something we all don’t want to hear or, in the case of the politically zealous among us, haven’t really paused to ponder.
This fear is the vulnerability of the rural electorate, in forgotten villages. I remember my aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces, whose PVC is up for the highest bidder, amused in hamlets with no motorable roads. I remember my friends in the towns, who were “too busy” for voter’s registration or PVC collection. Memories of these deliberate and circumstantial disenfranchisements aggravate my fears of the hours before, and the days after, 16 November, 2019.
May God save us from us!
– Habib Omachile Rabbiu writes from Abuja and I am not ‘diaspora politician’.
