BY AWA KALU, SAN
All over the world, so many things are happening on account of recent elections. In the US for instance, a Search Warrant was executed on the premises of ex-president Donald Trump, following allegations that he had unlawfully taken sensitive classified government documents to his private quarters in the resort at Mara-la-go, Florida.
His loss of the presidential election led to a bitter campaign which his opponents allege is designed to impugn the integrity of not just the election but American democracy. Losing an election creates a heavy burden, the burden of accepting the outcome. But mounting a campaign by which the losing candidate trumpets his loss as unreal creates a crisis of epic proportions.
Donald Trump in my view from afar, has done no credit to the vibrancy of democratic norms. For which reason it may be said that the bitterness generated by the last Presidential election in the US has as yet not abated. Secondly, Kenya recently concluded its presidential election resulting in the emergence of a new president-elect. The losing party has doggedly rejected the election result and even the electoral body is divided on whether the election was free and fair or tainted with irregularities.
Coming back home, we have recently witnessed the conduct of political party primaries at different levels for the choice of party stalwarts who will fly party flags for specific elections next year. The reverberations from the primaries will no doubt, continue to generate dust and even heat, not just across political party lines but throughout the length and breadth of this country. We need to bear in mind that on a national level, the most resounding moments arose from the primaries for the choice of presidential candidates and examples will be borrowed from the experience of the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP, the All Progressives Congress,APC, and the Labour Party, LP. There are many other parties that selected solid candidates for the presidency but I cannot dwell on all of them.
The PDP held a seemingly well organized and articulated convention, leading the public to conclude that the candidate the party anointed was the popular choice of the lawful majority of delegates who were at the Convention. The traction gained at the Convention was injured when a running mate (Vice-Presidential Candidate) was chosen. According to the popular press, including Social Media, a consensus had been engineered which was to produce Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State as the soul mate of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. However, the eventual choice of the Presidential Candidate himself was Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State. The higher echelon of the PDP has since been engaged in fence mending to avoid a Things Fall Apart situation.
Similarly, in the APC, what proved disturbing to the general public was the price tag placed on the ‘Expression of Interest’ as well as the ‘Nomination Form’. An aspirant to the exalted throne of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria had to disclose his interest with the eye-popping sum of N100million only. Many people thought that the sum was prohibitive and unaffordable, but a large contingent of party stalwarts lined up at the widely watched primary, not as spectators but as aspirants. The event lasted all through the night and the cry that prevailed was Emi lo kan. Not too many feathers were flustered at the event, because several innocent by standers concluded that the APC Presidential Candidate for the 2023 election has paid a price for democracy in this country. He was governor of Lagos State for eight years and has nurtured a large number of men of integrity who have served their fatherland diligently, the list is a long one. But as in everything concerning politics in Nigeria, the tongues started wagging when his Vice-Presidential candidate was unveiled and what emerged was the mother of all controversies – a so-called Muslim/Muslim ticket! The questions on many lips were (and still are); what about the Christians of Northern extraction? Does such a ticket assuage the fears arising from an imaginary Islamization agenda? Can the partnership heal the fissures that have appeared since the APC took the Presidency in 2015 and probably before then? Indeed, if Nigerians vote for the ticket in 2023, can a Christian/Christian ticket be contemplated in 2027? The questions can be multiplied infinitely because our sensitiveness can indeed be triggered even inadvertently.
The political calculus thrown up by the two parties ( APC and PDP) that have pulled the levers of power of presidential level since 1999 is immense, and while Nigerians were mauling over the intrigues, then came Peter Obi, the Labour Party candidate. Perhaps, Peter Obi’s emergence as a Presidential Candidate of a party that is yet to land multiple asterisks on our political landscape has liberated the landscape for more elaborate and robust reaction from the youth. There has been definite questions which will not be answered until the end of the elections in 2023. For instance, will ‘they’ allow an Igbo man to lead the country through the ballot box? Will they agree to allow the people to have their say about the capacity of the Igbo man to test his brain and brawn in the highest political office in the land? Is it really true that the Igbo man can only thrive in trading and artisanship? Can we continue to wallow in myths and legends or are we getting ready to allow the polted plant to respond to appropriate stimuli? Only time will tell, but as a football fan, I know that true football brains are tested on a level playing field. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had informed the world that at the next elections, results at the Polling Units would be transmitted electronically, but the rumour mills, in standard fashion, have sent tongues wagging about manual collation of results! Let us not make it impossible for the voters in the country to speak and speak emphatically.
At any rate, the topic I have chosen is simple – Will 2023 be a magic year? The answer may come when you consider the dimension of magic. In that connection, I have opted to take a cue from two dictionaries and a Thesaurus in order to give the reader an idea of the implications of what may not be magic.
According to the New Lexicon Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language, magic is;
•The art which claims to control and manipulate the secret forces of nature by occult and ritualistic methods.
•Any mysterious power or phenomenon which defies analysis or explanation.
•The art or practice of producing illusions. etc
The New International Webster’s Comprehensive Dictionary of the English Language, Deluxe Encyclopedic Edition defines Magic as;
•Any supernatural art, sorcery, netomancy”
•Any agency that works with wonderful effects
Collins English Thesaurus defined Magic as;
•Sorcery, Wizardry, Witchcraft, enchantment, black art, necromancy, conjuring, illusion, trickery, sleight of hand, legerdemain, prestidigitation, charm, power, glamour, fascination, magnetism, enchantment, allurement.
