NASS Elections and the Road To The Courts

It is no surprise that, for and against, there's been a mole hill or a mountain (depending on your perspective) of opinions, both informed and otherwise, about the election of principal officers at our bicameral legislative chambers. Some have made allegations, from the amusingly sublime to the utterly ridiculous, against parties on both sides of the divide in the most bilious terms possible. There's even been an attribution to karma in some cases and in other cases, to "cutting several over-bloated influential politicians to mouthful chunks." As many as there are armpits, there have been views.

What I've seen as the most overarching opinion is that the election was inherently flawed. Several reasons have been adduced to back this stance and some have alluded to the President's cautious remarks to back their stand that it wasn't fair enough and thus cannot and should not be.

No begrudging this stance. Good enough those so aggrieved have shown their desire to seek redress. And the proper mode of seeking redress in a disposition of democratic practice as ours is via the courts.

This is where the raison d'etre of this post lies. I always am excited by court cases (and it's not because of any truth-value, a virtue as alien to the courts as can be, nor is it because of any personal pecuniary rewards). No. Rather, it is because these cases not only enrich our legal system but the entire litigation process serves to inform the generality of the non-legal-educated public of the provisions of the law regarding said case(s) and how portions of the constitution that apply therewith are interpreted, explained and brought to bear on the case(s). This process brings the legalese to an easily comprehensible level for the mostly average Joe and allows us an opportunity of appreciating the law as it currently stands or immediately seeing loopholes that ought to be plugged by appropriate constitutional amendments.

By and large, the consequence will be a refining of our democratic practice in a way that ensures that as we mature as a democracy, some gaffes will either not recur or, should there be any recurrence, have appropriate legislation at hand to deal squarely with them.

So, anyone who feels that election at the NASS is a democratic aberration should quickly seek legal redress. Please. Hurry up, in fact.

I can't wait to read the proceedings from that one (or those ones). The wealth of knowledge I'd obtain? PRICELESS. I can't speak for anyone else, though.

Sorry.

Elections, Political Parties and Credible Individuals

In response to an advice for Nigerians to desist from promoting political parties and rather vote for only those candidates whose capabilities to lead are evident.

It's rather unfortunate that these candidates yet have to belong to these non-ideological groupings called political parties in this side of the world. Were it possible to have independent candidates put themselves up for election, then your candid advice might be ultimately instructive. But as things currently stand, the politicians here are by-products, largely, of the political platforms upon which they emerge. And when they truly emerge, they have little space do much beyond the demands of these parties. So, in trying to do away with the support of one party or the other, the politician will himself be thrown with that bath water.

What this has resulted to is that those who should have been credible enough to be considered for votes irrespective of what parties they belong, as you're rightly canvassing, see the same rot you have identified in these political platforms masquerading as political parties. It is undesirable, for those averse to political arm-twisting, the high octane politicking that goes on behind the scenes; the horse trading not captured by cameras. And having noticed the putrefaction in these platforms will rather preserve their good names and hard earned integrity by avoiding politics entirely than throw all their dignity to the dogs in a bid to get elected to serve in different capacities in the truest sense of the word, based on elections that require the platform of political parties.

What that leaves the electorate is the dregs of residue, the remnants with sordid histories and with little to nothing of what it means to uphold the noble tenets of democratic principles and with a past that'll make some criminals in saner climes cringe. These are the characters, the dramatis personae that loom larger than life in the vacuous terra firma of our political landscape and enthrone themselves permanently on our political consciousness willfully vying for the toga of "Best Rigger" in any electioneering exercise.

And having won "convincingly", they set into process a strategy, nay they endeavour to leave a deeper hole in the common till, in the National Cake, that those who came before and those who will come after. Any surprises that there's a race to win in 2015 swifter than the race to free the Boko Haram abductees who may have actually become used to their situations now given how we have EBOLA-rised that struggle?

So, granted that we ought to see beyond the political parties to the individuals and vote for the right candidates, it is a struggle harder than trying to extract a dragon's tooth, finding those individuals today.