The general election, held on July 4, 2024, in the United Kingdom holds a lot of lessons for Nigeria. It is a good pointer to the fact that elections are not a ‘do-or-die’ affair. The results of the poll, announced a day after the exercise, showed the Labour Party winning landslide. The Conservative Party, which had been in power since 2010, immediately conceded defeat, as Rishi Sunak vacated 10 Downing Street for the new Prime Minister, Keir Starmer.
No sooner had Starmer taken over than he announced his new cabinet. This showed he was quite prepared for the job. This is unlike our experience in Nigeria where a new President waits for months before announcing his cabinet. It took immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari about six months to appoint his ministers. Also, it took President Bola Tinubu nearly three months after he assumed office in May 2023 to inaugurate his 45 ministers.
Besides, the British electoral process is devoid of the delays or other encumbrances that usually dog Nigeria’s elections. In the last poll, people exercised their franchise seamlessly. There were no fully armed security agents guarding the polling units. No thugs came to snatch ballot boxes. There was also no intimidation or harassment of voters. Nor was there any violence of any sort. After the elections, there was no long litigation nor was there any huge budget for the renovation of the official residence of the Prime Minister.
Those who argue that Nigeria’s democracy is not as old as that of the British miss the point. It is not about how old but about the willingness of the major stakeholders to enthrone a democratic culture in the country. Our West African neighbours like Liberia and Senegal also had seamless general elections recently where the ruling parties lost to the opposition parties. The defeated candidates congratulated the winners and handed over power without any fuss.
Nigerian politicians need to learn that grabbing power for the sake of it will not augur well for the development of democracy in the country. It took the Labour Party in the UK 14 years to take over power again from the Tories. Within those 14 years, the leaders of the party painstakingly built it to what it is today.
In Nigeria, the main opposition parties are not coordinated enough to take over power from the ruling party. They currently contend with leadership crisis and some other problems that may likely weaken their bid to win the next general election. They should learn from the experiences of the UK’s Labour Party to enable them to build a stronger opposition party that is capable of winning major elections.
The beauty of democracy is that it presents the electorate with the choice to change a government that is not doing well. The Conservative Party disappointed the British citizens such that the people rallied round to vote it out of power. The British economy has been down. Inflation and unemployment have been on the upswing. The Tories had no concrete answer to these major problems. And that was why the Labour Party won.
Nevertheless, winning is one thing, meeting the expectations of the people is another. Expectations are huge for Starmer. He understands this and has promised to serve with energy. Speaking soon after his election, he said, “When the gap between the sacrifices made by people and the service they receive from politicians grows this big, it leads to a weariness in the heart of a nation, a draining away of the hope, the spirit, the belief in a better future.” His first major task is to restore the confidence of the British people in their economy.
We congratulate Starmer on his victory and wish him a successful tenure. While also congratulating six Britons of Nigerian origin who were elected into the House of Commons, we commend the British voters for their maturity. They showed clearly that power belongs to the people.
The success of the UK’s election comes against the backdrop of the announcement by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that it has made some recommendations on how to improve Nigeria’s future electoral process. INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said as soon as the report was ready, the commission would go public and engage with Nigerians on these reforms.
Beyond INEC’s recommendations, it is pertinent to note that transparency is key to electoral success. Nigerians expect nothing less than that in the upcoming governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states. Those elections should serve as a litmus test of INEC’s readiness to conduct free and fair elections in Nigeria. Our leaders must understand that grabbing power for power’s sake will not move the country forward. The government of the day must remain neutral in our elections. INEC must also remain unbiased. Obviously, we still have a long way to go; but we have to strive hard to meet up with the British standards.