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It will be long before the dust from the February 25, 2023, presidential election settles. Very long. So many contending variables were involved in the contest. For one, many political careers were on the line, a number of them heading into an uncertain winter, even in midlife. Even for all that, not many people would have foretold the ugly incidents that trailed the conduct of the election, an exercise that started and predominantly progressed well across the country. The 2023 general election was not supposed to be accompanied by much drama and altercations, not with the tidy, automated and uncompromising precision of technology, which was promised about the election. Indeed, the election was to be a showpiece of sorts, a testimonial of how far technology has gone in caging the evil spirit that had for so long troubled Nigeria’s electoral process. The expectation was high and the promise was quite assuring. Well, that old malevolent spirit, determined not to let go, showed up again. Very sad. So sad.
Nigerians – and they are many – who feel bitter about the conduct of the presidential election, more so with the handling of the critical result uploading end of the exercise, definitely have cause to feel that they were sent to the field with a spoilt shinty. The feeling of disgust and being set up can easily be understood. The cocktail of complaints and disapproval of the voters and party supporters across several states will take a rather long time to be fully compiled and presented. Whether the destination will be the law court or elsewhere will be seen with time. For now, the air remains delicate and the mood of many foul.
Immersed thus, in indignation about the conduct of the presidential election, especially the numerous brazen infractions of the regulations of the process, many will probably find it a bad joke if asked to pause and be grateful to God for the experience of the election. In truth, however, there is ample ground for that, not simply because in all circumstances one is exhorted to be thankful to God.
It may not have occurred to many who feel aggrieved about the perverse and audacious act of the elements who took various steps to thwart to will of the people to ask one critical question: what if there was no social media on February 25, 2023? Think about it. What if there was no Android telephone and a dynamic social networking platform that allows people to now share images and information in real time?
The graphic replay of the ugly incidents are many. Among the remarkable ones are: the nationally identifiable voice of a state governor repugnantly barking out threat to local government area coordinators of the election in his state to either return “what we gave to them” if they will not carry out the illegal act he asked them to undertake. It is either the (wrong) thing was done, the beast governor was clearly repeating on record, or he would make sure “they do not leave the state alive.”
Characteristically, he warned his possible victims that nobody should joke with him. Every single detail of the governor’s coarse voice and the cadence of his threat as he held election officials under duress, accompanied by security personnel, were duly captured and relayed as he executed his acts of desperation. What if there was no social media?
Then there was the full image of a certified thug in Lagos, clearly recorded, declaring, obviously under influence, as elements of his trade are known for, that any Igbo person who could dare should step out to vote in that particular polling unit. Of course, the fellow, the official bruiser of the estate, had no fear or restraint in coming in to take charge and disrupt voting in the polling unit in a bid to prove himself to his paymasters. Sadly, as he was threatening hell and brimstone against voters who would not vote where and how he wanted it, a security agent was not only in the place but was seen pacifying him and pleading with him not to be further offended. Such a spectacle speaks volumes of the sad realities of Nigeria. A policeman standing by while a thug threatened to kill and maim innocent citizens, for no other reason than their ethnic identity, which the thug suspected would not kowtow to his political preference. What if there was no social media to share the image or Android telephone record and relay?
There were many other detailed recordings of scenes of the election from all over the country, governors and their procured loyalists doing damage to voters’ expression of their will, hired hoodlums wielding weapons and attacking innocent voters, with no other goal but to disrupt people freely expressing their preference according to the dictates of democracy. In yet some other video recordings, election officials were captured “dutifully” distorting already entered voting records, cleaning figures with tipex and superimposing new false figures on top. In one other instance, policemen were captured struggling with voters who were insistent on preserving their votes while the policemen, were facilitating thugs scattering the ballot papers. Police! Our friend.
But for social media, these gory images and reports of infractions and outright ambush of the electoral process would not have been known. This, clearly, is the way it used to be, the way they used to win elections.
Andrew Weinreich, founder of Six Degrees, who is often credited as father of social networking, and various other inventors in the information technology field would never have imagined the far-reaching impact of their invention in such an environment as Nigeria. Even with all the problems that are still dogging the political process in the country or, better still, the determination of politicians to subvert the will of the people, the social media has become a vital weapon for combating the crookedness and outright criminal tendency of individuals during elections.
Whatever the machinations of rogue politicians may be, it is no little encouragement that the fight for free and fair elections has substantially become between them and technology. There can be no doubt that technology will prevail in the long run.
Although the election management body has not come across as anybody’s knight in shining armour in the February 25 presidential election, it had manifested commitment to technology in the electoral process. How it came to be that after expending so much resources on technology for the electoral process, with such huge public and civil societies’ support, everyone has found himself with rotten egg on the face will still be known in due course.
For the millions of youths who have shown exceptional determination to be involved in the electoral process this time around, it is important that nobody gets discouraged. Rogue politicians have always believed in one strategy: to wear every decent citizen out and stay back to continue the despoilation of the system. Thanks to the social media, the world has seen and is following the tragedy being visited on the society by unconscionable elements, some of them answering such ill-fillting tiles as governors and excellencies. Between such elements and the thugs, there is no difference. Now, the world knows them for who they are. And they will definitely lose.
