No more excuse, elections must hold!

It is plausible that for every success
recorded by another country, an
article emerges entitled ‘Lessons
for Nigeria from…’ that success or
country. Yes, articles abound
pointing out lessons for Africa’s
most populous country and largest
economy; be they from Barack
Obama’s emergence as the United
States President, Steve Jobs’
success at Apple or Osama Bin
Laden’s death. The list is endless.
But as the country continues to flirt
with self-destruction, it appears
that for every lesson the nation
ought to have learnt, it comes up
with a myriad of excuses about why
it is incapable of learning anything
new. Many of them are linked to
the long-dead Lord Lugard.
Perhaps, the country has also been
unable to learn anything from
Steve Maraboli’s profound quote,
“There is no greater symphony of
self-destruction than the
beautifully poisonous melody
found in our excuses.”
And so, it goes that four years after
Nigerians held unto hope, defied
the trappings of poverty and
hardship only to be told that the
elections for which they had
assembled had been shifted by a
week, they have had to contend
with a similar situation, albeit with
more serious implications.
When the Independent National
Electoral Commission under the
leadership of Prof. Attahiru Jega
postponed the 2011 general
elections, it cited logistic
challenges as its reason.
Four years later, it has justified its
decision of asking Nigerians to wait
for six more weeks to exercise their
right to choose their leaders with a
controversial excuse.
Jega informed Nigerians that the
military, which were expected to
provide security during the polls,
would not be able to do so as they
had scheduled an onslaught on
Boko Haram.
He insisted that the commission
had been ready to hold the
elections and that he had made
that clear to the Council of State
days earlier.
“The summary of my presentation
was that for matters under the
control of INEC, the commission was
ready for the elections despite the
challenge of the PVCs and we have
been doing all we could for that,”
he had said.
The excuse lacked credibility to
many, including the United States
and the United Kingdom – as have
many other excuses Nigeria has
come up with for its heart-
wrenching failures. Some of those
against the move argue that if after
five years, the military has been
unable to tackle the insurgency,
then there is little it can do in six
weeks.
On the flipside, supporters of the
poll delay believe that if the
military goes on to achieve a major
success in its campaign and more
Nigerians get to collect their
Permanent Voter Cards, the
elections would be more reflective
of the wishes of the citizenry.
A week after the move, however,
the country is worse off.
Apart from virtually becoming an
object of ridicule in the
international community, the
economy has been badly hit.
Although the economic challenges
facing the country has been mostly
attributed to the slump in crude oil
prices, the political risk and security
challenges are also critical.
This became more pronounced last
week.
As a result of the poll delay, the
country’s stock market plunged by
eight per cent with equities value
dipping by N801bn in contrast to a
1.61 per cent appreciation the week
before the announcement.
Also, the naira faced even more
pressure, leading to increased calls
for it to be further devalued. After
hitting an all-time low of N196.30
against the dollar on Monday, it
ended up hovering between N202
and N206 against the dollar for the
week.
To worsen the situation, the defiant
Boko Haram threatened to attack
voters and on Saturday moved to
expand its control beyond the 14
local governments it previously
occupied by attacking some
communities in Gombe State.
There has also been increasing
talks about the likelihood of an
interim government.
It should, therefore, be obvious to
Nigerians, regardless of their views
that the country won’t run out of
excuses to shift the elections soon.
But like Afghanistan, which held
elections despite threats from Al-
Qaeda, Nigeria must make the most
of a bad situation, hold elections
and face the consequences.
Like Ghana, which has held a
presidential election on December
7, regardless of what day of the
week it fell and the challenges the
country or its electoral commission
faced, five times since 1996, we
must be better organised.
We must also bear in mind that
although we have ignored the
plight of Nigerians who have had to
bear the cost of rescheduling
weddings, funerals and other
programmes due to the election
postponement, what we risk this
time round should we fail to get it
right is the collapse of our economy
and the country. That is something
we cannot ignore or afford.