I have isolated five important lessons we need to learn from what we saw live here in Washington and on worldwide television networks.

These are (a) the importance of politics of ideology, (b) the imperative of a transparent process (c) the benefits of free and fair elections, (d) choosing the right person for the job and (e) the need to conduct a smooth transition of power.

In terms of ideology, a nation is united by common principles in its constitution. But the method of approach or application will differ between contending political interests.

Political parties are usually formed based on groups’ perception of methods of application of these principles for maximum benefits to the citizenry.

These perceptions form the core principles of parties’ ideology. In America and other ideologically-based democracies, the same thing applies. The Republicans (Grand Olde Party, GOP) subscribe to conservative application of American principles or narrower interpretation of same.

Freedom does not mean the murder of unborn babies (abortion). America must be ready to go to war at any time abroad to defend her interests (since it is good business for heavy industry).

And so on. But the Democrats are for the broader application of the American ideals. Choice is choice, including the right to decide to remove unborn babies from the womb.

There should be more government spending to cater for the basic needs of the ordinary people, and big companies should be made to pay more tax in order to raise the money. America should only go to war abroad when absolutely necessary. And so on.

This is what the electoral contest in America is all about. Nigerian political parties have not defined for the voting public the principles that separate them from one another.

They look and behave alike, the difference being only in their names and logos. There are no clear choices, and the electorate are forced to vote for the “winning” party, that is, the party that will win whether they like it or not. We need to be more serious than that.

Second, we have to admit that it was the transparency of the American political process that made it possible for Barack Obama to emerge as the 44th president of the United States of America. It was transparency that made it possible for a black man to be about to occupy the White House in such a dramatic, unprecedented manner.

He came into the race a total outsider even in his political party. The Democratic Party had already primed Senator Hillary Clinton as its front runner. But when Obama came with his eloquent magnetism, the electors soon began to forget that he was black, his wife black and his father a Kenyan who came to America to study economics at Harvard.

Obama was able to avoid all conventional bus stops. He refused to tap into Jesse Jackson’s platform. He refused to accept government funding. He refused to pick Hillary Clinton as his running mate. Were the processes not transparent, he could have been stopped long before the end of the Democratic Party primaries.

Our processes are still full of impositions and impunity. Power resides in the hands of the leaders not the people. The ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) even stages what they call “open-secret balloting” which does not equate to transparency in that it still produces the already anointed candidate. A transparent process works from the problem to the solution.

Our own already has the answer but stages a charade to arrive at it. The American election has shown that a transparent process always produces the best man for the job.

Third, and related to transparency is the issue of free and fair elections. American elections are not perfect. No elections are. Elections are human actions and cannot be perfect. But there is ab initio a general understanding that the person who emerges at the end of the electoral process will be the product of voters’ choice.

Conditions have been created to ensure this as humanly possible. For instance, there is no federal body that conducts elections, even though there is a Federal Electoral Commission (FEC), whose main job is to ensure that the rules are applied.

Power to conduct elections has been devolved to the states.
There is no body or governmental agency to “formally” announce the results of the elections. We saw how CNN announced the winner of the presidential election after five hours of minute-by-minute display of the results as they came from the states.

The great thing about free and fair election is that it produces acceptability. Once the people’s choice is seen to have been genuinely made, the loser will find the grace to concede defeat.

The winner will also find the magnanimity to praise his opponent and call for a closing of ranks. The nation will immediately move forward to a new era.

We all saw it happen live on television. The electoral reform process we are going to embrace should do everything in its power to produce an atmosphere that will conduce to free and fair elections in Nigeria.

Free and fair elections will build the nation by putting aside the old demons that made nation building difficult in the past. It defeated the threat of racism in the American election of 2008. It will help defeat ethnic and sectional threats in Nigerian democracy. Free and fair elections are the highways to great national possibilities.
Fourth, there is a lot to learn from this election in the area of picking the right partners for tasks or the right materials for assignments.

The choices that John McCain and Barack Obama made for running mate helped deliver the outcome of the election.

It also gives an insight into the quality of judgement they are able to make on important issues. Governor Sarah Palin only brought a brief moment of excitement to the McCain ticket, may be because of her eye glasses.

But it was clear that McCain made the wrong choice in a young woman who needed more experience in order to play at the level of  Vice-President – to President possibly.

On the other hand, Obama defined the kind of material he wanted as his running mate long before he found himself one.

He said: “I want somebody who has integrity, who’s in politics for the right reasons. I want somebody who’s independent, somebody who’s able to tell me: “you know, Mr. President, I think you are wrong, and here’s why.

I want someone who’s able to be president, who I trust.” He found that man in Senator Joe Biden, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Our leaders do not want running mates who are independent and can be president. They want lapdogs, yes men. They think of themselves rather than what’s good for Nigeria.

The military and PDP leaders picked Obasanjo in 1998 because of their private fears and interests. Obasanjo picked Yar’ Adua to succeed him and “married” him with Goodluck Jonathan as vice-president because of his private fears and interests. It is starkly a different scenario, and dramatically different results!

Finally, the smooth transition. There has been only one democratic transition in our history. It took place last year when Obasanjo handed power to his successor, Yar’ Adua. It was smooth, no doubt, because the election went the way Obasanjo wanted it – the do-or-die way.

What would have been the story if, for instance, by miracle, Atiku Abubakar or Muhammadu Buhari had won?

An opposition party’s candidate winning to take over power? Your guess is as good as mine! It happened in this country when in 1993, Chief Moshood Abiola won an election which the military rulers did not like. They annulled the election. It happened in Ethiopia when Melees Zenawi, the Ethiopian dictator, was beaten in the 2005 election.

He seized power by force and embarked on a brutal repression of opponents. Mwai Kibaki of Kenya and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe were beaten by the opposition. They refused to hand over power. Rather, they settled for power sharing.

In contrast, embattled George H. Bush not only congratulated Barack Obama but also invited him at his earliest convenience to come and be conducted round his future home.

Seventy-seven days to assumption of power, Obama is already working on the job he fought so hard to get.

A wise person learns from the experience of others.

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