By Rotimi Fasan

THE grand charade called elections into the National Assembly, the first of the series of national elections lined for April, took place last weekend.

As I write this, many hours before the commencement of the elections, one could only take a retrospective look into how things had gone before the elections to have a glimpse of  how they might go during and after Nigerians would have cast their votes- if they ever had the opportunity to do this. But if preparations before the elections are anything to go by, there is no way to describe the elections but that they are a travesty.

I call last Saturday elections first skirmishes precisely because they were the first or preliminary rounds of battles that precede the wars that the governorship and presidential elections are meant to be. It’s no surprise that the one distinguishing feature of the elections, up to the very eve of the occasion, was the increase in violence across the country. Not much was said or done to indicate the elections were also about candidates advertising the relative benefit of their programmes to the electorate.

The carelessness with which the debates that were supposed to bring the candidates before the people were organised is one clear proof, if no other, that the April elections are not issue-based. But first to the confused and confusing nature of the plans for the elections, all underlined by the violence that seemed to have enveloped the electoral process.

There had been threats and actual use of violence to disrupt the polls by fringe groups like MEND and Boko Haram. Which would seem to have elicited that strange order by the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, that Nigerians should leave their cell phones at home when they go to vote as they could easily be converted into lethal weapons of offence.

No one could be sure if the IG’s order was all in a bid to create a peaceful atmosphere for Nigerians going out to vote or an attempt, as some allege, to abet those bent on rigging the votes but who might be dissuaded by the possibility of being caught on camera with which many phones are equipped. Dire as the picture of bombs concealed in mobile phones might seem, wouldn’t it amount to double jeopardy for voting Nigerians to leave behind the one tool, their cell phones, that could be their saving grace in the event of any breakdown in order?

How would you get back to your relations and loved ones to assure them you were safe or have been arrested for merely going to vote where your phone is nowhere around you? Is it safe to entrust one’s fate into the hands of party thugs who might be disguised in the uniform of security personnel? For Ringim, asking people to leave their phones at home was one way of encouraging law-abiding ones to go out and vote instead of locking themselves indoors to avoid the looming threat of disaster that the campaigns portended.

But for Alao Akala, Oyo State governor, it was no fool’s joke as he declared last Friday, April 1, a work-free day to enable potential voters prepare for the polls the following Saturday.

Such holiday might have been spent regaining lost energy by harassed citizens of the State who had in the last few weeks experienced series of violent disruptions to their activities by supporters of the Governor and those of opposing parties bent on thwarting his attempts to return to Agodi a second time. Besides, how many more holidays can we expect from Mr.Akala and others of like mind before the Easter holidays? Remember the governorship and presidential elections are still many days ahead?

As it is in Oyo, so it is in states across the federation. In Akwa Ibom State hundreds of vehicles were set ablaze in one fell swoop by political thugs who couldn’t think of better ways to settle their differences. This is a sure disaster for a state and a country with a terrible transport system.

Imagine how much could have been solved of the transport challenges facing that State if those vehicles mindlessly set ablaze were put on the roads for the use of the people. Where people are not being put to summary death for political reasons, they are dying on their way to or during political campaigns.

The charged atmosphere of the on-going elections leaves everyone except the scheming politicians confused and unsure of what’s coming up next. Rarely, if at all, are issues addressed in the elections. Politicians, including the President, stick to long and boring monologues on their electoral plans but shy away from any forum where they could be made to confront one another in civilised debates, a crucial aspect of modern politicking.

President Jonathan stayed away from the debate organised by NN24 on the flimsy excuse that not all presidential candidates had been invited. Or so stalwarts of his party said even when it was clear to all that not all of those who claimed to be candidates in the election are seriously in the race.

While Rev. Chris Okotie of Fresh Democratic Party raged that he was not invited to take out (read display his grandiloquence) his opponents at the debate organised by the Nigeria Elections Debate Group, his Social Democratic Mega Party counterpart, Pat Utomi, chose to stand down for Ibrahim Shekarau of the All Nigeria Peoples Party only days to the elections. It’s no secret that many Nigerians don’t consider both candidates of FDP and SDMP and their parties front runners in the present elections.

Nor do they look in the direction of the National Conscience Party or its candidate, Dele Momodu.  But to return to the debates- when President Jonathan showed up at the ‘debate’ organised by the Nigeria Election Debate Group major presidential candidates repaid his compliment to them by staying away. It may look like a tit-for-tat between politicians but in fact it’s the Nigerian people that are short-changed by the shenanigans of these power mongers who crave power without responsibility.

Even as politicians continue with their manoeuvring and so-called canvassing for the votes of Nigerians via the mass media, there is a very strong sense in which preparations for the April elections gives one the eerie feeling that war is around the corner.

It’s no wonder that not only the conventional police and mobile forces but also the armed forces have been drafted into the elections in one way or another. Our international and local borders must by now be crawling with heavily armed soldiers. At the end of the day we might not be able to fully assess the actual cost of these elections in both material and non-material terms. No wonder talks of elections gets many easily worked up and uninterested.