MAKE OR BREAK: A Handbook for the April 2011 Elections in Nigeria

One of the greatest challenges facing Africa’s fledgling attempts at democratic governance is how to conduct free and fair elections. Attempts at doing so have resulted in serious problems that have even threatened the very existence of some of countries. The case of Nigeria which claims to be the giant of Africa is not an exception.

The history of elections in Nigeria has been engrossed with series of irregularities especially, the 2007 election conducted by Prof. Maurice Iwu which was described as the worst election in the country’s political history. As a result of that as the build up to the 2011 general elections drew nearer, many Nigerians not only saw it as a do or die affair (apologies to Baba), but as something that will either make or mar the continued existence of the country as a nation.

And poised to correct the mistakes of the past, the government, institutions, corporate bodies, election experts and even individuals went into research to fathom out workable documents that will make the election not only to be free and fair, but make Nigeria not to join the league of other African countries like Ivory Coast, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Kenya that are plunged into serious crises as a result of marred elections.

It was on the course of this that one of Nigeria’s leading writers, Adewale Maja- Pearce, a renowned author with the able assistance of seasoned writers that have abiding faith in the Nigerian project and in the democratic recuperation of the nation came up with this working document titled, Make or Break: A Handbook for the April 2011 Elections In Nigeria.

The 372 pages book from the stable of Ikeja, Lagos State based publishing outfit, The Anchor Newspapers tells an incisive report of the nations’s democratic journey from independence till date. The book also points out the various actors, the roles they played, with the warning that failure to arrest such ugly incidences in the 2011 general election will spell doom for the country.

As the title of the book indicates, and as attested to by Adebayo Williams in his preface to cover, “ This Handbook could not have come at a better time as Nigeria prepares to grab the democratic bull by the horns again.” Actually, the main focus of the book is to ginger and arouse the consciousness of Nigerians about the unfinished democratic business in the nation, but it is quite unfortunate that it came out when the preparations for the elections have been concluded thereby failing in its crucial role of serving as a strategic intervention in the political process. But it is believed that it will still do that in subsequent elections as the issues addressed in it has a lot to do about electioneering and democratic governance in Nigeria.

The first essay by Maja Pearce titled, Nigerian Elections in Perspective, chronicles the history of elections in Nigeria, starting from the pre independence period till date. The various players, the electoral commissions, the challenges and how the different roles they played affected the out come of the electoral results.

In chapter two, Maja Pearce took a state by state analysis of the prevailing political landscape up till February 2011 with special focus on how the party primaries were conducted and came out with the verdict that contrary to the claims by some of the parties about internal democracy, that they do not practice what they preach as most of their candidates were imposed on both the other contesting party faithful and the electorates.

The next chapter takes account of the 62 registered parties, their offices, logos and the officials while chapter four brings to the fore the profile of all the presidential aspirants for the 2011 general elections and their chances of winning their aspired positions.

In chapters five to fourteen, the contributors in their essays present in simple and analytical version the various factors that contributed to the failure of Nigeria’s electioneering processes and democratic experiments. For example, Aderemi Oyewumi in his essay titled, Elections as a threat to Peace and Security in Africa states that “ Elections are supposed to facilitate the peaceful and orderly transfer of power from one government to another, but since the restoration of democracy in Africa, they would appear to constitute peace and security.”

Taking the experiences of Zimbabwe, Kenya and Cote d’Iviore where politicians have demonstrated their desires not to heed to people’s opinion. Oyewumi therefore called on the African Union(AU) to rise up and take a stand so as to avert the wanton killings and destruction of lives and properties.

Coming back home, Maxim Uzoatu in his essay, Political Parties as Private Fiefdoms: Anambra State as Template in his characteristics manner unveils all that transpired in the troubled state: the godfather politics and how it has destroyed the democratic process in the state. The book, a well researched piece from seasoned scholars is a good addition to the list of socio-political debate documents, as it addresses some of the factors that have impeded the development of virile democracy in Nigeria.