By Tonnie Iredia
The blind and the deaf are probably aware that Nigerian elections cannot be exactly same as those of the USA and other developed nations. The main reason is that our politicians are determined to keep Nigeria an analogue country particularly in election matters. As a result, whereas people vote seamlessly elsewhere, our own elections are just a step away from those of the Stone Age.

Nothing is certain or predictable about our elections. Even a scheduled date of an election cannot be guaranteed. In fact in Nigeria, it is better to read the lips of the security agencies instead of that of election officials to be sure of when an election will hold. In 2015, as soon as it was getting clearer that the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) would lose the Presidential election it was shifted on account of perceived insecurity to enable the party tidy up certain things. An oracle told our security operatives that in exactly six weeks the insecurity would cease, so the shift was for six weeks.

Demonstrators hold placards that read “No to racism, no to Trump” during a protest outside the US Embassy in London on November 9, 2016 against US President-elect Donald Trump after he was declared the winner of the US presidential election.
Political novice and former reality TV star Donald Trump has defeated Hillary Clinton to take the US presidency, stunning America and the world in an explosive upset fueled by a wave of grassroots anger. / AFP PHOTO

May be it was the same oracle domiciled in Benin that informed the shifting of the last edo governorship election to enable our security operatives deal with thousands of militants allegedly imported into the state around the previously scheduled date of September 10, 2016.

Nigeria does not also know how to follow election processes. In the USA for instance, no matter the hardship of the Electoral College system, its results that a more popular Clinton lost to Donald Trump was obeyed. In Nigeria, efforts are always made to thwart any process including positive innovations like the Card Reader. Nigeria prefers to deploy thousands of security operatives instead of using technology to secure the credibility of the process. Thus we often deploy to a state, during an election, the magical figure of about 25,000 policemen with none of them able to stop ballot snatching.

Those who are aggrieved are asked to go to court although as Abia politicians imagine, judgment depends not on facts but on which court is handling. This is not likely to happen in the USA where Trump, the Republican candidate, has just won this year’s American Presidential elections. The electioneering period and eventual casting of ballots were the issues of the moment world-wide. Many analysts have since given kudos to the Americans for a well organized event. But who says American and Nigerian elections are not the same?  To start with, the argument that an upset such as the one that threw up Trump as the 45th President elect of the USA would not have been allowed in Nigeria is quite easy to debunk.

Trump’s victory was no doubt an obvious surprise based on a number of projections. Was that not what happened in Ekiti when Kayode Fayemi, an incumbent was floored by Ayo Fayose?  In that election, rather than protest the unexpected result, many people were prepared to see it as luck accepted by God. This probably explains Doyin Okupe’s point that the American election result was a miracle. Okupe should know having served in the Villa in the years of Goodluck. Ekiti people may not have protested, but Nigerians generally lack the culture of accepting defeat, going by the massive riots that greeted the 2011 election which many people in the North thought was rigged.

Of course, people ought to be allowed to ventilate their grievances if for whatever reason they feel cheated. There is therefore not much difference between massive protests which greeted the last governorship elections in Edo State and the violence which erupted across America the morning after Donald Trump’s shocking election victory. Indeed media reports confirm that the protests were held even close to the White House. Camera footages showed furious protesters burning flags and angrily confronting Trump’s supporters. However, Hilary Clinton has since conceded defeat and congratulated the winner. Who knows, she may have chosen to emulate what former President Goodluck Jonathan did in Nigeria in 2015. In earnest, Jonathan’s posture was probably better as he accepted defeat as soon as he sensed it without waiting for a declaration.

One obvious similarity in Nigerian and American elections is the way the incumbency factor is overstretched to the disadvantage of the under-dog. Politicians in both countries seem to think that they can throw everything into an election.  In the last few days to voting in the USA election, President Obama virtually abandoned state duties for partisan politics. In one day, Political reporters saw him make two stops, one in Michigan and another in New Hampshire, before heading to an Election Day-eve rally in Philadelphia with the Clintons. Nigerian authorities do same.

In Ondo State, the outgoing Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, has relocated to Abuja on a part-time basis in order to ensure justice for his nominee Eyitayo Jegede, who was replaced as the governorship candidate of his party by the judiciary. The relocation was made known last Wednesday by the governor himself at a programme in honour of the Founder, Oodua Peoples Congress, Dr. Frederick Fasehun. Similarly, outgoing edo governor, Adams Oshiomhole was everywhere on behalf of his nominee so much so that many became confused as to who was the real candidate.

Hate speeches have for long become a part of electioneering in the USA. In the election which just ended, viewers all over the world watched character evidence at play as both camps sought to defame each other.  The practice is also quite popular in Nigeria. During the Presidential election of 2015, hate speeches in the form of jingles and documentaries were directed at the candidate of the All Progressive Congress, who is now Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari. At the same time, neither Nigeria nor the USA is gender sensitive enough to create a level playing ground for both sexes.

Nigeria is not ready for a female governor let alone for a female President. With the loss of Hilary Clinton in the just concluded USA elections, Americans have just shown that like Nigerians, they are not ready for a female President; hence despite the intimidating credentials of Hilary, she was not allowed to make it. So, who says American and Nigerian elections are not the same?