By CHEKWUBE NZOMIWU

THE most common definition of democracy often attributed to Abraham Lincoln is “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. This definition presupposes that democracy is dependent on the will of the people. The nature of democracy is that elected officials are accountable to the people, and hence, they must face the voters at regular intervals as prescribed by the constitution to seek their mandate.

However, Italian elite theorists such as Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923), Gaetano Mosca (1858-1941) and Robert Michels (1876-1936), differed. In separate writings, they argued that power is concentrated in the hands of small minority elite and independent of democratic elections. Similarly, Italian anarchist propagandist and revolutionary socialist, Errico Malatesta (1853-1932) also criticised democracy, albeit dogmatically, in his 1924 article titled, “Democracy and Anarchy”. He posited that: “Democracy is a lie, it is oppression and is in reality oligarchy; that is, government by the few to the advantage of a privileged class. But we can still fight it in the name of freedom and equality, unlike those who have replaced it or want to replace it with something worse.”

Looking at the outcome of the just concluded general elections in Nigeria, one begins to wonder if we are practising democracy as professed by Lincoln or  government of a few, according to the Italian scholars. Prior to the elections, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, severally assured that the electoral body would conduct free, fair and transparent elections.

One of such assurances was given when Prof. Yakubu spoke at the Chatham House, an independent policy institute based in London. His assurances notwithstanding, both international and local observers found the outcome of the first round of the elections-the presidential and national assembly elections- short of the expectations of Nigerians. Even the Chatham House reprimanded the electoral umpire for failing to adhere to its own guidelines, especially the one bordering on the upload of results real-time to the INEC result viewing portal, IReV.

Regardless of the condemnation that trailed the shoddy handling of the first round of the elections on February 25, especially the presidential election, the second round- the March 18 governorship and state assembly elections- turned out to be worse than the first round. In a post-election statement, the United States condemned voter intimidation and increased violence that marred the second polls in many states, despite the massive deployment of security agencies in many locations. Across the country, 21 persons were killed during the second elections.

The United States particularly singled out Lagos and Kano among states that recorded high incidence of intimidation and violence. Lagos, for instance, was noted for the use of ethnically-charged rhetoric before, during and after the election. Similarly, the European Union Election Observation Mission to Nigeria condemned INEC for failing to live up to expectations in the electoral process. In his preliminary statement, the Chief Observer, EU Election Observation Mission, Barry Andrews, said Nigerians yearned for democracy and were ready to be involved in the process, but the appetite was lost, owing to the failures of the political elite and INEC.

The findings of the foreign observers were corroborated by domestic observers such as Situation Room, Connected Development, CODE; and Yiagra Africa who complained about violence, voter intimidation and vote- buying, among others. Besides, election observers themselves got a share of the violence. A leading online media organisation in Nigeria chronicled attacks on election observers in different parts of the country during the elections. But, for a few cases of inconclusive elections, INEC declared winners in most of the elections, leaving the losers with the option of seeking redress in court.

Of course, many of the losers have taken the legal option in a country where majority of the citizens do not trust the judiciary. The confidence of the people in the judicial system had since been eroded by court decisions on past electoral matters, such as the Supreme Court judgement on the 2019 Imo State Governorship Election, which declared the candidate that came fourth on the ballot as the winner of the election.

The latest elections equally generated frightening statistics in the history of democracy in Nigeria and the African continent. According to the online medium, the 26.7 percent voter turnout is the worst turnout in the history of democratic elections in Africa and placed Nigeria among the 10 countries with the lowest voter turnout in the world. Out of the 93.47 million registered voters and 87.2 million who collected their permanent voter cards, only 24.9 million persons voted in the election.

The winner of the presidential election, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress, APC, secured 8.8 million votes to get the mandate of over 220 million Nigerians to preside over the affairs of the country for the next four years, beginning from May 29, 2023. The scary implication is that Nigeria’s next president was elected by four per cent of the entire population of the country. If he eventually assumes office, he will be faced with legitimacy crisis. Prior to the 2023 elections, voter turnout has been identified by researchers as an impediment to democratic consolidation in Nigeria.

Besides, INEC not only circumvented its guidelines, but also brazenly engaged in selective application of the electoral laws in the conduct of the last elections. The commission refused to review the result of the presidential election in spite of anomalies pointed out by agents of the opposition parties, including the non-upload of the polling unit results to the result viewing portal, IReV, real time as stipulated in the commission’s guidelines. Curiously, the same INEC reviewed governorship election results in some states, including Enugu, Abia and Adamawa.

Nzomiwu, a public affairs commentator, wrote from Awka, Anambra State.