A STUDY of the behavioural pattern of the Nigerian politician and political parties reveals that when a party or candidate is declared winner of any election, the candidate so declared and his political party would say that the election was free and fair while the loser candidate and political party that sponsored him would cry blue murder, alleging that the election was fraudulently conducted, marred with irregularities and that electoral officers were bribed to alter results in favour of the winner.

It therefore shows that the Nigerian politician has no place for defeat in his dictionary. He must win, otherwise no one wins. There is no gainsaying the fact however, that electoral processes in Nigeria have in the past fallen below minimum acceptable standard and that poll results most times are the opposite of what voters intended them to be.

The question, however, is why is it that only losers complain after results have been announced while those who were declared winners stoutly defend their outcome? The only positive deviation being in 2007 when the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua publicly declared that the electoral process that brought him to power was defective.

There are thousands of incidents in the past that prove the culpability of almost all political parties in the fraudulent conduct of elections in the country, especially if they have the capacity to influence the process and outcome. Yet, when you talk of election rigging, most people will connect it with PDP.

When you speak of thugs, ballot snatching, electoral violence, bribing electoral officers, whatever is condemnable in our political development, what comes to the mind of many is the PDP.

The situation has become so bad for the ruling party that anytime PDP wins an election, it would be seen to have rigged and manipulated the process but when opposition wins against PDP, that election would be adjudged to free and fair.

In the same vein, when a court gives judgement against the PDP, the judgment would be branded as ‘landmark’ while the judge that handled the case is seen to be courageous and incorruptible. But a judgement in favour of the PDP or its candidate means the judge compromised.

We agree that a lot of presidents, governors, lawmakers, local government chairmen and councillors produced by the PDP got to their positions through fraudulent elections and impositions, but the opposition parties have done the worse, where and when they have the means to rig out the PDP. Yet when you hear the opposition accuse PDP of perpetrating electoral evil, you will think they are saying the gospel truth.

And who are these opposition figures in Nigeria ? Without calling names, those who speak so loud against the PDP today were in the same PDP yesterday.

They become opposition when they lose out in PDP. When any PDP member loses primary election, he defects to another party and the next day, he would come out, shamelessly criticising the PDP and calling it all manner of names. And if he fails to realise his ambition through the opposition party, he moves back to the PDP and would adduce hundreds of reasons to justify his political prostitution.

The PDP is a large family. Within a large family, you see all manner of characters- the good, the bad and the ugly. There are bad people in PDP as well as there are so many good and decent men and women in the PDP.

Not all PDP members are election riggers and not all officials of government that came under the PDP umbrella rigged elections to get there.

When the so- called opposition speak of the PDP, you could feel the disdain, the anger and even jealousy in their voices. It pains them to the marrows when they hear that PDP controls 26 states out of 36. So they wish that PDP loses its grip on power because to them, PDP stole those states.

But they forget that the men and women who facilitated the exit of the military from government in 1998 were mainly PDP members. Most of those who formed G38 were PDP members and following the result of the 1999 general elections, the PDP won overwhelmingly and was in control of over 85 percent of elective positions, from the presidency down to the ward levels.

But opposition parties, working hand in hand with a section of the media and some spurious organisations claiming to be protecting human rights, have cowed the PDP into almost becoming a shadow of what it is supposed to be.

The situation has become so bad that critics and those in opposition are seen as heroes of the nation. When the opposition make allegations against the PDP, people tend to believe them, even when it is obvious that they are not telling the truth. On the other hand, some people perceive the PDP and its candidates/ officials as liars and oppressors, most of the time. Incidentally the media has played a major part in this anti-PDP conspiracy.

Presently, the PDP Presidential Campaign Council is carrying out massive campaigns across the length and breath of the nation and the opposition is doing as much as their strength can carry them.

Mr. BONAVENTURE MELAH, a media analyst, writes from Abuja.