UNTIL  June 12, 1993, Nigerian elections were always characterised by massive rigging driven by bloated census figures(politics being a game of number), pre and post-election violence and bad-blooded court cases, with the plaintiffs and defendants trying to outdo one another in bribing the judges of our courts so much so that one of them had to tell Nigerians that his hands were tied.

In the First Republic, a massive electoral fraud intended to impose Samuel Ladoke Akintola on people of the Western Region  sparked off a monumental bloodbath later dubbed “operation wetie”. This seminal orgy of destruction earned the region the unenviable tag of “Wild Wild West”. Curiously, Yorubaland has since that time lived up to that uncomplimentary sobriquet by becoming the flashpoint of electoral violence.

In the Second Republic it was this penchant for electoral falsehood and winner-takes-it-all roughshod riding that almost brought all the foundation stones of Ondo State – the Sunshine State -tumbling down, thus painting another Wild Wild West bacchanalia of destructive frenzy.

This has been a recurring experience that took on the explosive impact of hydrogen bombs at a time the National Party of Nigeria, NPN, invoked the legendary Federal Might to impose Chief Akin Omoboriowo on the state at the expense of the late Chief Adekunle Ajasin of the Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN.

That was how it came  to be that Ondo State transformed into a raging inferno, until reason prevailed and the NPN, seeing the futility of its almost suicidal mission, knuckled under in the barrage of criticism that followed, and reverted to the genuine result of the polls. at the national level, even though it was clear even to the blind that the late Chief Awolowo had won the presidential election in 1983, the Shagari-led NPN still rigged in favour of its candidate.

And even though the two elections were sharply disputed, it took a mathematical analysis by Richard Akinjide – who ironically is not even a mathematician – and the connivance of the General Olusegun Obasanjo led military regime to scuttle the nation’s yearn for  a free and fair election.

And after the epoch-making 1993 election, the best election Nigeria has ever organised, was arrogantly annulled by the seemingly amiable but really vindictive Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, elections in Nigeria once again threw back to their inauspicious stereotype.

The election that brought Obasanjo to power as Nigeria’s first Executive President was deeply marred, flawed and discredited by Nigerians. It was clear that Chief Olu Falae was set to ‘dust’ Obasanjo in the election. However, no thanks to PDP’s rigging machinery, lubricated by the maverick Professor Maurice Iwu, the result somersaulted and monkey-leapt overnight and OBJ won in 1999.

Even the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, a staunch Obasanjo’s supporter, could not hide his feelings about PDP’s electoral malfeasance, admitting to the whole nation that the election that brought him to Aso Rock was dubious. Such was the late President’s candour and unassumption.

And it was clear that his confession found validation in the plethora of court cases in Edo, Ondo, Ogun, Osun and other states of the Federation.

Perhaps, more demonstratively, the outright reversal of victories in Ondo and Edo states put the final nail on the coffin of denunciation.

And now when 2011 is just around the corner we are gearing up to replicate the monumental madness and fiasco all over again. The man who was so proud of his khaki brass buttons and his swaggerstick, not less so his winsome gap-toothed smile, but he annulled the best election in the land is now saying he wants to return us to the dark ages of compulsive mendacious leadership.  Is there no end to both individual and corporate daftness and pedestrianism in our land?

Other nations across the globe organised conclusive elections which did not debouch into litigational brouhaha.

The people and not the courts decided and the decisions were binding and finalised. Even countries which cannot compete with our nation have credible leaders.

All across the land what is obvious is that there are no credible leaders around. Our National Assembly swarms with greedy and selfish people whose salaries are enough to equal the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of some countries. This is in spite of  representation  which hovers perpetually at zero, constituting a heavy drain on our economy.

The situation in Bayesla between the Governor and his deputy questions the intelligence of the black skin. Our nation is bedevilled by corruption and innumerable financial scams in which government officials are inescapably fingered.

By Gab Ejuwa, a journalist, writes from Lagos.