I want to see the sanctions handwringing that the US and NATO are doing on the defence of Ukraine against the on going Russian invasion of that nation , as a simulation of the proverb ‘ of the cat that would eat fish from the pond , without getting its paws wet ‘ . Sanctions don’t stop wars they destroy economies and ruin the lives of poor citizens while the leadership targets or oligarchs can always make sure they avert a coming train easily . Iran is a case in point and Russia is used to sanctions any way . Essentially what EU and NATO are telling Ukraine is that ‘ you are not one of us and you have no voting rights and we can’t risk a war with Russia because our rules say we can only help or fight , all together as one , for those who are our members and not non members that we have empathy or sympathy for ‘ . I want to analyse NATO’s dilly dallying on Ukraine’s lack of access to Nato membership in the light of voting rights and access in democracies and how different political systems see elections in terms of political participation and the sustenance or killing of democracy , depending on which side of the political system that one is located .
Democracy is all about access to political participation which is voting at the ballot box . Eligibility for that has taken a trouncing over the ages and property and race used to be part of the criteria for eligibility . But the world has made great progress and what we have now is one man one vote . That of course does not apply in China where the Chinese Communist Party runs the nation on behalf of the rest and Russia where Invasion Czar Vladmir Putin calls the shots and the Russian Parliament rubber stamps such that only Putin can know why he finally decided that Russia must invade and crush Ukraine regardless of the norms of democracy in other parts of the world .
In the US this last week primaries elections took place in both the Republican and Democratic Parties in Texas , with new election rules by the state legislature after the 2020 presidential elections which former President Donald Trump claimed were rigged but which the Democrats called ‘ the Big Lie ‘. Nevertheless many states in the US especially in Republican states tightened voting rights mostly asking for identity cards for absentee or mail in voters which the Democrats called denying such people access to voting . Which means Democrats want voters to vote without any form of accreditation which is unthinkable in Nigeria where voters cards are recognized ,identification even for bank transactions . Yet the voting went smoothly in Texas as scheduled . Which gives a lie to the Democrats claim of the Big lie on the 2020 Elections .Democrats had insisted that the new rules were aimed at black voters but other leading Black leaders have condemned that as insults to blacks who knew of such rights and issues since the time of the civil rights movement of Marti Luther King .
In Nigeria where rigging is common place, voters access is recognized through voter cards which are presented at voting booths .Incidentally two officials in charge of our last three elections made the news for various reasons . One was a condemnation of the leadership thrown up by the elections conducted by the official and the other was on expansion of voters access and political participation at the 2023 general and presidential elections . According to reports Attahiru Jega who presided over the 2011 and 2015 elections lamented that Nigeria is suffering under the reckless misrule of Nigerian elites and the nation is on the verge of collapse with the 2023 election as the last saving grace . Addressing a trade union confab Jega reportedly wailed that ‘ the manner by which these myopic’ ‘ elected so called leaders and their collaborators have devastated the Nigerian economy, heightened insecurity , and virtually destroyed the basis for national cohesion and integration in Nigeria, as a potentially great nation, is crying for a rescue mission before it is too late ‘ While Jega’s concern is real and not misplaced , it is like a case of the pot calling the kettle bad . The leaders he is condemning are products of the elections he conducted . Couldn’t he have seen the signs of looming decay as a professor of political science given the quality of candidates and the role of money in his elections which were said to be vastly rigged but for which he received accolades then ?. This is like getting wise after the event .
According to reports , Jega’s successor Professor Mahmood Yakubu has extolled the pilot tests carried out with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System in recent by elections as a preparation for the 2023 elections . He said voting booths are being increased for the first time in 25 years from 56,872 to 176, 846 . This is a welcome development . It now remains for INEC to follow its own rules and ensure that accreditation is uniform with voters cards all over the nation , such that we do not have registered voters using voters cards in one part of the nation while other parts just allow mass voting of unregistered voters , without voters cards , in other parts . That could be the last hope for the existence of Nigeria over the 2023 elections that his predecessor was pointing out to workers who are helpless in helping the situation any way .
Now let me end this analogy of NATO’s non military help for Ukraine on the exclusion tone of Ukraine’s non membership of NATO . This war of invasion was predicated on Putin’s insistence that Ukraine must not have access to NATO membership because that would bring a security threat to Russia’s doorstep and would involve Russia having to fight NATO in the case of a war with Ukraine . That has turned out to be a lie now because Russia is fighting or invading Ukraine which has been denied not only access to NATO membership by the EU but has also been denied American troops in its defence by the American president . Obviously Ukraine is being urged on , on CNN and with sanctions , to stand in the path of a fast moving train which a determined Putin Russia is and the result is predictable . We can then very sadly look forward to tragic sights and moving spectacles of blood and murder of innocent Ukranians on CNN while the issue of Ukraine’s access to NATO membership is left in limbo . The truth is that this American president has no stomach for any fight and that is the policy of his party . The hasty US departure from Afghanistan gave Putin the courage to stage the invasion of Ukraine . Similarly the inability of the US to punish Syria for using chemical weapons as promised by the Obama Administration gave Putin an inroad to the Middle East as well as the invasion of Crimea in 2014 .
Obviously the Ukrainians have made a serious miscalculation in relying on American promises on their protection . They are not alone . Even NATO , which the US leads , is learning to plan for its security outside American help in the immediate future, if not now . I think , quite tragically , the Ukrainian leadership simply missed the bus with American promises on their security , as the flood of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war on overcrowded trains so sadly and vividly illustrate . Nothing shows the betrayal of both democracy and diplomacy better , as well as the arrogance and the glorification of access and membership , at the expense of life and humanity .