Nigerians must resist the fulfilment of the prediction that the 2019 general election would bring doom to our country. While I agree the signs are ominous, because of the desperation of political actors who want to win at all costs, Nigerians and its political leadership must will the nation away from the precipice. President Muhammadu Buhari owes Nigerians and his legacy a safe political transition in 2019 even though he has partisan interest in the electoral contest.
Considering that he won as an opposition candidate, Buhari must give a thought to the possibility that he could lose the election and so be prepared to win or lose. As a partisan, he is entitled to contest to win, and do all that is legitimate to win. But he must not fall into the temptation of equating the success of the coming election only to his success at the polls. That former President Goodluck Jonathan is freely enjoying his retirement is because of the singular act of conducting a peaceful election.
President Buhari showed his capacity to maintain a level head in the run-up to the Osun governorship election when he directed the overzealous police to stop harassing the PDP candidate, Ademola Adeleke who eventually lost the elections, to the All Progressive Congress candidate, now governor-elect, Gboyega Oyetola. Even with that directive which reduced the tension in the state and provided the parties with a fairer contest, the result of the election has not been accepted by the loser. Imagine if the PDP candidate had come second while in police custody?
While those who will not face the national and international opprobrium should the country kaput will be lying to President Buhari that all is fair in an election in Africa, the president must ignore them, if he hopes to enjoy peace for the rest of his life – win or lose. Unfortunately in many African states, election is treated as a real war instead of a war of ideas. One of the reasons for that unfortunate state of affairs is the electoral process which gives room for manipulation.
Towards 2019, INEC must take steps to rely fully on technology to save the nation the pains of disputed general election. There is technology to forestall double registration, accreditation and voting. There is technology to ensure that only valid votes count and result displayed and known by all once the ballot is ended. Even with the limitations of the present process, there is absolutely no reason why the results of a polling booth should not be announced once the voting ends and the result collated.
One of the reasons why voters unfortunately sell their vote is because they believe the votes don’t count, and that is why poor performers get a second chance, while unpopular parties get their candidates elected. So some disillusioned voters foolishly take their share of the loot while they can. But all that will change once they see that votes count and those elected are those that have the backing of the majority. The expected amendment to the electoral bill should help resolve as much of the challenges hampering free, fair and credible election as possible.
President Buhari must show clearly that he wants the amendments to go on, and the present narrative that he is doing everything possible to frustrate the amendment is not good enough. In my view the National Assembly has no better performance credential than the president, so why should they seem to be more comfortable with amendments that would gift the nation a more transparent election than the president, as the narrative is represented? Whatever they propose that will give the nation a better process should be supported by all.
One other thing that relevant political actors must quickly resolve is the dispute over the minimum wage. While a universal wage structure across the nation is unrealistic, the minimum wage should reflect the least any state could pay, with the graduation upward differing from state to state. The NLC and other stakeholders know that it is unrealistic for all states to pay the same wage when their income bracket differs. Also that it is untenable to pay workers who live in places where the cost of housing, transportation, medicals, school fees and other social costs are very high, what they pay to those in less expensive cities.
Workers who live in states who suffer intense urban pressures also generate high internal revenue from the high economic activity and over population, so their employers can afford to pay higher, while states with low economic activity which generate insignificant revenue should pay lower wages. No doubt the present minimum wage of N18,000 is indefensible and all those responsible for a new wage should do the needful, and save the nation from unnecessary workers’ strike.
But as I have also argued elsewhere, it is ridiculous that while the elite centralize the wage bills of the governors, state legislators, and judicial officers, they argue against similar treatment for workers. If they are honest about resolving the wage debacle, the national wage bracket has to be federalized. The present argument that states can’t pay substantially increased new wages, while political actors heft home huge wages is unfair and as such unsustainable.
Unfortunately the electoral promise to diversify the national economy away from oil has not materialised and so many of the states are as poor as church rats, even though they sit on huge natural resources. With states dependent on hand-out from the monthly sharing in Abuja, many states are in arrears of salaries and pensions, and therefore scared of any increase in overall wages. Yet by the mutual agreement of the workers and their employers, the tenure of the present minimum wage has expired since 2015.
So even though a new minimum wage is long overdue, the states are arguing that they are financially distressed to pay. On their part, the workers who see how the political actors live large, while claiming there is no money, have rejected the worn-out argument about paucity of funds. The tension caused by unpaid wages played a significant role in the Osun election, and the ruling party in the state would have been trounced if not for the late rally and subsequent agreement with a plank of the opposition party.
No doubt, the poor and unpaid wages, the poor governance and self-aggrandisement on the part of political actors, and the poor economy and general mismanagement of scarce resources by various actors have put the nation on a tailspin; and the earlier those in charge realise that the better for all of us. To ignore the alarm bells ringing around the world about the distress facing our country is playing the ostrich. President Buhari must lead the charge to save our democracy and our country, if he wants history to be kind to him.