Nigeria’s (in)credible turn

a resurgent opposition that had all it required to defeat the PDP. A sustained assault began on all key and vulnerable points of the electoral process. Distribution of PVC’s was attacked with the objective of postponing the elections. Then an administration which had four years to rid the nation of Boko Haram said it needed six weeks before the elections to finish the insurgency off. The elections were postponed. Then the nation was dragged through the vilest campaigns against the opposition leaders in the history of the nation. The opposition rolled out its arsenal, and for weeks Nigerians witnessed a campaign in the gutter that had no referees or parallel in our history.

Litigants lined up to ask courts to stop Jonathan and Buhari from running; remove Jega as INEC Chairman; compel INEC to issue everyone PVCs before the elections; stop the use of the card reader; register new parties; remove the military from electoral activities, and just about any other thing that could gain an advantage. The administration muscled its way into a six-week advantage. The opposition sulked in its impotence, and then watched as the administration rolled out incredible amounts and embarked on buying a nation that had all but turned its back on it. Many Nigerian families saw more easy money in a few days before the elections than they earned legitimately in the last four years. Middlemen and fixers made millions telling a desperate PDP leadership that its money was making all the difference. As the clocks ticked with certainty, the rumour mills kicked in. Jonathan and the military weren’t going to have Buhari as president. Key politicians from all disreputable localities had bought into the idea of an illegal interim contraption that will give them positions with power in the hands of the military. The military was going to exclude the north east from the elections. There was a coup in the offing. The opposition’s supporters were going to be provoked to start violence, which was then going to provide cover for cancelling elections.

These frightening developments did not stop the intensity of international presence and interest as the largest nation and Africa’s biggest economy prepared to go into a potentially fatal labour. Unprecedented incursions were made into our soul and dignity as a nation, with offers of help and threats of dire consequences for Africa and our future if we do not get it right. Visions of blood flowing after polls was common stuff in everyone’s minds. Millions pressed for change in a different administration. A small but powerful clique around the president pressed for resistance by all means. The nation rumbled towards an election that had paralyzed it with fear.

And then, like a bad dream, the nation woke up to a new reality. General Muhammadu Buhari had been elected president at his fourth attempt after all. President Jonathan had accepted defeat, an act without a parallel in the nation’s history. The military had not stopped the elections after all. The Niger Delta has not gone in flames. Buhari was covering Jonathan in accolades. Scores of young Nigerians were dying from celebrations, not from riots protesting outcome of elections. Nigerians who had retreated to towns and villages they did not live in were coming back to places where they did. The nation discovered that it can breathe again, and even dare to dream that this is not a false start.

For General Buhari, this is just the beginning of his journey to show Nigerians that our nation can be made to work again. The drama of defeating a sitting president who defied all expectations that his removal will be problematic will have to affect some earlier computations. Leaders in Nigeria are most unlikely to assume that the people do not matter, and as the catalyst to this significant shift, Buhari will be unlikely to ever sleep with both eyes closed. He has to unleash the best and brightest at a nation desperately short of time to be rebuilt. A notoriously impatient people will expect quick fixes in a more challenging economic environment. His election has exposed a nation dangerously balkanized by politics that feeds on ethno-religious divisions. He has to find a way to lower suspicion and hostility in the south. His election will create a massive push for the election of governors and legislators from his party. He is likely to have the required number of governors, national and state legislators to make major impact in policy. The challenge will be to establish a healthy balance between what can be done and cannot.

In the next few weeks, President-elect Buhari will prepare to take over leadership of a nation he believes needs his service. Nigerians will be divided over whether he should look ahead or backwards. He will worry over whether he had over-promised. He will attempt to impose his will over a government and a party with many elements whose commitment to the basic philosophy of change will only show when the journey commences. The only certainty about the future is that Nigerians have made sure that they are heard saying, never again.