Comment
The Right To Choose
At a certain point in his life he did consider the process of voting in an election so crucial that not only did he queue himself to cast his, he went to great lengths to convince his fellow countrymen to go out and vote.
Back in 1983, something like 30 million Nigerians stood in the rain for hours, defied political chicanery on the part of the opposing
Major-General Buhari even went a step further; not only did he vote and encourage the troops under his command to vote, he actually urged them to vote for a particular party.
For the greater part of last week, people have been voting in Zimbabwe. Many people have had to walk long distances, there has even been the mobile polling booth phenomenon; the rains have not dampened the enthusiasm of people who live in areas untouched by whatever benefits government has to offer.
It is a brave person indeed that dismisses such demonstration of faith and confidence in as cavalier a manner as the armed men of West Africa have consistently done.
Electioneering campaigns in Africa might very well baffle some sophisticates. Many people might be amused by the importance that is attached to symbols, the amount of heat that is generated by arguments about the relative worth of the cockerel or the elephant or the rising sun or the palm tree, or the burning candle or any of the various symbols adopted by the political parties for that matter.
Somebody might well wonder what the superiority of the palm tree over the elephant in a nation's life has to do with political programmes or economic agenda or the personalities that are seeking the votes to implement such programmes.
But to suggest that simply because the bulk of the people who live in the rural areas in Africa are illiterate it follows that they are gullible is to make the vilest smear on the capabilities of people who display in their daily lives an amazing capacity to think and make rapid decisions.
The very fact of survival in the circumstances in which many do in the rural areas ought to attract proper respect. Faced with similar situations, many sophisticates, so called, would be reduced to total helplessness.
The question will necessarily have to be asked that if indeed the people have such faith in the voting system that they are willing to defy the elements to cast their votes, why are they so indifferent when a group of soldiers take up arms to nullify the results of their collective will? Undoubtedly not many people have the inclination to argue with people who have guns and what might look like apathy or indifference is actually resignation, their true feelings are displayed when the guns are withdrawn.
Much of the blame, however, will have to be placed on the political parties themselves for not doing enough to make their supporters believe that the system is worth defending.
We are particularly excited by a conference taking place in the Senegalese capital of Dakar on the role of the political party in a democracy.
We are excited because we hope that the conference will address the many problems that have faced political parties in Africa and have reduced them to such impotence that political power has been usurped by adventurers and false prophets.
We are hoping that those who believe in political parties in Africa will be able to come together to think out for themselves that there is a bigger challenge beyond that posed by each other, which will have to be faced by concerted action.
We hope that they will be able to recognise that while the fight between competing parties is undoubtedly exciting and invigorating, there is a greater fight posed by those who either do not believe in the system at all or who would overturn it for purely selfish reasons.
We hope that such a gathering will be able to face up to the things that have proved to be such damning ndictments against the parties in various parts of Africa - the phenomenon of opposing party supporters being able and willing to kill each other to win votes and yet withdrawing into their shells when the system itself is under attack; the climate of divisiveness generated by such fights leading to energies being wasted on destruction; the need to cultivate sportsmanship so that people can lose with dignity and a win with grace. But even more important, there is the need to make the political parties responsive to their greater responsibility of improving the lives of all the spirit of people. There is the greater need to educate the people and their elected representatives that once the 'fight' is over and somebody has won, that person is supposed to represent everybody in that constituency including those who did not vote for that particular candidate. It is one of the weaknesses of the system in Africa that losers are made to feel that not only do they not have any role but that they are completely dispensable.
It is this unwillingness to make room for losers and to recognise their contribution that makes it possible to undermine the system. For when a Flight-Lieutenant Rawlings overthrows a Peoples National Party government, the opposition parties do not immediately see themselves also as victims and when a Major-General Buhari kicks out a President Shagari, a Chief Obafemi Awolowo does not immediately see himself as being under attack.
For as long as this false ... transient it provides cover...
