Casual Musing with Chioma Annette
Email: chyomamba@gmail.com Twitter: @cutechyoma
The great Fela Anikulapo Kuti of blessed memory once sang and predicted in one of his songs “This uprising will bring out the beast in us…” This ‘prophecy’ came to pass in the March 2015 elections.
The 2015 elections have come and gone but the lessons learnt and the dragons it unleashed cannot be forgotten in a hurry.
Never in the history of our great nation has an election gotten Nigerians from all works of life actively involved and elicited so much emotion. Voter apathy was not the case this time around. For once, people took the voters registration seriously and tried relentlessly to obtain their Permanent Voters Cards (PVC). The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) offices were a beehive of activities nationwide as they worked tirelessly to ensure the availability of PVCs to all registered voters. The Presidential Election date was postponed so as to give registered voters more time to collect their cards and enable them exercise their right to vote. The permanent voters cards became so valuable and was a meal ticket to most.
The campaigns were something else. The mudslinging and propaganda from all parties involved were on a different level. Each political party tried to outshine the other. The social media war was unimaginable too. Different social media accounts sprung up just to attack their opponents and try to score points against the other. Foot soldiers and fans of each candidate took campaigns to their individual platforms. Facebook and Twitter became battlefields. Lifelong relationships were severed simply because the involved parties had different political affiliations and ideologies. Arguments went back and forth, salvos were fired, threats were made and lots of people became estranged. This political battle was taken to personal levels.
Some people were so passionate about their choices even though they had no personal relationships with the candidates or any rewards while others were simply protecting their ‘territories and interests’. They were so passionate and did not care whose ox was gored. One camp believed in CHANGE while the other believed in TRANSFORMATION. Different camps and groups emerged to support their candidate or political party. Total strangers who shared the same beliefs formed alliances and bonds all because they believed in the same cause. Any person from a different camp was immediately marked as an ‘enemy’. The ‘unfollow’, ‘unfriend’ and ‘block’ buttons came in very handy. It was a fight to the finish.
On Election Day, people volunteered and became ‘self-appointed’ INEC observers and monitors overnight. Some mischievous ones ‘manufactured’ their own electoral figures which they published on their social media pages without waiting for the official announcements from the designated electoral officers. You could cut the level of confusion and anxiety among the entire populace with a knife.
Finally, the results were announced and the winners were called and congratulated.
The act of congratulating the winner also caused sparks to fly. Some believed it was a heroic act to concede defeat and congratulate the winner while those on the other side believed there was nothing heroic about such an acknowledgement, and both camps stuck to their guns.
One thing this election brought to the fore is that it was not going to be business as usual for any party at the helm of affairs. Nigerians had woken up from their slumber and were no longer prepared to accept the status quo. People were no longer ready to keep quiet, fold their arms and watch things go wrong without any reactions.
With the internet and social media, information was easy to obtain. Facts and figures which would have been overlooked in the past were thoroughly scrutinised by the microscopic eyes of lots of Nigerians. People now go out of their way to fish for information as well as act as watchdogs.
One thing is clear: more Nigerians are passionate about Nigeria and are willing to do what it takes to make the nation stand great among other nations. They are ready to go for the jugular of anyone who intends to drag the nation down.
Indeed the elections finally brought out the beast in us.
