Abuja — Any election in a truly democratic environment must start with the individual. He nurses the dream and begins to take the steps necessary to realize it. He prepares himself, he acquires the relevant education, he acquires the requisite experience, he establishes contacts that may be helpful and then he begins to organize to be acceptable and electable by the electorate.

If it is to be the President of Nigeria that a man sets his sights on, then in addition to these steps, he must register with a political party, explain within and outside his party what his mission and vision are. If he emerges as the candidate of his party then he campaigns on the basis of his vision and the manifesto of his party alongside the candidates of other parties.

Supervised by an electoral body that is independent and impartial, the winner of the contest is the person who truly wins the hearts and minds of a majority of the electorate expressed as is required by law.

In Nigeria, since 2007 when Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) as winner of the presidential election that pitted him against other contenders, it has been the contention of some of those who lost and in fact many Nigerian and foreign observers, that the election of 2007 was hugely flawed.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has dismissed any suggestion that its victory at the presidential poll was tainted. INEC with its chairman, Prof. Maurice Iwu as spearhead, has also pushed the argument that the election was a reflection of the choice of the electorate.

The point that the election was tainted by irregularities, which was canvassed at the Supreme Court and dismissed, appears now to have some element of truth after all. That in our view is the major part of the statement made by former President Olusegun Obasanjo last month at the Congress Hall of the Hilton Hotel, Abuja when he chaired the 7th Annual Trust Dialogue: the admission of the role he, by his own admission, played in determining the outcome of the Presidential election of 2007.

Obasanjo's advice to ailing President Yar'Adua to take the path of honour and morality if his health status begins to affect negatively his capacity to govern cannot be impugned even if the point is made that there is a touch of opportunism in the timing of his intervention and his decision to make public his advice.

We are however shocked more by Obasanjo's admission that he was the one who singlehandedly imposed his successor as President on his party and on the people of Nigeria. He, and not the voter, decided what part of the country his successor would come from. He and not his party or, for that matter the 1999 Constitution, drew the criteria that his successor must meet. He, and not his party, chose the candidate for the party. By this apparent confession, Obasanjo has not only exposed INEC to public ridicule, he has also admitted his role in the wilful violation of the fundamental norms of a democratic order.

The dire consequences of Obasanjo's impositions are everywhere around us today, in the examples of insensitive and unaccountable power that permeate the country. The most positive reaction to Obasanjo's statement is a determination by all Nigerians to reclaim their God-given rights to choose who presides over their affairs as legislators, governors and president. When that happens, then the interests and well being of the people can begin to count in the actions of the leaders.