Over to you. Do you agree that these elections were free and fair? If not, what should be the priority for Nigerians, faced with a flawed election and several disgruntled politicians whose massive expenditure has brought them no return? Do you place justice and fair play at the top of the priority list? Or do you say that Nigeria needs stability and peace more than she needs a flawless election?
Barring a major reversal in trends, President Obasanjo has won Nigeria's presidential election and his party, the People's Democratic Party (PDP), has substantially increased its presence in the National Assembly and among state governors.
While Obasanjo was widely expected to win, the margin of his victory, and the unseating of other non-PDP candidates in their strongholds have raised doubts among observers and fury in the campaign headquarters of the All Nigerian People's Party (ANPP), Alliance for Democracy (AD) and other parties. In particular claims of overwhelming turnouts and victories for the PDP in some eastern constituencies even though local observers reported few people lining up to vote has caused anger and scepticism.
Opposition parties will insist on going to court, demanding that polls be re-run. Yet rejecting results could provoke mass demonstrations and perhaps trigger major violence, with the attendant loss of life and property. And - to evoke the worst case scenario - no-one can forget the military's habit of stepping in at times of major instability.
Some argue that it is too early in Nigeria's fledgling democracy to expect complete respect for each individual ballot, and stability is more important than anything else for Nigeria at this time; as Ambassador (now senator) Jibril Aminu told us a few weeks ago: "This business about the 'man on the street'... [he] does not really feature too much in these things, I am very sorry to say. This has to wait until after three or four or five elections. When the man in the street becomes the centre then democracy will be assured. Right now, what seems to happen is that so long as the big political barons and baronesses can agree at the top, that's it. This is what matters."
For others, like military dictator turned democracy advocate Muhammadu Buhari of the ANPP, Obasanjo's main challenger for the presidency, the individual's vote is sacrosanct: "The conduct of the... elections was fraudulent and flawed. It violated the constitutional rights of millions of voters. To ask them to seek protection of their votes and therefore of their rights, appears to us to be the proper role of leaders."
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Gani Fawehinmi, longtime rights lawyer and campaigner and presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party, agrees - in more trenchant language: "I am a fighter... These people are not honest. They have never been honest in anything. Would you now expect me to congratulate somebody that I know won elections by crook?... AD rigged where it is in government. ANPP rigged where it is in government. All of them rigged, but PDP's rigging is massive.This is not good for the sustenance of the democratic process. I can't imagine a place like Anambra [state] where PDP government has not paid workers for over one year and yet people will be voting the same PDP! How can anybody believe that?... I will continue to fight them until I die."
This Day contributor Bolaji Abdullahi takes a more cynical view: "It is bad for people to rig elections. But life in Nigeria is a rigged life. The electoral process, the political parties, the governance structure, the entire system, everything is decidedly rigged against the ordinary person. It is, in fact, almost absurd to talk about rigging here when that is what the entire system is all about. Unless you are a multimillionaire, you can't even win the local council elections in this country. This, to me, is the most fundamental rigging. But we must not, because of this, call for the cancellation of Nigeria."
Do you agree?
