Nigeria: The Winner Should Be...

25 March 2015
column

By this time next week the 2015 presidential election must have been won and lost. That is if all goes well with the schedule of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC). And, of course, the wish of peace-loving Nigerians and friends of Nigeria is that the election should be credible and, therefore, conclusive. Not a few would insist that justice must be seen to be done.

Now, the implication of a conclusive election is larger than the declaration of a winner. In other words, besides the votes to be scored by both the winner and the loser, it is important to imagine what the election would say about Nigeria's political development. The content of victory in the election is also important for consideration. In this context, the end may not justify any means possible. This point might sound abstract to partisans who are deeply rooting for votes for their candidates. A politician should not be concerned about such theoretical reasoning at this hour, you would probably say. Yet, it is a point Nigeria will have to come to terms with sooner or later. When the different factions of the elite discuss development the focus is often on the socio-economic aspects of the nation's life. This is understandable given the fact that the economic constitutes the substructure while politics is part of the superstructure of the nation's reality. After all, to paraphrase Karl Marx, a man must eat, drink and be clothed and sheltered before he can think of politics, ideology or aesthetics. Nevertheless, there is the need to pay attention to political development. For Nigeria suffers from serious political underdevelopment.

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