Ideas and debates for good governance in Africa.

Friday, March 13, 2009

United States of America and its many faces

United States of America and its many faces
One issue acceptable all over the world is that the United States of America is good for setting examples. Some of these examples are bad, indeed very bad that they turned to consume the whole world. There is no doubt sometimes they set example worthy of emulation. In fact, whether we like it or not, in terms of democracy we have no option but to take a leave from the United States.
I am not saying this, just because Obama won the election, but going by the way the campaigns were conducted, first for the primaries and later the general elections. It is amazing and wonderful to hear how these candidates kept themselves busy by hammering on issues rather than personality. For the past 12 months or so, the US presidential candidates raised issues after issues and tried to convince American voters that they are the ones who deserved to rule the country.
No where in the whole campaign process did a candidate seek the support of ‘yan daba or ‘yan kalare to achieve his objective, no political campaign office was burn down, no civil servant was victimized because he was a member of a political party, nobody was killed or assassinated, nobody decamped to opposition political party because he lost primaries. That alone is enough to tell us that the United States of America is worthy of emulation, especially to our politicians who are in politics for selfish reasons.
Unlike the charade we have seen here in Nigeria since our inception of democracy in 1999, where the focus was on personalities rather than policy in the name of campaign, both the Republicans and the Democrats main focus was how to move their country forward, help their people and salvage their countrymen from the current economic crisis. Whilst it is not uncommon in our part of the world to hear winners and losers trading barbs about fraud and irregularities, we have seen how the Republican candidate, realising he lost the election congratulates his Democrat opponent even before the official announcement of the results.
Although some might be quick to point to the fact that elections, in this part of the world are manipulated and rigged by party in power, but the problem is that even the opposition parties would not be exonerated from the above accusation. We have seen here in Nigeria, in various states of the federation how party in power in most states swift Local Council polls which in actual sense were far from been free and fair elections.
Most a times Governors in various state of federation select the candidates of their choice who will be inaugurated, after the State Independent Electoral Commission has confirmed them. These candidates mostly are not dear to people or cannot win their polling unit in a free and fair elections.
Although several allegation followed the aftermath of the US presidential elections in 2000, surprisingly the Democratic Party Presidential candidate at the time, Al Gore did not go to court for redress. Moreover, knowing fully that the event in 2000 has brought into fore the lapses of the US electoral system, the US government and the electoral body were quick to address the issue especially in the Florida state.
That was not the case with our Independent Electoral Commission which despite the failure of the commission to conduct a free and fair election in 2003, we repeated the same mistake in 2007 or even worst. It is surprising for a country which pride itself to be an ardent follower of America’s governance, failed to learn from the American Electoral System.
What is more interesting and appealing about this year’s election in the US was the way the Americans conducted themselves during campaign and subsequently the elections. No security agent was involved during the campaign or the elections. Unlike in this country where it is alleged that security agents got themselves involved in ballot thumb printing and snatching of ballot boxes.
We hope that the event in America would be a lesson to our politicians, security agents, ad hoc electoral officers and INEC and their staff that politics is not a do or die affair. They should also do us a favour by allowing us to choose leaders of our choice. Then our country will move from a nascent democracy to a matured one.
Kabiru Danladi,
Lawanti Village, KM25,
Along Gombe-Bauchi Road,
Akko LGA, Gombe State.
08054546764, 08035150369

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