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The ongoing general
elections present another opportunity for Nigerian voters to prove that
they prefer the collective interest of their country to religious,
ethnic, regional, or other sectarian agenda. It is important that
Nigerian voters vote for their country, for its survival, stability,
peace, and progress.

The irony that
Nigerians must deal with, however, is their use of the polls once more
to express their unwillingness to rise above primordial interests,
indeed their unwillingness to bring to an end the culture of voting
against nationhood.

Nigerians want
Nigeria, but it seems their hearts are far from the nation-state. Their
hearts seem to be with their ethnic groups, religions, and regions.
Nigerians, in the ongoing elections, would again pretend to be neutral,
while secretly nursing the hope that nation-state is defeated by the
internal identities they subscribe to. Democratic politics offers them
a wonderful opportunity to be hypocritical, to hunt with the federal
hound while running with the ethno-religious hare.

Any candidate that
hopes to win votes across ethnic lines enlists religion, consolidated
by the notion of region. Is anyone surprised? When ethnicity has an
affair with religion, there are no limits to what they can do to make
sure that their scandalous will is done. The brethren of the faith are
happier that they are kinsmen of the tribe. And the twain shall become
one in an unfortunate political marriage. It tends to make things
easier, helping to resolve the dual moral problem of having to choose
between religious affiliation and ethnicity as deciding factors.

Election victory in
Nigeria is seen as the victory of the group, not really the victory of
a particular candidate, or the victory of the entire society. The group
has been to battle to ‘capture’ Nigeria, and its representative, its
commander, alias election candidate, needs to realise this. Is anyone
surprised that after the election, the elected politicians spend a
greater part of their tenure trying to solve the arithmetic of which
reward is adequate for their ‘immediate constituencies’?

Nigeria, in the
choice ladder of many Nigerians, always comes last, for, like a goat
fed by many, the nation-state is such a bastard that cannot be won over
to love only one feeder. Pastors, imams, traditional rulers, executive
members of unions, and relatives have no right to decide for us the
candidates to vote for. Perhaps the difficulty is that their roles as
gatekeepers in the groups we subscribe to are frequently confused with
their roles in the political lives of other citizens. One is not
surprised that, in trying to influence the political decisions of their
fellow citizens, they present their personal views as the ‘right’ and
therefore imperative paths to be followed by others.

Does one expect any
magic from Nigeria’s general elections? Is it not the same citizens who
practise ethnocentrism at the workplace, in social interactions, even
at their places of worship that would go to the polls to elect
‘credible’ leaders for the country?

If, in ordinary
student union and other elections in Nigerian universities, one finds
that the ethnicity and religious affiliations of candidates are
significant variables, what else does one expect university-based
voters, for instance, to demonstrate when they go to the polls in a
federal election? Even book people like us vote against the survival of
Nigeria sometimes! I really pity Nigeria, for its true nationalism is
starved and will continue to be so for a long time. The nation will
continue to be the casualty of the so-called attempts at redeeming it.
Its carcass will continue to be fed to ravenous ethnic, religious, and
regional hunting hordes.

As long as
Nigerians focus on the ethnic, religious, and regional differences of
candidates, they will continue to vote against the country in
elections. As many Nigerians go out this month to help to ‘capture’
Nigeria for sectarian interests, one must not fail to remind them that
in doing so, they make victims of themselves.

It is a mark of
courage, as well as a highly desirable thing, for one to decide to vote
against the sectarian interests of one’s ethnic group, religion, or
region, or even one’s political party. To vote against ideas that put
Nigeria at the service of the ethnic group, religion, or region, is to
declare one’s genuine democratic freedom.

Seek ye first to topple the secret agenda of your own group as a
Nigerian, and your vote would indeed count as a tool for fixing the
broken-down Nigerian machine.