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Some will remember that Omega Bank
advert with the caption ‘Things are looking up’, some years back.
Tentatively, and cautiously too, we can adapt that line for our dear
country, Nigeria, based on last Saturday’s National Assembly elections.
For a set of people that are overtly cynical of their government, and
justifiably so many times, one may be tempted not to see the new ground
the Independent National Electoral Commission has covered. Elections
have always been contentious in Nigeria right from the first set
conducted in 1959 when the country wanted to set up an independent
government preparatory to Independence, down to the 2007 elections.

It has always been filled with ballot
box-snatching, spiced with thumb printing in huts and sheds, away from
the real voters and the voting centres. In 1999, my colleagues and I,
in the course of duty as journalists, visited some places in Delta
State, and we saw people who queued patiently waiting for polling
officials and materials that never arrived. At the state capital,
Asaba, later in the night, I was stupefied to see results from those
areas. This scenario was replicated in many areas of the country. A
taxi driver once told me of how in 2007, he was among those who chased
away all the party agents at a ward in Mushin, Lagos State before
“capturing” the ballot boxes and “voting” for the party who hired them,
having bribed security agents.

But, by and large, Attahiru Jega and
INEC, under his watch, have performed better than we saw in previous
elections. Many have always referred to the June 12, 1993 elections as
the freest in our nation’s history; however, last Saturday’s elections
went well too in most places. Though the jury is still out as there was
violence, bomb explosions, and isolated unpleasant incidents across the
land, the political science professor and his staff did not do badly
especially when viewed against the fact that a logistics logjam
threatened the elections initially fixed for April 2. Clearly, things
are surely looking up.

And for those who are fond of using the
United States of America as a yardstick in these matters — conveniently
forgetting the number of years it had taken the country to get to where
she is on the democratic journey — the words of Johnnie Carson, the
assistant secretary of state on African affairs in Abuja to journalists
last Sunday, are instructive. “It is good to acknowledge the good work
of Jega and Nigerian Youth Service Corps members. People went to the
polls, they were accredited, and they voted without any hindrance. I
saw no malfeasance in any of the polling stations we visited,” said Mr.
Carson.

It might not be the tectonic shift some
Nigerians wanted in our march towards a credible democratic experience,
but it is a mighty drop in our national ocean. Just a week ago, all
eyes were on Jega as he ate that tasteless pastry that is most
unpopular with our leaders in this part of the world, humble pie, and
addressed an angry nation that elections had been postponed. Now, his
beatification process has commenced.

By the way, we ought to give credit to
Goodluck Jonathan too. He has received a lot of flak, some rightly so,
for blatantly refusing to take decisive steps needed to get Nigeria
moving in the right direction. He will, however, not be forgotten for
appointing Jega. Findings from INEC and the presidency reveal that
truly, he has given a free hand to the electoral commission to operate.
Gone was the regular executive overbearing attitude particularly
designed to give the ruling party undue advantage. We can hold him by
his words that nobody should rig for him, as he has demonstrated this
so far.

It’s the hallmark of statesmen and stateswomen that countries are
usually put above self, and we can only hope that the man from Otuoke
will demonstrate this attitude come Saturday. Resisting the pressure of
party hawks to tinker with INEC to give a helping hand (read rigging)
should be throughout the entire gamut of elections. Nigeria will be
better for it and we’re all going to be winners. Jonathan will go down
in history as a true statesman, bad performers will be voted out, and
victors will know that non-performance will earn a red card in four
years’ time while more decent people will have no qualms about entering
public service.