Nigeria Content Online

The 2011 elections
hobbled to a start last Saturday. Compared to the fiasco of the
previous week, it was some improvement. Although the excitement was
dampened, evidenced in the lower turnout, what the process had going
for it was the triumph of human will.

The effusive praise
for the Independent National Electoral Commission in some sections of
the media was premature. For me, the heroes are not Attahiru Jega’s
INEC and the Goodluck Jonathan administration that are eager to
appropriate the modest improvement as monumental achievements. No, the
heroes are the average citizens: the Ibrahims, Adaoras, Chinedus,
Efueyes, and Ladeindes who are ever so accommodating, so large in
spirit to forgive officialdom, and perform their civic duty. They are
the evangelists of hope on which the future depends.

It was they who
turned out early with the never-die-spirit of the Nigerian that can
move mountains when it is deployed to noble acts. They waited patiently
on queues to cast their votes, oblivious of the challenges of the
elements. Neither extreme sunshine nor rain showers could stop those
determined to vote. Their numbers were good enough to lend some
credibility to the exercise. That does not, however, amount to a
success story, considering that it was a second attempt at it.

To be sure, some of
the April 2 hitches still surfaced. INEC officials and electoral
material arrived late at many centres, leading to voting into the night
with all its ominous implications. Party symbols were missing on some
ballot papers; many registered voters could not vote because their
names had disappeared from the register.

Underage voting was
noticeable in some states. Old acts of criminality were also reported.
On the eve of elections, bombs exploded in Suleja, Niger State, and
Maiduguri, Borno State, snuffing out lives of ordinary Nigerians, as
agents of evil sought to abort the process. On Election Day, cases of
murder were reported; heads and limbs were broken, ballot boxes were
snatched and stuffed.

Notwithstanding,
the overall picture conveyed in the media is that of an acceptable
start. Sunday newspapers rightly devoted much space to accounts of our
latest effort at deepening our democracy. The Guardian devoted 23 of
its 80 pages to the elections, NEXT, 9 of its 20 broadsheet pages;
Punch, 18 of 80, and Thisday 24 of 120. In all, that is between 20 and
45 percent.

Some illustrated
their narratives with front page photographs of public figures, from
president to governors, party chiefs to past presidents, electoral
chiefs to political candidates. Others concentrated on the process,
opting to feature the ordinary citizens. Typical of the former were
such papers as The Guardian and Thisday. NEXT and the Punch reflected
the latter practice.

While the Guardian
showed Goodluck Jonathan, the PDP presidential candidate, being
accredited to vote at Otuoke, Bayelsa State; and Muhammadu Buhari, his
challenger from the CPC, casting his vote in Katsina, Thisday settled
for a single shot of the President voting. NEXT and the Punch opted for
crowd shots. In a lavish resolve to capture the electoral excitement,
NEXT devoted half of its broadsheet front page to a crowd shot of
voters at Giginwa ward, in Nassarawa LGA, Kano State.

It did not capture
actual voting; instead it conveyed a horde of people mingling in open
space, perhaps awaiting instruction on what to do. Armed policemen
riding in pick-up vans and others patrolling on foot comingled with
citizens of both genders and across various age groups in a
kaleidoscope of colours. The shot is a time freeze of disorderly
orderliness. Three other shots below captured voters on queues in
Borno, Lagos and Imo States. The Sunday Punch, on the other hand,
front-paged a photograph of Lagosians calmly voting at a ward on
Bourdillon Road, Ikoyi.

And on the new
media, young Nigerians had a field day sharing information on the
elections, such as photographs of voters on queues, sleeping law
enforcement officers, and elections result sheets. They compared notes
on when voting commenced and celebrated the steady release of results.
Overall, the media conveyed a sense of national pride, projecting
images of service and duty, patience and accomplishment, sadness and
joy, anxiety and reassurance.

It is that reassurance that INEC needs to display more ahead of the
presidential elections this Saturday, by correcting the identified
errors, stimulating better turn out, improving voter education about
the voting process and minimising reported cases of voided ballots
because of poor thumb-printing. That reassurance calls for better
partnering with the law enforcement agents to protect the voters and
their votes. The desired result is to translate the qualified success
of last week into a resounding one this Saturday and in the subsequent
elections. That may be a tall dream, this April, but what will life be
without hope? If Mr. Jega can’t give us resounding success, let him at
least strive for elections that are reasonably free and fair. Good luck
Nigeria.