Nigeria’s Grossly Flawed Elections Hold Continent-Wide Implications

Not that Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo would care about this in any way. But the fact is that his blatant rigging of the general elections in Nigeria last month in his over-zeal to retain his party, the PDP in power holds continent-wide implications for Africa. For one, Obasanjo has once again confirmed for any skeptics out there that Africa’s path to true democratic political development will not be paved by the manner of elections that he recently conducted in Nigeria. Thanks to Mr. Obasanjo, events in Nigeria may once again help to warp efforts made elsewhere on the continent for democratic transition.

One is talking about Zimbabwe as a case in point here. Just this morning a story on the wires indicates that Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe has stepped up his brutalization of members of the opposition to his regime using the police. He is reported to have even extended the brutalization of the opposition which he began in March, to ordinary Zimbabweans. The unofficial curfew that his police enforce in some the suburbs around Harare, the capital continues to take its abusive toll on ordinary people. A just released report by Human Rights Watch quoted one Zimbabwean who it interviewed as saying: “Right now, no one walks about after 7 pm unless you want a beating”.

With the cloud of illegitimacy hanging over his head, as the beneficiary of Nigeria’s rigged election, one like Mr. Musa Yar’Adua cannot in any way be in the position to lend a voice of rebuke at Mr. Mugabe or a beneficiary of a flawed election anywhere on the continent. It’s therefore time for Africans to rethink the hope they repose on the mere conduct of elections. Elections cannot be worth the faith of Africans until they liberate the process of conducting it from the clutch of the likes of Obasanjo and Mugabe.