Has postponing the election helped Nigeria in any way?

by Adedayo Ademuwagun

Many Nigerians felt disappointed  when the election was shifted last month. The move was met with widespread cynicism. People raved and accused the government of conspiracy.

Aminat says, “It looked like the government was trying to pull a fast one. Many people thought the security issue was just a pretext and that they were actually worried they would lose the election if it happened at the time. A lot of people were disappointed in the decision. I was disappointed too.”

But looking back to what’s happened between now and then, can we say postponing the election has helped in any way?

The postponement happened at a time the Boko Haram attacks were raging strongly. The crisis seemed to be worsening and it looked like there was no way we could have had elections in those war areas. Voters and election officers would surely have been in danger, and so our army apparently needed time to clamp down on the terrorists and avert the impending danger.

However, many people here in the south didn’t quite see it that way. They thought, well our own side of the country is safe so let’s go on with the elections.

But assuming the insurgency was happening down here, would we have wanted to carry on with elections knowing that we would be affected? Would we have agreed to go and vote knowing that someone might throw a bomb at our polling unit on that day or come there and shoot people to death?

Chioma says, “If the problem was happening to us too and INEC tried to run the election anyway, we would even be the ones to protest. We’ll say INEC is insensitive and nobody would even step out of their house to vote. The day would have been a flop. So we should look at it from that angle. Our fellow Nigerians in the north wouldn’t have felt safe to go voting if the election had been held that time with all the terror going on.”

Aminat says, “A part of our country was in flames and we were clamouring for elections to continue. It feels like we didn’t care about our people in the north. They’re our fellow Nigerians. We didn’t do the right thing at all. We should have been more considerate.”

President Jonathan said his government was working on the problem and that our army would shift the landscape in our favour before the new election dates. The government has performed remarkably regarding this promise.

Our army has been retaking towns. They’ve been winning battles and flushing the enemies from their strongholds. The deferment is apparently paying off because the army and its allied forces have since launched a major offensive in the region, and now it looks like we have the upper hand and we’re winning the war against insurgency.

Deferring the election has also brought some relief to the nation. The buildup was soaked with tension before the deferment and it was like an explosion was imminent. It looked like people were preparing for a war and not just an election.

Chioma says, “It wasn’t just the north that was in danger then. The whole country was on the brink of  chaos. I’m so glad we’re having some ease right now, and it’s because the elections were postponed.”

The president has clearly benefited from that date shift too. He’s had some great photo ops lately and they’ve been playing some nice documentaries on TV these days to show off his good works. The president’s been trying to warm up to the people again and regain his prestige. Perhaps it’s working for him.

The APC could have won this election if it wasn’t moved forward, but even though the shift has given the president time to squeeze out a stronger campaign, the APC has also been using the time to take back the momentum.

So generally the extra time has been a good thing for everyone. The army is winning the war in the north. The parties have beefed up their campaign. People are going about their lives peacefully and there’s no need to worry anymore that the nation will collapse. Even INEC has taken the time to round off voter card distribution and test run their machinery.

Maybe postponing the election was a good thing after all.

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Connect with the writer on Twitter: @_Adedayo_

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