by Sochinedum George

Conversely, the election season here leaves much to be desired; it is petty, clannish and syrupy. It is a battle of name-callers; a demeaning competition among various categories of self-serving avaricious mediocre politicians in conjunction with their lapdogs and attack dogs who together whittle down an erstwhile serious electoral process to a farce that entertains only the gullible.

In developed countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea and Canada, and even in developing countries with a form of democracy that is more advanced than ours, including Mexico, Brazil, Turkey and India, candidates vying for elected political offices are appraised based on their capabilities and competencies. Their level of understanding and know-how in managing key components of the national framework, like the economy, foreign policy, security and healthcare, are weighed and assessed. There is no time for flimflams.

In Nigeria, as you would expect, the reverse holds true. Here, we love to spend our time and energy indulging in things that would be considered trivial in advanced climes. Here, it’s all about the inconsequential; we appraise and grade aspiring office holders with a marking scheme that places a high premium on religion, ethnicity, wealth, magnanimity and other frivolities. We barely talk about economic policies, defence policies, foreign policies and other issues that matter. It is a quagmire that we have been sucked into and the way things are going, we are unperturbed and in no hurry to unshackle ourselves.

I look forward to election seasons in the United States, Britain, and even France for their cerebral intrigues. Over there, it’s a full package, an intellectual delight. You watch lively debates and listen to interviews where candidates try to outwit each other. It is a battle of wits and intellect; a battle among seasoned technocrats, ambitious rookies and tried-and-true statesmen.

Each of them strives to be the one to come up with the best and brightest innovative ideas; ideas about how their countries can move to the next level and how they will make the world safer and better with their leadership. Though present in a reasonably infinitesimal amount, it is not all about the mudslinging, name-calling and character assassination.

Conversely, the election season here leaves much to be desired; it is petty, clannish and syrupy. It is a battle of name-callers; a demeaning competition among various categories of self-serving avaricious mediocre politicians in conjunction with their lapdogs and attack dogs who together whittle down an erstwhile serious electoral process to a farce that entertains only the gullible. It is indeed a sad commentary.

Are these the kind of leaders we deserve? Are they the best we can offer? Certainly not! Then why have they been able to hold sway for so long? Why have they been allowed to have a field day?

Our media are the biggest culprit here. The generally accepted roles of the media in the electoral process across the world are peace building, voter education, information dissemination from political parties and their candidates to the public and vice versa, and scrutiny of the electoral process itself. The Nigerian media are doing none of this. It is simply speculating, feeding on speculations and reporting hearsays as facts, thereby creating confusion and inciting unrest – which is exactly what our politicians want.

The buck stops with the media professionals for letting themselves become tools in the hands of these politicians. When they should be fulfilling their number one responsibility – which is to educate and enlighten the public – they are giving these lazy, benighted and conspicuously unsophisticated politicians a field day. When they should be taking them up on issues like economic growth and development, in a similar fashion to what their counterparts in the United States, Europe and the rest of the Western world (take CNN and the BBC for example) are doing, they are feasting on gossips and disseminating half-truths.

Not only have our media professionals become lazy, but they’ve also been bought over. Presently, journalism in Nigeria is at best a murky business where sentiment and bias run high. In a typical Nigerian’s Pidgin English description, it is a case of “money for hand, back for ground.” Once you throw in any cash we will publish whatever you want us to publish and damn the consequences. Damn the public too! They will always believe.

The rise of the social media has worsened the situation. Garbage is now routinely churned out, unregulated. Anyone with an access to a personal computer, an internet-enabled mobile phone or a cybercafé can hide behind a pseudonym and post utter rubbish that masquerades as truth. If he’s lucky, it gets a couple of likes, shares, tweets and retweets and everything picks up from there. Bravo! It becomes yet another unnecessary controversy that successfully distracts us from the real issues.

In the end, the politicians are happy. Their crass ineptitude has been masked. The media and the public are discussing something else. No-one will ask us questions about how we intend to manage the economy, how we are going to create jobs for the youths, how we are going to reform the education system, how we are going to create affordable health care, how we will nip internal insurgency in the bud, how we are going to reduce the price of fuel or how we are going to launder Nigeria’s image abroad. How about some bottles of champagne, a Jacuzzi, an overseas trip for some celebration?

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

Emmanuel Chidiogo