There is a story trending or making the rounds in the social media, celebrating the political sagacity of the illiterate Almajiri/Talakawa/Fulani Voters in the core Northern region of Nigeria. The author is of the view that the transistor radio-carrying Abokis and the nomadic Almajiris or Fulani Herders are more politically informed than the educated Southerner voters. And I disagree. I will come back to that later. What is most vexatious in the piece is the theory that Southern voters "cannot or should not love Atiku Abubakar more than his Fulani tribal folks."
Mr. Atiku Abubakar is a Nigerian, first. The fact that he is a Muslim or of Northern extraction, though relevant, shouldn't be most compelling a consideration in the race. But it is, and that what defines us. That we are still giving premium to the ethnic or religious background of a candidate during campaign and election after more than fifty years of independence as one nation-state is a reflection of the emptiness of the major actors in our political system. If you are an achiever, the religion or place of birth of your competitors should be off the table, in that case, you would definitely have a lot to brag about and campaign on. Unfortunately, you don't have. And religion becomes a potent weapon.
It is unfortunate that Mr. Atiku Abubakar did not garner as many votes from his tribal folks in the magnitude of his main competitor in the race, President Buhari. Democracy is a game of numbers. And one has to win on the strength of vote counts. What the author left out is that the Educated Southern or Middle-Belt voters that he so derisively chided did not have safe access to the polling booths, in the likes of the free for all, opened, unhinged, and organized thumbprinting that took place throughout the core North. Whereas the majority of Southern voters who had undisturbed access to the polling booths did not have their votes counted and recorded, the so-called politically savvy Talakawas or Fulani Herders had their votes peacefully and painstakingly recorded to rhyme with the projections of All The President Men acting behind the scene.
To put it bluntly, there was an organized or manufactured chaos in the Middle-Bel and the entire geographical South calculated at undermining electoral strength of the main challenger, while the North experienced state-sponsored and state-supervised thumbprinting and manipulations of figures. Democracy does not grow on tribal irredentism. Neither does strict adherence to religious affinity during voting exercise as the culture is in the far North, a projection of sophistication or enlightenment. I beg to hold.
There is a bigger issue here. The so-called illiterate and politically savvy Northern voters, sorry to say, are just tools - the means of concretizing the race and religious cards perfected by Northern political and religious leaders over the years. And that borders on emancipation deficiencies, brainwashing, or mental slavery.
For instance, you told them that what is at stake in this election is the Quran or that their rights to worship supersedes every other fact of life, their education, health or social welfare package. And that the other guy is an infidel. They believed you and voted accordingly. My brother, it is not about love. It is not about political sagacity or enlightenment. It is about religion and it is about lies. And it is about the age-old phobia of Southern dominance of the Nigerian political system.
It is the height of electoral fraud for anyone to engage in the disruption of the voting process in certain areas of the country where his or her candidate is more likely to suffer defeat, while at the same time, facilitating the manipulations and embellishment of vote counts in areas where his or her candidate is most favored to win. So, concocting some convoluted ethnic-laced theories of love and sophistication to explain the defeat of the affected candidate is most disingenuous.
Given the disturbing nature of some of the videos that we have seen so far of the "state-sponsored peaceful rigging" in Borno, Kano, and Katsina States, it is NOT a misstatement to conclude that the Abokis, the Almajis, the Talakawas, and the Fulani Herders did not influence the vote counts on their own. As I said earlier, they were simply tools at the disposal of All The President Men. I can only explain their impacts on lies and gullibility.
So, the opinion that Atiku Abubakar suffered rejection in the hands of his Fulani tribal folks because they don't love him is, to say the least, ludicrous. They were made to believe that Atiku Abubakar isn't Muslim enough or that he is not even of Fulani extraction. How does the word "fikir" or "infidel" find its way to Nigerian election campaign vocabulary? It is to discredit the other candidate before the gullible uneducated, brainwashed masses. It happened to Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
In the absence of a progressive agenda or a history of populist accomplishment that benefit the voters or your own people, pushing the race and religious cards becomes the most favored option.
The incumbent won because of the massive thumbprinting, inflation of vote counts, disfranchisement of eligible voters and purposeful disruption (gerrymandering by other means) of the electoral process as explained in the previous essays. Deploying race and religious cards during every Presidential election in Nigeria, repugnant as they are, are parts of our electoral process that must be discredited and condemned by all. You don't grow democracy on lies and state-sponsored electoral frauds. The exception suffices only in instances where they want a particular Southern candidate to win. Otherwise, it is a do-or-die affair. And it is evolving right now.
