Rescue Nigeria from prospect of slaughter’s slab

To contemplate cancellation of February 25, 2023 elections is not only preposterous but counter productive and a grievous invitation to violence. Yes, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) could certainly have done better and had indeed done its best which  might not have met our expectations and international standards, there are legal remedies to whatever imperfections or lapses that are observed. In all honesty, considering Nigeria’s geographical expanse, the best we can do is to remain positive in the belief that INEC will have a better outing in the next set of elections in March.

Moreover, election cancellation will be a set back and a reversal of our democratization efforts to which none should subscribe to. It is not a patriotic call from former President Olusegun Obasanjo, probably emanating from ‘bad belle’ and personal hatred, vendetta and settling of old scores between Obasanjo and the presidential candidate of APC whose prospects of winning eventually looks brighter.

In Nigeria’s electoral history, even under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, there had been worst elections. There was indeed nothing to be proud of in Nigeria’s 2003 elections which witnessed bare-face, blatant, large-scale rigging and even fundamentally flawed. Nigerians tolerated these excesses and acts of impunity for the sake of the then nascent democracy. So was the 2007 general elections. What I expect President Obasanjo to do as a foremost elder statesman is to join hands with other compatriots on how to rescue journeying to a possible Slaughter’s slab.

Even, elections in saner and more developed societies aren’t devoid of imperfections, fiasco  and skirmishes.
I advise that no one in the government of President Muhammadu Buhari should cheaply latch on to the proposal of Obasanjo as an excuse or invitation to stage a palace coup in self succession or a return to full scale military rule. Nigerians must continue to stand firm for democracy with all its limitations. There is no alternative to peaceful co-existence in a country that is so diverse as Nigeria. We are in a delicate phase in our fragile country and we should join hands to ensure and avoid any crisis of succession. INEC should be encouraged to manage the process to the very end. We must avoid aborting the exercise at all cost. No return to the 1993 election imbroglio in which M. K. O. Abiola was robbed of victory after victory at  the polls. We must rescue Nigeria from a possible slaughter slab.

• Lai Olurode is a former INEC National Commissioner and a retired professor of Sociology.