Democracy, according to the Learner’s Dictionary, is defined as “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents.”
But in Nigeria, democracy is considered the survival of the fittest. This is so because elections in Nigeria go with a lot of things, including money, thuggery, killings and lots more. Only the strong survive.
There can hardly be elections in any part of the country without blood-letting, violence, snatching of ballot boxes and papers, as well as votes buying by deep pocket politicians.
The populace hardly has opportunities to determine who their political leaders or representatives should be. Such decisions are the exclusive reservation for the high and mighty who ensure that the peoples’ votes do not count or are being manipulated to suit the purposes of political big wigs.
The just-concluded 2015 general election was not different from others before it. The elections were highly manipulated in favour of the rich and powerful politicians who ensured that nothing was spared for winning their various political positions.
Money was lavishly shared to buy votes at the polling stations and in some cases created violent situations to drive away voters to make rooms for their agents to stuff the ballot boxes with already thumb-printed voting papers.
Some of the electoral and law enforcement officers usually compromise by turning blind eyes to the nefarious activities of some political agents who settled for nothing other than ensuring victory for their principals.
But where they encounter stiff opposition, they turn such voting centres red with voters’ blood and leave destructions in their trail.
Worst still is post-election violence whereby the strong and mighty who lose elections visit their failures on perceived political enemies and voters who prevented them from carrying out their undemocratic activities.
Some politicians sometimes send their their goons and assassins after such personalities as a way of punishing them for being stumbling blocks on their election victory.
It’s no news that many innocent Nigerians have paid the supreme price, others maimed while the lucky ones go on self-exile to avoid the heavy hammers of angry politicians who want a pound of flesh for refusing to have their way during elections.
A case in question at the moment is that of one Osatohanmwen Uyi, who few days after the 2015 presidential election ran away from his Benin City residence to avoid the assassins sent against him for resisting rigging in a polling station during the election.
A popular political thug, notorious for his unwholesome political activities during electioneering campaigns and election periods Mr Johnson Kabaka and his gang members are always in high demand, rendering their unlawful services to the highest bidder.
But in 2015, some young men, including Osatohanmwen Uyi, in Ugbekun Primary School, Benin City voting centre mustered uncommon courage to resist the notorious political thug and members of his gang. The young men successfully defended their votes which led to the woeful defeat of Johnson Kabaka’s sponsor’s party.
This was not to be, as Johnson Kabaka felt demystified and his thuggery prowess seriously dented. To this end, he decided to get his pound of flesh by going from house to house hunting down all those who were instrumental to his failure to deliver electoral victory to his paymaster.
He allegedly succeeded in sending some of his political opponents to early graves while the lucky ones among them have since gone underground or better still, checked out of the country to escape death in the hands of the killer thug.
Unfortunately, the law enforcement authorities always seem to be helpless and unable to protect victims of political violence.
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