A DISPLAY OF UNCOMMON INTEGRITY

Nigerian voters should learn to vote wisely during elections, writes Sonnie Ekwowusi

Whenever the political history of Anambra is re-written the uncommon integrity displayed by the Ebenebe women at the recently-conducted Anambra Governorship Election will be told in bold relief. The Ebenebe women defiantly rejected the N5, 000 bribes offered them by one of the political parties to vote against their conscience. Obviously the women, like most Nigerian people, are poor, hungry and dejected. But they still preferred to maintain their honesty and integrity rather than accept bribes. A video clip clearly showing the women publicly rejecting the N5,000 bribe has been making the rounds. The Ebenebe women have shown that even though men may be stronger than women in physical strength women are stronger in moral strength. The women have demonstrated that money cannot buy their conscience. They remind our politicians that morality and politics are not strange bedfellows.

Ebenebe is comparatively an unknown town tucked away in the Awka North Local Government Area of Anambra State. The town has an estimated population of about 45,897. Prior to the last Anambra Governorship Election, Ebenebe was an obscure town, hardly mentioned in conversations. Now the town is the cynosure of all eyes across the world. The Ebenebe women are now the toast of nations. I read somewhere that the outgoing Anambra Governor Willie Obiano has handsomely rewarded one of the women who rejected N5, 000 bribes with N1 million cash. Must the woman be rewarded with money? If the woman rejected the monetary bribes, why reward her with the same tainted thing? Why didn’t the Anambra State government name a popular street in Awka after her or erect her statue in the centre of Awka to pass a subtle message to the young generation that integrity, after all, pays?

If Nigerian democracy must yield the so-called democratic dividend, then it must have a national character, a character that defines democracy and establishes the parameters and moral high ground in which democracy should operate in order to promote the wellbeing of the people. Devoid of character, politics and political activities in Nigeria, in the words of Federic Bastiat, French political economist and philosopher, are legalized plunder. In all democracies especially in presidential democracy, sovereignty resides with the people. At periodic elections and through other intervening periods, the people determine who should govern them and how they should be governed. But unfortunately, in Nigeria the reverse is the case: the people are at the receiving end, the leaders determine how the people should be governed. This explains why Nigerian democracy has been constantly churning out scallywags, thieves and imbeciles as leaders. The Ebenebe women have shown that instead of constantly complaining that Nigeria is ruled by vagabonds, voters should come out on Election Day and vote out the thieves.

At the risk of constant repetition, abstract politics without those communally-binding ideals cannot hold Nigeria together. French political scientist and historian Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859) once stated that a country cannot escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion to the political tie. Simply put, if we want to strengthen our democracy, we must first of all strengthen the moral tie because the latter is what gives rise to the former. In her essay entitled, A disposition of Delight, Elizabeth Covey, assistant professor of political science in the Honors College at Baylor University, writes that when the religious and social tradition of the society wither, we are left “with nothing but a dry and gritty residue. Thus we have the spectacle of a s et of sanctimonious, rationalist politicians, preaching an ideology of unselfishness and social service to a population in which they and their predecessors have done their best to destroy the only living root of moral behavior”. In order to promote the common good for the survival of Anambra, those Ebenebe women did not allow N5,000 bribe to sway their consciences and thus prevent them from voting for a candidate of their choice. You don’t have to be well read to be a man or a woman of integrity. Certainly those women voters are not members of the Anambra intelligentsia yet they are politically enlightened enough to evaluate the issues at stake and the character of the contestants in the Anambra governorship election.

The great lesson here, for me, is that, bribe or no bribe, the Nigerian voters should learn to vote wisely on Election Day. Prior to casting their votes many voters do not first sit down to ask themselves the following basic questions: Why should I vote for a candidate who is so clueless that he doesn’t have the foggiest idea that the essence of wielding power is to render service to the people? Why should I vote for a man who perceives power as his personal fiefdom? Why should I vote for a man who is only interested in foisting ethnic hegemony in Nigeria? Why should I vote for a bigot who is shamelessly interested in giving key political appointments only to people from his own part of the country in violation of the Federal Character Principle enshrined in our Constitution? If Nigeria were a country where the voters vote with their heads and hearts during elections, President Buhari would not have come to power in 2015 let alone returned to power in 2019 despite his disastrous outing in first tenure. At that time, newspaper advertorials with reverting warnings such as: “Once a Soldier always a Soldier”, “Buhari is not qualified to rule Nigeria”, “Buhari cannot be trusted”, were constantly inserted in our daily newspapers. Yet some Nigerian voters ignored these warnings and still proceeded to vote for Buhari. Today we are reaping the bitter fruits of that seemingly thoughtless decision. The Jonathan government was knee deep in corruption but at least the Nigerian families managed to put food on their tables. Today many families cannot afford to have two meals a day. Christmas is around the corner. Many Nigerian families will not be celebrating this year’s Christmas. Why? Heightened insecurity of lives and property in Nigeria. No food. Prices of foodstuffs are prohibitive. So, the Nigerian voters should vote wisely in 2023. We must correct the terrible mistakes of 2015 and 2019. Nigerian voters should emulate the uncommon integrity of the Ebenebe women voters. If the Nigerian voters cannot vote out the clueless, thieves and vagabonds in power, then they should stop complaining that their leaders are making a show of their stupidity and wickedness in power.