Explaining Our Elections to Children

When the news of the Supreme Court of Nigeria’s decision upholding the election of President Yar’adua filtered out, there was wild jubilation across Nigeria. The common man applauded the decision as vindication that the elections were, if not free and fair, at least legal and in accordance with the rule of law. As people took to the streets in jubilation, balloons released into the air, fireworks crackling and relaying across the sky from coast to coast, a group of young boys, no older than seven years old, wondered aloud what the celebration was about. After several attempts to explain the electoral issues and the problems with Sections 45(2), 145 and the really ridiculous Section 146 of the Electoral Act or even Section 83 of the Evidence Act this is how someone finally satisfactorily explained it to them.

‘If you want to understand the reasons for the jubilation and Nigerian elections, let’s hold pretend elections’, Explainer said. ‘Who is the best, baddest Power Ranger ever?’ After a little debate, it was almost unanimously agreed that the Red Ranger was the best. ‘Excellent, now to pick the person who gets to be the Red Ranger you have to ask your friends to pick the person who will make the best Red Ranger – this is called voting.’

‘First to make sure people only vote once we’ll count the number of people who are going to vote and give them a special card with their name and picture. Although there are only 10 people we will say there are 15 and...’ ‘Why’, the children ask? ‘Do not worry about that, this is how it is done in Nigeria. Then you pick out those who want to be the Red Ranger – how many of you want to be the Red Ranger?’ A loud chorus of voices shout ‘me’ with a few boys muttering hesitantly under their breath about how the Yellow or Green Ranger is really the best. ‘Great. You, you and you, will be the ones who get the chance to be the Red Ranger - this means you are contesting for the role of Red Ranger,’ says the Explainer as he arbitrarily picks out the candidates. Again the children cannot understand why and a few cry and run off while others shout ‘ojoro’. ‘I am only trying to show you how the election process works – don’t take it so seriously’, Explainer cajoles, I know what I am doing’.

‘The next step is to prepare the ballot papers for the vote. We need lots of paper and pictures of each contestant which we will paste besides their names along side a small box so voters can make a mark next to the person they choose. Each paper must be given a special number in serial which means they should follow each other. If the first paper is A100, then the next one will be A101. We need to do this to track the papers and eliminate fakes which will obviously not have the special numbers we have given each paper.’ The contestants and voters all get busy helping out with preparing ballot papers while Explainer serialises them.

Finally, it is time for the voting process but just before the children start forming a line, another child runs up from nowhere and says he wants to join. There is a load chorus of ‘no, you can’t, it’s too late’, but the child’s father who follows the child more slowly calls Explainer to the side and starts whispering in his ear. Dad is a big, strong looking man with mean eyes and a huge stomach. Explainer says okay to the annoyance of all the other children and calmly takes the stalk of carefully prepared ballot papers on the table and throws them in the trash. Then he brings out plain sheets with no serial numbers and hastily prepares new ballot papers, omitting in some cases some of the contestants from the ballot. At last, the voters come forward to see if their names are on the list of voters; only when their names are on the list can they vote. The children are all muttering and wondering about the changes and the complications, especially those who could not find their names on the list. Meanwhile some other children who were not in on the start of the election process muscle in with a lot of pushing and jostling around the table where the voting is taking place.

Just before the children start loosing interest, Explainer says the voting has to end and he will count the votes for each contestant. No surprises, Last Minute Kid wins and the original contestants who were there from the beginning began to cry and complain while Last Minute Kid puts on the red cape and dashes around in circles calling himself the Red Ranger.
‘No problem, says Explainer, let’s talk. What is the problem? Wait, before you start, let me get a few other people to hear what you have to say, and then they can decide if there was any fraud or ojoro as you call it.’ The contestants complain about the last minute changes, the new ballot papers with no serial numbers, the pushing and fighting and the fact that some of their friends did not get to vote. The Listeners ask a few questions from the contestants and some of the other children and say, based on what they have heard, the voting process was definitely not fair but it was legal and Last Minute Kid is the Red Ranger.

While this was going on Last Minute Kid had run off with his Dad, leaving the red cape on the ground. The children who had wondered about the celebrations and the election slowly walked home. ‘Do you understand why people are happy with the elections?’ asks one as he bends to pick the dirty muddied cape. ‘No, replies another, but I know one thing for sure: adults are crazy’.

Published December 23 2008