Lessons Have Been Learnt: What the 2023 elections taught us about Nigeria
Young Nigerians spent the years after the historic EndSARS protests of October 2020 preparing for the 2023 elections with the hope of making the right electoral choices and electing new leaders that will birth the nation of their dream. They used social media to galvanise national awareness to increase the number of young voters. They constantly mobilised their contemporaries to register to vote in the crucial election and not just be bystanders who keep complaining about the plight of the nation.
There’s a lot to be worried about.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says 63% (133 million) residents are multidimensionally poor and 33.3% (23.18 million people) are jobless. The World Bank said the multidimensional poverty index captures the percentage of households in a country deprived along three dimensions of well-being – monetary poverty, education, and basic infrastructure services.
According to the Africa Polling Institute (API), 73% of Nigerians were looking to emigrate with their families in 2021, and the figure keeps soaring as many young Nigerians, who make up 39.65% (37 million) of the 93.4 million registered voters, are looking for means to migrate to Europe and America in search of a better life. Emigration, using social media parlance ‘japa’, has become many young citizens’ escape route out of Nigeria’s rising unemployment, insecurity and police brutality.
For many young Nigerians, the 2023 elections offered a rare opportunity in over two decades to right the many wrongs in the country. It was also the first time many young citizens, who came of age after Nigeria’s transition from military rule to democracy in 1999, would be actively involved in national politics. They had high hopes in the election, but many were alarmed when they discovered, during and after the elections, that Nigeria’s political system is deeper that they thought. Lessons were indeed learnt!
With the elections now over and gradually getting behind us, we take a look at the new insight the 2023 elections season has given us about Nigeria — and what it means for the country’s future.
We Are Dangerously Polarised
There appears to be a huge feeling of resentment from the different tribes to another. With the high level of ethnic rhetoric that took the centre stage during the elections, it is evident that Nigerians – young and old are dangerously more divided along ethnic and religious lines than we thought, and even higher education could not mask that ugly side of many Nigerians.
It wouldn’t have been disturbing if we are polarised along ideological lines, but the ethnic and religious rhetoric which became a blunt weapon that many Nigerians wielded against one another before and during the elections, sadly shows that the same division that threw Nigeria into a civil war in 1967 appears to be sitting deep in the minds of many citizens and need to be swiftly addressed before it gets out of hand. There’s a lot of work for the National Orientation Agency (NOA).
Votes Actually Count
Contrary to the widely held notion that citizens’ votes don’t count; they actually do. If they don’t, the voter suppression and intimidation we saw during the elections wouldn’t be so prevalent, politicians would rather wait for citizens to vote and declare a different result as we’ve seen with past elections, especially in 2007 which has been described as one of the worst yet in Nigeria’s history.
Votes count and politicians will now go to any length to stop citizens from voting so that it won’t count. You must not relent.
Is Vote Buying Now Impossible?
We may not be able to respond in the affirmative. Perhaps due to the CBN Naira redesign policy aimed at mopping up excess cash in circulation, the widespread cases of vote-buying we witnessed in past elections was minimal during the 2023 elections. Unlike in previous elections where electorates are lobbied and paid at polling units by party agents, it was a different case this year.
No One Is Unstoppable
With several prominent figures like Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River state, Samuel Ortom of Benue state, Simon Lalong of Plateau state, among others losing their Senatorial elections and Bello Matawalle of Zamfara state losing his second term re-election bid, the election has shown us that no one is unstoppable as long as the people are united and speak with their votes.
The Ruling Party Will Not Always Win
It’s now almost becoming impossible to win an election by just being a candidate of the ruling party. The disruptions witnessed in the 2023 elections have really shaken us out of old patterns where any candidate presented by the ruling party is sure of victory. This is why many aspirants go to any length to secure the ticket of the ruling party which they see as their most reliable pathway to political office, making them more loyal to the party than the citizens. Wake up! It’s no longer business as usual. Zamfara, Abia and Plateau state where the ruling parties lost the governorship seats are good examples.
The Political System Is Demystified
Before the elections, the political class constantly questioned the authority of the young citizens in politics and mocked them for wasting their time on social media. The outcome of the election has left many in awe with Peter Obi of the Labour Party polling over six million votes in the presidential election. Many political actors had sworn that he won’t poll up to two million votes.
The political system has been demystified and lessons have been learnt. The 2023 elections will force the political actors back to the drawing board to do things differently and adopt a new approach to governance and politics. A kind of approach that puts the people first.
We Really Don’t Understand Nigerian Politics
Can we now agree that politics is deeper than we ever thought? After the 2023 elections, lessons have indeed been learnt by the political class and the young citizens. The game is deeper than many young people thought and the lessons will help prepare them for future political engagements.
Many Prefer To Watch Evil Triumph Over Good
With the level at which many Nigerians gleefully shared fake news and misinformation to drive their political agenda, the 2023 elections gave us another confirmation that many would rather watch and let evil triumph over good as long as it advances their agenda.
The 2023 elections further bear testament to the 2018 study by MIT which says false news online travels “farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth.”
To drive political agenda, falsehoods went viral and were strongly promoted by ‘respected’ personalities across all the political parties while facts and truths could not match the pace. Many of those who promoted falsehoods during the elections actually know the truth but chose not to do the right thing because the false stories align with their political interests.
The Young Citizens Can’t Be Taken For Granted
The failure of the Muhammadu Buhari government to fulfil many of its campaign promises and the political class who constantly bring disorder to the room, have helped to awaken the political consciousness of the young citizens and even in the face of intimidation and violence, they are not likely to give up. One of the mistakes the political class made in the 2023 election was taking them for granted. They can no longer be taken for granted.
The Great Distrust
The election again confirms Neusroom’s 2020 poll of 7000 youths which suggests that the young citizens distrust political leaders. This distrust may have been further deepened by the violence and manipulations that marked the 2023 elections. The older politicians, especially the president-elect Bola Tinubu, has a lot to do to win the trust of the youths and make them believe in the Nigerian dream, if there is any.
