Preamble
Nigeria’s current electoral cycle drew global attention on February 25 as citizens of the continent’s most populous nation went to the polls with much enthusiasm in order to determine the fate of the country for the next four years; by electing the 5th president and members of the 10th National Assembly since the return to democracy in 1999. In an election where technology was going to play a dominant role, the electronic registration of voters amounted to about 93.46million, out of which 44.41 million are female and 49.05 million male. The disaggregated data also shows that 33.4 million of the registered voters are middle-aged, while 37. 06million are youths and 22.9million elderly. Though there were about 18 candidates that vied for the presidential position and 1,100 for seats at the National Assembly, four parties were prominent during the campaigns with the Labour Party (LP) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) gaining prominence alongside the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). In the build up to the elections, the Labour Party had been christened the “Third Force” because of the support of the energetic youths who deployed the hybrid campaign method by dominating discussions on the social media alongside showing up on the streets to march in support of their candidate. While political actors and supporters of the traditional ruling and opposition parties had discarded the new force as lacking in structure, INEC as the electoral umpire promised giving a fair chance to all parties by conducting free and fair elections with the aid of technology. The first quarterly meeting of the Africanist Scholars’ Forum, which was held on Thursday March 9, thus focused on the intricacies of Nigeria’s current electoral cycle with specific interest in understanding the role of technology in its dynamics.
Observations
We noted that the mobilisation for political support during campaigns is still heavily laden with ethnic and religious sentiments under which the concept of Nigerian citizenship is subsumed. Though this is not unexpected with the declaration of the Muslim-Muslim ticket by the candidate of the ruling APC, the divisive electoral rhetoric by supporters of contesting parties on the social media has been nothing short of mobilising hate sentiments against people perceived as opposition. For instance, in the aftermath of the elections, the declaration of results of the presidential polls for Lagos State in favour of the LP candidate has resulted in renewed anti-Igbo sentiments – mostly directed against the governorship candidate, whose suitability to govern the state has been questioned based on his previous activities on Twitter. With a polarized political climate, Nigerian netizens have continued to disseminate content on the digital media, mostly without verification, to mobilize support for their candidates of choice. On the other hand, the digital media has also been significant in emphasizing the need to vote for competent leadership, including voices from other nations who admonished the conduct of violent free elections.
We noted that the efforts at countering disinformation and misinformation by the Nigerian civil society organisations also had ripple effects on the townhall engagements with the presidential candidates, where assertions were fact-checked and the gatherings publicly alerted on the statuses of various claims. Beyond the townhall meetings, utterances on campaign grounds were also under digital scrutiny, with the creation of memes and other satirical contents to either validate or counter expressions by candidates and their campaign trains. Some analysts have associated vibrancy in the digital media as a fallout of the mobilisation for the #ENDSARS protests, where major actors during the protests have become very influential in mobilising for the third force. The iconic figure of the third force, being the presidential candidate of LP, rode on the perception of merit that was largely conceived via the four Cs of competence, character, capacity and compassion. The effect of this on Nigeria’s electoral politics is the geometric rise of youth interests and participation in the elections.
We have also observed that the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) had been spotlighted based on controversies surrounding the implementation of its promises before the election to deploy the tools of technology for the conduct of free and fair elections. The commission had initiated the process through the furtherance of digitising the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise and assured Nigerians that the machines for implementing the Bimodal Verification Accreditation Systems (BVAS) will function optimally to prevent irregularities during the elections. As part of its promise of efficiency and transparency, the INEC Chairman also said that there will be the electronic transmission of results on the commission’s portal (the INEC Result Viewing Portal) that could be publicly accessed, even before the physical collation and announcement of results. In spite of budgeting about N355 billion for the conduct of the elections, the commission has been criticized for flaws witnessed during the elections, especially as regards the failure to keep its promise of transmitting the results electronically and for logistics related irregularities that resulted in the disenfranchisement of eligible voters.
Recommendations
As the nation prepares for the governorship and state houses of assembly elections, it is important that the electorate refrain from hate and divisive narratives, especially on the digital media; as they are capable of heating up the polity and disintegrating into chaos. The political parties and their flag bearers should abide by the commitment to peaceful conduct during the elections that was made by signing the national peace accord. Following from this, voters should embrace the culture of voting for competence over tribalized sentiments to give mandates to candidates capable of delivering good governance.
INEC and its staff should also collaborate with key stakeholders including security agencies, political party agents, civil society actors and Nigerian citizens in delivering credible elections across the states as Nigerians return to the polls. It is the responsibility of the commission to ensure that its digital infrastructure is not compromised to favor particular candidates but utilized in a transparent and accountable manner.