Nigeria Deserves Commendation For Peaceful Election

The Federal Republic of Nigeria deserves commendation for passing the test in electioneering process on Saturday March 29th and Sunday 30th throughout Nigeria to elect a new president. Indeed the main contestants in the elections President Goodluck Jonathan of ruling Peoples Democratic Party PDP and General Muhammadu Buhari of All Peoples Party APC also deserve commendation and MUST be conferred special awards for showing maturity in the just ended electioneering process that saw general Mohamadu Buhari defeating Goodluck Jonathan in the crucial election.

Who would have thought that a sitting president in Africa where some leaders are refusing to move an inch from power would concede defeat to a challenger even before the results of the election was declared. But that is what happened. In a style known only in the advanced nations Mr. goodluck Jonathan who saw the writing on the wall that he has been defeated picked a phone and called to congratulate general buhari for winning the elections.

This is a good example worth emulating by all nations of Africa. The coming generations of politicians in Africa must take a cue from what Mr. Jonathan has done that it is good to concede defeat. We need to note that Mr. Jonathan only lived up to an electoral pact he entered into with General Buhari for them to accept the result of the election . This singular act by president Jonathan is enough to damping the spirit of all those supporters of the PDP who were contemplating resisting any attempt to declare Gen Buhari as winner of the elections.

General buhari and his supporters of APC would surely be humbled and be grateful to Mr. Jonathan for the good step he took. Nigerians who were sitting on time bomb would also heave a sigh of relief for being assured of peace in the country at least for the time being. This would also surely lead to Nigerians from all walks of life uniting behind General Buhari to pursue the path of national development. . Before the election was held, there were fears that there might be interruptions with widespread attacks by the Boko Harram insurgents. Most people lived in fear after casting their votes by deserting the major centers of the cities.

Fortunately, all the observer groups who went to Nigeria and visited most parts of the country allayed the fears of the people by commending the people of Nigeria for going through the election processes largely peacefully. There were attacks at some polling stations but the security details and INEC indicated that those activities were not enough to affect the entire process. The leader of the ECOWAS observer team to Nigeria former president Kufuor of Ghana was the first to comment of the elections by saying that despite a few hiccups with the biometric machines some of which were unable to read the fingerprints of some of the voters many of the voters were able to cast their votes after the INEC took a wise decision to identify some of the voters manually.

The European commission observer team also gave Nigeria a pass mark over the elections and advised them to improve their electoral systems for future elections. Although some developed nations feared manipulation of the electoral process by the authorities but INEC lived up to expectation by proving to be truly independent. Nigeria is not the only nation in Africa to suffer from electoral problems especially regarding machines. Ghana had similar experience during elections in the recent past with its biometric machines acquired to vet voters.

It is the belief of many that the two nations being major ECOWAS member nations will do everything possible to find solution to the problem. If they are able to solve the problem with the biometric machines it would not only be of benefit the two nations but to any other nation in Africa wishing to use the machines in future. Having been declared winner General Buhari and his supporters jubilated for the feat they chalked in Nigeria's political history where the PDP had dominated the presidency since 1999.

In view of the enormous responsibilities on the new president the APC has a duty to end the jubilations and fanfare to get to work immediately.

The new president would have to deal with the Boko Haram insurgency which is ongoing in Nigeria especially the northeastern part of the country where Boko Haram is still holding the 300 girls they seized from Chibok. The parents of those girls who feel President Jonathan was unable to secure the release of their daughters would wish to get General Buhari to help in securing their release promptly.

Nigeria is still suffering from energy problems leading to black outs in most parts of the nation with their industries and medium and small businesses relying on generators that make noise in markets and neighborhoods. General Buhari would be expected to fix the energy crisis in Nigeria.

The new president would have to deal with corruption in high and low government establishment in a nation that seems to institutionalize iniquities. General Buhari would have to end the get rich quick practice of leaders of the nation who amass wealth they save outside the country for the exclusive use of their immediate families. The current reduction of oil prices on the international markets has led to reduction in revenue for Nigeria that need huge amount of money the development programs of the nation.. In view of the enormous problems facing Nigeria General Buhari would have to hit the ground running to be able to meet the needs of the people of Nigeria.

It would not be too much for General Buhari to extend his hand to invite Mr. Jonathan and some of his men and women to assist him in times of difficulties. This is necessary to enable General Buhari get to know a few things in governance in Nigeria which had been dominated by the outgoing government of Nigeria of which Goodluck Jonathan is her outgoing president