Opinion: UK election and the urgent lessons for Nigeria by Doyin Okupe

Opinion: UK election and the urgent lessons for Nigeria by Doyin Okupe

Editor's note: Doyin Okupe, a medical doctor, who has served as a senior aide to two former presidents including Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, examines the conduct of the just-concluded election in the United Kingdom as well as the lessons Nigeria should take from the exercise.

Okupe warns that with the way elections are conducted in Nigeria, the country is headed towards cataclysm except something urgent is done.

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Any educated and civilised Nigerian will feel great shame after watching the British elections of December 12. No policemen anywhere. No thugs. No arson. No soldiers. No shootings. No killings. Actually no nothing except voting. No ballot box snatching. No burning of ballot boxes. Results announced openly everywhere. In less than 24 hours final results ready and announced. To make matters 'worse', no foul cry by opposition. So no petitions. No tribunals.

It will appear as if we are a dysfunctional, barbaric, genetically and intensely disorganised and uncontrollable human species who are natural lovers of violence and savagery.

Our societies are still operating under the primordial and primitive rule of the Jungle: Might is Right. Either government might, or police might or military might, or thuggery might or even financial might.

It must be clear to the least discerning amongst us that the system we are running is not sustainable and without being a prophet of doom, I can say without any mental reservation or equivocation that it cannot and will not endure. Somewhere, in not too distant a future, if we do not stop, rethink, and redirect our ways, a major cataclysm lies ahead.

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It's no longer just a government matter, or a problem to be solved by the political class, which clearly is incorrigible, selfish and socially disconnected. It is something concerning all and must involve all. It's too late in the day to trade blames. We are in a precarious situation and we need to exit fast. It's not APC or PDP affairs now. It's a Nigerian affair. Its worth $500 billion a year and involves the lives of over 200 milion Nigerians and another 200 million west Africans, if the result of the closure of our borders is anything to go by.

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I believe in my heart that with God on our side and sincerity of purpose, we can do it in three years if we start now and put all hands on deck. If people in government are ready and willing, it will be fast and easier. But if not, "We the people" can still achieve much. A collective desire to campaign for and effect attitudinal change to some basic issues like bribery, honesty, integrity, productivity, pursuit of truth, justice, collective resolve to ensure compliance with the rule of law, fight against prebendalism, nepotism etc will go a long way in creating a path for the emergence of a civilised nation state.

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Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

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