A compromise with evil (Column)

•Why Atiku should challenge the result

Again, the worst of the Nigerian is at play following the outcome of the February 23, 2019 presidential election which President Buhari has been declared winner, albeit controversially. Apart from the deafening silence among the leaders given the circumstances surrounding the polls – recently the floodgate of delegations to the Villa to congratulate the president has opened – some people who pretend to be more patriotic than everybody are already asking the main opposition candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP not to challenge the poll result at the tribunal.

This is very curious and perplexing since it stands logic and constitutionalism on its head. An election is part of a democratic process; so also is the right to challenge the outcome at a tribunal constitutionally established for the purpose. But you can argue that its existence does compel automatic recourse to it.

However, this position is self defeating. The provision for the recourse was made to complete the process and ensure full ventilation of grievances which if bottled up could undermine the entire system.The argument that election has been won and there is need for the president to focus on the job of governance is self serving and opportunistic. It is like saying that because a robbery was successful it should not be investigated.

Arguments such as this tend to demonise the challenger and make him look less patriotic when he is simply exercising a constitutionally guaranteed right under the electoral process. If he does not exercise this right how is he to be fully persuaded that he lost, and how are we going to learn from the mistakes, which are myriad, of the election – unless we believe that the process was flawless and perfect and the loss of 40 lives is inconsequential.

This, in fact, is the Nigerian mentality and exemplifies our inability to move forward – the propensity to want to move forward hastely by not confronting the brutal truth only to return to it in very near future in its worse form. We have become so used to ‘managing’ everything, even the worse of situations. We are a nation of incurable optimists who are perpetually focused on the present with no motivating ideals and visions of a greater and better society than this; all we want is to make the best of even the most debilitating situations.

Our inability to confront issues with a clear motive and strong conviction to change things cripple initiative, disarms resolve and vitiates effort to improve society. And society does not advance where individuals are not free, allowed, motivated and encouraged to seek and protect their best interest within all legal bounds.

In fact most of the much cherished rights and freedoms enjoyed by the generality of humanity came out of personal struggles of some motivated individuals. To attempt to muzzle or disallow the pursuit of such personal rights is to deny society the opportunity to open itself to new vistas of innovation and progress.

It is ironic, even paradoxical, that the National Peace Committee, NPC, led by former head of state Gen. AbdulsamAbubakar, whose self professed mandate is peaceful and constitutional resolution of all conflicts especially electoral, would be part of this apparently misguided opportunism – not minding that such suggestion is contrary to its mandate.

Nigerians have made compromise a virtue -everything being settled to the satisfaction of everyone. Compromise strives for moderation and inclusiveness; it often produces fast and ‘fair’’ decisions, but whether such decisions are right or not is something else.

However, there is a thin line between virtue and vice. Compromise may be a virtue if it is driven by higher principles of ethical rebirth, moral integrity and social advancement.Otherwise, compromise becomes a pretext and cloak for opportunism – the pursuit of narrow or group interest at the expense of the collective and general interest.

It is treachery against society because it not only denies society the opportunity to advance but keeps it deceived and pretending that all is well even when everything is crashing around. It is a palliative that soothes the nerves but does not heal any wound – a placebo that is good in appearance but worthless.

Nigeria will neither excel as a nation nor improve its electoral process which has remained its democratic dilemma if we fail to not only set clear benchmarks and standards for public conduct and expectations, but to also diligently apply them – not minding how long it takes, at what cost and against who.

To insist otherwise is simply postponing the evil day and leaves the nation running in a cycle of unresolved issues. And we have a plethora of such issues not that we are incapable of solving them but simply because we refuse to confront the issues squarely toward finding a lasting solution. Such issues as census, revenue allocation, citizenship, federalism etc have remained intractable because we believe in managing what is.

There is only one outcome from challenging the result of the election: either it is upheld, in which case the aggrieved parties would have had their say; or it is nullified, which would allow the nation learn from the mistakes, if any, and guard against future occurrence.

Either way the world will not come to an end; Nigerian will still be andso will we – the nationwillnot disintegrate or come to arms because an election was nullified.In the end the truth would have been established and justice served. A nation that is afraid of the truth and indifferent to injustice will soon be historical by-word.