US Midterm Election: Nigerians Can Do It

The midterm election in the United States of America is ongoing even as early results proved polls accurate to the effect that the Democratic Party would win.

But the pollsters did not anticipate what analysts are beginning to describe as tsunami that will give the Democratic Party a sweeping majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

In that fabled bastion of democracy, the midterm election is often considered as a referendum on the incumbent administration. It was, certainly, for President Donald Trump whose bullyish governance style and gunboat diplomacy has sadly alienated most of that country’s allies especially his cozy relationship with countries that are known to work against American, albeit, western interests. He admired authoritarianism and courted it to the utter amazement of his admirers at home and abroad.

The situation was made worse by the ill-advised war against Iran that brought untold hardship for regular Americans. With the high cost of food items in grocery stores and escalating increases in the unit price of energy, even his disciples in the Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement turned their backs on him. Many perceive his administration as one that is out to reduce the influence and respect the United States hitherto enjoyed internationally.

His plea during the campaigns that they should pretend that he was on the ballot and vote for the candidates of the Grand Old Party (GOP), the Republicans, some of them imposed by him, was ignored.

The emerging result according to media reports is a “stunning rebuke of Trump and the GOP”. To be fair, some Oldtimers in the party that produced in contemporary times, Ronald Reagan and the Bush family, warned Trump early enough that his policies and programmes are hurting friends and foes alike and would likely generate a tidal wave against the party. The advice which raised concerns that the midterm election would lead to an electoral bloodbath, was largely ignored.

At the onset of the Second World war, Fascism was looming large under the Italian Prime Minister, Benito Mussolini. Its effectiveness as a political system could not stand the test of time compelling Adolf Hitler who was the Italian leader’s collaborator-in-chief to ask ‘what is this Fascism that melts like wax under heat’.

Political pundits are beginning to ask similar question about MAGA that has failed its first viability  test in less than two year. It could  not live up to its hype. It failed because its commanding protagonist took his followers for granted. And Americans do not like to be taken for granted. Trump must be learning this lesson the hard way and the party is paying the bitter price.

He boasted that if his party fails to win he will veto the result. The world is waiting for him to make good his boast.

One admirable element of politics in the United States is that electoral manipulation, read, rigging is furiously frowned at. The system is so sophisticated that incumbency factor plays minimal role, if any, in the democratic process.

Flip the page and turn to Nigeria, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), after 16 years in power, became pig-headed and inordinately arrogant and took the electorate for granted. What is left of the party is still licking its wounds.

For most politically-exposed persons, the lessons of history are hardly learnt until its mistakes are repeated by those who believe, foolishly, that it is not their portion.

In the United States, Americans do not joke with their comfort. Trump tampered with it and he is being punished remarkably.

On the part of Nigeria, the people are not just suffering, they are being crushed under the overwhelming weight of poverty, penury and abject lack while the leaders are busy playing the ostrich. That is when they are not re-enacting the foolery of Nero, the Roman Empire strongman.

The general election in Nigeria is a couple of months away. They are not even campaigning because they are relying on their pastime which is exploiting the gullibility of the electorate that is so famished that they are willing to sell their birth rights for a mess of porridge. Already humongous sums are being stockpiled for vote buying. Nigerians have a right, willingness and determination not to sell.

It is understandable that the situation in Nigeria today is crushing to the extent that Americans, in comparison, consider themselves living in the proverbial paradise.

Yet they rose as one man to deal a decisive blow on those who dared to inflict just a minimal pain on them.

The Nigerian electorate should feel angry enough to borrow a leaf from their American counterparts and escort obviously failed politicians off the stage and show them the exit door.

On the part of the ruling political class, 2015 seemed impossible until it happened. Nigerians should summon the courage buoyed by the pain they feel to end the inanities of their perceived representatives in public office. Americans have just done it. 2015 happened. 2027 is possible. By all means the Augean stable must be cleansed and the rot checked effectively and decisively.