By CHINEDUM ANAYO

Nigerians just concluded their Presidential, National Assembly, Gubernatorial and State Houses of Assembly elections.

The election results are still contentious. Both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) Presidential candidates took legal actions against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declarations.

Generally, questions have been raised with regards to the whole electoral process, particularly, the failure of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the inability of INEC to upload polling results in real time.

Reports of the 2023 general elections reveal scenarios of voter intimidation, tribalism and religious bigotry, at a time democracy and integrity were expected to take their course. The hope of Niherians, were to say the least, shattered.

The fact still remains that our political class are highly divisive and insensitive. This has always come to play in our political activities.

It is important to note that the 2023 general election was very much interesting. Giants were reduced to ants and the supposed losers turned to victors. The Labour Party, for example, claimed about 40 seats in the National Assembly. This is a party that was steadily mocked for not having a structure. Also, the ruling party showed us that they still have loyalists and believers.

The elections really highlighted the power of the people's choices in a democratic exercise.

Nigeria is slowly becoming odd. After engaging young Nigerians after the elections, it is interesting to highlight that selfishness and greed still play major roles in our political space. Some young Nigerians are still perplexed by the results due to personal interests with little or no attention given to the national objectives. All that some of them bother about is individual gains. It’s now patent that we need good conscience and equity to thrive as a united people.

President Buhari has stated that the incoming Bola Tinubu’s administration would give Nigeria effective leadership. He also stressed that Tinubu had the political experience to achieve successful leadership. I think these observations are very early. We should await the final judgement of the Supreme Court regarding the validity of the elections.

The question now should be what next? It is a pity that we are all waiting for a judicial judgement on a matter that should have been decided upon by the electorate.

Nigerians are optimistic that the Judiciary would be fair and impartial. However, it is obvious that in reality, lack of trust still exists.

In all, we are Nigerians and we must do what is required of us as citizens. We should control our anger and disgust by exercising patience while the legal process lasts. Nigerians have decided and our decisions must be upheld.

•Chinedum Anayo could be reached via neduum@aol.com

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