The Master Speaks: the 2023 Elections in Nigeria is the Way to do Democracy. Never mind the clear Corruption of Process and Abuse of the Country’s Constitution

The Master Speaks: the 2023 Elections in Nigeria is the Way to do Democracy. Never mind the clear Corruption of Process and Abuse of the Country’s Constitution

Opinion of The Washington Post 

Nigeria points the way toward democracy in a region in which it is scarce – Such Drivel 

Ipemndoh dan Iyan 

In writing this Piece, I am responding to AriseTV’s Broadcast https://youtu.be/pYo7vobmSH8 that I watched in the Afternoon of Wednesday 22 March 2023. My Response started out as a Tweet Commentary but I quickly realized twitting would not compliment what I needed to write.  Nevertheless, I am not writing much.

First, I am not able to understand Ayo Mairo-Ese’s Enthusiasm for The Washington Post’s  Comment in https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/03/20/nigeria-election-bola-tinubu-democracy-africa/ that despite the Farce of Nigeria's 2023 Elections the Military has not taken over. The Paper talked Tosh. The Military in Nigeria has never taken over during Election Crises from Day One of Military Coups d’etat in that Country. Importantly, has  Mairo-Ese’s ever had a close look at Nigeria's Military and Police top Personnel? The Men are grotesque with bulging Stomachs approximate to Women’s nine Months' Pregnancies and waddling in Walk like Ducks all from feeding fat stealing Nigeria's Money. Perhaps, I am not much better looking myself, “sago bu go” but I am not in the Military or in the Police or in any of the other Security Services. Ordinarily, these top Military Men will not intervene to save Nigeria because by doing so they would certainly be condemning themselves before the Almighty and might be caught up with by Human Beings. Thus, ordinarily again, by not staging a Military Overthrow, they are protecting their Interests. When young intelligent,  conscientious and incorruptible Officers are able to circumvent these Thieves’ vice Grips on Military Commands, Nigerians would meet with fulfilling Change. 2023 Elections will bring back the Military when the Time is right. The Washington Post does not understand the Advent of Military Takeovers in Nigeria. I do. They occur in the same peculiar Circumstances. I am not going to mention them here. You are the Ones paid huge Salaries to play Journalists. Go do your Research. 

Second, Rufai Oseni will get his "Justice" in Nigeria's Courts but he misunderstands 'Justice' for ‘Fairness’. The two are not the same. See dan Iyan, I.P., Justice as Fairness: an intellectual Faux Pas, Amazon, 2014. Here is Part of the Preface to the Book:

We effortlessly presume, indeed believe, ‘justice’ and ‘fairness’ to mean the same thing. We accept this view to be true because we encounter it day in, day out, being emphasised by others with whom we come in contact. For us, therefore, this common place understanding of ‘justice’ as ‘fairness’ has become knowledge. The presumption that ‘justice’ and ‘fairness’ are “one and the same” is even more reinforced in that habitat of ‘justice’ we have come to recognise as omniscient; the law. As we are confronted everyday with the proposition that ‘justice’ is ‘fairness’ and that to be ‘fair’ is to be ‘just’ we also experience inconsistencies between what we innately accept to be ‘fair’ and what ‘justice’ is delivering in practice. If our expectation of ‘fairness’ is not confirmed by the processes of ‘justice’ - the law and the law courts - we begin rightly to recognise the misfit between ‘justice’ and ‘fairness’. In realising the misfit between ‘justice’ and ‘fairness’, we also recognise that ‘justice’ and ‘fairness’ could not denote the same thing. Most human beings, if not all human beings but for the very young, observe the many misfits between ‘justice’ and ‘fairness’ but remain logged into the misapprehension of ‘justice’ as symbolising ‘fairness’. The seminal work by John Rawls was my first read of a fully-fledged discussion of ‘justice’ and ‘fairness’. Rawls opened my mind incontrovertibly to the fact that ‘justice’ and ‘fairness’ are not “different sides of the same coin” but are, in fact, different coins. To pit ‘fairness’ against ‘justice’ was not the intention of Rawls' ‘A Theory of Justice’. The purpose of that work was to argue the seamlessness of ‘justice’ with ‘fairness’. Since Rawls, I have read other modern day extended treatises from David Miller, Robert Nozick and Westel W Willoughby respectively. I have also examined the article from Manuel Velasquez et al. Of these modern writers, Willoughby was the first followed by Rawls then Nozick thereafter Miller and finally Velasquez et al. The dearth of rigour by these individuals, except for Willoughby ...

If you decide Oseni, to investigate my thinking further on ‘Fairness’ and ‘Justice’ you can either be content with the Introduction to the Book when you search for it Online or you can buy it.  

Third, I always find Reuben Abati's thinking bizarre. What exactly does he believe is remarkable about The Washington Post’s Comments that  “It is encouraging ... that the losing candidates are pursuing their claims through the courts” regarding the 2023 farcical Elections? “Burlesque” he, himself, called these Elections. The Washington Post’s Comment here is actually patronising. Nigerians have been going to Court over presidential Election Results since 1979. Refer to, i.e., Chief Obafemi Awolowo v Alhaji Shehu Shagari & Ors (SC 62 of 1979) [1979] NGSC 49 (26 September 1979). This much Rubbish of Election Malpractices in 2023 by the Body entrusted to conduct fair Elections in Nigeria, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), did not happen in the United States of America (US(A)), Home Country to The Washington Post, yet the Loser of the US 2020 presidential Elections, Donald J Trump Sr, incited his Followers into an Insurrection against the “American State” on 6 January 2021. The Members of the editorial Board of The Washington Post should keep their condescending Approval for the Menace of the Republic Party aka GOP to the Wellbeing of the “American State” and the Sanity of “the American People” when the Hoodlums in the GOP recognize that the Courts are Loci of Resolution in Civil Society notwithstanding the Corruption and/or intellectual Shortcomings of some Judges. The editorial Board Members should stop ‘superiorizing’© to the non-Western World. I follow the Philosopher Jesus the Christ in advising these Persons to first take care of the Logs in their Eyes. E gbo ti Ara yin na, E ma, ma fi Apadi bo. A ba, Igba wo lo ma ye yin pe ko un se Gbogbo wa ni E le ma pe Aja ni Obo fun? “Physician heal thyself” instead of the Smokescreen you are erecting. It is not us all you can convince a Dog is a Monkey. Dig? Besides, Democracy the Philosophy and Practice are African Ingenuities. It is only the Name that is of Western Origin (Greek). Learn your History, read Herodotus and Plutarch. Electoral Politics are Western Creations and they are a Mess. 

It is such a huge Shame that none of the four of you on your Broadcast recognized that The Washington Post’s Opinion has absolutely no Understanding of how the Nigerian President is elected. The ‘Opinioners’©  preoccupied themselves with Percentage Shares of the Votes. For Goodness Sake, Nigeria’s presidential Election is not ‘first past the Post’ System as it is in 48 States of the 50 States in the US or as in the United Kingdom (UK) or as in most Jurisdictions with the Polity of electoral Politics erroneously defined as “Democracy.” These Opinioners are ‘arrogantly ignorant’ of the Nigerian Process. Electing the President of Nigeria is complex and particularized. Section 134 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 makes this clear. It is written in user-friendly enough English Text but it appears that the pompous Writers of The Washington Post’s Opinion are unaware of this Section or have cognitive Struggle with the English Language or are simply unable to reason otherwise they would have asked themselves whether Bola Ahmed Tinubu satisfied the Provisions of that Section to be declared President-Elect by that most contemptible Man, Mahmood Yakubu. Tinubu is not de jure President-Elect. He is simply the Apparition of One foisted on Nigerians by Yakubu. Besides, normative Logic should have counseled those Opinioners to question why there were “no poor internet connections and heavy traffic [disrupting] the system” while uploading Assembly Election Results but only when transferring the Presidency Election Results. The Writers of the Opinion of The Washington Post should read my http://ipemndohdaniyan.blogspot.com/2023/02/they-have-sewn-up-2023-asiwaju-bola.html to understand that Mahmood Yakubu was just Part of the many Contrivances to ensure Tinubu won. It is equally astonishing that none of you four even commented on that Opinion’s Balderdash that “remarkably there have been no reports of post-election violence, intimidation or threats” when all four of you had just been aggrieved by “reports of post-election violence, intimidation [and] threats.” What kind of Journalists are you all? 

Ipemndoh dan Iyan PhM©

AsimauGlobalMedia© 

All Rights 2023

23 March