THE RESILIENCE THAT PAID OFF!.....Ayeleso Toyosi

“We are wobbling and fumbling,but we are wobbling and fumbling in the right direction.” - Bill Clinton

“To bestow... beauty instead of ashes...” – Holy Bible

“Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude towards it, for that determines our success or failure.” – Norman Vincent Peale


On the cover page of the Sunday punch dated April 3, 2011 is boldly “INEC FLOPS; Nigerians Angry” with pictures of aggrieved residents of a particular state protesting seriously the postponement of the National Assembly elections. Despite the shift being regarded as a “national emergency” by the INEC Chairman, it seemed at that time that the much anticipated and hoped for election had become a flop or had been politicised. It looked at that time that we had once again disappointed the international world. Then the best of analysts brought facts about how they had followed the events that had characterised the planning for the election and they had since not been too optimistic about the whole process. From the clamoured removal of Maurice Iwu, the issues that emanated from the electoral reforms, to the demand for additional fund and time by the “INEC BOSS”, to the request for additional time to allow voters register, to the postponement of the election earlier slated for January to April in order to allow for effective and efficient readiness and now to the cancellation and “national emergency shift” of the election of April 2nd. All these seemed to analysts as the odour of the dead rat around the corner that insinuated that something was wrong. There were varying questions like why the man who had given the nation his word some four days before the election that all was ready had to suddenly come up with an excuse that unnamed “vendors” failed to deliver critical materials such as the result sheet as scheduled, not withstanding his “appeal to all Nigerians for their understanding at such a difficult time”.
Alas, before he completed the press briefing, different comments had rot the media, from calculation of the loss of the cancellation to over 3 billion Naira, to the request from some parties calling for the resignation of Attahiru Jega stating that he was too much of a gentleman to anchor the ship of Nigeria’s long awaited 2011 elections and at that time it looked like prophet T.B Joshua’s prophecy had been fulfilled, that the election would be postponed. Thus the usual dichotomy to be expected; thee PRO-JEGA AND ANTI-JEGA
One of the analysis I wouldn’t forget in a while is one made on Focus Nigeria that this seeming insurmountable monster could have been surmounted if it had all been intellectually calculated. She stated that if a wedding was to hold on Saturday and by 8pm of the Friday preceding the wedding, the groom’s plane had not taken off from Japan, it was a clear indication that the wedding wouldn’t hold and concluded that Jega did not have to push Nigerians to the polls April 3rd before giving such address to postpone the election.
However, amidst all these discouragements, Nigerians remained unperturbed, discouraged yet determined, and resilient to make it work this time around. Fortunately so many circumstances surrounding the 2011 elections indicated it was on the road to fairness. From the upright and “antecedently” truthful Jega, to the free hand given to INEC by the presidency, to the strategies put in place by Jega to show openness. But all these I think are boosters to the fact that Nigerians at this time are desperate for a change that involves due process. The resilience allowed for patience and made them unperturbed despite the postponement and even the failure of the election to hold on Monday. The resilience that made Nigerians troop out again in their thousands on April 9, that made the electorates go after persons in Zamfara State who came to snatch the ballot box , beat them up, return it to its place, return to their line and continued voting. The same resilience that made a head to be cut off in an attempt to carry the ballot box in a south-south state in the Country, that made security agents almost jobless as the electorates were themselves ready to secure their votes and that resilience that made Nigerians strong-willed, optimistic happy, hopeful and unrelenting in their desperation for change despite been bent, stretched, pressed, disappointed by pathological electoral experiences is commendably the definition of TRUE RESILIENCE. This definitely is enough to create the “IMPRESSION” that Nigerians have brought about that change to Nigeria.
Kudos to the presidency for allowing INEC so much independence in running their own affairs which was evidential in the fact that even President Goodluck Jonathan heard about the postponement like any other Nigerian and Jega for always being available to give explanation in line with his promise that his leadership would always be truthful with Nigerians. However, the resilience that made Nigerians accept such truthfulness in so much good fate and turn out en-mass “April 9” to cast their vote, defend their vote and made sure that their vote counts seriously requires commendation.
Permit me therefore to rephrase the last paragraph in Dixie Jane Sokolik’s article “Unstoppable” in Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen’s “Living Your Dreams” by saying; “All thanks to Nigerians, a people with sufficient spirit to set out on a difficult path, ample courage to follow her dreams and enough determination to even cause a change”. This simply could only have been done by a resilient Nigeria and like Clinton said “...we are wobbling and fumbling in the right direction”