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Bush: The Nigerian reaction
By Reuben Abati
MANY Nigerians responded to the just concluded Presidential election in the United States as if it was a civil war, between (a) the Red Republicans and their neo-conservative evangelical Christians support base and (b) the blue Democrats with their coalition of blacks, gays, abortionists, Jews, ethnic minorities and all other persons who insist on evidence as opposed to faith-based religiousity. The general inclination as the drama and passion of the American election unfolded was for the average Nigerian to vote for Kerry, pray for him, and promote the cause of the Democrats. There were so many persons campaigning for John Kerry among the enlightened Nigerian middle class, you would think that Nigerians had a right to vote in the US Presidential election.
I had been invited to lead discussions of the elections at the Broad street, Lagos office of the American embassy, the morning after the voting; there was a mock election in which the Nigerians in attendance voted overwhelmingly for Senator John Kerry. Their choice reflected not just the mood of many Nigerians but that of the larger international community. The Presidential election of 2004 is perhaps the most international election that America has ever held. If foreigners were allowed to vote in the election, the outcome would either have been different or by now, there would be so much rancour, and civil war across the world. Foreigners, with perhaps the exceptions of the people of Poland and Israel, wanted President Bush out of the White House by all means. Days before the election, Nigerian parapsychologists, spiritualists and star-gazers looked at their crystal balls and predicted that the next President of the United States would be Senator John Kerry. Now, Professor Okunzua and his tribe had better watch it; it has just been confirmed that they were telling lies.
In the Middle East, as soon as the battle of the election was won and lost, some persons decided to wear black in protest. In Nigeria as well, there are many persons who are in a state of mourning at this moment, just because George Bush has been re-elected President of the United States. A friend called me as the outcome began to look certain. He lamented: "This is a tragedy. Another four years of George Bush and the Republicans is a tragedy for the world." Well, is it? At the US embassy-the-morning-after event, one contributor to the discussion, ignored the evidence of the exit polls and told his audience: "as far as I am concerned, the next President of the United States is the man from Massachusetts." He was hailed. Well, how far is he concerned? And then he added a bit of typical Nigerian logic: "Bush is President, his father had been President before, his brother is a Governor, does America belong to the Bushes? George Bush should go out of the White House and go into the bush". Again, the people applauded. On Wednesday, Nov. 3, the Vanguard newspaper published a piece of pure fiction on its front page when it announced: "Kerry leads in early election result". Nothing compares in the catalogue of reactions to the statement posted on CNN, from Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, former Nigerian Foreign Minister, who more or less accused Americans of being stupid for voting for Bush, insinuating that they have made their stupid choice out of fear and insecurity.
But contrary to expectations, the doomsday predictions of the analysts, and the rabid emotionalism of the international community, the 2004 US Presidential elections ended peacefully, and there is no civil war across America. In the end, what we have seen is that this is not an election about other people, but about America and its people, and the significance of numbers. Americans have spoken; they were given an opportunity to make a choice and they have made their choice. Senator John Kerry struck the right chord about the American spirit when in his concession speech, he said, "in an American election, there are no losers, because whether or not our candidates are successful, the next morning we all wake up as Americans". This is a lesson that many emerging democracies, especially in Africa have not learnt. In this election, one major lesson is that America is greater than individual ambitions. Americans love democracy. They love their country more. And democracy is the soul of America. John Kerry had to throw in the towel out of respect for the American system and the will of the majority.
The moment he realised that a continued insistence on the alleged 250, 000 provisional votes in Ohio being counted would make no difference to the outcome, he and his team opted to save America the agony of needless litigation and embarrassment. They acted like patriots. If there was any thing that was important to Americans in the 2004 Presidential elections, it was the need to prevent the debacle of 2000. In Florida, every effort was made to ensure that it would not be the battleground of 2004. When the focus shifted to Ohio, the Ohio Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell repeatedly assured the world that the system in the state of Ohio is strong enough to prevent any damage to the American collective spirit. The election is over, and yet there are no thugs on the streets of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, California and Oregon translating their opposition to Bush into election violence. Americans have woken up after the elections, and they are moving on with their lives. They are ready to live with the outcome of the process. They are able to do this because the American system works. It is a system that recognizes the rights of the individual and respects your right to make a choice. There are many lessons here for non-Americans, especially Nigerians. If that election had been a Nigerian election, by now, there would be all kinds of allegations. If Kerry were a Nigerian, he would not have thrown in the towel. He would insist on putting up a fight even when that is needless. His kinsmen in Massachusetts would protest about marginalization and threaten to pull down the entire country.
What is clear is that to have a successful democracy, and a system that works, the people must love their country. In the 2004 US Presidential election, the people demonstrated a passion for democracy. Voter turn-out was over 85 per cent in many precincts, and on the whole over 110 million persons of voting age turned out in spite of the weather and other personal commitments to be part of the electoral process. It is perhaps the most keenly contested election in recent American history. Civil society organisations, various categories of volunteers and even school children went from house to house campaigning for their candidates. They took the campaign away from the candidates because they saw a connection between the choice that is eventually made and their own future. This is important for democracy. Besides, if the American election had ended differently in yet another tussle as in 2000, that would have dealt a blow to democracy. Other countries with their cynical, anti-Republican populations, would have taken that as evidence of the unreliability of democracy. America is the strongest democracy in the world; with the 2004 Presidential elections, it has re-affirmed belief in the supremacy of the democratic process, and America's status as the world's premium power.
It was nevertheless a tough election which played up the divisions in the American society. But there is no civil war because those divisions are not as straightforward as they are in other countries. It is perhaps only in 11 states that the people chose to vote strongly against same-sex marriage and in favour of the Republican party. Otherwise, for the most part, the divisions cut across all the groups. Blacks voted overwhelmingly for the Democrats, producing a black Senator, Barrack Osama from Illinois, but there are black Republicans as well. Latinos and Catholics voted across the divide. While gays, abortionists, those in support of stem cell research, legalizing marijuana and liberalism as an ideology voted for the Democrats, evangelical Christians and neo-conservatives backed George Bush. Nobody is fighting over religion and ethnicity, because the American election is not marked by monolithic support. I am struck by the fact that all things considered, the American election has ended as a vote for the soul of America, and individual choices.
The key issue at the end of the day is about the kind of America that the people have chosen. There is hunger and poverty and unemployment in America and the Bush administration has mismanaged the economy, indeed many Americans believe that John Kerry would do well in managing the economy, but the majority voted for the vision of America projected by George W Bush and the Republicans. The 2004 US Presidential election was a vote about moral values and a triumph for the right-wing, conservative coalition. A people must be able to decide the kind of country that they want with the power of their ballots. The Republicans not only won the Presidency, they got the majority representation in Senate and Congress, and won most of the available Governorship positions. In the immediate future, the Democrats would have to do a lot of soul-searching. They have to take a second look at their message to the American community. It is true that the Presidential election overshadowed all the other elections, but this should not be surprising. The American Presidency is the symbol of American democracy.
Now, that President George Bush has won a second term, he must be so relieved. The election was so closely competitive, it could have gone the other way. But the result is that George Bush has made history. He is the first American President in a long while to win both the popular and electoral votes. Those who predicted a repeat of the situations of 1814, 1818 and 2000, are the same analysts now admitting that the 2004 elections amount to the true making of George Bush as a president. In 2000, his victory was awarded by lawyers and judges. In 2004, he has won a clear mandate of the people. In the whole of America, only one important man does not think so.
His name is Senator Alan Spectler, but he talks in vain. Americans have voted for George Bush because with him, they know where they stand. Bush is an arrogant, moral absolutist who does not mince words, and who is infinitely aware of his powers as the Commander-in-Chief of the United States, and the place of America in geo-politics. He is, in addition, the nice guy with whom anyone can share a beer. Kerry is more class-conscious, more articulate and brilliant, even taller, but with John Kerry, the majority of the people do not know where they stand, and hence they have given their majority to George Bush. This is a major psychological gift not only to George Bush but to the entire Bush family. Gorge Bush, the son has succeeded where his father, George Bush Snr failed by winning a second term.
It is therefore reassuring that he has spoken of his own humility in his moment of victory. Even when he had a shaky mandate, Bush carried on with so much arrogance. In his second term, he must respect his own promise to unite a divided country and lift the American spirit. The objection to his second term outside America shows how radically he had personally alienated the rest of the world. His second administration must come up with a grand design for re-engaging the world constructively especially America's traditional allies. Iraq, the Middle East, Africa, North Korea and Latin America must constitute the core of this process of constructive engagement. Bush needs a new style and a new team. In his second term, he must focus more on policy rather than politics. The African continent is not expecting much from him, but even if Kerry had won, not much would have changed, beyond personal style. This is what the anti-Bush group in Africa has failed to realise.
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