The current global concern for Nigeria’s political growth has continued to call for a review of the nation’s , electoral system with its political culture. This was a major focus of Obama Administration during Acting President Goodluck Jonathan’s (now president) visit to Washington D C few weeks ago.

During a meeting with the United States Council of Foreign Relations, President Goodluck Jonathan promised to clean up the nation’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and to put credible people there who would raise the stake for a free and fair election in Nigeria.

This seemed fair and laudable indeed. But as experience has shown, it is one thing to declare an avowed intention for free and fair election and another to bring it to reality. One major constraint that has over the years continued to hinder our electoral system and success with democracy is our parochial or minimal political culture.

Anthropologists have identified three segments of a nation’s culture, namely behaviour patterns, artifacts and belief system. It is from these clusters of beliefs, attitudes and opinions that a nation’s political culture emerged. This is because political decisions are not made in a vacuum. They are made within the context of institutional arrangement that reflects the societal values, attitudes and political mores.

Political scientists look at it as shared  values, attitudes, belie political institutions. The characteristics of a particular political culture are important variables in helping to answer some fundamental question about behaviour that leads to stability or instability of a country.

If we consider Machiavelli’s view of political culture and conduct of election and Mostesquieu’s conditions for democracy, we may raise a brow against Nigeria’s quest for a free and fair election. Machiavelli

believed that to have a sound political culture, the actual conduct of politics and the “moral habits” of citizens must coincide with the norms of behaviour prescribed by state’s constitution.

The 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria provides such condition. Embedded in it are: It universal Suffrage, representative government through competitive political party system, a presidential form of government based on the principles of separation of powers and checks and balances, to mention a few. All stable and successful democracies depend on these

But it is not enough to have these features in our constitution. Montesquieu provides a link between the constitution and value system. Looking at a democratic society, he concluded that its main features may not lie in any neat institutional arrangement but in the spirit or intention behind them, not in the laws but in the spirit of the laws.

By implication, the political parties which organise millions of citizens in terms of shared values, common identities and overlapping interests are the fulcrum for expressions of nation’s political will and for exercising this “spirit of the laws” They stimulate interest in politics and educate the public and the uninitiated about outstanding problems which require solutions. They crystallise opinion and create consensus and will that are the basis for conducting an election that should reflect the spirit behind the constitution.

But it is there that the good story often ends, When the party banners are carried into the political combat of election, it becomes a theatre of the absurd. The repetitive patterns of electoral violence, rigging, falsification of popular vote and disenfranchisement breathe hatred and alienation into the political arena.

This is further compounded by PDP’s dominance of our political party system, even though our constitution has no provision for one party state. This has gradually developed into a warped version of authoritarian democracy in which PDP has become intolerance of opposing opinions of other parties. It was worse during Obasanjo regime. Was it not then that we began to hear of do or die politics, a view of politics that disregarded the “general will” and constitutional provision?

What are the effects of this on our political culture? First, it has kept it on a cross road between subjective and parochial .Winning an election becomes a question of using corrupt method to deliver votes to the dominant or incumbent party. Secondly, citizens maintain passive relationship to the system because their votes don’t count. It cannot count when thugs unleash terror at voting centers, cart away ballot boxes and stuff them with fake voting cards. This keeps people from developing the right political attitudes and role that will make them loyal and patriotic.

I usually leave polling booth not in high spirit but in a state of shock or morbid gloom because like most voters I am powerless to exert any real influence in politics. I have been unable to determine who should rule me. Every election in Nigeria has been characterised by similar experiences: Is the procedure for transferring power from one government to another right?

Certainly, President Obama and members of his Council of Foreign Relations might have contemplated similar question. It was good that Acting President Goodluck Jonathan promised them an electoral reform that would swing Nigeria to the positive side of a true democracy.

Mr. Goodluck Jonathan has a lot more to do to guarantee that. Nigerians need a political transformation that will shift our political culture from its narrowness to an active and broad culture where voters would no longer be bullied out of the polling centers. We need a political culture in which people will see politicians working not for selfish or parochial interest but for the public good. We need a political culture that will help us develop the right political attitude and role for loyalty and patriotism. These will raise our political behaviour above the prevailing rigging, chaos, uncertainty and violence that raise global concern about our political culture.          

Otonna rides in Port Harcourt.

Victor Otonna