The global discursive space has taken over from the election management body and associated stakeholders in the event of Nigeria’s February 25th, 2023 Presidential election turning a classic of late Sierra Leonean president, Siaka Steven’s concept of quinquennial warfare – a war fought every other five years in the name of democracy.
The Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) is joining in the jaw jawing with what it calls “Special Postmortem Roundtable on the 2023 Elections in Nigeria”. What might be special about this postmortem?
Well, the promo circulated by NIIA suggests an answer in the resource person who will lead the session. He is Prof Adele Jinadu, described in the promo as Nigeria and Africa’s leading scholar of electoral administration and politics. There is also Prince Adewole Adebayo, the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) whose qualification might be that if there is anyone who can be called a ‘witness of truth’ in the competing interpretations of the conduct and outcome of the election, that must be him. Intervention’s speculation here is based strictly on what Adebayo told Arise TV a few days after the result of the presidential contest was announced.
Whatever the case, this is the event’s event, considering the caliber of scholars, experts, researchers, political players, security agents and media operatives that will constitute the audience. In other words, the NIIA and the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA) are showing the way in the possibility of creating a consensus based on clarification rather than breaking of heads and destructive criticism into which the aftermath of the election has, unfortunately, degenerated. So, far, almost every other participant goes in there as a combatant rather than a leader and moderator.
While that of the NPSA has three more sessions to round off on May 10th, 2023, the NIIA session is a one-off event taking place Thursday, April 13th, 2023 at the NIIA Lecture Théâtre in Lagos.
