Young students of Imota Community Junior School on Friday, February 10, 2017, taught Nigerian politicians, and adult electorate, how to conduct a clean, free and fair election, shaming a nation that has for decades been unable to experience a credible democratic election.
Like the small ant, which the Christian bible commands human beings to emulate and to learn a lot from, students of this junior high school in Imota, whose ages range between nine (9) and thirteen (13), in less than ten days demonstrated and execute a the full electoral process as is presently obtainable in the Nigerian polity.
Using the Nigerian model to choose the school’s students’ president for 2017, these youngsters went through the process of political education and sensitization before proceeding with the election. They formed political parties and delineated the wards and constituencies before they conducted the various party primaries within the four political parties registered by an ‘INEC’.
They picked a day for campaign, during which the four presidential candidates, drawn from the geopolitical zones of this country, addressed the electorate and sold their party programmes.
The election proper adopted the formal provision of electoral materials by the Independent Students Electoral Commission (ISEC), which included transparent ballot boxes, the ballot papers, accreditation sheets, results sheets, registration of party agents, and observers from neighbouring schools, and outside observers.
Security agents were provided to ensure orderly election and to ward off any intruder, just as an emergency radio station was established with a powerful female broadcaster, who doubled as a field reporter, monitoring and reporting the elections, as well as a studio presenter, interviewing political analysts and other stakeholders. The beautiful, airy and cozy classrooms were the polling booths, each of which had an electoral officer and party agents present, while the students constituted the electorate in the wards and constituencies.
Results of the election were instantly announced at each ward by the electoral/returning officer heralded by applause for the winner. In the different classrooms, the results were popping up like a champagne bottle pork and the radio commentator, with her mobile microphone, picked out every development, climaxing in the collation of results at the ISEC headquarters, the assembly of all the students and their teachers, and an announcement of the final results by the lady, who was nicknamed the Jega of Imota Community Junior Grammar School (the Chief Electoral Officer).
The Christian bible urges humans with all our claims to wisdom, power, strength, resources, knowledge and education to go to the ants for serious lessons of life – to see how organized ants are, how committed they are to their work and life, how wise they are in providing for the rainy days, how they believe in unity of purpose, how they respect their leaders and how they practice division of labour, among other things. So, it was at Imota, on this day, that for about three hours, the 700 or more students of this school reproduced the entire electoral process in a most peaceful and orderly manner, which adult Nigerians have found difficult to practice over the decades since our independence.
They (the students)achieved two things on that single day – the practicalisation of their civic education and government social studies subjects, and their readiness to become the future credible politicians of this nation, who will not only educate their parents, friends and neighbours on the right way to practice democracy but also to become the future right leaders of this great country.
When the principal of this wonderful school, Mrs. Mary Ogundipe sent an impromptu invitation to Oriwu Sun through Mrs. Ada Adichie (Vice Principal, Academics) and Mrs. Arulogun, an Assistant Director of Education, for coverage of this event, we thought it was going to be a child’s play, the kind of election done in one single classroom or hall, where all the democratic elements are encapsulated in one single hour. We didn’t know that the school authorities, working through a pragmatic and dynamic teacher, Mr. Kazeem, who co-ordinated the entire election process, was ready to produce an experience and experiment worth exporting to all parts of this country and to all tiers of government to emulate.
Mr. ChumaAdichie, Deputy Editor in Chief, Oriwu Sun; Mr. Wale Kolawole, Assistant News Editor, and two trainee journalists – Mercy Thompson and Hameed Sanni, drove into this school compound at about 8.45a.m. We were amazed by the beauty of this village school, which is strategically located along the Itoikin – Ijebu Ode road, but well tucked away to allow for a serene academic environment.
A visitor needs not be told that the managers of the school love nature, neatness and are well organized. The lawns are well maintained; the roads and pathways are lined with flowers, and there are trees to create sheds and provide natural oxygen. The classrooms are simply good – well ventilated; the chairs, tables, desks, well arranged; the students’ population modest, (no over-crowding of the classrooms); the solar powered system very functional to provide electricity for about eight (8) to ten (10) hours each school day. We saw a school, where the teachers (not too many) in number are in unity and in love. The Principal, Mrs. Ogundipe, a pretty, pleasant and dedicated leader, and her two Vice Principals, Mr. Akalla and Mrs. Adichie, mobilized the school to exhibit this great model of an election.
The democratic election kicked off by 9:20am with the manifesto. All the students had been assembled in front of the principal’s office, where a soap box had been erected. Presidential candidates represented Great Minds Party, Liberation Party, Scholastic Party and Role Model Party. Each of the candidates – two female and two male – mounted the podium to address the electorate on their party’s manifesto. The two female contestants proved they are politicians of the future. The eventual winner of the election Sekinot showed a pure mastery of political language, confidence and ability to answer difficult questions diplomatically. She backed her talents with the ability to sing political songs and charismatic displays. Her manifesto drew a thunderous applause from the students.
Thereafter, a well laid out electoral procedure was followed. The electoral officers embarked on identification of each voter’s PVC (the voters’ card). Oriwu Sun leant that one fake voters’ card was discovered in one of the wards by a vigilant electoral officer. The electoral officers had shown the voters on the white marker boards, samples of a ballot paper, and had written out names of each of their parties (e.g G. for Great Minds Party).
Each of the four parties had deployed agents to witness the voting in each classroom. The electoral officer fixed permanent (indelible ink) on voters’ thumbs as is done in regular partisan elections. Then the electoral officers educated the voters on the proper way to thumb print on the ballot paper, and how to drop the ballot paper into the ballot box. By 11a.m., the electoral officers had started sorting the votes and counting them in each ward/constituency, witnessed by party agents. The year tutor had the responsibility of collating the results in the streams and announcing the winners. By 11:25a.m., the Principal and the Jega of the Election (Chief Electoral Officer), (see box), assembled the entire school in front of the Lagos State Education Board’s solar plant to declare the final winner.
The Electoral umpire, surrounded by other electoral officers, teachers and staff of the school, spoke on the process, which produced this masterpiece of an election and the openness/transparency of the exercise. The Principal of the school, also in her remarks, spoke on the decision of the school to make practical what the students learn in their various subjects. For them to experience the whole process live is like a physics/chemistry or biology students in a laboratory, experimenting on something practically.
Such knowledge and experience are not easy to be forgotten. The students are expected to carry home what they learnt and practiced to their parents, neighours, friends, etc. to educate them the more that elections can be free and fair in Nigeria and that they Nigerians should not be bribed because “Your vote is your voice.”
Miss Sekinot declared as the winner of the election drew an explosive ovation in the arena.
In her acceptance/victory speech, she pledged to fulfil her electoral promises to the students. Oriwu Sun spoke to the key players on the sidelines of the election.