The Opportunity Cost of Elections

Saturday, 5 February 2023 is a big deal. Across the country, eligible voters will have the chance to go to the polls and fulfill their civic duty by voting for the presidential candidate of their choice.

One thing that intrigues me about the forthcoming election and politics in general is how the electorates are so convinced that their preferred candidate is the best of the lot. This conviction makes them believe the person supporting another candidate or party is wrong.

Over the past few months—typical of an electioneering period—Nigerians have been divided along political lines. This, of course, is in addition to the ethnic and religious polarisations that have continued to pose a huge threat to the nation’s unity. Nigerians have pitched their tent with the presidential candidate and political party whom they feel would rescue the nation from sinking further into an abyss.

From all indications, there is no love lost among the supporters of each of the candidates as they do not fail to clamp down on one another on social media at the slightest provocation. To each camp, anybody who supports another candidate other than theirs is an enemy of Nigeria, and they unhesitatingly unleash ‘vawulence’—the new Nigerian jargon for violence—on the person.

The attacks on Sam Omatseye, editor of The Nation, over his essay titled ‘Obi-tuary’ by the supporters of the Labour Party’s presidential candidate who felt the essay was aimed at demarketing their preferred candidate readily comes to mind. Investigative journalist, David Hundeyin, also faced similar attacks for his piece, ‘Bola Ahmed Tinubu: From Drug Lord to Presidential Candidate’ by the die-hard supporters of the All Progressives Congress’s presidential candidate who were offended by the portrayal of their candidate as a surreptitious drug baron.

Just recently, Joke Silva, a thespian, was ridiculed for participating in a women’s rally in Lagos State in support of the second coming of the ruling party. Even some presidential candidates of the not-so-popular political parties are consistently being lobbied to withdraw from the race and support a ‘bigger’ candidate and party with ‘structures’ by the supporters of that particular candidate.

Since Nigeria practices a democratic system of government—though the democracy is more theoretical than a praxis—and freedom of choice is one of the cardinal principles of democracy, it is somewhat baffling how some people impose their choice of candidates on others, with utter disregard for the others’ choices. Whether they feel one is incapable of making one’s own choices, and therefore, some sort of political evangelism is needed to bring one out of darkness (supporting a rival candidate) to the light (supporting their own candidate) is what I find elusive.

I had earlier stated that the day of the presidential election—the last Saturday of February 2023—is a big deal. And the reason is not far-fetched. It is the day we can stand by our convictions, fight for the betterment of our country, and build a better future. It is a day we vote to affirm the value of democracy, which in all ramifications, is a very big deal.

And whoever we choose to vote for on that day requires foregoing alternative choices. In economics, this is called opportunity cost— defined as the potential loss from a missed opportunity; the result of choosing one alternative and foregoing another.

There are 18 registered political parties, and by extension, 18 presidential candidates for the next presidential election. The implication being that since it is ‘one man, one vote’, the electorates would have to make a choice: vote for one out of the 18 candidates vying for the office of the presidency.

Given the chequered history of Nigerian politics and the failures of successive governments to resuscitate the Nigerian economy since independence, suffice to say that we cannot be certain that our respective candidates would be committed to the project of rebuilding Nigeria. Politics in Nigeria is essentially a criminal enterprise. Voting on the election day, therefore, entails choosing a criminal, among the choices we have, whom we can put up with.

This is why I am amused by the squabbles over the presidential candidates, particularly the top three contenders: Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party. No matter how hard their supporters try to sell them to the public, no matter how palatable they try to present their candidates’ agendas, no matter how many groundbreaking rallies their supporters hold for them, the candidates remain rival criminal gangs who are seeking to get control of the nation’s coffers.

And in their quest to actualise this, the candidates have been intensifying their romance with the electorates with each passing day. It’s all a game. A dirty game in which the most honey-mouthed wins.

So, when we go to the polls on 25 February 2023, against the backdrop of this critical moment of economic doom and gloom, we are not voting for the perfect candidate or a saint, we are voting for a lesser evil. To me, this truth should make us more accommodating of the choices of others, which differs from ours, rather than bully them.

The 2023 presidential election is being touted as an important opportunity for a change in trajectory, owing to the aimless drift of the Nigerian state under the present administration.  I, therefore, sincerely hope that the ‘lesser evil’ we would choose to pilot the affairs of this nation would bring succour to us. I hope we analyse the opportunity cost of our votes carefully and make an informed choice that we won’t live to regret in a few years—just like most of us are regretting our choices in 2015.

Ultimately, we cannot afford the cost of not voting. For this reason, if you are exasperated about how the country has been run for over seven years, ask yourself where you were on 28 March 2015. Then ask where you will be on 25 February 2023 to do something about it.

 

Ezinwanne may be reached via ezinwanne.dominion@gmail.com

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