The recent presidential election in Nigeria is causing a whole lot of rumpuses, surprisingly not so much among the political gladiators but among the supporters/opponents. It is like people are mourning for losing an election. There are so many emotions/sentiments flying around such that common sense has to take the back seat. No matter how objective you tried to be in analyzing the election result, people still try to read meanings into it. I have had to be called every name under the sun except being called the son of God! I have been referred to, in a Christian forum, as “not only immoral but satanic” because of the (wrongful) perception that I am an APC supporter. I heard such a rhetoric as: “How can a right-thinking Nigerian Christian be supporting a Muslim/Muslim presidency?” And that I was only supporting this because I value my tribal considerations at the expense of the kingdom consideration. I have had to needlessly “defend” myself along the line of the contest not being a contest to gain entrance to the kingdom of God but a struggle for power between political gladiators whose interests align more than the rest of us, the internet warriors in the diaspora, who do not even have the right to vote.
I know that each profession would have its own jargon to describe the electoral conundrum. The political scientists might go along the line of might being right (Machiavelli’s The Prince on my mind.) The legal luminaries would think along the line of rule of law (go to court.) As a psychotherapist, my thought pattern is along the line of the renowned psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ Stages of Grief. The idea being that there are stages of grief when one suffered a loss. The loss that Kubler-Ross was referring to was about death. However, one can suffer losses that are different from dying. Like in the recent presidential election in Nigeria. When one’s hope is raised too high and it did not come out as expected, one can apply the stages of grief as identified by Kubler-Ross. These stages include denial, (I don’t believe he lost) anger, (I am so angry he lost) Bargaining (I am hoping something would be done to change the result) depression (I feel hopeless that things are not going my way) and acceptance (I can go on with my life and deal with the situation.) I am not sure how long it is going to take individuals to reach the acceptance stage. Hopefully by the time Tinubu’s nomenclature changes from president-elect to Mr. President!
The fact is, it looks like the Obedients seem to be more in denial by the loss than any other group. The hope raised by the different coalitions: youth, the Christians and any other person looking for a change. Much of what did not even help the matter in coping with the loss are the multiple “prophetic declarations” as espoused by the self-anointed prophets. It is hard. It is especially hard for most Nigerians who traditionally believe that religious beliefs are enough to solve every problem rather than taking practical steps. It might take a while to get out of the denial stage of mourning the loss.
There are not enough words, and if there are, they would not be enough to describe the palpable anger by the supporters of those who lost the elections. Again, the anger (justifiable or not) has to do with the raised hope that seems to have come crashing down. Not many people care to analyze the real reasons why they lost besides the conjecture that the election result was rigged. We conveniently seem to forget that the flagbearers of the PDP, LP and NNDP belong to the same umbrella body shortly before the primaries. While each of them believes that it would win, APC appeared to be strategizing on the constitutional requirement of gaining a quarter of the vote in at least two-thirds of the states believing that if that happens, it may gain the plurality of the votes. And it came to pass. As Governor Wike of Rivers state correctly stated, Peter Obi’s LP did more damage to Atiku than Tinubu’s APC.
The bargaining stage of the stages of grief is in building the hope that something would happen to change the result. Even TV analysts are talking about the need to win in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, before you could be declared the winner. The election losers are in court to proof this along the line of the elections being rigged. Now, the hope has shifted from the field to the court and the prophets too, continue to state (or wish) that it is not over yet. Another loss in the court would lead to starting the grieving process all over.
The most calamitous stage appears to be the depressive stage where people resort to having seemingly weird feelings: continuous low mood or sadness, hopeless and helpless, irritable, and intolerant of other people’s views and others. The depression occasioned by losing an election, I believe, should be easier to overcome compared with the symptoms being a result of mental illness. Before we know it, another election cycle is here which should give one the hope to have something to work on before then.
Acceptance, being the last stage of the stages of grief, is long drawn. Even after the swearing of the winner, some people would still not accept but they would be in the minority. There are hardly any large democratic countries even where the institutions are strong that there would not be complaints or skirmishes here and there. Former President Donald Trump of the United States continues to talk more about the 2020 presidential election than his low-key 2024 campaign.
Power, political power is alluring, no one wants to lose it especially for the lucre that comes with it. We should continue to build on our crude democracy until we get to where we need to be. We do not have to needlessly subject ourselves to too much grief for not winning an election. There are more important things in life that should cause us to grieve more than our candidates not winning an election.
Jide Omotinugbon, Psychotherapist, Louisville, KY USA
Jideo18@yahoo.com
