SUNDAY SERMON: Elections in Nigeria — Shall We Continue in Sin, That Grace May Abound?

By Tony Okafor

“Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.”

That question from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans could as well be directed at Nigeria’s electoral journey.

Since independence in 1960, one would have expected the country’s electoral system to grow stronger, freer and more credible with each passing decade. Unfortunately, the opposite often appears to be the case.

Rather than perfecting the art of allowing the people to freely choose their leaders, we seem to be perfecting increasingly clever ways of subverting their will.

Every election cycle comes with a new vocabulary of manipulation: ballot-box snatching, vote-buying, voter intimidation, result manipulation, violence, “glitches”, compromised electoral officials, security agencies allegedly deployed selectively, and the now familiar phenomenon of results that appear to have been determined long before voters arrive at the polling unit.

Even ward and local government elections, which should be the purest expression of grassroots democracy, have increasingly become theatres of democratic absurdity.

In some circumstances, citizens do not even know where elections are taking place, let alone have any meaningful opportunity to participate in choosing those who will govern them. Yet, afterwards, results are announced and “winners” emerge — sometimes people the electorate scarcely saw, heard or voted for.

Worse still is the growing suspicion that some of these so-called elections are written in the comfort of hotel rooms by modern-day emperors, whose contempt for the people may be no less troubling than that of the colonial imperialists who once ruled over us.

The consequences are everywhere: political apathy, voter discouragement, violence, corruption, poor leadership and a dangerous erosion of faith in democracy itself.

When citizens repeatedly discover that their votes do not determine electoral outcomes, why should they endure the inconvenience — or risk the danger — of voting?

This is the fundamental question Nigeria must confront.

The country cannot continue to call itself a democracy merely because elections are held periodically. Democracy is not the ritual of printing ballot papers, opening polling units and announcing results. It is the solemn covenant that the people shall freely choose those who govern them and that their choice shall be respected.

And this is where St. Paul’s question becomes particularly instructive: “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?”

Nigeria cannot continue to abuse the electoral process and expect democracy to flourish as though nothing is wrong. We cannot repeatedly subvert the people’s will and then invoke democracy whenever it suits us.

We must therefore ask ourselves: Shall we continue in this sin, hoping that democracy’s grace will somehow abound? God forbid.

A nation cannot build a just future on stolen mandates. If Nigeria must move forward, the sanctity of the people’s vote must become non-negotiable — from the ward to the presidency.

The choice before us is therefore clear: either we strengthen the institutions and practices that guarantee that every legitimate vote counts, or we continue down a path where elections become mere rituals for legitimising predetermined outcomes.

Otherwise, we are not advancing democracy.
We are merely perfecting the machinery for its burial.