Former President Goodluck Jonathan has raised fresh concerns about the conduct of elections in Nigeria, saying the country has normalized and even celebrated wrongdoing, especially during electoral processes.
Speaking on election integrity and democratic growth, Jonathan said Nigeria must reach a point where bad behavior is rejected by the people, or the nation will continue to struggle with credible polls and effective governance.
“People don’t act badly because they lack knowledge. They act badly because society accepts and celebrates it,” he said.
Jonathan, who has been an election observer in several African countries, compared Nigeria’s chaotic election style to simpler and more effective systems in countries like Botswana and Senegal.
In Botswana, he said, the military is not involved in managing elections. Instead, they take over normal police duties while the police focus fully on the election process.
In Senegal, Jonathan described a voting system where voters pick a single ballot paper from a table
with options, go into a booth, make their choice, and discard the rest—with no police inside the polling area.
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“You don’t even see police while voting is going on. They stay outside the gates unless there’s a problem,” Jonathan explained.
The former president expressed disappointment that despite Nigeria’s investment in election technology, the country still faces serious credibility issues during elections.
He also criticized the role of university professors and NYSC members during elections, accusing some of them of deliberately manipulating results after the youth corps members submit honest field reports.
“What kind of message are we sending to young Nigerians when professors—those who just graduated them—turn around and falsify election results?” he asked.
Jonathan stressed that unless citizens stop accepting and celebrating bad behavior, nothing will change.
“The day Nigerians say ‘we will no longer accept the wrong thing,’ that’s when politicians will start behaving properly,” he said.
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Ending on a reflective note, Jonathan suggested that Nigeria might one day build monuments to name and shame leaders who contributed to the nation’s decline.
“Maybe one day, we’ll have buildings in Abuja with pictures of people who messed up this country, so their grandchildren will know what they did,” he added.
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