{"id":7442,"date":"2015-04-08T15:35:18","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T15:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africaresearchinstitute.org\/wordpress\/?p=7442"},"modified":"2016-03-01T16:21:39","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T16:21:39","slug":"nigeria-what-sort-of-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/africaresearchinstitute.org\/wordpress\/nigeria-what-sort-of-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria: What Sort Of Change?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Father Anselm Adodo, from the Benedictine monastery at Ewu, Edo State, reflects on conversations and observations during his stint as an official election monitor.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Anselm was a key collaborator on ARI’s publication<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>\u201cModern African Remedies: Herbal Medicine and Community Development in Nigeria\u201d<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What motived thousands of men and women in their 60s, 70s and 80s in the rural communities of Edo State \u2013 and many parts of Nigeria \u2013 to defy the scorching heat and stress of standing for long hours just to cast a vote? What difference do they expect a vote to make? Why do they think their vote will count this time, having witnessed so much election rigging and manipulation in the past? These were questions I posed to locals as I visited polling stations around Ewu, where I have lived for 30 years. A pregnant woman was groaning in what seemed to be labour pain, and there was a general agreement to let her jump the long queue so that she could cast her vote before being taken to the maternity centre, which is some 20 minutes\u2019 drive away. Scores of old men and women in their 70s and 80s steadfastly refused to go home, despite their exhaustion, and waited till 7pm to ensure that their votes were counted. Was this a revolution?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want change\u201d, said a group of about twenty men and women I spoke to in one polling station. \u201cChange from what?\u201d I asked. \u00a0\u201cThings are not going well for us and our children,\u201d they replied, \u201cand we want a change!\u201d These people may not have known how to articulate what change is, but they surely know what they want.\u00a0 As I observed the paradox of these old men, women and youth clinging \u2013 every one of them \u2013 to their cell phones, that symbol of globalisation and the power of the social media, I reflected on the assumptions of what change means for people in the \u2018peripheries\u2019.<\/p>\n