We’re supporting peaceful elections, says Rice

Mrs. Patience Jonathan

The United States’ National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, has reiterated her country’s commitment to ensuring peaceful and credible polls in Nigeria.

Her pledge is coming as Nigerians prepare for the presidential poll on Saturday.

President Goodluck Jonathan, the Peoples Democratic Party standard-bearer, and his All Progressives Congress counterpart, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd), are the leading candidates in the race for Aso Rock.

In a tweet on Monday, Rice said the US is “supporting elections that are free, fair and peaceful,” while calling on Nigerians and other interested groups to watch President Barack Obama’s video on the subject.

In a less-than-three- minutes video recording posted on YouTube, Obama had urged Nigerians to shun “violence,” describing the election as an historic moment to write the next chapter of the country’s progress.

“When elections are free and fair, it is the responsibility of all citizens to help keep the peace, no matter who wins. Nigeria is a great nation and you can be proud of the progress you have made.

“Together, you won your independence, emerged from military rule, and strengthened democratic institutions. You have strived to overcome division and to turn Nigeria’s diversity into a source of strength,” Obama said.

However, some observers have questioned the US intention towards a free and fair election.

Responding to Rice’s tweet, one Samir Nassar, a Berlin, Germany-based self-confessed security expert, said he doubted if the US would accept a free and fair election where its preferred candidate loses.

Nassar, who did not also question the US desire for a peaceful exercise, however, noted that it only considered polls that favoured its candidates as credible.

According to him, history is full of incidents where the US kicked against a credible election where its candidate lost.

But another respondent, Tarrit Gupta, said it was up to Nigerians to decide what they wanted during the polls. Though not sounding too optimistic about Nigeria’s readiness for a credible poll, he stressed that a peaceful atmosphere was achievable in the country.

Gupta said it was difficult to achieve credible elections in a highly-corrupt environment.

Meanwhile, foreign social media enthusiasts may also have given the world something to ‘chew’ about Nigeria.

On Monday, they took what has become a social media practice to an extreme when they announced the death of a renowned author, Chinua Achebe, two years after his burial.

The “mischief” came to the fore when social media users once again reported the death of the literary icon, wishing him eternal rest.

Little wonder, Twitter users shared their thoughts on the life of the celebrated novelist.

The tweets made the front page of the Hacker News and many other online media. On different social networking channels, Achebe’s photographs, tributes and R.I.P post went viral.

Nobody is sure what triggered the ‘resurrection’ of Achebe on social media. But analysts said a tweeter referred to a New York Times obituary of 2013 without updating the information.

Recently, a post announcing that Apple had bought a transport mapping blog, HopStop.com, founded by a Nigerian, Chinedu Echeruo, hoodwinked dozens of Nigerians.

The $1bn transaction sealed in 2013 went viral on local blogs as news.

Nieman Journalism Lab, wrote on Tuesday, “Given the speed at which we acquire information, we often have very little time to pass through it all. So more often than not, we use social media as a filter.

“If our friends post something, we are more likely to believe it to be true. But then, we feel the need to react to it as well, whether or not it is relevant to us.”