To steal is criminal, to steal people's conscience  and their mandate is worse. In a civilised society, when the people have spoken, their voice should be heard. This is the essence of democracy; giving power to the people. Democracy is a government by the most popular candidate. It is the government chosen by the majority of qualified people in an area. When votes are being manipulated or fraud is being perpetrated to install unpopular candidate by a powerful minority, this is no more democracy. It is stealing and it is more heinous than theft.

In the Offa local government run-off election held on Saturday, August 31, 2013, the results of the wards clearly favoured All Progressives Congress with all wards but one in favour of APC candidate. Constitutionally, the result of the election is supposed to be announced by the Kwara State Independent Electoral Commission Returning Officer of the local government. But in a country like Nigeria where everything is possible, the Returning Officer escaped and an unknown man found his way to the state radio station to announce a contrary result.

Up till now, the disappeared Retuning Officer has not been sighted. This is contrary to the affidavit he swore to that he would be upright in the discharge of his duties. As a true Nigerian, his words ought to be his bond and he needs not fear any man in his discharge of his service to the nation. He ought to see this as an opportunity to move the country from its present predicament but unfortunately, he has helped in immersing the country in troubled waters. He has announced to the world that our democracy lacks integrity. These and many more are the implications of his selfish act.

A returning officer is required to be fearless, upright and bold, and consider national cause over and above selfish interest. He is like a soldier who goes to war to protect the dignity of this country. Anybody who fears human beings more than God cannot serve as a returning officer. Anybody who cherishes bribe or fear human threat more than due diligence cannot serve as returning officer and ought to reject the post.

For how long shall we continue to be in this wilderness? For how long shall we be patient before we get to the promised land? It is as if some people do not know that any sacrifice to put the country on the right path is not too much. As we try to find the right path to our destination, some bastards try to lead us astray. The efforts of all that have voted for their candidates have been reduced to nothing so much that it will be difficult to convince some of them in future elections.

According to Winston Churchill, "the greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes". So if the majority of people in an area are fools and they have foolishly but constitutionally chosen their representative against the wish of the wise minority, the wise minority should see it as one of the weaknesses of democracy and allow the wish of the majority fools to rule. There is no sense in ruling by force and it helps nobody to be in government against the wish of the majority. Nigeria is not moving forward despite its great potential because the right people are not in the right places.

Over 80 per cent of our youths are not engaged. We have over 17million housing deficits which means that majority of Nigerians are either homeless or living in sub-standard houses. We have never enjoyed 24 hours uninterrupted power supply. Our Universities' gates are perpetually under lock and key and our children under-fed in a country with abundant arable soil. We have oil but it has been our undoing; we would be better off without it. Our people are stark illiterates though they have passed through the four walls of a school. They cannot analyse their actions.

Do we say that the KWASIEC officer who has turned back the hand of the clock in Offa local government rerun election does not know the implications of his actions on democratic development of the nation? No. He knows the implication of his act, but he suffers from ‘poverty of the mind' and thinks he has this opportunity to become an affluent Nigerian. The government should be interested in this case and punish the culprit as a deterrent to others in his shoe. We will soon know whether his action is right or the people are right.

Olufemi Oyedele is a Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Osun State