It’s Boris’ Britain

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson led Tories to a stomping victory in the country’s general election on Thursday, last week – an electoral win that handed him a blank cheque he badly needed to push through with Brexit by January 31, next year.

The Conservative Party netted 365 seats in the 650-member parliament, harvesting 47 more than it went into the poll with. The outcome is said to be the party’s biggest showing in Westminster since Margaret Thatcher’s electoral gale in 1987, and a pole vault from its fortunes in the 2017 snap election called by former Prime Minister Theresa May, in which the party lost the narrow parliamentary majority it had won under David Cameron in 2015 and was forced to court support by 10 Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) members of the House of Commons to govern.

Opposition Labour Party barely survived with 203 parliamentary seats in the latest poll – a rout that saw the party losing 59 of the seats it went into the election with and reportedly its worst since 1935. In 2017, Labour had gained traction with voters by winning 32 additional seats over the scoreline thrown up by the 2015 poll. But things were so bad for the party in last week’s election that it was dislodged from its traditional strongholds – some of those, voting Conservative MPs for the first time in decades and a few others for the first time ever.

The outcome of last week’s election in the United Kingdom was strongly influenced by Brexit – a decision the country took by a slim edge of 52 percent ‘Leave’ over 48 percent ‘Remain’ in a 2016 referendum.

Although there were personality issues about Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, the party’s drubbing is perceived to have resulted from its equivocation over how Britain should proceed in its ties with the European Union. While it did not formally espouse ‘Remain,’ Corbyn had foot-shuffled on where the party stood and vowed to upturn the January Brexit schedule; he also proposed calling a fresh referendum on whether there should indeed be Brexit. Speaking after he won his own parliamentary seat with a demeaned majority, Corbyn said Labour offered voters a “manifesto of hope” but Brexit overrode “so much of normal political debate.”

On the other hand, besides the big gains made by the Conservatives whose charge Prime Minister Johnson led with the slogan of getting Brexit done, the Scottish National Party (SNP) whose base, Scotland, had voted 62 percent ‘Remain’ against 38 percent ‘Leave’ in the 2016 referendum crested with 48 seats last week – a gain of 13 extra seats over its harvest from the 2017 election. Speaking on this latest outcome, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon said it was “a very clear message” Johnson did not have a mandate to take Scotland out of the EU.

General elections are typically held every four to five years in Britain though the parliament can approve a snap poll whenever the occasion warrants. The election last Thursday was the third within five years, and it was at the instance of the prime minister. With the previous parliament frustrating his strong-headed agenda to deliver Brexit, he had taken the gamble to seek a fresh mandate from British voters – calculating that he could swing over to Tories pro-Brexit voters who traditionally supported Labour. As results streamed in after the close of poll last week, it became evident that Johnson’s gamble paid off. He emerged with a mandate strong enough to subdue any opposition; and barring unforeseen upsets, he now has the political muscle to take his country out of the EU next month. Following the election last week, he told British voters: “We will get Brexit done on time by 31 January – no ifs, no buts, not maybe.”

The beauty of the British election was the evident sovereignty of voters. Boris Johnson rode on a prevalent national inclination in his country towards Brexit and widespread frustration with the gridlock that had played out over the past year to arrowhead the Conservatives’ new sweepstake in power. Not that his candidature wasn’t without encumbrances. But British voters had a bottom line and they went for it with their votes; and they got the overall result they wanted. (Note: Britons do not vote directly on the office of the prime minister, but rather on candidates to represent their local districts. It is the leader of the party with the highest number of constituency seats who assumes the mandate of premier.)

A moral for us in Nigeria is that the outcome of the British poll was facilitated – not only by the integrity of the electoral management, but also by the temperance of political gladiators. Electioneering ahead of the poll was totally issue-based. And victory was not ‘do or die’ for the contenders. For instance, Jo Swinson led the Liberal Democrats (Lib Dems) into the poll only to lose her own constituency seat to the SNP, and even before the final tally was called she had relinquished the party leadership to interim leaders – no dueling, no sabre-rattling. Labour’s Corbyn who won his constituency seat as by the skin of the teeth said he would not lead the party into another election, though he will stay on for a period of reflection on the overall outcome.

‘A moral for us…is that the outcome of the British poll was facilitated – not only by the integrity of the electoral management, but also by the temperance of political gladiators’

Also instructive was that despite the general election being the third within five years, besides that it held in the thick of winter, British electors did not show voter fatigue going by queues recorded at many polling centres. Voters on social media reported having to wait some while on queue before casting their ballots, with some saying it was the first time in decades they’d witnessed queuing at their voting booths.

Boris Johnson said it was a “new dawn” as he secured a very strong hand to fashion his country in line with his fancies. Yes, it is: it’s Boris’ Britain.

Once more, the reign of darkness

Nigerians were once again subjected to overwhelming blackout mid-last week as electricity workers under the aegis of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) downed tools over benefits dispute with the Federal Government.

The strike, which had been threatened would be indefinite, lasted barely 24 hours before it was called off following an “agreement reached between NUEE and representatives of government this morning (Wednesday, 11^th December) on all the issues in contention,” according to a statement by the union’s General Secretary, Joe Ajaero.

Government negotiators deserve some plaudits for breaking the impasse quite early and averting a prolonged strike. But with the industrial action having been preceded by a 21-day ultimatum from the workers, that it ever got activated again betrayed delayed reflex on the part of government. In other words, the deal struck with workers on the heels of the commencement of the industrial action could well have been sealed ahead of strike deadline to altogether forestall the action.

Worse, however, is that the electricity workers’ strike lost much of its impact to citizens’ indifference, which was occasioned by the fact that the disruptive effect of their action was only a very short stop from when they weren’t on strike. Regular electricity supply from the public grid has never been a service enjoyed by most Nigerians; and so when the workers pulled their services, you barely noticed the difference. Even after the strike was called off, most parts of this country remained for long in darkness resulting from a system collapse said to have been caused by the strike.

Steady electricity supply was one of the major promises made to Nigerians by the Muhammadu Buhari candidature in return for votes during the last electioneering campaign. Unless there is sustained improvement in electricity generation and transmission, and the distribution subsector is drastically reworked to achieve far greater level of efficiency than presently obtains, this promise will go markedly unfulfilled as the reign of darkness persists.