THESE DEMOCRATIC TIMES ?

Alhaji's silver tooth was the first thing you noticed about him because he always seemed to be smiling and the smile put the silver tooth at the forefront of his regal face.

Alhaji was a northerner, it was difficult to ascertain what part of the north he came from but he looked like a Fulani man, he had a narrow arched nose, his handsomeness was bordering on beauty and he had the most evocative eyes, brown orbs that had seen things but would give nothing away, they were a deep shade of haunting brown that told you he was at once world wise and street smart.

His white whiskers suggested that he was in his late 50's, a tall man with springy physique and well cropped hair that showed he was moving into the later years of his life with good grace albeit in relative poverty -  his babariga was dirty and smelled of living in, sweat and indicated a disregard/absence for and of hygiene.

He was the first to arrive at the polling unit, arriving just as the bus dropped your team at the unit, he hastily put together chairs for the polling officials to speed up the election process, secured tables from a nearby shop for the placement of election materials and then proceeded to stand at the front of the queue. Election day, let's go.

As the elections continued, he did not go home, not even after casting his votes, instead he roamed the streets looking for Adamu Kano the local shoeshine man, Mustapha Yahaya the carrot seller, Aminu Balewa the water keg dealer and many others. He would later find them and  bring them to the polling unit to perform their civic duty.

When they asked questions, he slowly explained to them in his indigenous language showing them how to vote, making gesticulations with his thumb and voting on an imaginary ballot paper all the while explaining the nuances of the process to them.

Alhaji would take them to the several voting points to find where they are registered to vote and stayed back when they went to cast their votes in the cubicle.

He did not stop, he kept bringing people till the election winded to an end, calling, cajoling, always in motion.

When the polling officer brings the election to an end at 2 pm and announces the commencement of counting, Alhaji was there, showing off his silver tooth, in that down stated but familiar way you find endearing, for reasons unknown I speak to him for the first time, "Alhaji, how you dea," I asked.

Laughing shyly now, he answered with a slight accent: "I dea fine, Alḥamdulillāh."

Then he would turn away to focus on the vote counting, answering as the ballot papers are lifted for each political party but saving his loudest for the All Progressives Congress presidential ballot papers, he would count along with a gusto, "one, two, trii, fer, five, six, seben," and on and on.

Only when the party agents have signed the result sheets and documented it would Alhaji turn to leave.

After walking a few paces, he looks back as if suspicious of some unknown evil that he senses, he looks around slowly and when he is satisfied with himself, waves a final goodbye and continues on his way.

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Elections are a byproduct of the social contract. Per the contract that binds people formerly of the state of nature together, the commonwealth is required to come together and elect leaders who represent the interest of the common.

A funny quirk of the process is that there is no restriction on the amount of individuals who may form the electorate, it could be the entirety of the commonwealth or just 10 people, so long as they are duly registered and accredited. The less humorous aspect of this quirk is that whatever decision is made by the electorate becomes BINDING ON ALL.

So even if only 5 people made the decision, it is binding on all of the commonwealth.

Nigeria is a democracy (no pun intended) and on Saturday, we replenished our democracy at several polling stations across the federation.

It is however hard to escape the fact that with the announcement of results of the presidential race there seems to be a degree of unhappiness and discontent at the outcome.

Social media is awash with messages of disbelief and incredulity that President Buhari's "Next Level" won out over Atiku Abubakar's "Get Nigeria Working Again," to hear the loss described is to imagine it as a sucker punch to the aggrieved.

For better or worse, this messages are baseless, democratic elections are determined by numbers and the man with the higher number wins (I promise, no pun intended) despite the startling numbers of irregularities recorded, of course.

A simple truth is that voters turnout was very poor, it is difficult to understand what caused this absenteeism  - an absolute assurance of Atiku's eventual victory or the cynicism that many have for Nigerian elections and it's political implications.

But the results are the same nonetheless, the country faces four more years of President Buhari's administration and the prospects are not appealing to many to say the least.

Fingers are being pointed, data is being crunched to understand how President Buhari won but I urge you to look no further than yourself if you did not vote and expected an Atiku victory, take a long look in the mirror and hold yourself accountable. Know that you will be culpable for every bullshit you will face as a result of political/economic ineptitude in the next four years, more so if you were just a Twitter warrior and nothing more for the Atikulate movement.

At the polling unit where I served on Saturday, do you care to know  what members of a certain part of the country came out to vote the most? Yes! You guessed right, NORTHERNERS, for whatever reasons they understood the importance of their votes and the part it would play in the projected victory of their GUY.

So they poured in and voted, urged on by Alhaji, ever smiling.

And you? You were at home sleeping I would imagine and do you know who they voted for ? Overwhelmingly I might add, the All Progressives Congress.

The people you would ordinarily describe as illiterates were coached on how to locate their preferred parties insignia and cast their votes whether in the allocated spaces or on the party logo itself, it didn't matter, they all counted.

It is quite simple, on D-day, you didn't show up, the guys of the opposition showed up and they won.

I will now end this with a definition of democracy widely accredited to former President of America, Abraham Lincoln - democracy is the government of the people by the people, for the people, from the people i.e whoever wins the largest vote of the accredited voters, regardless of what part of the country or ethnic affinity provided the majority of said votes in this case (again Northerners).

That is how a democracy works and I rate true democratic northerners who brought out their people to vote over you who was sleeping and waiting for the great Nigerian God to grant victory to your opponent on election day.

On to our collective next levels.