By Stanley Imo
In 1960 when the then Vice President Richard Nixon contested the presidential election against Senator John F. Kennedy, the election was very close. Two states were very contentious.
Nixon narrowly lost the states of Illinios and Texas. He was advised to contest the results of Illinios and Texas. He refused, and rather called JFK and conceeded the election.
He later wrote in his memoirs the reason why he did not contest the result of the election.
He said that if he had contested the result of the election, two things were possible. It was either he was right or he was wrong.
He said that if his complaint was right, he would have become the President, and in doing so, he would have destroyed the myth of the invincibility of the American electoral system. According to him, that situation would have destroyed the moral standing of the United States in the eyes of those smaller countries who looked up to the United States as a beacon of democracy.
And, if he was wrong, people will look at him as a sore loser which will make it impossible for him to have another chance in the future.
This was the mistake Al Gore made in 2000 which ended his political career. That is the mistake Donald Trump is making now.
After 1960, Richard Nixon became the shinning star of the Republican Party. He led their charge for the White House in 1964. He campaigned across the country with Barry Goldwater who was their candidate in that election. Even though they lost the election to the incumbent President, Lyndon Baines Johnson, his national credentials were unparalleled.
In 1966 he helped the Republican Party to take over the two house of Congress.
He was elected President in 1968 and was re-elected in 1972 with a record electoral college votes. Unfortunately, he had to resign in 1974 as a result of the Watergate Scandal.
Another good example is our own Goodluck Jonathan. He showed statesmanship in 2015. He refused to elevate his personal ambition over the interest of the nation.
Look at where he is today. I heard recently that they are even begging him to come back and finish his second term.
If Trump had won this election, I know Joe Biden would have called to congratulate him.
In 2016 Trump won the rust belt states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania with very narrow margins. Those were the states that gave him victory. This time around, he lost the same states with a similar margin.
Hillary Clinton could have disputed his victory in 2016 but she chose to be a stateswoman by accepting the result and conceding the election.
Even in that 2016, Trump also claimed that the election was rigged against him in some states. Even though he was declared the winner of the election because he got the majority of the electoral college votes, he was not happy that Hillary Clinton scored about 3.5 million popular votes more than him.
He was concerned that majority of Americans chose Hillary Clinton over him. He became President because the US Constitution provides that it is the electoral college votes that matters instead of the popular votes.
By the time all the votes are counted in this year’s election Joe Biden will score about 5 million popular votes more than Donald Trump.
In order to cast doubt on the victory scored against him in the popular votes in 2016 he started claiming, though without any evidence, that the election was rigged against him in some states.
This baseless claim conveniently ignored the fact that since 1988 till now the Republican Party has not won the popular votes in a presidential election except in the 2004 election that re-elected President George W. Bush.
Many commentators are of the view that the 2004 exception occurred because President Bush was then in the middle of the Iraqi war. Americans always support their Presidents in the times of war.
What he is doing now is to give election riggers in countries like ours a reason to continue with their nefarious activities. If you question them they will tell you that even Americans rig elections too.
It happened to the Nigerian Bar Association. I’ve been a Chairman of a branch of the Nigerian Bar Association. I have also served as a national vice president of the same association. Because of the election crisis we had in the association in 2016 and 2018, we now find it hard to question the Nigerian politicians whenever they rig elections. If you query them, they will tell you to go and put your house in order first before you can come and lecture them.
Imo, a renowned Lawyer, was the Chairman of the NBA, Imo State, and the NBA’s immediate past Vice National President.
