This intervention is about how to deepen the democratic culture and improve electoral transparency in Nigeria. Election is at the heart of democracy. Various sections of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended prescribe that leaders at the federal, state and local government levels should be democratically elected in the legislative and executive arms of government. The same national Constitution provides that election should be periodically conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (abbreviated as “INEC”) every four years to elect representatives into the legislative offices of Senate, House of Representatives and House of Assembly of a State and occupants of executive offices of President/Vice President of the Federation and Governor/Deputy Governor of a State. Election of Chairman/Vice Chairman of Local Government and Councilors into Local Government Councils are to be conducted by the State Independent Electoral Commission (abbreviated as “SIEC”) according to the term of office or within the period fixed by the respective laws passed by the House of Assembly of the 36 States of Nigeria.
What this means in practical terms is that Nigeria cannot do without elections. Yet, elections in Nigeria have become a “do or die affair” characterised by violence, thuggery, rigging, vote buying and other variants of malpractices. In many regrettably instances, lives have been needlessly lost, private and public properties destroyed while humungous scarce public resources are expended conducting general elections that can hardly be adjudged free, fair and credible. As a result, both the INEC and the SIEC as election management bodies have been demonized and lampooned as partial, corrupt and compromised umpires.
During a recent interview over the 21 September Edo State Governorship election, while responding to a question on the INEC’s neutrality, the INEC Chairman reiterated that “INEC is not a political party. We have no candidate in the election. The decision of who becomes the next Edo State governor is entirely in the hands of the people of the State.” The INEC Chairman was spot on. Truly, INEC and indeed the SIEC, as established under the Constitution, are not and should not be political parties. They should have no candidate(s) in any election(s) but the big elephant in the room is whether the INEC and the SIEC staff and their adhoc workers understand the solemn charge of impartiality entrusted on them by their commission as electoral umpires.
Arguably, they (INEC and SIEC staff and adhoc workers) are as partisan as (if not more partisan than) politicians. It is public knowledge that for reasons of graft and deficit integrity, elections are won and lost in the INEC/SIEC offices and on the tables of INEC/SIEC staff and adhoc workers with the active collusion of security agents and seldom through the popular votes of the people via the ballot box. Meanwhile, the people should choose their leaders while democracy remains government of the people, by the people and for the people. These malodorous anti-democratic practices convolute the polity, degrade or diminish the leadership recruitment process offered through periodic elections and cast a slur on the legitimacy of those elected through these sham arrangements.
It is this grim reality that has made many to perceive and quickly dismiss the recent move to have the Constitution amended so that the INEC can be empowered to conduct Local Government elections as dead on arrival for the undisputed reason that INEC as the major election management body in Nigeria has no track record of conducting free, fair and credible elections. Not a few are of the view that what will change if INEC is allowed to conduct Local Government elections instead of the SIEC is that the cost of prosecuting the elections will jump from arithmetic proportions to geometric proportions. Besides, the credibility of the process will not improve for the singular reason that the INEC is “the beginning and end” of all electoral malfeasances.
Pointedly, putting new wine in old wineskin has never solved any durable purpose. Asking INEC to take over the constitutional role of the SIEC in conducting local government elections will not change anything as INEC is already overburdened and should be unbundled.
Before anyone gets it twisted, the INEC and SIEC are necessary evils but Nigeria cannot continue to experience wobbly and fractious elections that these bodies conduct that end up making a mockery of democracy. The nation’s legal system and laws must rise above their contrived shenanigans and willful mischiefs. One sure way of helping these discredited electoral umpires to deliver credible and reliable elections is the introduction of wholesale and compulsory electronic voting in all elections conducted by either the INEC or the SIEC.
Doubtlessly, this will reduce senseless manipulation and mindless rigging although technology is not full proof. Electronic voting will drastically reduce, if not completely eliminate, ballot box snatching and thuggery which characterise Nigerian elections. The present use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (abbreviated as “BVAS”) by INEC to verify voter identities and to determine the precise number at each polling station is not electronic voting. Transmitting results to the INEC Result Viewing (abbreviated as “IReV”) is not compulsory as poor network can affect upload. Decisions of the apex Supreme Court on the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 validate the unfortunate reality that electronic voting is not part of the electoral menu in Nigeria. Hence, it is strongly suggested that to improve on integrity of elections, the Electoral Act, 2022 should be amended to expressly provide for electronic voting in all its ramifications.
A second suggestion or recommendation on how to improve electoral compliance is reiteration of the strident call for the establishment of an Electoral Offences Commission which will be bestowed with the sole responsibility of prosecuting electoral offenders for sundry electoral offences and bringing them to justice. The importance of this august body in the Nigerian legal system cannot be overemphasised. When established, the powers of the Electoral Offences Commission should be made to extend to offences committed in all elections whether conducted by the INEC or the SIEC. For Nigeria to consolidate her democracy and have free, fair and credible elections there must be consequences for bad behaviours. Electoral banditry and mandate heists in Nigeria cannot continue to be swept under the carpet. This is an irreducible minimum if politics and elections in Nigeria must be hygienic and clean. What we have so far in the name of INEC or SIEC organised elections are nothing but charades, travesties and shams. Truth is courage!
At the time of going to press, the unfolding drama at the collation centre of the 2024 Edo State Governorship election is nothing to cheer about despite the flowery assurances of neutrality given by the INEC Chairman alluded to earlier. It is evident and indubitable that the conduct of inter-party elections in Nigeria (whether by INEC or SIEC) is getting worse than better. According to Usman Dan Fodio (1804), “Conscience is an open wound, only the truth can heal it”.
A new normal is possible!
