2019: Credible election hangs on Nnamani’s electoral panel

While political stakeholders are largely excited about the early release of the 2019 general elections timetable by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), an overall positive experience will however be based on the timely submission of recommendations of the Ken Nnamani-led Electoral Reform Committee and the willingness of its sponsor to implement it, reports BDSUNDAY.

In what many political historians and pundits now term ‘policy summersault’ and waste of taxpayers’, resources, while Nigerians are still waiting to know the recommendations from the former senate president’s team and its fate, Mahmood Yakubu-led INEC last month released a time table which fixed the next Presidential and National Assembly elections on February 16, the governorship and that of the State Assembly polls on March 2, 2019, leaving observers wondering if the Nnamani’s recommendations would end up like others before it.

Suspicion of the intentions of  the All Progressive Congress (APC)-led federal government to constitute another money-guzzling electoral reform appears to have deepened further since the day INEC released the timetable for the 2019 general elections.

Even more suspicious before now was that the Nnamani’s committee came soon after the President had openly dismissed the report of the 2014 National Conference organised by former President Goodluck Jonathan as ‘only fit for the archives’; and yet, it was a gathering of key stakeholders that cost the country over N6 billion.

When the 24-man committee was constituted in October 2016, the terms of reference read by Abubakar Malami, attorney-general and minister of Justice was to “review electoral environment, laws and experiences from recent elections conducted in Nigeria and make recommendations to strengthen and achieve the conduct of free and fair elections in Nigeria; and take a holistic look at the recommendations of Justice Muhammadu Uwais Electoral Reform Committee”; and the committee was given 10 months to submit its report. 

Several senior Nigerian citizens did not hide their displeasure when President Buhari inaugurated the Nnamani’s committee, expressing the view that if the President were sincere, he would start implementing the much-appreciated 2008 Justice Uwais’s Report, rather than engage in yet another ‘white elephant project’ at a huge cost to the Nigerian people.

The late President Umaru Yar’Adua had, after acknowledging the process that brought him to office as fraudulent during his inaugural speech, thereafter set-up a 22-member Electoral Reform Committee, headed by Muhammadu Uwais, former Chief Justice of Nigeria, “to examine the entire Nigerian electoral process with a view to ensuring that the quality and standard of our general elections are raised and consequently deepen the country’s democracy”.

The Report made general and specific recommendations (including but not limited to constitutional and legislative provisions and/or amendments), a total of 83 recommendations.

The committee established that the lack of independence of INEC at both the Federal and State levels is a key deficiency of Nigeria’s electoral process and made appropriate recommendations to address the focal issues of the composition, administrative autonomy and funding of the electoral commissions.

Part of its recommendations was that a special prosecutorial body to be known as Electoral Offences Commission should be established to work independently in the arraignment and prosecution of electoral offenders, but successive administrations have rather looked the other way by setting up their own similar committee as it is the tradition.

 

Timely release of timetable commendable

 

Balarabe Musa, a former governor of the old Kaduna State and chairman, Conference of Nigerian Political Party (CNPP), an umbrella body for political parties in the country, told BDSUNDAY that the announcement of timetable for the 2019 general elections two years earlier is commendable but lamented that there was nothing currently on ground to show the electoral umpire was prepared.

“The idea is to get all stakeholders to prepare. You know it takes time for INEC to secure funds from the FG but with this development, they should work towards securing the needed funds on time. But political parties were not consulted before the decision was reached by INEC, which has created suspicion,” he said.

According to him, there is nothing on ground to show that INEC is doing anything to correct several abnormally in Nigeria’s electoral structure like moneybags politics and unmaking sources of funds of political parties, warning that if not checked, only criminals and those who looted the nation’s treasury can contest for political office.

Section 225 (2) of the 1999 Constitution specifically requires that political parties disclose their sources of funds and their manner of expenditures to the electoral umpire, while section 226 (3) provides every member of the commission or its duly authorized agent with unfettered right to access at all times the books and accounts and vouchers of all political parties and to request from the officers of the political party such information and explanation as they deem necessary.

Additionally, section 84 (7) of the Electoral Act 2002 also mandates INEC to make available for public inspection during regular business hours at the national and state offices the audited returns of political parties, stating that the publication shall include name, address, occupation and amount contributed by each contributor to political parties.

“The electoral reform committee set up by Buhari was just a deception. But why waste taxpayers’ money when you already have several recommendations? The recommendation of the Uwais committee that cost so much money and produced a White Paper has not been implemented. It took billions of Naira for the government to have the Uwais Report. The Ken Nnamani committee was a ridiculous idea from day one”, said visibly angry Musa.

He also complained that INEC is not adequately carrying out its mandates, as it regards political parties, saying that parties in Nigeria lack managerial skills, a deficiency he says INEC could overcome.

“At a recent stakeholders’ meeting organised by INEC in conjunction with an NGO where I served as a member of the Policy and Strategic Committee, I walked out of the event because of INEC officials handling of things. How can you organise an event for political parties and you fill the place with mainly INEC officials and few people the event is meant for? Even officials of political parties are a greater problem; they only attended the event because they were invited. They are not ready to sponsor any meeting,” he said.

 

‘INEC is deceiving itself’ 

 

Ayo Opadokun, ex-secretary of the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, and publicity secretary of the National Democratic Coalition (NDC), told BDSUNDAY that the claims of recorded improvements in Nigerian electoral process by the current leadership of INEC is only ‘self-deception’ which he says cannot convince keen observers of the Nigerian political drama.

He said: “INEC can continue to deceive itself by releasing electoral guidelines for 2019 general elections and its claims of adequate preparedness. INEC’s alleged improvements can best suit the politicians themselves, who are the only beneficiaries, not the Nigerian electorate”.

Asked about the relevance of the Ken Nnamani-led committee since INEC has already released guideline two years ahead of 2019, he said he had no doubt that President Buhari knew he was not taking the right steps when he set up the committee but was only playing the ‘Nigerian State Game’.

“Generally, there is no doubt that the Nigerian State is not interested in conducting free, fair and credible election that will meet international best practice. All our political leaders want to do is to sustain the business as usual elections that brought us violence, misconducts and fraudulent activities.

“As long as we refused to implement, at least, few recommendations of the Justice Uwais’ report, Nigeria is not ready to conduct free and fair elections that its integrity cannot be challenged by both local and international observers.

“How can Ken Nnamani substitute for the 2014 National Conference’s electoral recommendations that had significant number of Nigerians represented at the Confab? Like I said earlier, the Ken Nnamani’s committee is just a game the Nigerian State plays”, he said.

According to him, the northern delegates at the 2014 Conference who recently came out to denounce the recommendations were doing so because the Nigeria’s political structure gave the north undue advantage and that the region’s elites are using ‘force of arm’ to intimidate and hold down the rest who are calling for a democratically renegotiated Nigeria.

“Such attitude is what our Colonial Masters left us with; which is our main problem today. It is the reason for our military national politics; and the consequences of the military dictatorship which completely abrogated the 1963 Republican Constitution. But today, they are lying to us that what we have is a Federal Government; and until we turn to the 1963 constitution, we will not know peace and progress in Nigeria,” he said. 

The northern delegates to 2014 Confab had recently warned against attempt by any group to seek to implement or influence the FG or any of its institutions to use the report under any guise for the purpose of restructuring Nigeria, saying that major decisions reached were arrived at through ‘undemocratic’ means.

Efforts to reach Ken Nnamani for comment was not successful as calls to his mobile phone were not answered. As at the time of filing in this report he had also yet to reply an sms (text message) asking for the level of completion of his committee’s electoral review.

 

The National Assembly amendments

 

Although, the National Assembly, the Senate in particular, has recently been busy amending sections of the Electoral Acts, there are still public outcries against the senior lawmakers due to perceived high attention given to sections that protect the lawmakers’ interest, rather than the interest of the electoral system.

For instance, in the amended Acts, all members of political parties are now eligible to determine the ad-hoc delegates to elect candidates of parties in indirect primaries; and the capacity of party executives to unduly influence or rig party primaries has been reasonably abridged.

The Senate also amended the current Acts to legalise the use of smart card readers for the authentication of accredited voters as was done in the 2015 general election; and another amendment which paves the way for electronic voting in future elections.

But some groups which faulted the Senate amendments to the Electoral Act 2010 say it falls short of the expectation of vast majority of Nigerians, who have been disenfranchised because of the heavy monetisation of politics, demanding that the lawmakers work assiduously to make the 2019 general election a victory for Nigerians.

 

Monetisation and State Electoral Body 

 

But as Nigerians continue to debate electoral reform at the federal level, unless something drastic is done by relevant stakeholders particularly State Houses of Assembly before the 2019 general election, State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) may further worsen Nigeria’s electoral woes, as Local Government chairmanship candidates are said to be parting with N500, 000 to the SIEC before contesting the position under the current dispensation.

In the recently held Ebonyi State LG polls, chairmanship candidates parted with N500, 000, while councillorship candidates parted with N100, 000; but the case for aspiring councilors in the fast approaching Jigawa State LG polls is worse as they are to pay the sum of N200, 000 to participate while that of chairmanship remains N500, 000; and this is excluding the fee for political parties’ nomination form.

Osadolor Ochei, a Benin-based multiple award winning human rights activist, told BDSUNDAY that the trend is becoming worrisome and that it is unacceptable for that to continue under a government that promised to fight corruption and bring change.

“This money politics is the reason we have criminals occupying elective positions in Nigeria. If someone pays so much to a political party and state electoral body to contest election, any wonder they steal public funds when they get into office! Elections in Nigeria are no longer on the basis of popularity, just bring in the money and you are a hero. This is how we have succeeded in electing criminals to represent us,” he said.

Debo Adeniran, executive chairman, Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership (CACOL), said the trend can only entrench corruption and make it difficult for credible Nigerians who don’t have such money to contest for political office even at the local government level.

“There is nothing civil society can do under such circumstance because it is entirely parties’ affairs. But sadly, the political parties that should be fighting the menace are not complaining and the candidates themselves have not come out to say it is too much for them. But the trend is highly regrettable,” he told BDSUNDAY.

Ayodele Folaniyi, head of department, INEC’s Voter Education and Publicity, Oyo State, told BDSUNDAY that the electoral umpire has nothing to do with the money collected from candidates by state electoral bodies, saying that the state governments decide what happens at that level.

“It is the State Houses of Assembly that make law for the state electoral bodies. The law only permits INEC to provide voters register to them when they are preparing for local government election. They are not under the control of INEC. It’s only the State Assembly that can order state electoral body to either drop such a fee or reduce it to a fee many can afford,” he said.

On the release of the 2019 electoral timetable, he said INEC is making all stakeholders prepare for a hitch-free election by doing so, with the hope that those with the power to make law and implement it will do their job before the stipulated time.

“We are also expecting some changes to the electoral act which is currently before the National Assembly; there is also a review committee which has been going round the country and so, the timetable is making everyone work seriously. But there are certain aspects of current electoral laws like voters’ register and wages that will not change before 2019,” he said