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FRIDAY ESSAY BY MOBOLAJI E. ALUKO, PH.D. Securing the Future of Our Electoral Democracy in Nigeria - A 12-Step Set of Suggestions Burtonsville, MD, USA
April 27, 2007
INTRODUCTION
Nigeria is currently reeling from domestic
and international battering following the worst set of elections it has
ever had in history - Gubernatorial/State Assembly elections on April
14, and Presidential/National Assembly on April 21, 2007. Outside
of the ruling PDP, President Obasanjo and particularly INEC's Maurice
Iwu:, the condemnation has been near-unanimous, from TMG to EU, to
ECOWAS, Commonwealth observer groups, as well as the British and US
governments.
This outrageous debacle has been no thanks
primarily to two individuals:
(1) President Obasanjo, whose aims (a)
first to succeed himself was aborted in May 2006 by the National
Assembly significantly delayed election preparations, (b) and then to
ensure that his Vice-President Atiku Abubakar does not succceed him as
President. This drove him (Obasanjo) to a series of befuddling
illegalities that were finally beaten back by succeeding court rulings
right up to the Supreme Court, which finally within days of the April 14
presidential election date ensured that Atiku was included in the
presidential ballot; (c) of promoting a "do-or-die" attitude to the
elections significantly raised the stakes.
(2) Prof. Maurice Iwu, INEC's chairman,
whose moves (a) to fully implement electronic registration AND voting,
and to stubbornly stick to the plan, were eventually shot down by the
National Assembly and (b) to obey Obasanjo's voice in excluding Atiku,
did collateral damage to many other "disqualified" candidates.
This also delayed the printing of ballot papers until the last
minute after the Courts of Appeal and Supreme Court ruled that INEC had
no powers to disqualify candidates. Iwu in many instances cast INEC into
the 51st political party and surrogate of the ruling PDP, and disobeyed
many court rulings before finally succumbing to the Supreme Court
We are not yet out of the woods yet as to
what will happen following this sordid set of (s)elections. There are
strident calls by the Opposition to annul the entire exercise and
install an Interim National Government (ING) to run a new set of
elections. I do not support the call, and would rather that those who
have the documentary evidence, courageous persistence and financial
muscle pursue their cases before the Election Tribunals. I believe
that in the climate of adulation that Nigeria's judiciary has recently
received, it will do justice to those who deserve it.
Whatever happens specifically about the
April 14/21 elections is still up in the air. However, it is never
too early to do a soul-searching for the future so that we do not have a
repeat of this national embarrassment.
WHAT DO WE DO IN THE FUTURE
WITH RESPECT TO OUR ELECTIONS?
Some have suggested that full
implementation of the electronic voting would indeed have guaranteed
successful elections in Nigeria. Others have suggested that we could
even outsource our elections to the US (sans Florida) or to the UN to
completely eliminate the "Nigerian factor" that always seem to dog our
efforts..
I do not agree to these suggestions, and
strongly believe that we can have some home-grown solutions to our
problem.
So let me quickly share some thoughts -
ten steps.
1. The control of INEC should be taken
away from the Executive, and put under the Judiciary. This is the only
way it can earn its "Independent" National Electoral Commission name.
Thus, the Chairman - who should be a lawyer and preferably a retired
Judge - should be chosen by the Chief Justice and approved by the
National Assembly. INEC's membership should be composed of
representatives of the major parties (eg equal number of
representatives of political parties that scored more than 5% in the
last general elections; with a minimum of 5 largest-scoring parties) and
members of civil society (representatives of Lawyers, Labor, Women,
Youth associations). Such a composition should also be replicated at
the State electoral commission levels.
2. INEC should have a first-charge
budget, from the Consolidated Revenue Fund. That way, it does not go
cap-in-hand to either the Executive or the Legislature.
3. Our elections should be staggered,
with INEC running federal elections and - in order to promote true
federalism - the various SIECs running state elections. The quadriennal
(four-year) jamboree where 1 president, 36 governors, 360 House of Rep,
109 Senators, 990 state assemblypersons and about 9586 local government
council members are elected in elections in 774 local governments and
8812 electoral wards via 120,000 polling stations across the country is
too daunting for our present managerial and security capabilities right
now. The current five-year tenure of the INEC chairman means that he
gets to do only ONE of such jumbo elections, and hence has to learn on
the job; he does not carry his experience over. However, if these
elections could be sectioned in an annual manner such that only a
quarter or a half of them are done, they would be much more
manageable. Even if the average tenure of office is 4 years, then we
might have 9 new governors, 90 House of reps, 27 senators, 247 state
assembly members elected each year and each set have a 4 year tenure -
or double those numbers if a two-year cycle is preferred. The president
would be elected once every four years.
4. ELECTRONIC registration of voters
should DEFINITELY be continued, and must be a continuous process ie
immediately you reach 18 years old, or whenever you wish to register,
not just every election period. However, we must start with THE
PRESENT REGISTER that the nation, via Maurice Iwu, spent so much money
on. But we must first purge it of the clearly fraudulent entries right
away, and then require that .it be published ELECTRONICALLY on the
Internet once and for all. That way, both the government and various
civic-minded organizations can RE-PUBLISH excerpts of the voters'
register as handouts or newspaper inserts depending on the ward or
local government of interest so that all who wish can check their
names. INEC seems to have begun something like that on its website,
see:
but I checked for my own registration, but
it returned negative! Pasting names on trees and sides of houses for
people to come and check - in the midst of possible rain soaking,
vandalization and just plain difficulty of access - is unacceptable.
5. The Voter Registration Card database VRCD
should s be merged with the National ID card database NICD, so that they
share a common database. In fact, the VRCD should be a subset of the
NICD, with possibly a Voter bar code simply being put at the back of the
National ID card.
All the above is pre-election preparation,
with key provisos that INEC/SIECs must always be held accountable to
deadlines set and publications promised..
6. On Election Day, I believe that we
should still try for a few more times the Modified Open Ballot System
(MOBS) where people queue up for a period following accreditation, and
then vote for a period at the same time ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY. In the
annulled June 12, 1993 elections that had Chief MKO Abiola emerge as
winner, there was queueing from (say) 8 - 12 noon, followed by voting
from 12 - 2 pm, I believe. I think that we can stagger those periods
that so that we have queieng from 8-10am, followed by voting from
10-12noon, and then another set of queueing from 12-2pm, following by
voting from 2-4pm. Eventually, being able to be accredited at any time
and voting at any time soon after - as is done in most parts of the
world - is the best and most acceptable format, but we may need a few
more trials of the MOBS to get things right.
7. With MOBS, it is easy for official and
unofficial monitors to INDEPENDENTLY record those that are on the queue
to vote, so that any fake total numbers of voters announced later on can
be easily disputed.
8. ACTUAL VOTING can either be electronic
or manual - both can be done with integrity. For example, urban
centers where some level of electricity availability can be assured can
be done electronically. In rural areas, it can be done manually. The
electoral laws should allow flexibility for both. Nothing should demand
STRICT uniformity across our country. After all, even in the US, no
such uniformity is demanded - provided access to voting is assured.
9. Also as part of the authentication
process, BALLOT BOXES from which the vote counts were taken must be
secured together with their CONTENTS (completed ballots) whether there
is fear of a later dispute or not, and pictures of the ballot boxes at
the polling station - with their clear identification marks - must be
taken BEFORE counting begins. Delivery of these ballot boxes to some
INEC center should be part of the final authentication of results
process, and will reduce or even eliminate the penchant for ballot
stuffing.
10. All announcements of results should
be at each polling station - with loud-speakers blared into and outside
of the polling station. The results should be displayed on bill boards
(either electronic or boldly written) both INSIDE and OUTSIDE the
polling station, and kept in place for at least two days AFTER the
election day. But most importantly, INEC should require of its official
agents, as part of its authentication record, digital recordation of the
announcement AND still photographs of the billboards in addition to the
forms that may have to be signed by the party agents. So audio
recorders and digital cameras should be given to INEC agents to document
that they did announce and did take pictures of the board. [Any
pictures should have the picture of the INEC agent NEXT to the display
board for it to be authentic.] This step should be repeated at each
succeeding higher collation center
We now proceed to the post-election
period.
11. Petitions before the Election
Tribunals should certainly be disposed of before the installation of
winners into their newly-elected positions. The guideline given to
Tribunal judges recently requiring them to dispense with procedural
objections and to zero in on resolving the merits of the
cases expeditiously is therefore welcome. However, clearly it is
unfair to expect a petition over a single-constituency election to be
given the same time for resolution as that of a (say) state or national
election; and hence they should be given different periods for
resolution. Clearly, this implies that the time between the two
events (election and hand-over) - currently about thirty days in Nigeria
- should be more extended; that will take some constitutional amendment
to revise it. All the above is with the caveat that a quick resolution
of cases does not always translate to fairness.
12. Serious sanctions, including jail
terms and extended bans from future participation in the electoral
process, should be applied to to both individuals and/or political
parties with proven cases of electoral malfeasance. For too long,
instances of such in our country have been met with incredulous
head-shakings and tolerant slaps on the wrist.
EPILOGUE
I strongly believe that if the
above twelve steps are applied in Nigeria, we will have a more credible
election process. It is my hope that they will be implemented BEFORE we
carry out any national election exercise in the future, for we cannot go
through this national embarrassment one more time.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
STAR COMPENDIUM: Observer Missions'
Reports on 2007 Elections
http://www.nigerianmuse.com/essays/?u=Aluko_16_Minimal_Ways_to_Combat_Rigging_in_2007.htm 16 Minimal Ways to Combat Rigging in 2007 February 22, 2007
http://www.dawodu.com/aluko134.htm
http://www.nigerianmuse.com/essays/?u=Towards_successful_2007_elections.htm
http://www.ngex.com/personalities/voices/mqb061801baluko.htm
http://www.dawodu.com/aluko39.htm
http://www.dawodu.com/aluko48.htm
http://www.ngex.com/personalities/voices/se093000baluko.htm
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