Feasibility Of The Proposed November 4th 2006 Local Government Election

By

Akinyemi Akinlabi

Miami, Florida, USA

Yemak01@aol.com

After the end of the annual conference of Forum for State Independent Electoral Commission in Nigeria (FOSIECON.) held in Abeokuta in May 2006, the forum’s chairman, Alh. (Barr) Aliyu Malami Yandoto read the communiqué issued at the conference which included the fact that all the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIECs) have concluded to conduct the Local Government Election on the same day. He went further to say that they have also concluded to hold the election on November 4th, 2006. According to him, The forum resolved to fix Saturday 4th November 2006 as a date for Local Government Elections throughout the Country and calls on all State Governors whose State Electoral Commissions are not constituted, to reconstitute them immediately. Furthermore, States should empower all State Independent Electoral Commissions accordingly to keep faith with the date”.

Based on the decision of the conference, some Chairmen of State Independent Electoral Commissions were reported to have contacted their State Governors and the State Houses of Assembly for funding for the polls. Notable among these are the Chairman of Osun State SIEC, Justice Sijuwade and his Oyo State counterpart, Mr. Oye Okunlola.  According to tribune newspaper, Mr. Okunlola said that   ““The decision to hold the local government election this year is to leave sufficient room to resolve all cases of litigation associated with the election before the hand over date”. For the incumbent Local Government Council Chairmen, the handover date should be end of March, 2007 (about six months time).

Although, reports had it that the State INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioners  disagreed with the SIECs  stating that a credible local government election can not be conducted with the existing voters register. A typical example of this was the report credited to Oyo State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Isiyaku Maigoro recently (By Nigeria Tribune). His views were reinforced last week by INEC Chairman, Prof Iwu while announcing the date of October 7th, 2006 for the commencement of the compilation of voters register. Although the current voters register is still valid and can still be used for elections until next year (It has been used for bye elections this year), Iwu condemned the register and stated that no good election can be conducted with it. He however exercise caution in saying that SIECs may use it for local government election.

The main issue at stake now is that since Iwu’s INEC announced October 7th for the commencement of the voters register nationwide, the FOSIECON or any of its State Chairman has not come out to tell the world if the local government election will still hold on November 4th, 2006 or if would be changed. A general election is a very serious issue and its dates and preparation should be sacrosanct.

In Nigeria, local government is so important and taken seriously by the people so much that it returns more voters than any other election. What accounts for this is probably because of its closeness to the people and the number of grassroots people that will be elected in the election? In a local government election, about 774 council chairmen would be elected as well as about 8,000 councilors. With this amazing number of elect-able officers, no serious nation or body should toy with the date of the election or the election itself.

In the present situation, it is clear that the various State INECs were prepared to discharge their constitutional responsibilities of conducting the local government election in a good time but they have been impeded by the inefficient hand of INEC who has the responsibility of providing them with a reliable voters register. Although Prof Iwu, the INEC chief has always been saying that his INEC can not be castigated for any failure because they have neither violated any law nor conducted a poor election under him, he has probably forgotten that one of the constitutional responsibilities of INEC is to always have a valid voters register in place for bye elections, general elections and local government elections. In this regard, he has failed as long as the date set for local government election by SIECs is concern.

Without mincing words, FOSIECON should consider another date for the local government election nationwide. INEC plans to commence voters’ registration less than 30 days to the proposed local government election date. They have not told us how long it would take them to complete the registration and compilation of the register. I doubt if they have been able to tell the SIECs when they would be able to make the register available to the SIECs for the council election. In order to show its responsibility to the people, the contestants, voters and the political parties, FOSIECON should formally announce the postponement of the election.

As stated by INEC chairman, SIECs may go ahead and use the current register since it is still valid. However, the problems associated with this are enormous. Most voters have lost their cards or have they defaced. Some young adults have grown up to voting age in the last three years, some voters (including me) have changed their constituencies and several voters have died. None of these have been updated in the register. Using the current register for the general election will disenfranchised a lot of voters ( mostly young adults) and will make the voting process easily manipulatiable with the use of the cards of the deceased.

As attempted by the immediate former INEC chairman, the panacea to this problem will be having a process in place that will ensure continuous registration and update of voters register. We should try to stop or at least control a situation where the laxity or incapacitation of a government agency causes a dislocation within another agency. Not even with an issue as important as election.

 

 

Akinyemi Akinlabi,

Miami, Florida, USA

Yemak01@aol.com

www.Yemiakinlabi.com