INEC: A Tool of Despotic Obscurantism

By

Tochukwu Ezukanma

maciln18@yahoo.com

 

 

Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidency disappointed the expectations of Nigerians. For one thing, it did not advance democracy, and strengthen democratic institutions in Nigeria. A product of the military and the farm, two professions not renowned for honing political sophistication and progressive thought, he acts more like an emperor than a democratically elected president. In his obscurantism - disdain for political progress and enlightenment - he is despotically undermining the democratic process

 

From the inception of his presidency, he sought to expand his personal powers at the expense of the institutional moorings of democracy in Nigeria. His attempt to whittle down the independence of the legislature, and bend it to his will was successful. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives succumbed to his bribes, blandishments and cajoling. The height of his arrogance of power and delusion of indispensability was his bid for a third term. Fortunately, the Senate led by Ken Nnamami, defeated the Third Term bill. Its defeat was a triumph for democracy in Nigeria. It resuscitated the independence of the legislature. It was the beginning of the end of the presidents roughshod over the Senate and the House.

 

Lately, the judiciary for long a moribund instrument of the political class has been jolted off its timidity by a series of internal reforms. Refreshingly, the courts have shown remarkable courage and independence in many of their recent rulings on political issues.

 

For the April 2007 general election, Obasanjo is putting his personal interests and preferences above the law and the public good. From every indication, the president does not desire a free and fair election. A free and fair election will respect the people’s democratic right to elect candidates of their own choice. The people’s choice may not conform to the president’s. Therefore the president’s sponsored candidates are to be coroneted, not elected. 

 

With the legislature and the judiciary acting within the confines of the constitution, and thus, not in total subservience to the presidency, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has become a potent tool of the president’s autocratic stratagem. In line with the dictates of the presidency, INEC has arrogated to itself the powers not ascribed to it by the constitution, and the electoral act – for example, the power to disqualify political candidates. INEC disqualified the presidential candidacy of Atiku Abubakar on some flimsy grounds: indictment for corruption by the EFCC and an administrative panel suffused with the president’s loyalists. The presidential contest is really between the Atiku Abubakar and Musa Yar’Adua. Muhammadu Buhari of All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) is not a major contender for the office, because Nigerians are weary of electing ex-generals to the presidency. Therefore, the disqualification of Atiku is to ensure the electoral “victory” of Musa Yar’Adua, the president’s sponsored presidential candidate.  

 

In Anambara state, to guarantee the “victory” of Andy Uba, the president’s gubernatorial candidate, the INEC has disqualified all the other major candidates - Peter Obi of  All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Chris Ngige of Action Congress (AC), and Nicholas Ukachukwu of All Nigerian People Party (ANPP) - in the race. The grounds for these disqualifications are most grotesque. For example, the INEC’s antics in Peter Obi’s case are as comical as they are disheartening.  Following the reinstatement of Peter Obi as the governor of the state by an Appeal Court, the deputy governor, Virgy Etiaba withdrew as the governorship candidate, and APGA substituted her name with Obi’s name. All these were done within the deadline for substitution of candidates. INEC is refusing to respect Obi’s candidacy, insisting that Mrs. Etiaba remains the APGA candidate. What an effrontery? In the blindness of their megalomania, do they also believe that they reserve the right to choose and impose candidates on political parties?

 

In the court ruling on Atiku’s case against his disqualification, the court set aside the “indictment”. It disagreed with the process adopted by the EFCC in carrying out its functions, as well as the government in setting up the administrative panel. Justice B. O. Kuewumi unequivocally stated that the provisions of the constitution, Section 137 and 182 do not “empower the INEC, to issue an order disqualifying a candidate”. He stated that the “power to disqualify any candidate sponsored by any political party from contesting any election is vested in the courts as provided by the section 32(5) of the Electoral Act 2006 and in any other legislation that is validly enacted in that behalf”.

 

The INEC is disobeying the court verdict, that it should just be an impartial umpire of the   elections, as stipulated by the constitution. To justify their lawlessness, Maurice Iwu and his commissioners have taken verbal prestidigitation. Their equivocation and serpentine rhetoric, instead of elucidating, confuses the issue. Their sophistry, lawyerly quibble and convoluted logic defy understanding.

 

Apart from being a powerful tool of his master’s design, the INEC chairman, Maurice Iwu has imbibed some of his master’s idiosyncrasies. In addition to breaching the constitution, and ignoring court orders, like his master, Maurice Iwu has acquired a penchant for arrogance, reckless remarks and pontification. Many Nigerians have been taken aback by his arrogant and unguarded remarks. He pontificates as though he has a monopoly on knowledge and wisdom. 

 

The problem of the Obasanjo administration is moral and ethical surrealism. They adopted moral and ethical standards, so bizarre that they justify electoral fraud and murderous intrigues, lawlessness and thief of public funds, callousness and contemptuous indifference to the economic plight of the generality of Nigerians. The president’s resolve to impose his candidates on the people in defiance of electoral rules, the constitution and court rulings is only another chapter in their macabre and amoral modus operandi. It is a rape on democracy. It threatens to unravel the whole delicate structure of our nascent democracy.

 

In the interest of the peace and unity of this country, it behooves the INEC to rise above Obasanjo’s illiberal prejudices, and limit itself to its constitutionally designated role of being an impartial arbiter. Democracy is government by the law, not government by one man’s whims and caprices. That the president has his own preferred candidates is wonderful. However, unanimity is impossible in a democracy. Not surprisingly, Nigerians are not all in agreement with his choice. His insistence on imposing his candidates on Nigerians by subterfuge - the EFCC anti–corruption shenanigan, an Administrative panel’s hoax and the INEC’s sophistry is most insulting to the Nigerians’ sensibility.    

 

Recently, the security around Maurice Iwu and his INEC commissioners has been beefed up. Why is there a need for this? An Igbo adage offers the answer, “okuku nyua ahu, ala achu wa ya oso. This loosely translates to, when the chicken farts, it starts running as though the ground is pursuing it. Their safety and the peace of the country will automatically be assured, if they stop playing God. History has repeatedly taught us that those who play God will always regret it.    

 

Tochukwu Ezukanma writes from Lagos, Nigeria.