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For a tidy job, Attahiru Jega, the chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) asked for the amendment
of both the Constitution and Electoral Act. Unfortunately,
one arm of that request is now paralyzed - in fact dead - as
the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2010 failed to scale
through second reading in the Nigerian Senate and was
consequently thrown out. The leadership of the Senate fought
hard for it to live but it died on arrival. Stillborn.
The obdurate naysayers drowned out the pleading ayes during the
voice vote not because the bill lacked merit in its entirety
but because of the alleged heavy inputs from The Presidency,
what a source called precursors to an ‘Ojoro primaries’.
Ordinarily, those against the proposed amendment can be said
to be rooting for a full-scale internal democracy in parties
by insisting that the party members should decide who should
be their delegates and subsequently, flag bearers.
Basically, the amendment bill seeks to streamline party primaries
and if accepted by lawmakers, precludes parties from
choosing their candidates through state congress or national
convention. Success of this amendment would have been a
certain death for party internal democracy since it is
practically the same as an attempt to short-circuit
democracy and abridge the people’s rights to choose their
leaders.
The bill which was sent to the lawmakers by the president some
weeks ago sought also to amend the 2010 electoral act in a
way that will enable political office holders and their
aides to participate as statutory delegates at political
party primaries. This would have enabled members of
President's and Governors’ cabinets and their aides to vote
as automatic delegates in the forthcoming primaries.
In fact, to be fair to The Presidency, in the past, ministers,
commissioners and advisers were statutory delegates. This
was removed in the last amendment but with the opportunity
offered by INEC’s request for another bout of amendments,
The Presidency quickly made for its restoration. So, as
undemocratic as it is, it is not as if this provision is
totally alien to the nation’s party primaries.
The bill also seeks to transfer the power to determine the sequence
of elections from the law to the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) and accommodate the anticipated
timeline changes to the constitution. The law makers
believed it was better to leave this as it is, since it will
not affect INEC in any negative way.
The Presidency also proposed that instead of State Congress or
National Convention by political parties to elect their
presidential and other candidates that a party caucus
primaries option should be allowed to do this, with the
National Executive Committee having the final say. What this
means is that no matter who won in the primaries, the
party’s NEC would have the final verdict. This was also what
obtained under Obasanjo’s garrison democracy which gave the
PDP NEC the right to substitute Chibuike Amaechi with his
cousin Celestine Omehia and to declare that the party had no
candidate after Ararume had won the primaries.
It can clearly be seen why the Senators voted for their own
survival by putting into consideration the effects the bill
might have at the state level and out of the fear that the
proposals could be part of a new plot to checkmate some
presidential aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
from the North, who are insisting on zoning and challenging
President Goodluck Jonathan’s bid to return to power in
2011.
Herein these intrigues lay the precipitate danger for the 2011
polls that is violating the sacrosanct May 29 handover date.
For Nigerians who may not have considered it, there is no
magic Jega’s INEC can do to hold credible polls if the
constitutional amendment fails to sail through and,
following what happened at the Senate, there is now no
guarantee it will. Because its statutory responsibility is
time-barred, the fact is: time has passed for INEC to do a
credible job under the existing law and equally passing for
the anticipated amendment.
Three major stumbling blocks have already loomed large in the
horizon. First, the first requirement is the passage of a
harmonized amendment by both chambers of the National
Assembly. Delay seems imminent as the 2 chambers do not
agree on the new date for elections: Senate appears to
prefer April while the House is rooting March. To achieve a
single bill, the 2 chambers must agree on a single date and
on any other change issue each may wish to inject, and such
agreements take time. One had expected that rather than
undergo a voyage of discoveries of amendable areas and
recommending a specific date, the flexibility being sought
by INEC would have been better served if a range is given,
say ‘between January and April’.
This approach rather than pigeonholing it, would have given the
INEC better latitude to maneuver out of the present
quagmire.
The second stumbling block that poses a similar threat to credible
polls is the concurrent resolutions by 24 States needed to
validate any constitutional amendment. Should the intrigues
that happened at the Senate resurface in the States it may
imperil the process and deny INEC the time extension it
seeks. This fear is germane given the fact that zoning
adherents may not mind if it going to the polls with
President Jonathan enjoying the awesome incumbency,
forecloses their own success.
The lawmakers must be statesmanlike enough in order not to ground
the process for selfish, ethnic or primordial reasons. If
the amendment fails, INEC will have no choice other than
falling back on Professor Maurice Iwu’s widely discredited
voter register, which contains fake voters with pictures of
people like Mike Tyson, Mohammed Ali and even dead people
like Pa Michael Adekunle Ajasin in great numbers.
Any election based on such register will be a recipe for disaster
since it is not likely to produce acceptable results to most
Nigerians. What is more, most Nigerians were in one accord
before and immediately after Jega’s appointment that a fresh
credible voter register constitutes an irreducible minimum
to any credible future election in Nigeria. The implication
of this is that without it, any election is already flawed
and rejected in advance, no matter how wonderful it may.
Jega and INEC have to sit bolt upright. In fact the truth is that
INEC should realize it failed the nation by doing a
haphazard job in providing the relevant information that
guided the first amendment of 2 months ago. INEC is
blameworthy because it was in a position to accurately
estimate the time needed to procure the Direct Capture
Machines needed for a voter registration in order to arrive
at a valid voter register. This was possible since the
reputable manufacturers of the necessary date capture
machines in the globe are known and in the internet age,
could easily be contacted without one even travelling to
locations. This was not done or at best, poorly done, thus
forcing INEC to realize only late in the day how wrong it
had been in projecting October/November for voter
registration and January for elections.
Attahiru Jega appears to be shifting blame to the lawmakers by
stating that the success or failure of the election is
hinged on the newly proposed amendment and therefore a
failing of the legislature if it does not pull through. This
claim is disclaiming responsibility in advance by Jega and
INEC and smacks of the proverbial ostrich that hides its
head in the sand but leaving the entire body exposed to the
enemy.
All things considered, INEC has not demonstrated enough
seriousness. So much has been promised by the Commission but
it is not the much promised but the much accomplished of the
much promised that will count in the final analysis. For
example, up to this present day, more than 2 months since it
received the funds it requested and the enabling law, INEC
is yet to procure a single Direct Capture Machine.
Information even at public domain also shows the contract
has not even been fully awarded. This shoddy preparation
does not hold the level of promise to deliver as mouthed by
the Commission at every given opportunity and is severely
affecting the confidence building process needed to avert
the type of voter apathy that tarred the previous polls.
The third issue is other logistical impediments that must come that
will require a lot of pretests for efficacy, even with the
full supply of the machines. Matters as simple as
configuring the machines can pose a problem that a month or
two may not absolve, which may engender another bout of
constitutional amendment.
Constitutional crisis and anarchy shall be twin-offspring and final
reward for such shilly-shallying by INEC. By leaving too
much to chance and without time at its disposal, and little
left being handled as if it has all the liberty, INEC
appears insufficiently concerned and think nothing of the
capacity of the problem it faces plunging the nation into
an avoidable election crisis.
As it stands, buck-passing will not help the state of affairs.
There is now the growing need for a tripartite action to
salvage the situation. First, the executive meddlesomeness
and manipulation alleged by the senators to vote out the
Electoral Act amendment in the second reading must cease.
The legislature from the National Assembly down to the
states must be conscious of the fact that failure to grant
the extension of time requested by the INEC by amending the
constitution to wit, can truncate the nation’s democracy.
INEC, on its part, should realize it has a date with history which
again depending on how it is met can gravely affect the
nation’s march to full democratic governance. Jega
particularly, should realize that Nigerians were traumatized
by his predecessors and now look forward to him for succor
and remedy. At the moment, he has not done that much to
register his commitment quite beyond reminding the citizens
of his integrity at every turn. His Commission’s gross error
of judgment in calculating timelines for procurements of
equipments, carrying out registration of voters and allied
matters, is actually a heavy minus and has taken a heavy
toll on his credibility without him realizing.
Jega is not coming from the outer space to take the INEC job. He
knows that Nigerians have been made into hardnosed skeptics
by their appalling experience in democratic practice.
Learned helplessness has been their lot, and each successive
election has only grown worse in comparism, as the present
one threatens despite Jega’s assurances that he would leave
behind the best election record in the nation thus far. Such
historic ambition will not come through buck-passing but
through proactive measures.
By apathy as a political culture, following numerous ghastly
experiences, Nigerians now prefer to wait for their leaders
in the wing to either fail or succeed. For Jega, it will not
be different. The earlier he realizes that he is on his own
the better. And that no matter who is seizing the chance of
his requested amendment to gain more time to throw in the
spanner in the work, it is still him Nigerians are looking
at, zoning or no zoning maneuvers not withstanding. In fact,
history will not forgive Jega for failing since he had all
the chance and goodwill probably not enjoyed by any of the
previous Commission’s chairmen.
• Law Mefor, Author and Journalist, is
Director, Center for leadership, Social and Forensic
Research, Abuja; email lawmefor@yahoo.com; cell:
234)0(803-787-2893
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Published
October 25th, 2010
