kalu for a purpose

Going by the timetable released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the 2011 elections will kick off in April with the National Assembly elections. Already, the electoral umpire has commenced concrete arrangements to ensure the conduct of free and credible elections as promised by its chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega. The first in a series of arrangements towards the staging of the elections is the voter registration that starts on January 15 and ends on January 29. As scheduled, the Direct Data Capturing (DDC) machines have begun arriving in the country, preparatory to their deployment to the states. 

According to analysts and political observers, the voter registration exercise is about the most important aspect in the effort to conduct free and fair elections, because on it rests the success of the entire election. The flaws that characterised elections in the past had always been traced to the poor compilation of voters’ registers. Is it not very disturbing that Nigeria, as huge and rich as it is, has not been able to put in place a standard voter register for the conduct of elections in the country? This situation is incomprehensible, considering that the world has shrunk into a global village as a result of explosion in information technology. Why haven’t our leaders thought it yet exigent to do the needful to get this register in place as a permanent document? For how long shall we grope in the dark before we do what is right to lift our nation out of unnecessary, self-inflicted scourges?

It is not arguable that the success of elections in the developed world can be traced to their ability to compile dependable and reliable voter registers, which are continually updated as the need arises. 

Since we lack such a reliable document how then can the electorate effect a change in the leadership of the country when expected to do so? After all, the ability of the electorate to change a poorly performing government depends largely on the ballot box. And this goal can only be achieved if the same electorate turned out in large numbers and participated animatedly in the voter registration.

This is the greatest challenge that confronts the Nigerian electorate as of today. From available statistics, voter apathy had accounted for the emergence of incapable and inefficient leaders in the past. Again, the manipulation of voter registration exercises by some unscrupulous persons has also been fingered as a major contributor to the shoddy organisation of elections in Nigeria. For instance, the muddling up of the voter register in 2007 is said to be responsible for the malpractices that characterised the conduct of the 2007 general elections. It has been proved since then that strange names, including those of foreigners and the dead, are contained in the existing register. Painfully, the same register was approved by INEC for the conduct of the rerun governorship election in Delta State, which held on January 6. What kind of result would emanate from an election conducted with a flawed register? Agreed, the Court of Appeal that heard Great Ogboru’s petition against the election of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan as governor ordered that another election be conducted within 90 days.

But it amounted to a sheer contraption and an unpardonable rape on the electoral process for INEC to have staged an election with a voter register that contained the names of such persons as Tyson, Clinton, Tutu and Mandela. I am aware that by the time you read this piece the election in Delta would have been held. But that will not be able to remove the moral burden placed on INEC and other dramatis personae in the rerun election in Delta State.
This situation calls to question the preparedness of INEC to take Nigeria through a credible process of election organisation this year. I do not want to believe that the insistence by INEC to use the questionable register had anything to do with extraneous, suspicious reasons. However, everything points to the fact that some persons were out to commit mischief by not waiting for a new voter register to be compiled.

Nevertheless, INEC had every reason to go ahead with the conduct of the Delta Governorship Rerun election; at least it could justify its decision on its commitment to obey court decisions, and in this case the Court of Appeal, Benin City. It would have made some sense if the court had added a caveat in its judgment that the rerun election should be conducted with a new voter registration. This would have given INEC the grounds to shift the date of the election to a more amenable time – preferably after the new voter registration exercise. According to INEC, the new voter register would be ready on March 2. I hope nothing will engender a sudden change in that date.
What I had expected INEC to do with the Delta rerun election was to mobilize all logistics at its disposal to ensure that all went well on that day. It will send the wrong signal if it allows itself to be misguided or manipulated by desperate politicians this time round, especially after it had promised the nation of its willingness not to compromise its integrity. If that happens then we might as well bid farewell to free and fair elections in 2011.

Another serious challenge to the 2011 elections is resort to self-help by politicians. From feelers across the country it is certain that our politicians have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. They are still the same old people – garrulous, violent and tempestuous. None of them is ready to shift an inch to accommodate his opponent. Politics in Nigeria is still hinged on winner-takes-it-all. This is why they are ready to do anything, including the obnoxious, to win elections. I read a mind-boggling report in the media last week about the crises that rocked the PDP primaries in many states across the country. The situation in Oyo was particularly intriguing, where over six persons were murdered in cold blood in a clash between rival factions of the party in the state. One of those killed was the factional chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Oyo State Council. His death, coming two days to his 58th birthday and house-warming, has left many in the state bewildered. One wonders what will happen when the real election is held. Hell will be let loose, I fear.

Resort to violence in settling political scores is a very dangerous development. Even though the culture of violence has been a part of our political life since the forties, it has assumed a more perilous dimension since 2003, when desperation among politicians heightened. Like in the case of Oyo State, these atrocities (killing and maiming) are committed in the full glare of a retinue of security men. Why should ordinary citizens be allowed to carry dangerous and outlawed weapons to political rallies and meetings? The conduct of party primaries is strictly an in-house affair and should not attract unauthorized persons.

I still wonder why security agencies lack the will to enforce the law as they should. Why the noise about one man one vote when we cannot guarantee the safety of innocent voters. What is happening today across the length and breathe of the nation is as worrisome as they are anti-democratic. They are designed by the perpetrators to scare voters and give them undue leverage to commit all kinds of atrocities to force themselves on the masses. But I can assure them that Nigerians are getting wiser by the day. No amount of intimidation can deter the masses from exercising their constitutional duty of electing credible and responsible leaders.

President Good luck Jonathan must put into practice what he preaches. There will never be free and fair elections without adequate security. Adequate security matched with the desire on the part of the federal government to create level playing field for all participants in the electoral process is all we need to attain a new election era in Nigeria.
Voter reorientation campaign is also desirous if we are to achieve free and fair elections this year. As things stand now, the electorate are not sufficiently schooled in their duty in ensuring the election of quality leaders. The bad leaders produced by past elections were a product of a debased and flawed process. Incidentally, it is the same electorate that are manipulated by politicians to achieve their wicked ends. Again, it is the ignorance of the electorate that has given vent to the tendency by politicians to cajole and use them to attain their nefarious agenda. What the voter sensitization exercise will achieve is multi-dimensional. First it will arouse the consciousness of voters to their civic and constitutional duties at elections. When they are properly oriented then they will be better positioned to confront the challenges that the process entrusts on them. Second, it will eliminate undue manipulation of the voters as they will be more alive to their responsibilities. Voter manipulation is engendered by greed and ignorance. Third, it will afford the government the rare opportunity to right the wrongs of the past by plugging all the loopholes associated with the vulnerability of voters. Fourth, it will allow for sharing of useful ideas by the voters as they parley at workshops and conferences organized to educate them on the complexities of the electoral process.

Emoluments for legislators have been identified as one of the causes of the desperation by politicians to win elections at all costs. The recent revelation by the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) about the overheads of National Assembly members is a pointer to the harm high salaries and allowances has done to our socio-economic development. What kind of country could afford 25% of its overall overheads to be spent on the maintenance of its national legislators when its average citizen could hardly afford one meal a day? Despite the fact that the matter is still raging at the public domain, it is one of the issues that will shape the 2011 elections. There is no way the voters will not register their resentment with their votes when the time comes. I see the legislature as too significant to the growth of democracy as to give itself out to such humiliation and opprobrium. It is gratifying to observe that the Presidency and the National Assembly have already taken practical steps to correct the anomaly and restore the integrity of the lawmakers. I think it will make reasonable sense if the same measure is extended to the states. I learned the other day that a state assembly had asked for 25% of their 2011 budget to be devoted to their overheads. What then will be used to meet the other needs of the state?

Let us focus on the role of the vigilance groups in the forthcoming elections. In doing this, we need to ask a salient question: do they really have any role? The answer is absolute No. The call for the establishment of state police may be auspicious. But it is true that some state governors may be pushing for it as a terror-machine to haunt and hound their opponents. This is true, considering the condemnable operational tactics of some vigilance groups. It has since been established that some governors are training these vigilance groups to play a sinister role in the 2011 elections.

Will the police allow such interference capable of casting doubt on the integrity of the entire elections? What the federal authorities should do is to adequately fund and equip the police and other statutorily-recognized security agencies in readiness for the elections. This, therefore, renders the vigilance groups redundant as far as the elections are concerned. From the law establishing the vigilance groups their major function is simply to augment the effort of the police in crime control. If this is so, then the police must ensure that they are not used to meet the selfish interests of overzealous politicians.
The final challenge facing the 2011 election is INEC itself. I must confess that I am impressed with the lofty ideas introduced by the INEC leadership to ensure that the elections come out very successfully. But I must not fail to express fears about the meddlesomeness of politicians in the affairs of INEC in the past. The inability of the commission to do a perfect job during elections is always blamed on the politicians who do everything possible to influence or compromise INEC staff. There is no debating the fact that some unscrupulous INEC staff have always succumbed to inducement by politicians. And the result is a highly jaundiced election result. The high spate of litigations that accompanied the conduct of the 2007 elections is a veritable pointer to this claim.

What I expect INEC to do to restore the confidence of the public in it operations is to shun politicians, and their antics, train its staff adequately, distribute materials for elections on time and provide adequate security for them, and collate results and announce the same honestly. These steps will definitely lead to the emergence of a new INEC. The failure or success of the 2011 elections rests squarely on it. And it will be a monumental embarrassment if after all its promises the elections failed to meet the expectations of the masses.

I advise Prof. Jega and his helmsmen to do all in their powers to make the votes count. Otherwise generations yet unborn will not forgive them.
If I were Jega, I’d rather choose to conduct credible elections and die, if need be, than rig the elections and live.