Edo 2016 Governorship election: Matters arising

Despite all expectation of violence, the Edo state Governorship election has come and gone into the graveyard of Nigerian electoral history like every human social organization which must respect the passage of time. Also, to respect the passage of time is the charismatic and flamboyant Governor of the state Comrade Adams Oshiomhole whose unprecedented legacies […]

Despite all expectation of violence, the Edo state Governorship election has come and gone into the graveyard of Nigerian electoral history like every human social organization which must respect the passage of time. Also, to respect the passage of time is the charismatic and flamboyant Governor of the state Comrade Adams Oshiomhole whose unprecedented legacies will be remembered not only in Edo state but in Nigeria.
What happened in Edo state on September 28, 2016 has become a school for scholars, political parties, Independent National Electoral Commission and other stakeholders in electoral politics as it was history in the making per excellence.
The  Commission successfully conducted all the pre-election activities like recruitment and training  of adhoc staff, accreditation of  41 domestic and foreign election observers missions, transportation  to Edo State all logistic materials including  sensitive and non-sensitive. Comments made by election observer missions on the pre-election activities were favourable. Activities of INEC on Election Day were successful except for the collation of votes in some centres. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and some civil society organisations were dissatisfied with the State Collation Centre in Benin. It is necessary to mention that INEC recruited collation officers but obviously not responsible for their individual conduct. If any form of misconduct is uncovered with any adhoc staff employed by INEC he is individually responsible for it not INEC. From the evaluation of data available, the new INEC team has performed above average and should be congratulated.
The second actors in order of importance in the Edo election are the security agents: the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), the Armed Forces and the Civil Defence organisation. Security agents uncovered a major security threats on the eve of September 10, 2016 which was the day initially fixed for the election. This compelled them to recommend to INEC the postponement of the election to September 28, 2016. Security deployment and activities on Election Day were without hitches. With the exception of a few polling stations where hired thugs attempted to disorganise the voting process, election went on peacefully without any major disruption. This is a big achievement for the new Inspector General of Police.
Both foreign and domestic observer missions participated in the observation of the election. Some of the missions pointed accusing fingers on the collation centres and the use of money by some political parties to influence the outcome of votes. In a situation of harsh economic conditions, voters are likely to be vulnerable to financial inducement. All participating political parties are guilty of this offence. The only difference is that the richer parties are better placed to offer more money.
Political parties play important role in democratic competitive election. The Edo state Governorship election was not an exception. Nineteen political parties participated in the September 28 election which turned out to be a two-horse race between the candidate of the APC, Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki and the candidate of the PDP, Andrew-Ize-Iyamu Osaghe. The other 17 so-called parties   became liabilities for the management of the election by INEC.
At the end of the election, the candidate of the APC was declared the winner. He won in thirteen local governments, thereby satisfying the spread requirement with a total vote of 379,483. The candidate of the PDP got 253,173 votes. With the formal declaration of the result of the election by INEC the options available to any aggrieved candidate are clearly spelt-out in the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act.
There were certain areas of strength and weaknesses which stakeholders should learn from the election. The performance of INEC and security organizations during the pre-election period was excellent. This was acknowledged by both domestic and foreign election observers. The obvious challenge was the sudden change of the date of the election from 10th to 28th September 2016 on the advice of security operatives. INEC experienced the same thing in the 2015 General Election when all the elections dates were shifted forward because of the failure to deliver ballot papers in time. This is obviously a weak chain in the administrative performance of INEC. Efforts should be made to correct it. One possible solution is to adopt the United States’ method in which the dates of major elections are fixed by the constitution.
In addition to the specific challenges with the Edo state Governorship election there were outstanding ones which affected the institutionalization of the electoral process since the first election in the Fourth Republic in 1999. The Uwais Electoral Reform Committee made far-reaching recommendations to correct these challenges. Unfortunately, most of them were not accepted. The few that were accepted were not implemented. The Nnamani Committee which was recently established should re-visit the report and adopt some good recommendations like those dealing with the scrapping of State Independent Electoral Commissions, method of appointing INEC chairman and commissioners, the establishment of a court  for the trial of election offenders, an institution to promote civic education, introduction   of proportional representation, unbundling of INEC by delegating some of its functions, to organization which perform similar function; others include the introduction of overseas voters by Nigerians residing abroad and the introduction of full electronic methods in the operation of INEC.
Recent experience in the electoral process is the manifestation of the dreaded corruption with some INEC staff indicted and is being investigated. Given its strategic role as an umpire in a democratic election such tendency will spell doom for the election credibility in Nigeria. It is, therefore, necessary for a special anti-corruption unit to be created in the commission to handle all corrupt cases with utmost urgency. It is necessary to say that election under a democratic system of government is a transferred institution by the British colonial government. Democratisation is subject to reverse wave. Nigeria is still under reverse wave, were democratic election is subject to trial and error. It is therefore wrong to talk of perfection in this phase of democratisation.
Prof. Ujo, wrote this piece from the Dept of Political Science, University of Abuja.