INEC and the end of Nigeria’s democracy (II)
Continued from last week 12. The allegation that the INEC is subservient to every ruling party, and that this action of illegal ‘deregistration’ is designed to strengthen the status quo and evolve Nigeria into a one-party state also comes up. The latent question of how the Chairman and other executives of INEC are appointed […]
Continued from last week
12. The allegation that the INEC is subservient to every ruling party, and that this action of illegal ‘deregistration’ is designed to strengthen the status quo and evolve Nigeria into a one-party state also comes up. The latent question of how the Chairman and other executives of INEC are appointed comes up. INEC cannot be judge and jury when it is unclear how it could ever achieve independence if paid by executives in the ruling party. The fundamental question of how to dis-link INEC from partisan politics to truly become an unbiased umpire is another constitutional issue that should and will be explored.
13. The issues of modernity and use of technology in the nation’s electoral system is also laid wide open. Nigerians finally have an opportunity to determine how their elections should be run to ensure the results declared are close to reality. INEC has avoided the need for all its processes to be run with technology. A huge debate ensued around the use of servers in the Atiku case. Now that it is obvious that INEC has issues around record keeping and analytics, there is a need to help INEC to help itself.
14. The question of importation of foreigners to vote in parts of Nigeria, as well as the general violence and fraud around our elections are also exhumed for examination. Why were 2019 elections adjudged to be fundamentally flawed and worse than previous elections? Why was nothing done to address that allegation? Going by what happened in Kogi State guber elections, are we not ashamed that our elections are wars in which many die? Why are we attempting to consolidate this execrable scenario? Are we not supposed to be finding ways of preventing violence and corruption around our elections? Why is there no focus on violence and corruption but an overkill on number of parties? Why are young parties being victimized while the old parties that perpetuate violence and corruption are being dignified?
15. What is the logic of abrogating an institution at her infancy, giving only one opportunity to an institution – at take off stage – to prove itself or die. As much as this insane provision has been inserted by partisan senators into the constitution and signed off by a sitting president, that doesn’t make it right or reasonable. Senators and presidents are human beings too, with their own biases. Inference can be drawn from academia, from the professional world, from other government activities and elsewhere, that you cannot expect institutions (especially those which have to look for their funding from any and everywhere), to gain speed and legitimately achieve results under one year, and given only one attempt. The constitution will be challenged on that basis. A mere pronouncement by INEC cannot determine the future of Nigerian politics without a pushback
16. A big constitutional question come up as to fairness and equity, and the achievement of level playing ground for political parties. The older ones were funded with taxpayers’ monies (including taxpayers whose rights have been breached by the militaristic abrogation of the parties they formed) running into trillions of naira for many years. The parties that have been cheated and raped by INEC were mostly established when no funding was provided by INEC or the Federal Government. On one hand is the question of why INEC misled these parties, obtained N1,000,000 non-refundable fees from them, issued licenses for the long term, made them invest their hard-earned monies building nationwide structures and also investing into very hopeless elections all over the nation; elections which INEC had no intention of making credible and which were not credible by any indices, only for these parties to be slapped black and blue. INEC certainly owes each of these parties billions of naira in terms of damages. It does not matter if anyone likes the faces of anyone in those parties. They are Nigerian citizens and deserve justice. What is more, they have not committed any crimes. Instead a huge unforgivable crime has just been committed against those parties and the people who promoted them, simply because they believed in Nigeria and sought to create credible options for Nigerian politics. This is akin to political 419. INEC has given much opportunity to some parties, and none to others. The ones given opportunities are the ones removing the ladder and ensuring the younger ones are obliterated.
These are the questions that will come up as we try to reexamine the constitutional bases of our democracy. It is important to note that the momentum will not be gained by popular demand as most Nigerians cannot see this opportunity. Most Nigerians do not belong to political parties or understand the need to make the sacrifice of starting one, or the pains of working hard to sustain and build momentum. So I know that the disenfranchised parties cannot look to the ‘public’ who are simply irritated with the numbers of parties. I tell people that 90 parties in a nation of 200million people with these many problems is not a big deal. Yes, the voting slips may look very long but our efforts to save our nation from insecurity, bad economics and so on, should even be deeper, more extensive and longer. What is unacceptable is for us to sit on our hands and complain on social media. Hope will therefore come, from the efforts of a few good men and women who are ready to explore these fundamental issues of constitutionality, which themselves are required to set this country on the right democratic path once and for all. Everything else asides some of these issues, is child play, heading nowhere.
The young parties contain gadflies who are ready to help examine some of these issues. They have their own nuisance values and were made for a time like this. Nigerians do not have to understand and may be readily swayed by the mere irritation of having 92 political parties. Yes, some of the parties may be shallow in their bases and some are allegedly sponsored by old politicians as satellites to the old parties. But so long as these parties remain entities recognized under the law, violence must not be done to their status by anybody. Within these parties lie the hope to a greater future for Nigeria, not within the old, entrenched parties which have run Nigeria into a ditch so far. Within those young parties lie the savviness, the energy, the innocence, a relative honesty, the open-mindedness, the modernity that can project Nigeria to begin to identify with the progressive world community.
I am certain that these constitutional issues will be explored through the judicial system and some victories will be won. No matter how corrupt the judiciary is, there are stray judges here and there that are not cowed by the government, that remain true to their consciences and calling, and that have the future of this nation firmly in view. Those are the judges that will spring the surprises. Societies must change, whether the people in it like it or not. The change may be positive or negative. Sometimes a tiny ripple results in a tsunami. Many times, reckless acts of impunity and bullying is what results in a people’s revolution. No sane society can be built for too long on injustice, impunity, and devil-may-care attitude. With this act by INEC, the electoral regulator has opened the floodgates and blasted ajar a massive opportunity to critically examine and restructure the democratic substructure of this country. Whether we will be able to handle the fallouts of this foundational scrutiny is a different question entirely. We shall see.
NB – Justice Anwuli Chikere of Court 3, Federal High Court, Abuja, was livid to realise that INEC, despite being served with the suit by the parties to halt any deregistration, went ahead all the same and in contempt of the court. She ordered on Monday 17th February, that INEC be restrained from deregistering any party pending the determination of the suit before her. Real shame on INEC. But the battle has only just commenced