Ofeibea Quist-Arcton
31 March 2003
(Page 2 of 2)
If you want to siddon [sit down] look, then siddon look while they burn your country down. That is the bottom line.
Dr Baba-Ahmed, there are areas of Nigeria facing violence - in the oil-rich Delta region for instance, between rival local communities. Militant Ijaw youths fighting the rival Itsekiri community have warned that they will make their part of the country 'ungovernable’ unless the authorities redraw electoral boundaries. Where does that leave Inec? Could you hold elections in such circumstances?
Wherever there is violence we don’t conduct elections. If there is imminent violence or actual violence on the ground - and we are advised by security agents regarding the level of violence of the safety of our men or material - we don’t conduct elections there.
I cannot comment on threats to make the country ungovernable. What I can tell you is that if, between now and the elections, we have peace in that area all our preparations are targeted towards conducting an election in all parts of the country. If there is no peace and there is any threat to the conduct of the elections, or to the persons who will do that, we will not have an election there.
This would not be the first time we would not conducted an election in selected parts of the country. In the past we have conducted elections later in some parts of the country.
But surely that would be a blow to democracy in Nigeria?
Well, again, I can only comment about our preparations to conduct an election. What I am telling you is that as far as we are concerned, wherever there is peace and there is no threat to our men and material - or the persons who have come out to vote - we will conduct an election.
You were very passionate during the press brief about placing the onus on Nigerians themselves to ensure that all goes well.
Yes, as I said, one of the sad elements about the political process here in Nigeria is that there are too many people alienated from the political process. There is a huge middle class, there is a huge professional group, the private sector, self-employed persons, patriotic serious-minded, responsible citizens of Nigeria who are not part of the hustle and bustle of politics.
They are bitter about the manner in which they see the political process sometimes being abused by those who are in the mainstream of it. But these people are just not willing to come out and do something about it. And there is a golden opportunity for them to do something about it.
They can come to us and serve as polling officials. They would improve the quality and the integrity of the officers that we entrust to count votes, to announce results, to collate results and to determine whether we actually produce a government that is validly and properly elected.
Those people have been challenged. We have put out advertisements in newspapers and we are asking them to show their commitment to this country, to exercise their privilege and to pay back Nigeria for what it has given them - the education, the privilege, the skills that they have.
We are saying "Come out and do this work. It won’t pay you much, but in terms of its return for the survival of democracy in this country, we are looking forward to the professional group - the bankers, the insurers, the accountants, the private sector people, the media people - for those few days to come and serve this country; please do so." We are saying they should help us to reduce the traditional sources of the ad hoc staff that we use, because those guys are a major problem. The quality is low and their integrity is not very high.
And what response has there been to your requests for assistance so far?
Quite good actually. I don’t know how many of them we can get. The numbers we are looking for are huge - 600,000 people. We think that if we are able to get 100,000 professionals that would be fantastic. We are looking for bankers and other professionals, people in the middle class who can put everything aside and just say "hey, I want to help;" they have got the education and capacity to conduct an election, they can withstand the pressures that you normally face being an election official.
We don’t know how many we can get, but the more we can get the better for the electoral process.
When you hear criticism of Inec, the Independent National Electoral Commission, how does that personally make you feel - all the talk of Inec being disorganized and unprepared to hold elections?
It depends who is making the criticism. We have a forum here called the Inec Political Parties’ Consultative Forum. We meet very frequently and we avail the parties of information relating to what we do.
I’m referring to ordinary Nigerians -
- that’s why I said it depends on where the criticism comes from. If the criticism comes from the political parties - like what happened during the one-day stakeholders’ meeting when the political leaders stood up and said "cancel the elections because Inec doesn’t have a register and Inec is not ready" - that hurts. It hurts because it is coming from people who should know better, because they have access to everything we do.
If the criticism comes from what you like to call 'ordinary Nigerians', then it hurts me, because I wish the people were more informed than they are. I realise that one of our weaknesses is that we don’t put ourselves out as much as we should. And Nigerians are entitled, as a right, to know everything that we do.
So, I’m not very happy when ordinary Nigerians say we’re not ready - but I get worried about how they know that we’re not ready. I’m worried about mischief, about people who do know, telling ordinary Nigerians that we are not ready. That’s dangerous.
But Dr Baba-Ahmed, do you think you’re communicating enough with the average Nigerian and providing enough voter education nationwide? Have you perhaps concentrated too much on the political parties and political leaders because they make the most noise, at the expense of the ordinary people?
Well I’m talking to you because I want to communicate with ordinary Nigerians.
I’m talking about the period up till now - just three weeks before the elections.
Well I’m assuring the ordinary Nigerian that he or she can put his head on his pillow and sleep in peace. The Commission charged with the conduct of the elections is working hard and we are on schedule.
What is important, however, is to realise that these elections have to be conducted in an environment that has to be prepared by ordinary Nigerians, by political parties, by communities; that environment is very largely going to affect the manner in which these elections are conducted. It’s not just our responsibility. We will conduct an election. We will put out ballot boxes, we will have polling officials and we will go through the motions of an election.
But the environment, the build-up to the elections is not giving us comfort. The level of violence is unacceptable, too many people are being intimidated and we are not getting the kind of people we want - especially women - to get involved. We are particularly interested in getting as many women as possible to serve as election officials, but they are being discouraged by the violence that they see manifested on the ground. They are worried about what happens to them on election day, if thugs come to the polling centres and scare everybody.
They are right. These kinds of things are affecting us. We don’t want, and are not happy about the kind of talk going around between politicians.
Everyone is on tenterhooks here in Nigeria to find out - assuming the elections are conducted normally - if one civilian government can hold elections and successfully hand over to another duly elected government which will remain in power. How do you feel being at the heart of the democratic process here at the Electoral Commission?
I feel privileged. I feel challenged and I feel privileged. I also see it as my duty as a Nigerian to do that. There is no challenge greater at this stage in this country than to help Nigeria through this very difficult process.
I have faith that it can be done and we must do it.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2003 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
