Maurice Iwu
6 July 2009
(Page 2 of 3)
The danger inherent in the excessive use of money in politics manifests in several corrosive dimensions. For one, with such money, there is no level playing field in an electoral contest anymore. It is also a fact in most instances that those who deploy such excessive wealth for elections always lack restraint and so seek to buy off everything including the electorate and the election personnel. A greater threat to democracy and the voice it offers the majority can hardly be found.
Apart from the danger of excessive use of money in politics, the Commission had identified three other broad issues that continue to bog down the environment of elections in Nigeria. The other factors are the threat and actual unleashing of violence as a strategy to gain upper hands during elections; the inequity in gender participation in politics and finally, the mindset of Nigerians about elections. The last refers to the set disposition in Nigerians on what can be done to win elections, how to behave in politics and elections and the perception of officials of the election management authority.
The problems confronting the electoral process in Nigeria stretch from the provisions of the law to human elements. While the former is crucial in establishing a solid framework for the operation of the system, the latter is no les crucial.Indeed,it could be more important in the overall interpretation and practical delivery of successful outcomes of the system.
In the period after the 2007 elections - which were conducted in very trying circumstances both for the election management body - and especially with the initiative taken by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua on electoral reform, so much political issue has been made of electoral reforms, most of the emphasis being on the provisions of the law guiding the electoral process. The law is important, but the attitude and conduct of the stakeholders and operators of the system count for much of the success that can ever be expected out of the system, reformed or not.
Without doubts the 2007 elections were confronted with sundry loopholes and rather confusing legal interpretations of the laws guiding the conduct of the elections. One of the outstanding cases over which critics of the Commission have been most uncharitable concerned the initial exclusion of some aspirants, including the then Vice President Atiku Abubakar from contesting in the election. The Commission does not, of course, operate outside the laws of the country. The extant law as of the time of preparation for the 2007 election was that any person indicted by an administrative inquiry by the government automatically did not qualify to contest for election. The Federal Government had come out with a White Paper containing those that its administrative panels indicted for sundry offences which disqualified them for contesting in the elections. Subsequently, the Attorney General of the Federation communicated the Commission on the provisions of the law on the matter. It remains a puzzle that some still argue that the Commission should have ignored the provisions of the law and the information from the attorney general on the matter.
As if this was not enough, when some of those who were excluded at that material time went to the court to seek relief, the court up to the Appeal Court reaffirmed the law as was communicated to the Commission. The reversal of the ruling of the Appeal Court by the Supreme Court on June 16, 2007, barely five days to the presidential election could not have made the Commission lawless in actions that had had the full backing of the law till then.
The lack of financial autonomy by the election management body presented another critical challenge in the preparation for the 2007 elections. The delay, seemingly willful by relevant arms organs of the government to release funds already appropriated for the elections meant that the Commission wasted so much time and energy in chasing after the funds to execute vital aspects of programmes for the elections.
Perhaps nothing reflects the poor planning of the state for elections than the practice of releasing the bulk of the money for the preparation for elections few months to the polls. This practice which still persists denies the election management body the opportunity of planning ahead and procuring needed materials for elections in measured pace. During the preparation for the 2007 election, the costly import of this practice was poignantly driven home when the order for the Direct Data Capture equipment for registration of voters could not be fully secured as of the date the registration exercise was billed to commence. It took the intervention of a patriot to rescue the nation and the Commission in that instane.But the emergency could not have arisen if the fund for the equipment had been available much earlier and the order made much earlier.
But by far the greatest threat to the preparations for the 2007 elections and indeed the political stability of the nation about the time was the crisis in the ruling party which escalated into the unprecedented split in the Presidency. The crisis did not only increase the political temperature of the nation, it rendered the work of the electoral commission more difficult as every decision the Commission took was challenged and suspected by the warring parties in the ruling party. As it turned out, there was ample reason to believe that many within the political class both from the government and the so-called opposition did not want the election to hold for different reasons. The Commission found itself swimming against the tide. Worse still, the tide came from more than one direction.A situation could not be worse for preparation for a general election.
Many of those who today criticize the conduct of the 2007 election and wished that it had been as smooth as that in some of the countries they point to conveniently forget the very circumstances in which the 2007 elections were conducted. For all the challenges and impediments, the Commission was resolute that the election must be held. And it was held. Had that not been done, the country would have once more succumbed to the jinx of not managing to transit from one government that had completed its full term to another. Thank God that jinx was broken. Today we can talk of the shortcomings of the 2007 elections, but there is can never be an issue again of the country struggling to overcome a transition election.
For obvious reasons the crisis in the ruling Peoples Democratic Party presented a bigger problem for the country and preparations for the 2007 elections. But many of the other political parties were not in any better condition. Propelled by a desire to broaden the political space and reduce tension inherent in the struggle for tickets and foothold in few parties, the Commission had granted registration to more parties preparatory to the elections. As at the commencement of the 2007 elections therefore, there were fifty political parties. Unfortunately, many of the parties had factions and splinters within them.There were no way most of the parties could meaningfully contest for electoral success.Indeed, there were some of them with no known foothold anywhere.
Caught in internal wrangling as many of the parties were, they could hardly carry out such duties as voter education and public enlightenment which political parties are expected to do. The situation left the electorate worse off, with the Commission now saddled also with voter education and enlightenment programmes including basic information dissemination on the names and logos of the political parties.
At the same as they were mired in internal struggles or perhaps because of that, virtually all the political parties showed no respect for internal democracy. In many of the parties there was no democratic selection of candidates. In some others , the primaries were conducted but the results were thrown overboard as the party leaders whimsically picked those they liked as candidates whether they won the primaries or not. The law had excluded the omission from having any control over such affairs of the political parties. They were termed internal party affairs. In the fullness of time, the internal party affairs led to no little grief from some of its products. Strangely enough, the Commission found itself been criticized by some for some of the decisions and actions of the parties which derived from their exclusive internal affairs.
Any reform of the electoral system which does not find a way to strengthen the political parties and also ensure strict compliance by their executives and members to the rules guiding them will have missed a very critical aspect of the problem of Nigeria's political process.
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