This Day (Lagos)
Charles Ajunwa
2 November 2009
analysis
Lagos — A delegation of the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reform (CODER), visited the corporate headquarters of THISDAY in Apapa, Lagos last week, to brief the Board of Editors of the Newspaper on the activities of its group. Charles Ajunwa who was present at the meeting, writes on moves by CODER to ensure that peoples' votes count
The need to rid the polity of widespread electoral malpractices was the highpoint of last week's visit by a six-man delegation from the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reform (CODER), to THISDAY's head office in Apapa, Lagos. The delegation was led by its facilitator, Mr. Ayo Opadokun. Also in the team were its General Secretary, Senator Abu Ibrahim, its Spokesperson, Mr. Tunji Bello, Barrister Saida Sa'ad, Mr. Mike Igeni and Prince Ebitimi Angbare. Their mission, according to Opadokun, was to brief THISDAY's Board of Editors on the activities of the group, including its main drive to make peoples' votes count at elections.
In his opening remarks, Bello, a former Editorial Board Chairman of THISDAY and former Commissioner for Environment in Lagos State, disclosed that CODER was currently engaging all stakeholders in Nigeria's electoral process on the need to change the current electoral laws in the country. The laws, he said, had been heavily manipulated and abused by politicians.
Therefore, the need to salvage the situation, Bello said, was the main reason CODER was formed by a group of concerned Nigerians. Specifically, Bello revealed that the necessity to ensure that the electoral reforms process started by President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua became a fruitful adventure was CODER's goal. The former commissioner added that to remain docile in this important phase of Nigeria's political history could be suicidal, explaining that proactive decisions needed to be made to accelerate the electoral reform processes in the country.
It would be recalled that Ya'Adua had on August 28, 2007, inaugurated the Justice Mohammed Uwais-led Electoral Reform Committee with the mandate to prescribe recommendations to the Federal Government on how to ensure a free and fair election in the country. After touring the six geo-political zones of the country and conducting a number of public hearings, the committee submitted its report, backed with three bills to enhance its implementation. But the Federal Government which later set up different committees to review the recommendations, whittled down the report and subsequently issued a White Paper. The president later replaced Uwais committee's bills with seven others which he forwarded to the National Assembly.
Opadokun, in his submission, acknowledged that CODER was a child of circumstance, which according to him was only responding to Yar'Adua's failure to endorse the Uwais committee's recommendations. He argued that the Uwais' report had the tendency to guarantee a free and fair election in Nigeria.
"CODER is not a political party. We are a body of concerned Nigerians who want a redeeming future for our country. And the importance of this group is to educate the Nigerian people, link up with stakeholders across the length and breath of the country... We have moral authority through which we can persuade Nigerians to accept this new thinking and our thinking is, let peoples' votes count at election. We are interested in having a new electoral system that will work, that will produce a free and fair election," Opadokun declared.
CODER, according to Opadokun, is in support of Uwais committee's recommendations, saying it will impact positively on the quality and credibility of elections. He also said recommendations for the creation of an Electoral Offences Commission that will ensure the prosecution of election offenders, modified open secret system that will stop the abuse and manipulation inherent in the electoral system in the country and the appointment of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) remain germane and should be upheld.
For CODER to achieve its set objective of making peoples' votes count, Opadokun said the group had opted to collaborate with the media, members of the National Assembly, diplomatic communities, former rulers, religious and traditional leaders with a view to ensuring that the current electoral laws are replaced with relevant laws, disclosing that CODER would be launched in the first week of December, this year, in all the major zones and states in the country with a view to carrying Nigerians along in the project.
Igeni, a human rights activist, in his own submission, said the first business of CODER, was to ensure that election in the country did not turn into a warfare, insisting that with a right frame of legal system put in place, the country would begin to witness free and fair elections in the country. He emphasised the need for something tangible to be done urgently to correct the flaws in the country's electoral system.
"You know what we have suffered. When American President Barrack Obama came to Ghana, you know how he talked straight to our face. Obama did not visit Nigeria; he chose Ghana as the beacon of democracy. In a country of this nature, for every group of black men in the world, almost one out of every four is a Nigerian. So, we are concerned that in Nigeria, we have failed the black race. We have not responded to our destiny as a people. We should show the light.
"See what is happening in Niger at our doorstep. A military man has taken over and he has closed down all the channels of democracy and Nigeria cannot intervene. It's because we know what we have done. We want to restore legitimacy and morals to governance, which are the basic principles. Before people can relate with you, you must earn their respect and legitimacy," Igeni remarked.
On whether CODER did not have a hidden agenda, Igeni argued that CODER came on board because Yar'Adua did not fulfil his earlier promise to use the recommendations of the Uwais committee to better the electoral process in the country.
"That committee was set up by President Yar'Adua. They went round the whole country collecting memoranda. Most stakeholders made presentations before that body. They worked round the clock; they went to other parts of the world to see how Nigeria's electoral system can be improved and they came and submitted their report. A committee was set up for a White Paper and the committee virtually endorsed the Uwais committee report. They set up another committee and this other committee also tinkered with a few things, but virtually approved the Uwais committee recommendations. But then that was also not acceptable to hawks around President Yar'Adua, until they set up the third committee, which now recommended the bills the Presidency sent to the National Assembly. What we found in those bills, was a major disaster for Nigeria. All the key recommendations were rejected. That means you wasted the public funds and it was not small money that was spent on that electoral reform panel. That money has gone down the drain with the bills sent by President Yar'Adua to the National Assembly.
"Uwais committee report should have been allowed to remain because it has moral authority. It has the greatest moral fibre. Because you (the President) set it up, you gave them the terms of reference. The recommendations made by the third committee, can they lead to a free and fair election in the country? Rejection of the Uwais' committee recommendations was an exhibition of bad faith, unwillingness to have election systems in Nigeria reformed. It was an admission of the fact they wanted the continuation of the current dubious system.
"Some concerned Nigerians like us, now felt if we didn't act, it is the Nigerian nation that will go down We presented options and alternatives before former military heads of state, Generals Ibrahim Babangida and Sani Abacha. Some of us lost our friends, some of us lost our lives; some of us lost our professions in the quest of making Nigeria better than we met it. Therefore, some of us came together that this is the battle that we must fight in order to win for the Nigerian nation, legitimacy in government. That is the main raison d'etre for CODER," Igeni added.
Also speaking, Ibrahim, a former All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) gubernatorial candidate in Katsina State, said INEC, security agencies and political parties were the greatest problems to Nigeria's electoral system. According to him, they all connived with politicians in the country to rig elections. To have a free and fair election in Nigeria, Ibrahim said INEC should be made through legislation to become a neutral body, saying this will bring sanity into the system.
In his own comment, Sa'ad, a vocal female activist, said voters' education should be made compulsory for political parties, saying by so doing, the youth would be properly sensitised on the dangers of violence during elections. Election in the country, according to Sa'ad, should be taken seriously by Nigerians as a Nigerian project.
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