Lagos — What is currently on the front burner of national discourse is the need for electoral reforms as a way of strengthening Nigeria's democratic process. Various views have been advanced to rail road this process. And what are the reasons for the quest for these reforms?

First, it is the view of many Nigerians that in the last nine years, we have conducted elections that have been widely disputed by contestants. The reasons for these disputes have ranged from the perceived inability of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to serve as an impartial umpire, the conduct of political parties, the inability of law enforcement agencies to give protection to Nigerians to exercise their rights to vote and the prevalence of violence, among others.

Secondly, Nigerians feel that the Independent National Electoral Commission and the State Independent Electoral Commissions as presently constituted will not be able to discharge their responsibilities in a free and fair manner. They therefore wish that these electoral bodies be completely detached from the executive arm of government.

These are apprehensions that to my mind bother on the character and nature of our politics. To begin with, Nigeria in the last general election had about fifty registered political parties. Today, I understand four more are registered, bringing the number of registered political parties to fifty four. Each of these parties is deemed to have met registration requirements. It will interest you to know that other than some rented offices here in Abuja and perhaps the home states of some of the founders of these political parties, you cannot find them anywhere in the country. Some of these political parties do not even have a well-articulated programme or manifesto. What these end up doing in the course of election is to heat up the political space and engage the attention of the Electoral Commission for some pecuniary benefits.

I would therefore subscribe to INEC reforms ahead of the 2011 polls. These reforms should be such that give the body the necessary support base to act as an impartial umpire. In a situation where INEC complains of logistics and often relies on the various tiers of government make it vulnerable. As the common adage says, he who pays the piper dictates the tune.

The credible performance of electoral bodies in South Africa, Sierra-Leone and Ghana have in no small way contributed to the growth of democracy in these countries. We want our own INEC and its leadership to rise up to this challenge by embracing patriotism as its guide in the conduct of the 2011 elections.

Political Parties and internal democracy

It is evident from the intra-party conflicts that we witness today, whether in APGA, AD, ANPP or PDP, that the political parties need to develop for themselves clearer ideologies and internal mechanisms for resolving internal crisis. Most importantly, there should be internal democracy within the parties so that issues of succession and nominations are less rancorous. What we are witnessing today is a clear manifestation of tendencies for repression and the monopoly of power by those who have found themselves in the power ring.

In many cases, candidates get their aspirations scuttled simply because they are stopped; not by popular will within the party, but by a decision of a few highly placed party stalwarts. The costly mistake the parties then make is by taking unpopular candidates to the polls. The unpopular candidate has only one way to win election and that is, to rig. Often times, the rigging is accompanied by intense violence on or before election days.

Historically, we have had to contend with these tendencies and the consequences have always been inimical to our political system. You recall the era of Alhaji Shehu Shagari, when the NPN stalwart Alhaji Umaru Dikko told the late M. K. O Abiola that the Nigerian presidency was not for sale.

Party leadership must be fair and just in dealing with members at all times. Party leaders must also be the conscience of the party not only by providing effective leadership, but by also embracing all members, elected, appointed, or not. In doing so, they must down play their personal interests while highlighting the general interest of the party and the public.

I say all these because it is now apparent that the root cause of party crises and flawed elections stem from the existing relationships between leaders and their party members, which invariably affect the entire political space. The intra party crises in almost all the political parties generally indicate the fact that we are still more comfortable with arbitrariness and selfish interests than embracing civility, decorum and the rule of law in inter-party and intra-party issues.

The Role of Security Agencies

The importance of security before, during and after elections cannot be overemphasized. As we all know, without security, no one would want to risk their lives by going to the polling booth to vote especially now that kidnapping and other criminal forms of violence are becoming the order of the day in almost all parts of the country. Tied to this, is the security of electoral officers and electoral materials. Once these are not secure, they become exposed to manipulation and thereby discrediting the electoral process.

However, the issue here is that when we talk of Security our concerns should not only be with the physical security alone but with the issues that make for insecurity. Many of our youths are today unemployed, some communities have not had the benefit of basic infrastructure just as others are yet to have access to good schools and hospitals. As a nation, these issues should worry us. As leaders, we need to be conscious of these needs and seek to address them. Nigeria cannot develop if the various components and peoples, irrespective of their circumstances of birth or geographical location are not given the opportunity to develop their potentials and take control of their environment.

In spite of the country's expansive resource base and manner by which successive regimes under prolonged military rule have committed substantial public resources to military and national security expenditures in the past three decades, there seems to be neither the military capability, nor stable patterns of economic and political growth requisite to guarantee national security [Jega A.M., 2007: 196].

These issues notwithstanding, it is important to stress that a change of orientation on the part of security agencies will address these threats. There is a general tendency by most Nigerians to consider all duty posts as avenues to make money. A change of orientation should be able to address the fact that helping to bring a popular government to power will eventually pay every citizen, if we remove acrimonies and leadership focuses on development goals. I would suggest in this respect that as an organization you have a lot to do in your covert activities, to identify early threats to security, and nip them in the bud. What I am advocating is unrelated to what we experienced in the past whereby opponents of some powerful elements in our society were framed up, arrested and detained in the name of security.

The Judiciary

The conduct of the Judiciary in any election is very important. We are all witnesses to the past embarrassing regime of embarking on frivolous court injunctions. The annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election was rooted in injunctions and counter injunctions that preceded that election. Unfortunately, we cannot say that the regime of obtaining questionable court injunctions is over yet. To my mind, the National Judicial Council has a lot of work to do, even though it has been doing a very wonderful work.

Government needs to appreciate the critical role of this arm of government and ensure that its independence is undiluted. Charity, they say, begins at home. For us in Benue State, we are nurturing a vibrant and courageous judiciary. We respect the role being played by our judges and have ensured that they do their work without the slightest interference from the executive. That perhaps has accounted for the outstanding performance of Judges in Benue State in Local and National assignments.

Generally speaking, however, there is the need to ensure that given the level of confidence and trust reposed in our judicial system care should be taken to ensure that those who are misfits do not continue on the bench as one unsound judgment or act of indiscretion could cause in-calculable damage to the national polity.

The National Assembly

The enabling laws and current reforms before it for consideration when finally decided should be able to address such areas like INEC independence, Legal remedies and specified time for conclusion of cases, funding of the Electoral Commission, remedies for election violence and thuggery, political funding and sanctions against electoral offenders. The burden of giving sanity to the electoral process lies in the legislations already being considered by the National Assembly. I have no doubt in my mind that as patriotic Nigerians they will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that they come out with legislations on these matters ahead of the 2011 elections. These legislations will not only set the rules for the game but also guarantee the future of democracy and national prosperity.

Media

The role of the media is equally very critical in achieving a conducive atmosphere for peaceful election. This will be possible when they educate the electorate on the need to engage in the electoral process strictly guided by law. Generally, the media must continue to encourage our people to perform their civic rights and to vote only for credible people who would serve them well. Similarly, they are in a better position to advise our youths not to allow themselves to be used by others for wrong purposes.

All these and others are things that the media must do for the good of our people and our country. Luckily, the Nigerian media are getting stronger and stronger both in their voice and in their scope of influence on national issues. What we must collectively do is to encourage them to remain patriotic.

Civil Society Organizations

Civil society organizations are self-organized, non-governmental organizations. These organizations help to keep politicians and even governments on their toes when they show uncommon interest in governance and issues of public concern. For our elections and campaigns to be issue-based, the sensitization and encouragement of members of the public to be active part of the process becomes very important. However, in all these, patriotism must be the driving force of the actions of civil society organizations.

By ascribing so much importance to these institutions, it behoves them to act responsibly and always be guided by law and patriotic interest. Whether they are engaged in monitoring elections, protecting values, educating the public on any issue or development, it becomes a disservice when they deviate from this noble course. These organizations will need to act transparently and earn the trust of people as to be able to confront the challenges that hinder the attainment of democratic traditions of accountability, rule of law, free and credible elections.

The Political class

Much as every Nigerian is expected to participate in the political process, we have come to identify some people that we call politicians. These people devote their time and resources for political causes. They also take upon themselves the responsibility of recruiting follower ship and persuading voters to vote for their parties. These are the people to whom we also have a responsibility to educate to make politicking less acrimonious.

The emergence of money politics today, you will agree with me, is doing us more harm than good. Politics has become an investment from which investors want to reap bountifully and every means engaged, whether holy or unholy in order to achieve this goal.

This attitude to politics leads to unprincipled competition for power and status by individuals and by groups leading to inefficiency in government and administration, excessive profit making and skewing of the national interest (Oyovbaire S.E, 1987:7)

On the other hand, what all Nigerians must be prepared to do is to support or encourage those with the right qualities of hard work, patriotism and selfless service to go into elections and win for the good of our people and society as a whole.

Electoral violence

I have made several references before to violence and thuggery here because this very negative feature in our elections is totally wrong and unacceptable. It completely negates the spirit and meaning of free choice in democracy, which thrives on freely holding and expressing our opinion through ballot.

Consequently, it is my opinion that apart from the law taking its course against sponsors and perpetrators of violence, political parties must themselves come out strongly against members known to engage in violence either against fellow party members or members of other political parties.

To me, democracy is a glass house and we cannot afford to live in it and throw stones.

Finally, even though we may not have perfect laws, I am convinced that whether the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is vested with the power to appoint the Chairman of INEC or not; whether INEC is unbundled or not; whether there are new set of laws to prosecute electoral offences or not; whether there are indeed new laws or regulations to guide our future elections or not, to me, the problem is more with the attitude and mindset of Nigerians. We must be prepared and willing to accept the verdict of voters whether it is comfortable to us or not. After all, the essence of democracy should always be to strive to endear ourselves and to win our people's confidence. When they think that it is not yet our time or that we are not suitable enough, we have no other choice than to work harder to convince them to change their perceptions about us. This is a ground norm as far as democracy is concerned which has no alternative. Anything short of this is an aberration and alien to democracy.

Being excerpts from a lecture delivered by Benue State Governor Suswam recently.