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Challenges  of  Free  and  Fair  Elections  Towards  2011  General  Elections  

STRUCTURAL PERSPECTIVES

Challenges of free and fair election in any democratic setting could best be

viewed against the structural setting of the environment i.e. the electoral

management bodies involved in the conduct, supervision regulating and

adjudicating over all elections in that jurisdiction.

Election Management Bodies and Democratic System Of Government

Election management bodies occupy a strategic position in the electoral

process and by implication are decisive for the success of any democratic

system of government. Since they are charged with the responsibility of

organizing elections, their omission or commission could make or mar

elections.

This paper examines the challenges of free and fair election and the

relationship between election management bodies and the institutionalization

of democratic governance. The focus is that an independent, impartial,

transparent, effective and efficient electoral management body is a prerequisite

for the institutionalization of a viable democratic political system.

The variables which determine a credible election management bodies are:

Independence, Transparency and Impartiality.

CONCEPT OF IMPARTIALITY

Impartiality is another variable which determines the credibility of election

management bodies. Members of election management bodies are human

beings and are likely to have their party preferences. However, such

preferences should not in any way affect their official duties.

Care should be taken while recruiting temporary staff who are employed during

registration and election exercises to ensure that card carrying or die-hard

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partisans are not recruited. This can be achieved through a careful screening

exercise.

An impartial election management body deals openly and on equal terms with

each political party. This is to ensure that each party has equal access to the

state – owned media, freedom to campaign and respect by candidates and

parties of limits set for campaign expenses.

NEEDS TO SITUATE ELECTORAL MALPRACTICES

There is a general need to situate the prevalence of electoral malpractices in an

amoral political culture, whose thrust is anti-democratic in significant ways,

and which shows general indifference to the desecration of the electoral

process, whereas, much lip service is paid to upholding the sanity of the electoral process, the full weight of the law is not generally and typically

brought to bear on those who desecrates it, except in some rare cases; nor

has the moral outrage voiced by some being channeled. Again, except in a

number of rare cases, into outbursts of spontaneous collective political and

social action or the expression of people’s power within the ambit of the law

that would shame and penalize perpetrators of electoral malpractices and deter

would-be-perpetrators.

PAINS OF ELECTORAL LITIGATION

The situation is understandably fed by the tardy and expensive nature of the

country’s judicial process and a legal culture, which deliberately encourages violation of the spirit of the law, through taking advantage of

ambiguities in the letter of the law and hiding behind procedural

technicalities in the judicial process to frustrate and prolong litigations.

The result is a cynical resignation and a general disenchantment with the

electoral process.

The need for Nigerians to stand and defend their suffrage irrespective of

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intimidation of any sort is imperative. We must be ready to create and

strategize to create a democratic men and women in the country that will be

ready to defend their votes.

In handling this subject at hand, I feel challenged because of my experience as

a victim of election fraud which spanned about four years in my state. In fact, I

feel more challenged because I had an insider account of the details of the

intricacies and politics of election crisis in Ekiti State in the last few years.

Coming from the background of a politician who shares similar experience

with Governor Adams Oshiomhole on mandate stealing through the mighty

powers of the ruling party at the Federal level, it is incumbent upon me to share

my experiences and what I consider the viable options for electoral sanctity in

our country Nigeria.

The credibility or otherwise of electoral process becomes one major factor that

determines the acceptability index of a nation in the wider comity of nations

where respect for the choice of the people in electoral process has contributed

greatly to the economy well-being and social security of the people in Africa.

In recent history in Africa, we have seen that played out in South Africa and

Ghana. In these countries, not only has the modern world seen that these two

countries hold much promise for their people, but also that they have become a

reference point as a model of transparent electoral process in African continent.

For Nigeria, sadly one of the countries that gained early independence from

colonial rule, the stories that have emerged are sad memories of electoral

frauds, which had led to sudden changes in government with the succeeding

governments posting worse results in the conduct of elections. For instance,

while the Western Region parliament poll fraud led to a crisis that snowballed

into the emergency rule that triggered further crisis in the First Republic that

eventually led to the civil war, the Second Republic election that Nigerians

thought would mark a beginning of electoral sanity turned out to be a veritable

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impetus for the military take-over of government. Massive electoral heists in

various parts of the country and the backlash in people’s angst was what the

military needed to sack the Second Republic.

What could have been a safety valve was truncated by the military when it

annulled the freest and fairest election in June 1993. What followed were mere

selections of candidates by godfathers in the primaries which further set the

tone for desperation by the contending parties in which case the parties

controlled by moneybags and vested interests always carry the day against the

current of people preference, which further erodes the confidence of the people

in the sanctity of the ballot box. For example in Nigeria in 2007, the Party that

controlled the commending height of the Federal authorities made no pretence

about its insistence on abridging the right of the people in the choice of their

leaders. Votes were allocated to the candidates of the ruling Party at the

detriment of more popular candidates in opposition Parties.

Litigations of the election tribunals clearly showed that things were not

working according to the expectations of Nigerians who desired transparent

process of electoral contests. Several years after the poll, those who

fraudulently found their ways to the seat of power were illegally directing the

affairs of their states using state funds to prosecute their cases at the tribunals.

While impostors closed their eyes to the shame they have brought upon

themselves and the nation, the highly partisan and irresponsible electoral

umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), did not help

matters.

Often in hand-in-glove with the ruling Party, INEC under Prof Maurice Iwu

showed itself as the worst in the supervision of electoral contests in Nigeria.

The victory we celebrate today in Edo State is one singular relish of electoral

fraud by the ruling Party in cahoot with the electoral umpire. By the Appeal

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Court ruling, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole clearly won his election in 2007

only for him to retrieve his mandate two years after.

The period of litigation in court in Edo State clearly showed the side-effect of

illegitimacy marked by decayed infrastructure, mismanagement of funds and

general dislocation in the governance process as we have seen in Kenya in

December 2007, and in Cameroon and Zimbabwe in 2008. The same played

itself out in Ekiti. From our experience in the last few days after our

inauguration, decayed infrastructure hallmarked almost four years

administration in Ekiti State.

Indeed, the worst form of electoral fraud manifested in the 2009 rerun in the

Ekiti State governorship election in which I was the prime victim. That

singular sordid experience put Nigeria on the hall of infamy in election process

across the world. Widely criticized as the worst form of poll management in

the choice of the people’s leaders, the world rose in unison to put a question

mark on Nigeria’s image as a country that can take a front in modelling

democracy a system of government that can drive a free and just society, which

of course is one factor that in turn drives development and growth. It is

however gratifying that the revelation at the election tribunal and the

perseverance of Ekiti people gave them victory, which was celebrated across

the globe.

But all these inadequacies, both man-made and human errors, which have

hampered Nigeria’s march to electoral Promised Lands can be taken care of if

deliberate policies and measures are put in place. Even though reform process

that could cleanse the conduct of election in Nigeria was instituted, what we

have seen thereafter clearly pointed out that Nigeria as a nation has missed the

mark.

It is however regrettable that after the efforts and funds expended on this, what

can be said today about that initiative is a resounding loss of faith. This is

more so as the authorities of government that ought to add fillip to the

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rebuilding of acceptable conduct of elections are themselves stumbling blocks

in the way of free and fair elections.. For example, the National Assembly has

thrown out Justice Mohammed Uwais recommendation on the appointment of

INEC leaders by the National Judicial Council (NJC), which should have

served as a neutral organ of government in charge of recruiting capable hands

in election management instead of leaving the appointment in the hands of a

partisan President whose choice of INEC officials is first condition for

suspicion among the opposition parties.

As it stands today, particularly in reference to the last rerun election, it is clear

that deliberate measures have to be put in place for a free and fair elections in

2011, as it is believed that it is not the electoral laws that are actually

responsible for the inadequacies in our election process but the actors, most

often in the ruling Party who employ do or die tactics to subvert the people’s

will. They do this through devious manipulation and government machineries

at their disposal. These elements are still around, which further hightens fears

that 2011 polls may as well succumb to the evil machinations of dor-or-die

politicians.

Indeed, what actually bothers the minds of Nigerians is that those who should

ordinarily act as statesmen and vanguards of social change are themselves the

architects of the current sorry state of our electoral process. For instance,

former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who Nigerian State has so much invested

in for both personal comfort and robust international stature later turned against

Nigerians by getting himself involved in unbridled manipulation of state power

to strangulate electoral space. In his avowed commitment to that sordid

agenda, Obasanjo declared to the bewildered Nigerians that 2007 general

elections would be a do-or-die affair. What truly followed during the elections

was an audacious poll robbery through thuggery, ballot stuffing, votes

manipulations, compromise of INEC officials through intimidation, complicity

by security agencies in favour of the ruling Party, particularly as witnessed

during rerun poll in Ekiti State.

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In fact, Ekiti State rerun in which I was a prime victim provides me with

enough insight on the challenges the nation may face in 2011 elections. What

reinforces this line of thought is that even though the late President Umaru

Yar-Adua admitted that his election was fraught with irregularities and indeed

set up an election reform panel to fine-tune the nation’s electoral process,

what followed in the few States where rerun or bye-elections were held even

with Professor Attahiru Jega at the driver seat gives no hope that we may not

witness a worst scenario in the next election.

It is in this light that Nigerians must insist on minimum standard that

guarantees the sanctity of the ballot box, which of course remains the vehicle

for a stable government that in turns guarantees socio-economic development.

The Ekiti State scenario under Mr Segun Oni has produced enough evidence

that the problem of illegitimacy is unquantifiable. Apart from litigations, the

fear of the unknown unsettles the man on the driver’s seat, thereby limiting his

scope of developing strategies to address the state problems.

Part of this is the issue of seeking favours in many quarters. This goes with

unnecessary application of state’s funds to seek favours from both real and

imagined influence peddlers.

To guide against the identified lapses in 2011 general elections, all these

problems need to be tackled and new strategies evolved for Nigerians for once

to beat their chests that indeed they are in the starting block to grow democracy

for social change and development.

The challenges of free and fair elections are indeed enormous. They start from

the outset of electoral process namely party primaries. The challenge we face

through party organs on this is great. We have the problem of manipulating the

choice of party candidates through overbearing attitude of political godfathers

and manipulation of the entire process to achieve pre-determined ends. This

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manifests in the circumvention of the provisions of party constitution to secure

undue advantage in the process of selecting delegates that would elect party

candidates. This is already creating a serious problem in the ruling party at the

Federal level. It should be noted that the current stalemate in the second

amendment to the Electoral Act is as a result of foisting an agenda that would

make for direct delegates to participate in the election of candidates. By this

arrangement, personal aides and political appointees would become delegates

for the selection of party candidates. This of course can only lead to an

advantage in favour of the Principals, which questions the credibility of the

choice of candidates by the appointing bosses who call the shots. The

desperation that goes with this is unquantifiable. Apart from limiting the scope

of people’s choice, the candidates that emerge through this process often

become willing tools in the hands of those who plotted their ascendancy. We

have seen this in Ekiti State where we had no evidence that Mr Segun Oni had

any agenda other than to satisfy the whims and caprices of those that foisted

him on the people.

More troubling is the law governing elections in Nigeria. As we speak, no one

is sure of how the new Electoral Law will look like except that at the moment,

the most crucial element in the election reform process has been thrown out by

the National Assembly whose members believe that having a truly independent

electoral umpire will undermine their return to power, hence the rejection of

the recommendation in the Mohammed Uwais report making the Nigeria

Judicial Council the recruitment authority of INEC officials to guarantee the

independence of INEC.

One other element critical to free and fair elections is the voter registration. As

seen in Ekiti State in the April 27, 2007 election, the problem of underage

registration and multiple registration set the tone for election manipulations.

This clearly showed at the tribunal hearings of the litigation that arose from the

fraud that characterized that election. In some of the registers, it was

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discovered that multiple registration led to the inaccurate number of voters.

The tragedy of this is that such fraud did not arise out of human error but a

deliberate plan by politicians to have numerical advantage in election results.

For instance in Ifaki Ekiti, Mr Segun Oji, who usurped the powers of Governor

for almost four years, registered in more than one place. In one place, he was

registered as an artisan while in the other, he registered as a civil servant. This

and other several instances were revealed at the tribunal hearing.

Closely related to this is the problem of adequate time for credible registration.

As we speak, no one is sure as to when voters registration will commence.

Apart from the bureaucratic bottleneck that dogs the award of contract for the

Direct Data Imaging for voter registration, the ability of the contractors and

reliability of the machines are not what can be guaranteed at least for now.

What this can expose the system to is an ad-hoc arrangement including the use

of the discredited voters’ register to conduct 2011 general elections.

Even if the equipment and other logistics are well on ground, one other

important factor Nigerians must contend with is INEC personnel. As we saw

in Ekiti State , particularly during rerun election, it is clear that the most

daunting challenge facing the electoral umpire today is the crisis of credibility

on the part of INEC officials.

With particular reference to Ekti rerun, we all saw the shame that characterized

the entire conduct of the elections. For instance, Mrs Ayoka Adebayo, who

was the Ekiti Resident Electoral Commissioner, in the midst of the

announcement of the results refused to conclude the declaration of the results,

citing pressures to announce fake results. She resigned and went into hiding

only for her to emerge days later after she was declared wanted by the Federal

authorities to announce the result she had earlier rejected.

Also at the tribunal hearings were revelations over official complicity by INEC

officials. It was clear through the pieces of evidence by INEC officials that

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they were choreographed to follow same pattern of evidence presentations.

But for the ingenuity of the prosecuting counsel, some INEC officials would

have gone away with their fake evidence during cross examination sessions.

More intriguing was the collaboration between the security agencies and INEC

officials particularly as seen in Ido Osi. The security agents literally provided

cover for INEC officials to perpetrate fraud. For instance, as the PDP thugs

set fire on INEC building at Ido Ekiti, the security agents watched on in

ecstasy. And during tribunal hearing, police declared that the building was

burnt by unknown men, even as a PDP member testified that he led a band of

thugs that set the building on fire as policemen watched because the arsonists

were PDP members.

Even though all these atrocities were reported by the monitoring teams

comprising NGOs, members of international agencies and journalists , it was

clear that these observers were overwhelmed by the inadequacies of INEC in

providing a conducive environment for the observers to functions optimally.

For instance, some remote parts of certain areas could not be accessed by the

observers, and most of these areas were fertile grounds for election

manipulations. It was therefore not surprising that in some voting centres t, the

number of accredited voters were less than the results returned. In other words,

the results returned were higher than the number of those physically present to

vote during the election.

Another problem is the avalanche of corruption charges against the Judges of

the election petitions tribunal. The Osun State presented a bizarre spectacle of

shame and corrupt conduct of the election petition tribunal Judges. In the first

tribunal that tried Raufu Aregbesola’s case incontrovertible evidence was

proved in the discovery of correspondence between the defence counsel and the

Judges. In a drama that shocked Nigerians, the calls log of MTN was shown

where the defence counsel within the hours of court hearing were exchanging

text messages with the Judges on the direction to follow during the cross-

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examination. This led to the quashing of the tribunal judgement for another

tribunal to be set up to retry the petition.

If Osun case was bizarre, the Ekiti case was intriguing. Against the run of

common sense and application of law, the Judges freely awarded reliefs to the

law breakers in the case. For instance, the Judges said the ACN members burnt

the INEC office even when evidence by a PDP member incontrovertibly

suggested PDP thugs torched the building. He was never cross examined to

discredit his evidence.

INEC official, Innocent Akao, in open court disowned the results declaring Mr

Oni as the winner. The Judges also said Mrs Ayoka never resigned even

though the police, a co-defendant in the case, admitted that the woman actually

resigned and was declared wanted to defend the allegations in her resignation

letter. Figures in unsigned or altered documents were awarded to the defendant

by the Juges, and all evidence of violence was overlooked by the Judges in

favour of the defendants.

All these lapses militated greatly against the transparency of the 2007 elections

and the rerun polls that followed.

To mitigate all these shortcomings, therefore, the institutions of electoral

process must be strengthened to ensure credible polls in 2011. This must start

with internal democracy within the parties to ensure credible primaries to elect

party candidates. Credible primaries will ensure the elimination of imposition

of candidates by godfathers. The proposed amendments to the Electoral Act

must be credible enough to ensure the right of party members and voters

generally to freely vote for candidates of their choice.

It is gratifying that Governor Adams Oshiomhole actually started the crusade

for free and fair balloting through his one-man one-vote crusade. This

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initiative is commendable as it remains the only option that can generate stable

democracy in our country.

All encumbrances on the way of effective sourcing, deployment and

application of equipment for voter registration must be checked and effective

security of these equipment maintained. To ensure credible conduct of INEC

officials, recruitment strategies must be strengthened to ensure that only non-

partisan Nigerians are on board of INEC. This is where Uwais’ report is

relevant. The NJC should be put in charge of recruiting credible Nigerians to

conduct elections.

It is also important that the functions of the security agencies in election

monitoring be redefined to insulate them from partisan. Among this is to hold

the security agents accountable for all the lapses in the areas where they

supervise elections.. Also relevant is the training of the NGOs in election

monitoring activities while they are equipped with necessary tools to carry out

their duties particularly in difficult terrains.

It is also important to introduce Election Offences Tribunals to try election

offenders. This will act as a check on the activities of election riggers.

More importantly, one-man, one-vote crusade must be taken to all corners of

the country.

These are the challenges we face today in our nation as we march to strengthen

the institutions of democracy for economy growth and progress. The challenge

is more daunting because there are road blocks on the way, some of which are

deliberately created by politicians who are averse to decent way of conducting

men’s affairs. It is a challenge we face both individually and collectively to

build a society that can raise its head in the comity of nations that are today

dictating the pace in shaping policies for growth and development across the

globe

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Another election is around the corner, just about five months to come, the

INEC chairman Prof. Attaihiru Jega said his biggest problem is time and not

money. Many have argued that the time-table for the polls is just too narrow for

any meaningful result to be achieved, but the biggest headache of the majority

is neither the time nor the money, it is whether Nigeria can indeed hold credible polls. Will the country make vote rigging unattractive? Will the

electorate look away from the fleeting offers of bribe from desperate

politicians to vote as their conscience leads them? Will they vote and insist that their votes must count?

Will the authorities do everything possible to break the jinx?

Or will we walk the Oshiomole, Mimiko and Fayemi path again?

Never and never.

Governor Oshiomhole, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you very much for giving

me this opportunity to once again ventilate what I know about the crisis of

confidence we have about electoral process in the country. It is hoped that all

the issues raised shall be of immense advantage for us to rethink Nigeria where

opportunities are provided for the citizens to rediscover themselves. It is only

in the atmosphere of freedom that we can release our entrepreneurial

potentialities to grow our economy for the survival of our great country

Nigeria.

Thanks and God bless you all.

Dr. Kayode Fayemi.

2010