It is an
understatement that the inconclusive Anambra gubernatorial election is a big
national embarrassment. It could not
have been imagined before the election, with the overwhelming concentration of
electoral resources and security on the said election that we would come this
low. INEC could not conduct a controversy-free election in one state, yet it
plans to do a presidential election in thirty-six states. Anambra might be the
sad prelude to the coming presidential elections in the unfortunate shape of
things to come. Free and fair election is the bedrock of a democratic system,
where the people as the ultimate sovereign, express their will in the choice of
candidates who will govern them. The people do not do this every day but every
four years. The election therefore is the only instrument of people’s
sovereignty in a democratic state. When elections are compromised, or when they
are neither free nor fair, we cannot have “the true government of the people by
the people for the people”. The only reason politicians perform and govern well
is the fear of being voted out by the people if they misgovern in the next
election. If we can therefore not conduct a free and fair election where the
people can genuinely express their will, we can say a permanent goodbye to good
governance.
While we
believe that the controversial election and its outcome would be tested in the law
courts, the court of public opinion is already passing its judgment on INEC. The
freeness and fairness of an election is a question of justice in which reality
and perception must ally. A famous legal maxim based on the principles of
natural justice says that “justice must on only be done but it must be seen to
have been done”. In the case of Anambra elections, no matter what Jega and INEC
say, we say that elections must not only be free and fair, they must be seen to
have been fair. If elections did not take place in the stronghold of certain
candidates, and even a key candidate in
the elections was disenfranchised from voting because his name could not be
found on the voters register, that election cannot be said to be just, free and
fair. It does not matter whether INEC
wants to conduct a supplementary election. The mere inconclusiveness of the
election as admitted by INEC taints the election fundamentally and no supplementary
exercise would adequately make up for it.
A
cornerstone of a free and fair election is the freedom to choose a candidate
without any form of pressure on the polling day. I should be making my choice
of the electoral candidate largely from my own freewill. Hence, the polling
station is designed to give voters the privacy to make their choice without any
influence. It is also the reason why elections are conducted on the same day,
at the same time. It is recognized as an electoral fairness principle that the
choice of candidate should not in any way be influenced by the momentum of results
of the same election from somewhere else. For the voters in the areas where
INEC would want to conduct a supplementary election, it is certain that their
choice would be significantly influenced by the electoral momentum from the
areas where INEC has announced its inconclusive results. Whatever happens at
the supplementary elections on November 30, its outcome cannot therefore be
said to be just, free and fair.
We should
not be impressed by the attempt of INEC to speak with both sides of the mouth.
On one hand, it says that “it regrets shattering the expectations of Nigerians”
and that the election was far below the people’s expectations, yet at the same
time it argues that a substantial part of the elections comply with the
electoral act. What an ambiguity! It is like saying an election is not fair on
one hand, yet fair on the other hand. INEC has substantially lost credibility
and the confidence of the Nigerian people in its ability to conduct a free and
fair election.
A key player
in this unfolding sad saga of INEC is its Chairman, Atahiru Jega, whose strong patriotic
credentials is being eroded by the day. We all know Professor Jega’s antecedents
in civil society and academia. His story might however be confirming very
strongly that patriotic individuals without strong institutional support for
the implementation of their patriotic objectives might be consumed by the corrupt
and decadent institutions they lead. Jega as an individual cannot guarantee us
a free and fair election without a strong electoral institution and a system of
laws and enforcement institutions that genuinely and uncompromisingly promote free
and fair election. President Jonathan
and the National Assembly had chosen largely to ignore the good recommendations
of the Uwais panel on electoral reforms.
These include the criminalization of electoral offences and a strong
independent electoral offences commission to prosecute electoral crimes and a
long ban from politics of those found guilty of election rigging. The sheer
impunity with which Nigerian politicians conduct electoral crimes is because
the institutional mechanisms to sanction and punish their criminal behavior are
virtually non-existent. Other recommendations of the Uwais report include
limits and transparency of political party funding to reduce the corrupt
influence of moneybags in elections. Had we have implemented the
recommendations of the Uwais electoral reform commission; we would not be
having the debacle in Anambra state today. In a way, the problem in Anambra
state is also due to the lack of genuine will of the part of the President
Jonathan and the National Assembly to strengthen our electoral institutions and
guarantee for our people the right to a free and fair election.
The Anambra
electoral debacle has exposed the institutional weakness of INEC to the core. Its public credibility and confidence have significantly
nosedived. The expectations of a free and fair election in 2015 might have been
put in abeyance. Yet, we must not give up the pressure to reform. We are a
nation that has many times pulled back from the falling edge of a cliff. We can
still do it now if we all cry out.
Olu Akanmu is a company
executive. He publishes a blog on Strategy and Public Policy on http://olusfile.blogspot.com
